Joseph Smith as Scientist: A Contribution to Mormon Philosophy Part 2

The wonderful developments of the last century, in electricity and magnetism, led to much speculation concerning the nature of the subtle electrical and magnetic forces. The most popular theories for many years were those that presupposed various electrical and magnetic fluids, which could be collected, conducted, dispersed and otherwise controlled. In 1867, the eminent English mathematician, Clerk Maxwell, proposed the theory that electrical and magnetic phenomena were simply peculiar motions of the ether, bearing definite relationship to light waves. Later researches, one result of which is the now famous Roentgen or X-rays, have tended to confirm Maxwell's theory. A recent text-book on physics, of unquestioned authority,[A] states that the ether theory of electricity and magnetism is now susceptible of direct demonstration; and another eminent authority frankly states that "when we explain the nature of electricity, we explain it by a motion of the luminiferous ether."[B]

[Footnote A: Lehrbuch der Physik, Riecke, (1896), 2ter Band, p. 315.]

[Footnote B: Popular Lectures and Addresses, Kelvin (1891) Vol. 1, page 334.]

Other recent discoveries have hinted at the possibility of matter itself being only the result of peculiar forms of this all-pervading substance, the luminiferous ether. The properties of the element radium, and other radioactive elements, as at present understood, suggest the possibility of a better understanding of the nature of the ether, and of its relation to the world of phenomena.

[Sidenote: The existence of the ether is a certainty of science.]

That the present knowledge of the world of science compels a faith in an all-pervading substance, of marvelous properties, and of intimate relationship to all forms of energy, is shown by the following quotations from Lord Kelvin, who is generally regarded as the world's greatest physicist: "The luminferous ether, that is the only substance we are confident of in dynamics. One thing we are sure of, and that is the reality and substantiality of the luminiferous ether." "What can this luminiferous ether be? It is something that the planets move through with the greatest ease. It permeates our air; it is nearly in the same condition, so far as our means of judging are concerned, in our air and in the interplanetary s.p.a.ce." "You may regard the existence of the luminiferous ether as a reality of science." "It is matter prodigiously less dense than air--of such density as not to produce the slightest resistance to any body going through it."[A]

[Footnote A: Kelvin's Lectures, Vol. 1, pp. 317, 334, 336, 354.]

The theory of the ether is one of the most helpful a.s.sumptions of modern science. By its aid the laws of energy have been revealed.

There is at the present time no grander or more fundamental doctrine in science than that of the ether. The nature of the ether is, of course, far from being clearly understood, but every discovery in science demonstrates that the hypothetical ether stands for an important reality of nature. Together with the doctrines of the indestructibility of matter and energy, the doctrine of the ether welds and explains all the physical phenomena of the universe.

Joseph Smith, in a revelation received on December 27, 1832, wrote:

[Sidenote: Joseph Smith taught s.p.a.ce is filled with a substance comparable to the ether of science.]

"The light which now shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings; which light proceedeth forth from the presence of G.o.d to fill the immensity of s.p.a.ce. The light which is in all things: which is the law by which all things are governed: even the power of G.o.d."[A]

[Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants, section 88:11-13.]

This quotation gives undoubted evidence of the prophet's belief that s.p.a.ce is filled with some substance which bears important relations to all natural phenomena. The word substance is used advisedly; for in various places in the writings of Joseph Smith, light, used as above in a general sense, means spirit,[A] and "all spirit is matter, but it is more fine and pure."[B]

[Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants, 84:45.]

[Footnote B: Ibid, 131:7.]

True, the pa.s.sage above quoted does not furnish detailed explanation of the Prophet's view concerning the substance filling all s.p.a.ce, but it must be remembered that it is simply an incidental paragraph in a chapter of religious instruction. True, also, the Prophet goes farther than some modern scientists, when he says that this universal substance bears a controlling relation to all things; yet, when it is recalled that eminent, sober students have suggested that the facts of science make it possible to believe that matter itself is simply a phenomenon of the universal ether, the statement of the "Mormon"

prophet seems very reasonable. The paragraph already quoted is not an accidental arrangement of words suggesting an idea not intended by the prophet, for in other places, he presents the idea of an omnipresent substance binding all things together. For instance, in speaking of the controlling power of the universe he says:

"He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round about him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things."[A]

[Footnote A: Ibid, 88:41.]

