Joseph Smith Fielding on Evolution

A thought to ponder

But the strong restorationist impulse in Mormon thought made the present only a copy of the past and had the effect of shortening the historical perspective that supported evolutionary thought. If present and past could be brought together in this way, the possibility of the kind of elaborate systems of social and cosmic evolution as that envisioned by Spencer would certainly be questioned. Furthermore Mormon anthropomorphism made God the prototype of man. Adam was literally his offspring. T o think of a being made in the literal image of God as only the result of descent from other forms of life was a difficult move indeed.

(Journal of Mormon History, 1978 (vol 5) (p.38)