Excerpts from Great First Cause, or the Self-Moving Forces of the Universe by Orson Pratt [This was published as a pamphlet, and was often included in early editions of Orson Pratt’s Works.] (Liverpool: R. James, Printer, 1851).
Words in brackets are my own:
- Present existence proves the eternal existence of something. ...
- Creation from nothing [is] a vague conjecture
- Matter moves itself according to laws
- Matter could not act without intelligence - Unintelligent matter could not obey a law
- Intelligence [is] not the result but the cause of organization - Intelligent capacity's must be eternal
- Atoms evidently had an origin ... Atoms manufactured out of pre-existent substance.
- The probability that the present laws of the universe had an origin
- Intelligent materials acquire knowledge by experience - Cohesion and motion among the first efforts of intelligent matter
- Laws prescribed in proportion to the intelligence of materials
- Formation of atoms - All substances originated from one simple, elementary, self-moving, and eternal substance
- All organizations and all persons exhibit design ... the Deity-His person may have had a beginning, but his substance must be eternal -- A self moving Substance is the Great First Cause and Governor of all things. [Compare LDS Lectures on Faith #2 and #5. For example Lecture 2:2 states, "God is the only supreme governor, and independent being, in whom all fulness and perfection dwells; who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient"].
1. ... there must be an endless duration and a boundless space. ... Endless space and duration cannot be created nor annihilated by any being, but their continuance has been and must be eternal. These truths do not admit of being proved, for that which has no beginning cannot be preceded by a cause, and where no cause exists, there cannot possibly be any foundation for reasoning. There can be no reason why space and duration are as they are, and yet we perceive a necessity for them to be as they are. [note that similar to Pratt, the physicist Stephen Hawking argued that everything is basically energy and boundless space]
3. - Admitting the contingent truth, that something now exists in space, as nothing cannot produce something, therefore, it follows, as a necessary truth, that something must have always existed in space. Each part of this eternal something must occupy a finite space, having length, breadth, thickness, and figure. To occupy space, it must be solid, but solidity is only another name for matter; therefore, this eternal something must be matter. That which has no extension, nor parts, nor relation to space and duration, is called immateriality, which is the negative of all existence, or merely another name for nothing. (For further information upon this subject, see my treatise on the ABSURDITIES OF IMMATERIALISM.) ...
4. ... No man has ever perceived any one substance created from nothing by another. In all the varied operations of nature, we perceive no creations nor annihilations: we only perceive changes wrought upon that which already exists. Therefore, no man can know from experience, that the creation of something from nothing is a truth. ... Now there is nothing in the particular truths of nature which indicates the creation of any of her substances from nothing; hence, no such event can be established or inferred from induction. Therefore, creation from nothing is not a truth derived from reason.
5- As there is no evidence whatever in favour of the creation of any substance, we are justified in believing that the elements of every substance existed eternally. ... We can trace back the history of the earth for about six thousand years, or to the period of its formation. During this time countless millions of organizations, both vegetable and animal, have been constantly taking place. But in every case which has come under observation, the beings, organized, have been made out of pre-existing elements. In the mineral kingdom, a vast variety of new compounds have been formed, but in every instance that has come under the inspection of man, these compounds have been made from some-thing, and not from nothing.
All the miracles since the creation, that have been wrought by the power of God, have been Operations upon materials already existing. God has not, since the history of man, created any new elements, and exhibited them as a testimony that such an event is possible. When our Lord made wine at the wedding feast, it was not necessary to create it from nothing: he required the vessels first to be filled with water, after which he created or made the wine, which he could easily do by miraculously combining other ingredients or elements that already existed in great abundance. When he fed the multitudes with bread and fish, it was not necessary to make these compounds from nothing; when every element which enters into their constitution, existed plentifully all around him. ... Is it any more difficult to create an earth, Out of pre-existing elements, than it is to create various compounds, vegetables, and animals out of these elements? ...
... By the aid of light we only see the past, and not the present. Light does not inform us whether the most distant luminous bodies which can be seen are now in existence or not. Light enables us to see them exist thousands of ages ago, but it gives us no indications that they have existed as luminous bodies since that period. If the light of all worlds were created only six thousand years ago, then it would be impossible to see any of them over thirty-seven thousand billions of miles distant; for light could not travel over that distance in six thousand years ... Again, if the light of all worlds had been created at the same time, namely, six thousand years ago, several hundred new stars must have appeared every night since the invention of the telescope ... Whether our earth was created out of the ruins of some more ancient world, or whether it was formed out of elements which had never before been organized, is a mystery which the divine oracles do not reveal. But from geological inquiries it is highly probable that the elements of our globe have undergone a series of organizations and disorganizations, during countless ages that are past, compared with which the age of our present world forms but a link in the endless chain. Analogy indicates that worlds may be organized out of pre-existing elements as well as plants and animals. Analogy also indicates that the substance of all worlds may be eternal as well as the substance of which the Deity consists.