That Joseph Smith does not here have in mind an omnipresent G.o.d, is proved by the emphatic doctrine that G.o.d is personal and cannot be everywhere present.[A]

[Footnote A: Ibid, 130:22.]

Lest it be thought that the words are forced, for argument's sake, to give the desired meaning, it may be well to examine the views of some of the persons to whom the Prophet explained in detail the meanings of the statements in the revelations which he claimed to have received from G.o.d.

Parley P. Pratt, who, as a member of the first quorum of apostles, had every opportunity of obtaining the Prophet's views on any subject, wrote in considerable fullness on the subject of the Holy Spirit, or the light of truth:

"As the mind pa.s.ses the boundaries of the visible world, and enters upon the confines of the more refined and subtle elements, it finds itself a.s.sociated with certain substances in themselves invisible to our gross organs, but clearly manifested to our intellect by their tangible operations and effects." "The purest, most refined and subtle of all these substances--is that substance called the Holy Spirit."

"It is omnipresent." "It is in its less refined particles, the physical light which reflects from the sun, moon and stars, and other substances; and by reflection on the eye makes visible the truths of the outward world."[A]

[Footnote A: Key to Theology, 5th ed., pp. 38-41.]

Elder C. W. Penrose, an accepted writer on Mormon doctrine, writes, "It is by His Holy Spirit, which permeates all things, and is the life and light of all things, that Deity is everywhere present. * * By that agency G.o.d sees and knows and governs all things."[A]

[Footnote A: Rays of Living Light, No. 2, p. 3.]

Such quotations, from the men intimately a.s.sociated or acquainted with the early history of the Church, prove that Joseph Smith taught in clearness the doctrine that a subtle form of matter, call it ether or Holy Spirit, pervades all s.p.a.ce; that all phenomena of nature, including, specifically, heat, light and electricity, are definitely connected with this substance. He taught much else concerning this substance which science will soon discover, but which lies without the province of this paper to discuss.

By the doctrine of the ether, it is made evident all the happenings in the universe are indelibly inscribed upon the record of nature. A word is spoken. The air movements that it causes disturbs the ether. The ether waves radiate into s.p.a.ce and can never die. Anywhere, with the proper instrument, one of the waves may be captured, and the spoken word read. That is the simple method of wireless telegraphy. It is thus that all our actions shall be known on the last great day. By the ether, or the Holy Spirit as named by the Prophet, G.o.d holds all things in His keeping. His intelligent will radiates into s.p.a.ce, to touch whomsoever it desires. He who is tuned aright can read the message, flashed across the ether ocean, by the Almighty. Thus, also, G.o.d, who is a person, filling only a portion of s.p.a.ce is, by His power carried by the ether, everywhere present.

The ether of science though material is essentially different from the matter composing the elements. So, also, in Mormon theology, is the Holy Spirit different from the grosser elements. In science there is a vast distinction between the world of the elements, and that of the ether; in theology, there is an equally great difference between the spiritual and material worlds. Though the theology of Joseph Smith insists that immaterialism is an absurdity, yet it permits no overlapping of the earthly and the spiritual.

[Sidenote: Joseph Smith stated the existence of a universe-filling substance before science had generally accepted it.]

It must not be overlooked that the broad statement of this doctrine was made by Joseph Smith, at least as early as 1832, at a time when the explanation of light phenomena on the hypothesis of a universal ether was just beginning to find currency among learned men; and many years before the same hypothesis was accepted in explaining the phenomena of heat and electricity.

The idea of an influence pervading the universe is not of itself new.

Poets and philosophers of all ages have suggested it in a vague, hesitating manner, without connecting it with the phenomena of nature, but burdening it with the greatest absurdity of religion or philosophy, that of immaterialism. Joseph Smith said the doctrine had been taught him by G.o.d, and gave it to the world unhesitatingly and rationally. The men of science, to whom Joseph Smith appears only as an imposter, and who know nothing of his writings, have later discovered the truth for themselves, and incorporated it in their books of learning.

