Light from Kolob

Book of Abraham Cosmology & Light From Kolob

CES Letter Core Question

Does the Book of Abraham teach an incorrect Newtonian view of the universe that later became outdated??

Click to Read the Original CES Letter Claim

The Book of Abraham teaches an incorrect Newtonian view of the universe. These Newtonian astronomical concepts, mechanics, and models of the universe have since been succeeded and substantially modified by 20th century Einsteinian physics.

What we find in Abraham 3 and the official scriptures of the LDS Church regarding science reflects a Newtonian world concept. Just as the Catholic Church's Ptolemaic cosmology was displaced by the new Copernican and Newtonian world model, however, the nineteenth-century, canonized, Newtonian world view has since been displaced by Einstein's twentieth-century science.

Keith E. Norman, an LDS scholar, has written that for the LDS Church:

It is no longer possible to pretend there is no conflict.

Norman continues:

Scientific cosmology began its leap forward just when Mormon doctrine was becoming stabilized. The revolution in twentieth-century physics precipitated by Einstein dethroned Newtonian physics as the ultimate explanation of the way the universe works. Relativity theory and quantum mechanics, combined with advances in astronomy, have established a vastly different picture of how the universe began, how it is structured and operates, and the nature of matter and energy. This new scientific cosmology poses a serious challenge to the Mormon version of the universe.

Grant Palmer, a Mormon historian and CES teacher for 34 years, wrote:

Many of the astronomical and cosmological ideas found in both Joseph Smith’s environment and in the Book of Abraham have become out of vogue, and some of these Newtonian concepts are scientific relics. The evidence suggests that the Book of Abraham reflects concepts of Joseph Smith’s time and place rather than those of an ancient world.

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Facsimile 2, Figure #5 states the sun receives its “light from the revolutions of Kolob.” We now know, however, that the process of nuclear fusion is what makes the stars and suns shine. With the discovery of quantum mechanics, scientists learned that the sun’s source of energy is internal and not external. The sun shines because of thermonuclear fusion. The sun does not shine because it gets its light from any other star or any other external source.

The author of The CES Letter assumes that because the Book of Abraham's cosmology does not align with modern scientific cosmology it is therefore false. This assumption, however, rests on the unjustified belief that the Book of Abraham's cosmology purports to be a literal description.

Many Latter-day Saint scholars, by contrast, have convincingly argued that the Book of Abraham's cosmology should not be viewed as a scientific one, but rather as a mythic or metaphysical one that attempts to answer questions totally different from scientific cosmology (i.e. questions of eternal/spiritual meaning, man's relationship with God, and God's place in the cosmos).

Michael D. Rhodes and J. Ward Moody write:

One puzzling thing mentioned in the explanations to Facsimile 2 is that the sun borrows "its light from Kolob through the medium of Kae-e-vanrash, which is the grand Key, or, in other words, the governing power, which governs fifteen other fixed planets or stars, as also Floeese or the Moon, the Earth and the Sun in their annual revolutions" (explanation to figure 5 of Facsimile 2). What it means to "borrow light" is not clear. The light of the sun is produced by the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium in its core. Does this mean that the fusion reactions in the Sun are in some way controlled from Kolob? This passage seems to be a description of the Light of Christ which "proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space" (D&C 88:12) and "is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made" (D&C 88:7) as well as the light and power of the earth, the moon, and the stars (D&C 88:8—10). This light is also said to be "the law by which all things are governed" (D&C 88:13).

Even these authors, who ultimately argue that "the descriptions in the Book of Abraham concerning the creations of God . . . appear to be consistent with modern scientific understanding of physics and astronomy," concede the likelihood of this passage speaking of the metaphysical "light of Christ."

Facsimile 2 is described as borrowing "its light from Kolob through the medium of Kae-e-vanrash, which is the grand Key, or, in other words, the governing power, which governs fifteen other fixed planets or stars, as also Floeese or the Moon, the Earth and the Sun in their annual revolutions" (explanation to figure 5 of Facsimile 2). What it means to "borrow light" is not clear.

The author of The CES Letter is attacking a straw man, as many informed Latter-day Saint commentators on this passage agree that the text is not to be interpreted scientifically or "literally."

See:

Astronomy and the Creation in the Book of Abraham

Book of Abraham/Astronomy/Kolob-Sun

"And I Saw the Stars": The Book of Abraham and Ancient Geocentric Astronomy

Abraham's Visions of the Heavens

Council, Chaos, and Creation in the Book of Abraham

Terryl Givens on the Pre-Mortal Council in the Book of Abraham

Abraham's Temple Drama

Encircling Astronomy and the Egyptians: An Approach to Abraham 3