... 6.-The true definition of Matter is, that which Occupies space, and which cannot be made to occupy a greater or less amount of space. We cannot possibly conceive of the existence of God, or spirit, or any other kind of matter without conceiving such existence to be in space. ...
... The atomic theory requires a cohesive force to bind together the parts of the atoms, hence, the conception of atoms, without force, is impossible, ... If space can be geometrically demonstrated to be infinitely divisible, matter which occupies space, ifit have no cohesive force, must be infinitely divisible, as may also be geometrically demonstrated. The parts of these particles, however small, may exist in contact without the least cohesion, and the least imaginable force would separate these parts asunder with the same ease that the same force would move either of them from a state of rest to a state of motion in free space. However far the division of a particle of matter be carried, the parts could never be reduced to nothing - they would always be larger than a point, and therefore would occupy space, and the sum of all the parts would occupy as much space as the whole particle previous to division.
7. - OF FORCE. - Such a thing as a uniform motion in right lines, or a state of absolute rest, is unknown in the universe: all matter is constantly exhibiting a change of state, therefore, all matter must be under the influence of a Force. Our minds are so constituted that we cannot conceive of Force existing separate and abstract from substance. All Forces must be the Forces of something, and that something as it occupies space, must be matter. As Forces now exist, and as inert matter cannot originate Force, therefore some Force must have been eternal. All other Forces must be the effect of this eternal Force, or they must also have existed eternally. ... When I speak of the term Forces, I do not mean those secondary causes which, by many, are frequently called forces; but I mean those original qualities of matter by which it changes its own state or condition. ... Secondary causes are not Forces, but effects. Effects are originated either directly or indirectly by Forces; but Forces can, in no case, be effects, unless they were created. The creation of Forces cannot be established by reason, experience, nor divine revelation: it is a wild, vague speculation, without the least foundation. All classes admit that there must be a Force that has eternally existed ...
8.-OF THE ACTION OF FORCES. -As Forces are the qualities of substances, and exist only in connexion with matter, when they act, they must act where they exist. ... We have already shown that matter without force would be infinitely divisible: each of these infinitely small parts possesses the quality of Force by which it can move itself or cause itself to press against other parts with which it may be in contact. Millions of these parts may press themselves together, and form an atom of substance of any shape or figure, and of any degree of hardness such as shall be the best adapted to its future purposes and designs. The Force that holds together the parts of an atom is not an attractive Force, but it is the force of pressure: each part presses itself towards every other part. Attraction would require each part to be entirely passive, having no power whatever over itself and yet possessing the extraordinary and impossible power of pulling every part towards itself. ...
9. - OF SELF-MOVING MATTER. - We are aware that the various phenomena of the universe are referred by philosophers to the operations of inert and unintelligent matter: they have supposed inertia to be a property of all matter, and, therefore, they suppose all matter incapable of changing its state whether of rest or motion. If it be granted that matter is inert or inactive, it must necessarily follow, that inert matter at rest could never put itself in motion, and that inert matter in motion could never accelerate nor retard that motion, nor change its direction. But all matter with which we are acquainted appears to be highly active; every particle has a tendency to approach towards every other particle. ...
[Note that the self-moving theory of Pratt below is similar to Nietzsche's will to power theory which was at odds with Darwin's theory of the will to survive]
10. ... One thing is certain, if there is any inert matter in the universe, it has not yet been discovered to be such by its inactivity. If its existence be assumed, it must exist in union with active matter, which forces it to act according to fixed laws; ...
... All the materials of the universe with which we are acquainted exhibit actions which in all cases are produced by self-moving forces, for no other forces do or can exist.
II.– Those particles of this self-moving substance which constitute the worlds, and which are generally known under the name of ponderable substances, do not act at random, but act systematically and intelligently ...
