To the great majority of men, in all ages, the idea of a God or Power, has appeared to be a necessity. Naturally, there has been a great variety of opinions concerning the nature of God, or the great Power behind things. Some, including the early Greek thinkers, looked upon God as a personal being of transcendental attributes; others gave Him a more shadowy form, and made of Him nothing more than an all pervading spiritual essence. Still others, considering the relations of all natural operations to the infinite power of God, identified Him with Nature, and then, with astonishing shortsight denied His personal existence. Thus, by degrees, arose the various theists, who accepted a personal God with varying attributes; the pantheists, who identified God with nature, and the atheists, who denied absolutely God, or any equivalent. Among those who have adopted the idea of God, the chief dispute has been largely as to His personality; to the atheists the essential consideration has been that the laws of nature are self-operative and need no directing force such as is implied in the conception of a God.
[Sidenote: Science points to a force of forces.]
As modern science arose, certain conceptions became established which were directly related to the idea of God. In obedience to the modern tendency towards simplification, the great variety in the material world has been referred to a few elements (nearly 80); and all the forces of nature are now held to be modes of motion of matter or of the one all pervading substance, the ether. The complexity of nature is produced by new combinations of matter, ether and motion. According to this doctrine, all the phenomena in the universe may be explained by referring them to the action of forces upon matter and ether. There is a limited number of elements, which, at the present, can not be converted into each other. There is only one ether, which can probably exist in various degrees of density. There are numerous forces, which may be converted into each other. Thus light may be changed into heat; heat into electricity and electricity into light again.
Scientists have long asked if there is one great universal force, of which all other forces are merely variations. Usually, the thinkers have agreed that the indications point to such a central force, which by many has been identified with gravitation. Newton and many of the men who followed him in the development of the theory of gravitation, agreed that probably the force of gravitation is the source of all other natural forces. Thus the doctrines of modern science point to one force from which all other forces are derived; and thus, the complexity of nature has been simplified, by explaining it on the assumption of this one force. Those who believe in God have claimed that this points to one great Being as the mover behind all things; the atheists have declared, that these scientific conceptions indicate that there is no real necessity for a God; and many honest searchers who have reached this closed door, have declared, "I do not know. It may be God; it may be force. It cannot be known."
[Sidenote: "Mormonism" teaches that intelligence is the force of forces.]
"Mormonism" has harmonized science and theology in its conception of God. As has been shown earlier in this volume, Joseph Smith taught that the central force of the universe is intelligence. Gravitation, heat, light, magnetism, electricity, chemical attraction, are all various manifestations of the all-pervading force of intelligence. This, it may be seen, is the simple theory advanced by scientists, with the definition of the first force added.
[Sidenote: God is the greatest intelligence.]
The "Mormon" Prophet taught, further, that the individual is organized intelligence; that the organization is the instrument whereby intelligence may be concentrated, focussed and directed. Man is superior to beasts because his organization permits a greater use of the universal force of intelligence. Under the law of evolution, man's organization will become more and more complex. That is, he will increase in his power of using intelligence until in time, he will develop so far that, in comparison with his present state, he will be a God. Conversely, God, who is a superior organization, using and directing the force of intelligence, must at one time have possessed a simpler organization. Perhaps, at one time He was only what man is to-day. God, in "Mormon" theology, is the greatest intelligence; it will always remain the greatest; yet, it must of necessity, under the inexorable laws of the universe, grow. God is in no sense the Creator of natural forces and laws; He is the director of them.
The correct conclusion from this doctrine is that all the forces of nature are supported by intelligent action. This leads of necessity to order in nature. Blind forces, acting independently of intelligence, could not have brought about the perfect order that appears everywhere in the universe. Every atom of matter; every particle of ether is endowed with a form of intelligence. All the attractions, repulsions and equilibriums among natural objects are modes of expression of the force of intelligence. The explanations of the mysteries of nature will be greatly simplified when the "Mormon" doctrine of the position of intelligence in universal phenomena is clearly understood by scientific workers.
[Sidenote: Many grades of intelligence; hence, many Gods.]