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 God.]
It is an established "Mormon" doctrine that man is coexistent with God. Note the following statements: "Ye were also in the beginning with the Father." "Man was also in the beginning with God. 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 constitutes 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.