... All the phenomena of universal gravitation can be far more simply explained by this law of self-moving particles, than by assuming the absurd hypothesis of attracting particles. Even though attraction were possible, (which we by no means admit) yet, it would be infinitely more simple for a particle to move itself than it would be to move everything but itself It has generally been supposed that there is something absurd in the idea of a substance moving itself but how much more absurd would be the idea of a substance so entirely inert that it could not move itself but yet able to move a universe of substance towards itself; but how can a substance which cannot move itself move other substances which exist at a distance? Yet this great absurdity is embraced in the attracting hypothesis. Every person, with the least reflection, will admit that a substance can more easily move itself than it can move anything else. The difference between the Self-moving Theory and the Attracting Hypothesis is to be found, not in the resulting phenomena, for they are and must be the same, but in the causes which produce these phenomena. The causes assumed to explain the phenomena are diametrically opposite in their nature, as may be more fully understood by the following contrast:
The attracting hypothesis assumes that a helpless, passive, inert, particle, has the power of acting in every place where it is not present, but has no power of acting where it is present. The self-moving theory assumes that an active particle has the power to act where it is present, but no power to act in any place where it is not present. Again, the attracting hypothesis assumes that an inert particle has the power to move every substance in the universe towards itself but has no power to move itself in any direction. While the self-moving theory assumes that an active substance has the power to move itself towards other substances, but has no power to move any external substance towards itself. ... The one makes it impossible for particles to change their own state, whether of rest or motion; the other gives power to particles to change their state of rest or motion according to definite laws. ...
12. - All theologists who adopt the attracting hypothesis, require a Great First Cause, who not only gives laws to blind, unconscious, unintelligent matter, but also forces it to act according to those laws. All theologists who shall adopt the self-moving theory will require the Great First Cause itself to consist of conscious, intelligent, self-moving particles, called the Holy Spirit [see the 5th Lecture on Faith], which prescribe laws for their own action, as well as laws for the action of all other intelligent materials. An unintelligent particle is incapable of understanding and obeying a law, while an intelligent particle is capable of both understanding and obedience. It would be entirely useless for an intelligent cause to give laws to unintelligent matter, for such matter could never become conscious of such laws, and therefore would be totally incapable of obedience.
... The amount of intelligent matter in space must be inconceivably great; it exists in vast quantities in all worlds, regulating and controlling every department of nature according to fixed laws. It is evident that each particle must have not only perceived the utility of such laws, but must have mutually consented to obey them in the most strict and invariable manner. All these self-moving materials must be possessed of a high degree of intelligence, in order to obey with such perfect and undeviating exactness the innumerable laws which obtain in the universe. There is no disobedience on the part of the materials.
... The philosophy of modern times, however, does not admit that material particles possess intelligence or knowledge: it deprives matter of all understanding and will, making it obey certain laws unconsciously and blindly, not perceiving its own acts nor their results, neither its own existence. ...
13. ... we conceive the sublime and glorious personage of the Deity himself [see Lecture 5, where the Father is a personage of spirit, glory and power] to consist of a certain number of the most superior and most intelligent material particles of the universe [see D&C 130-131, Abraham 3], existing in a state of union, which union, if not eternal, must have been the result of the anterior and eternal powers of each individual particle. ...
... the amount of matter possessing capacities for intelligence in the universe, be it great or small, is constant, and can never be increased or diminished in the least degree. ... the moment we admit the omnipresence of this substance [the First Cause/First God], irresistibly compelled to also admit that it exists in inexhaustible quantities; not that it absolutely fills all space, for then, there would be no room for any other substance, neither room for motion. Therefore, the substance of which the deity consists, must not only exist in immense quantities, but its particles must be in a greater or less degree separate and detached from each other by intervening spaces, which is an essential condition necessary to the vast variety of motions which are constantly taking place among these parts. Now these particles of this omnipresent and eternal substance must each have size and shape. ...
... we are compelled, by the most irresistible evidence, to believe that the present [tiny] minuteness and endless similarity of parts, which so universally obtains in all self-moving substances, had an origin. Not that the substances had an origin, but only their present similar magnitudes and figures. And we are also compelled to admit that the power [see Lecture 2 and 5] which produced this present condition must have eternally existed in the substances prior to their assuming their present form. By this eternal self-existent power resident in the dissimilar atoms of substances, those atoms which were too large to be useful in the future economy of nature could divide and sub-divide themselves until their dimensions were of an appropriate size[again, compare LDS Lectures on Faith #2 and #5. For example Lecture 2:2 states, "God is the only supreme governor, and independent being, ...; who is omnipresent ..."].; while such [spirit-atoms] as were too small could unite themselves together until they attained a size requisite for their future usefulness. And thus originated that endless similarity - that apparent equality of size and figure - that exceeding minuteness [i.e. tinyness] which so universally characterizes all the atoms of the same kind of substance. ...
