Joseph Smith as Scientist: A Contribution to Mormon Philosophy Part 6

Man, the highest type of living things, differs from the rock, moreover, in that he possesses the power to exercise his will in directing natural forces. Animals and even plants seem to possess a similar power to a smaller degree. The rock on the hillside is pulled downward by gravitation, but can move only if the ground is removed from beneath it by some external force. Man, on the other hand, can walk up or down the hill, with or against the pull of gravity.

[Sidenote: Science teaches that all phenomena may be referred to matter and ether in motion.]

Modern science refers all phenomena to matter and motion; in other words, to matter and force or energy. In this general sense, matter includes the universal ether, and force includes any or all of the forces known, or that may be known, to man.

To ill.u.s.trate: the electrician develops a current of electricity, which to the scientist is a portion of the universal ether moving in a certain definite manner. When the vibrations of the ether are caused to change, light, or magnetism or chemical affinity may result from the electricity. In every case, matter is in motion. The ear perceives a certain sound. It is produced by the movements of the air. In fact, sounds are carried from place to place by great air waves. The heat of the stove is due to the rapid vibration of the molecules in the iron of the stove, which set up corresponding vibrations in the ether.

In nature no exceptions have been found to the great scientific claim that all natural phenomena may be explained by referring them to matter in motion.[A] Variations in the kind of matter and the kind of motion, lead to all the variations found in the universe.

[Footnote A: Tyndall, Fragments of Science, I. chaps. I and II.]

[Sidenote: Life is a certain form of motion.]

By many it has been held that life and its phenomena transcend the ordinary explanations of nature. Yet, those who have learned, by laborious researches, that the fundamental ideas of the universe are only eternal matter, eternal energy and the universe-filling medium, the ether, find it very difficult to conceive of a special force of life, which concerns itself solely with very limited portions of matter, and is wholly distinct from all other natural forces.

To the student of science it seems more consistent to believe that life is nothing more than matter in motion; that, therefore, all matter possesses a kind of life; and that the special life possessed by plants, animals and man, is only the highest or most complex motion in the universe. The life of man, according to this view, is essentially different from the life of the rock; yet both are certain forms of the motion of matter, and may be explained ultimately by the same fundamental conceptions of science. Certainly, such an idea is more beautifully simple than that of a special force of life, distinct from all other natural forces.

It is argued by those who uphold this view, that the simple forces of nature are converted by living things into the higher forces that characterize life. For instance, to keep the human body, with its wonderful will and intelligence, in health, it is necessary to feed it. The food is actually burned within the body. The heat thus obtained gives to the man both physical and intellectual vigor. It would really appear, therefore, that heat, which is a well known, simple physical force, may be converted by the animal body into other and more complex forces, or modes of motion, such as the so-called life force.

[Sidenote: A certain organization characterizes life.]

Naturally, should science cla.s.s life as the highest or most complex of the modes of material motion, the question would arise concerning the manner in which this conversion were made possible. The answer must be that the ultimate particles of the matter composing the living thing are so arranged or organized that the great natural forces may be converted into life force. It is possible by pa.s.sing heat through certain substances to make them luminous, thus converting heat into light; by employing a dynamo, mechanical energy may be converted into electrical energy; by coiling a wire around a rod of soft iron, electricity may be converted into magnetism. In short, it is well understood in science, that by the use of the right machines one form of energy may be changed into another. It is generally a.s.sumed, that the human body is so organized that the forces of heat, light and undoubtedly others, may be converted into higher forms, peculiar to living things.[A]

[Footnote A: Compare, Fiske, Outlines of Cosmic Philiosophy, chap.

XVI. Pearson, Grammar of Science, pp. 404-407. Dolbear, Matter, Ether and Motion, chap. XI, pp. 294-297.]

[Sidenote: Protoplasm, a highly organized body, is always a.s.sociated with life.]

To substantiate this view, it may be recalled that the fundamental chemical individual in living thing is a very complex, unstable substance known as protoplasm. No living cell exists without the presence of this substance. It is far from being known well, as yet, but enough is known to enable science to say that it is composed of several elements, so grouped and regrouped as to transcend all present methods of research.[A] By means of this highly organized body, it is a.s.sumed that the ordinary forces of nature are worked over and made suited for the needs of the phenomena of life.

[Footnote A: Pearson, Grammar of Science, p. 408.]

The existence of the complex life-characteristic substance protoplasm, renders probable the view that living things, after all, differ from the rest of creation only in the kind and degree of their organization, and that life, as the word is ordinarily used, depends upon a certain kind or organization of matter,[A] which leads to a certain kind of motion.

[Footnote A: Tyndall, Fragments of Science. II, chaps. IV and VI.]

As to the origin of the special organization called life, science has nothing to say. Science is helpless when she deals with the beginning of things. The best scientific explanation of life is that it is a very complex mode of motion occasioned by a highly complex organization of the matter and ether of the living body.

There are still some students who prefer to believe in the existence of a special vital force, which is not subject to the laws that govern other forces. This view, however, is so inconsistent with the modern understanding of the contents of the universe that it has few followers.

[Sidenote: The modern conception of life is very recent.]

The view that life is a special organization by which the great natural forces are focussed and concentrated, so as to accomplish the greatest works, necessarily implies a belief in the modern laws of nature. Since modern science is of very recent development it was quite improbable for such a conception of life to have been held clearly before modern times. In fact it is within the last thirty or forty years that these views have found expression among scientific investigations.

[Sidenote: Joseph Smith taught the universality of life.]

