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Show Page 119 conventional physics as he posits that a primal "intelligence" forms one of the basic properties of matter: "Reason has demonstrated, that the intelligence of every atom must either be without beginning, or else be the result of contact and combination (with other atoms)...to say that some being gave this property to atoms is to admit the prior existence of a being with intelligence." The presence of self-conscious beings such as men and animals suffices to Orson to describe intellect as a fundamental qualify of matter, "either a property of material atoms, or a result of the combination or contact of these atoms." If the former, then intelligence must be an eternal function of the atom because underived from any other source, "for such operations would be impossible in a perfectly solid and imporous atom." If, on the other hand, intelligence results from the combination or contact of atoms, then the "capacity to receive intelligence" must be eternally present. Orson then goes on to explain that motion results from self-propelled, intelligent atoms drawing together in combination: "Those who believe in attraction...assert that matter is entirely passive...Now if an atom has not power to move itself, how can it move any thing external to itself? It is the very height of absurdity to suppose that a helpless passive atom can move every thing in the universe but itself...Every atom MOVES ITSELF towards every other atom, with a force varying inversely as the square of the distance." Pratt thus turns around Newton's theory with one of his own based on the concept of intelligent, self-moving matter. The idea of primal intelligence is probably drawn from Joseph Smith's Book of Abraham; Orson's "Mormon Philosophy" next goes on to examine the nature of these intelligent capacities: "What are these...Are they not a species of intelligence self-existent and eternal? If not, how can we account for the combination or contact of atoms? Is this combination fortuitous...What then is the cause of atoms approaching |