Had Joseph Smith been the clever imposter that some claim he was, he probably would not have dealt in any way with the theories of the material world, at least would not have claimed revelations laying down physical laws; had he been the stupid fool, others tell us he was, his mind would not have worried itself with the fundamental problems of nature.

However that may be, it is certain that Joseph Smith, in the broad and rational statement of the existence of an omnipresent, material though subtle substance, antic.i.p.ated the workers in science. In view of that fact, it is not improbable that at some future time, when science shall have gained a wider view, the historian of the physical sciences will say that Joseph Smith, the clear-sighted, first stated correctly the fundamental physical doctrine of the universal ether.

Chapter V.

THE REIGN OF LAW.

In the seventh book of the _Republic of Plato_[A] occurs the following pa.s.sage:

[Footnote A: Golden Treasury edition, pp. 235, 236.]

[Sidenote: The realities of nature are known by their effects.]

"Imagine a number of men living in an underground cavernous chamber, with an entrance open to the light, extending along the entire length of the cavern, in which they have been confined, from childhood, with their legs and necks so shackled, that they are obliged to sit still and look straight forward, because their chains render it impossible for them to turn their heads round; and imagine a bright fire burning some way off, above and behind them, and an elevated roadway pa.s.sing between the fire and the prisoners, with a low wall built along it, like the screens which conjurers put up in front of their audiences, and above which they exhibit their wonders. Also figure to yourself a number of persons walking behind the wall, and carrying with them statues of men and images of other animals, wrought in wood and stone and all kinds of materials, together with various other articles, which overtop the wall; and, as you might expect, let some of the pa.s.sers-by be talking, and the others silent.

"Let me ask whether persons so confined could have seen anything of themselves or of each other, beyond the shadows thrown by the fire upon the part of the cavern facing them? And is not their knowledge of the things carried past them equally limited? And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not be in the habit of giving names to the objects which they saw before them? If their prison house returned an echo from the part facing them, whenever one of the pa.s.sers-by opened his lips, to what could they refer the voice, if not to the shadow which was pa.s.sing? Surely such person would hold the shadows of those manufactured articles to be the only realities."

With reference to our absolute knowledge of the phenomena of nature, this splendid comparison is as correct today as it was in the days of Plato, about 400 B. C.; we are only as prisoners in a great cave, watching shadows of pa.s.sing objects thrown upon the cavern wall, and reflecting upon the real natures of the things whose shadows we see.

We know things only by their effects; the essential nature of matter, ether and energy is far from our understanding.

[Sidenote: The progress of science rests on the law of cause and effect.]

In early and mediaeval times, the recognition of the fact that nature in its ultimate form is unknowable, led to many harmful superst.i.tions.

Chief among the fallacies of the early ages was the belief that G.o.d at will could, and did, cause various phenomena to appear in nature, which were contrary to all human experience. As observed in chapter 4, a cla.s.s of men arose who claimed to be in possession of knowledge which made them also able, at will, to cause various supernatural manifestations. Thus arose the occult sciences, so called,--alchemy, astrology, magic, witchcraft, and all other similar abominations of the intellect. Such beliefs made the logical study of nature superfluous, for any apparent regularity or law in nature might at any time be overturned by a person in possession of a formula of the black art or a properly treated broomstick.

While such ideas prevailed among the majority of men, the rational study of science could make little progress. In the march of the ages as the ideas of men were cla.s.sified, it began to be understood that the claims of the devotees of the mystical arts not only could not be substantiated but were in direct opposition to the known operations of nature. It became clear to the truthseekers, that in nature a given cause, acting upon any given object, providing all surrounding conditions be left unchanged, will always produce the same effect.

Thus, coal of a certain quality, brought to a high temperature in the presence of air, will burn and produce heat; a stick held in water at the right angle will appear crooked; iron kept in contact with moisture and air, at the right temperature, will be changed into rust; sunlight pa.s.sed through a gla.s.s prism will be broken into rainbow colors; ordinary plants placed in a dark cellar will languish and die.