As observed in chapters two and three, Joseph Smith taught that the energy of matter or of ether is a form of intelligence. If, according to this doctrine, matter and ether are intelligent; then life also must reside in all matter and ether. Hence everything in the universe is alive. Further, since all force is motion, universal motion is universal life. The difference between rock, plant, beast and man is in the amount and organization of its life or intelligence. For instance, in harmony with this doctrine, the earth must possess intelligence or life. In fact the Prophet says "the earth......shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened."[A] The statement that the earth shall die and shall be quickened again, certainly implies that the earth possess life, though, naturally, of an order wholly different from that of men or other higher living things.

[Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants 88:25, 26.]

[Sidenote: Man is coexistent with G.o.d.]

It is an established "Mormon" doctrine that man is coexistent with G.o.d. Note the following statements: "Ye were also in the beginning with the Father." "Man was also in the beginning with G.o.d.

Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be."[A] "Yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after for they are eternal."[B]

[Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants 93:23 and 29.]

[Footnote B: Book of Abraham 3:19.]

[Sidenote: Joseph Smith taught that man is organized from matter, spirit and intelligence.]

In the account of the Creation, given in the Book of Abraham, it is clearly stated that the G.o.ds organized the earth and all upon it from available materials, and as the fitting climax to their labors they "went down to organize man in their own image, in the image of G.o.ds to form him."[A] The creation of man was in part at least the organization of individuals from eternal materials and forces. The nature of that organization is made partly clear by the Prophet when he says "The spirit and the body are the soul of man."[B] The spirit here referred to may be compared to the ether of science, vibrating with the force of intelligence, which is the first and highest of the many forces of nature. The body, similarly, refers to the grosser elements, also fired with the universal energy--intelligence. The word _Soul,_ in the above quotation, means man as he is on earth and is used as in Genesis. Man, according to this, is composed of matter; the spirit which may be likened to ether, and energy. The organization of man at the beginning of our earth history, was only the clothing of the eternal spiritual man with the matter which const.i.tutes the perishable body. In confirmation of this view note another statement, "For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receiveth a fullness of joy, and when separated, man can not receive a fullness of joy."[C] Here also it is taught that man is composed of matter, spirit and energy.

[Footnote A: Book of Abraham, 4th chap. (Note verse 27.)]

[Footnote B: Doctrine and Covenants 88:15.]

[Footnote C: Doctrine and Covenants 93:33 and 34.]

[Sidenote: Intelligence is universal.]

President Brigham Young has left an interesting paragraph that confirms the statement that according to "Mormon" doctrine, all matter is intelligent, and that man is superior only because of his higher organization. "Is this earth, the air and the water, composed of life.....?......If the earth, air and water, are composed of life is there any intelligence in this life?....Are those particles of matter life; if so, are they in possession of intelligence according to the grade of their organization?......We suggest the idea that there is an eternity of life, an eternity of organization, and an eternity of intelligence from the highest to the lowest grade, every creature in its order, from the G.o.ds to the animalculae."[A]

[Footnote A: The Resurrection, p. 3. Ed. of 1884.]

[Sidenote: Spirit unaided knows matter with difficulty.]

The statement that man can receive a fullness of joy only when spirit and element are united, is of itself a scientific doctrine of high import. This is a world of matter; and a spiritual man, that is one made only of the universal ether, would not be able to receive fully the impressions that come from the contact of element with element. To enjoy and understand this world, it is necessary for the spirit to be clothed with matter. The ether or spirit world is not within our immediate view; and it is probable that the material world is far away from purely spiritual beings.

[Sidenote: G.o.d is the Master-builder.]

This whole doctrine means that G.o.d is the organizer of worlds, and all upon them. He is not the Creator of the materials and forces of the universe, for they are eternal; He is the master buidler who uses the simple elements of nature for his purposes. It is also plain that, according to "Mormon" doctrine, there is no special life force. The intelligence residing in a stone is in quality, as far as it goes, the same as the intelligence possessed by man. But, man is so organized that a greater amount of intelligence, a fullness of it, centers in him, and he is as a consequence essentially and eternally different from the stone. President Young also said, "The life that is within us is a part of an eternity of life, and is organized spirit, which is clothed upon by tabernacles, thereby const.i.tuting our present being, which is designed for the attainment of further intelligence. The matter comprising our bodies and spirits has been organized from the eternity of matter that fills immensity."[A]

[Footnote A: Journal of Discourses, vol. 7:285. (Brigham Young.)]

[Sidenote: A lower intelligence cannot become a higher intelligence except by disorganization.]

This doctrine does not permit of the interpretation that a lower intelligence, such as that of an animal, may in time become the intelligence of a man. "It remaineth in the sphere in which I, G.o.d, created it."[A] The horse will ever remain a horse, though the intelligence of the animal may increase. To make any of the const.i.tuent parts or forces of an animal, part of the intelligence of a man, it would be necessary to disorganize the animal; to organize the elements into a man, and thus to begin over again.

[Footnote A: Book of Moses 3:9.]

[Sidenote: Joseph Smith antic.i.p.ated science in the modern conception of life.]

Men, beasts and plants--those beings that possess the higher life, differ from inanimate nature, so called, by a higher degree of organization. That is the dogma of "Mormonism," and the doctrine of science. About 1831 Joseph Smith gave this knowledge to the world; a generation later, scientific men arrived independently at the same conclusion.

[Sidenote: The thinkers and writers of Mormonism have taught the foregoing doctrine of life.]

The thinkers and writers of "Mormonism" have more or less directly taught the same doctrine. Apostle Orson Pratt believed that the body of man, both spiritual and earthly, was composed of atoms or ultimate particles--of the Holy Spirit for the spiritual body and material elements for the mortal body. It has already been shown that the Holy Spirit of "Mormonism" may be compared with the ether of science, vibrating with the greater force of the universe--intelligence. For instance: "The intelligent particles of a man's spirit are by their peculiar union, but one human spirit."[A] "Several of the atoms of this spirit exist united together in the form of a person."[B]