40 years ago today - Sep 13, 1978

In a BYU oral-history interview Russel B. Swensen recalls a seminar given in 1927 by apostle John A. Widsoe: "Brother John A. Widtsoe had courses, trying to provide these seminary men with a rational perspective on the relation of science and religion. . . . [Widtsoe] converted me to the biological theory of evolution. . . . I thought . . . that the theory of evolution was cut and dried. But Brother Widtsoe in his very tentative and very cautious way didn't openly advocate it, but presented the theory so basically and so logically that, in part, it led to my accepting [it]."