... So the present minuteness of all atoms of the same kind - the equality of their magnitudes - the exact similarity of their figures - and their most perfect resemblance in all respects, show, most unquestionably, that these characteristics are not eternal, but were "manufactured," not from nothing, but from an eternal pre-existing substance which (we have the highest degree of probability to believe) once existed in almost every possible variety of size and form, without likeness, or resemblance, or order, only as might have existed in some few instances by chance. ... Is there any absurdity involved in the idea of manufacturing small atoms out of large ones, as, for instance, small shot are manufactured out of large bullets? Can it be proved that the prior large atoms are necessarily indivisible? or that their parts are, by their own power, held so firmly together that they cannot, by the same power, separate themselves from each other? Is the union of the parts of each atom governed by powers that are uncontrollable by its own will? are these powers antecedent to the power of will? If then, the parts of atoms are not bound together by any powers that are antecedent to, or distinct from, the free will, or self-moving powers of the atoms themselves, it is evident that they can manufacture smaller atoms out of their own parts of such sizes and forms as shall be best suited to their future purposes and designs. And by the same free will or self-moving powers, those atoms which are too small for future uses can unite themselves together in sufficient numbers to accomplish any future object which they may have in view. To manufacture certain definite sizes and forms of substance from nothing is utterly inconceivable! But to manufacture such sizes and forms from something is not only conceivable, but consistent with the whole analogy of nature.
14. ... [the] all-powerful atoms of this omnipresent substance [are] alike; for in whatever deportment of nature we recognize the vast and powerful operations of this widely diffused substance, we also recognize the most perfect "identity of deportment under similar circumstances." ... An immense and endless quantity of substance is a necessary and essential condition to its omnipresence. Also this immense substance must be divisible, separable, and moveable, as a necessary essential condition to the exercise of its powers. ...
15. - As all substances and forces are eternal, the probability is that they have eternally been engaged in some kind of operation. That the laws by which these forces act have been the same in all past ages is very improbable. If there were any necessity for these laws to be what they are, that necessity would render them eternal, but as they are laws given to govern substances that act voluntarily under the influence of wisdom, knowledge, and will, they can be changed at any time. The present laws of the universe may have existed, with trifling variations, for millions of years; and there may have been an infinite series of laws, each continuing for ages, and yet each differing from all the rest. If ever there were a period when the wisdom and knowledge of the materials of the universe were more imperfect than what they are under the present law, they would be unqualified to act under this law, and therefore they would act under an inferior law, such as they could understand. If we assume that some of the materials of nature, have been eternally all- wise and all-intelligent, then they could have eternally acted according to the best laws, so ~r as their own substances were concerned; but if we assume that many of the materials, instead of possessing great wisdom and knowledge, only possessed the capacities for receiving intelligence, and had to be taught and instructed by experience, then the laws devised for their rule of action would be at first extremely simple, and as they advanced in experience these laws would be changed for those of a higher order, proportioned to their increased wisdom and knowledge; and as countless ages rolled along they would at length attain to all that flilness of wisdom and intelligence which characterizes all their present operation. But shall we stop here, and suppose all the materials of the universe have ascended to the highest scale of perfection? Shall we suppose that they have now come to a stopping place, beyond which they can never advance? No: there are other laws of action in which they must be schooled, and other spheres of endless ages shall open new glories, and new laws, and new modes of action, they will progress in the grand universal, and eternal scale of being.
With this view of the subject, it is not necessary to suppose that the different materials of nature have possessed the same intelligence from eternity that they now have. Their capacities for receiving intelligence must have been eternal, but the intelligence may have been imparted at any time when circumstances favored. One of the first and most simple things which material particles had to learn, as we may suppose, was simply to exercise the force of cohesion, so that their infinitely small parts might be bound together in union; but this would require in all probability ages of experience before each part of an atom would learn how to press itself towards every other part with an equal degree of intensity, so as to preserve the forces in equilibrium; unless such an equilibrium of forces were obtained the atom could not remain at rest. When- ever an atom should desire to move in any particular direction, as for instance, to the south, with any particular velocity, it could do so, by destroying the equilibrium of forces existing in those parts of the atom which were in the line of the desired motion ...
16. -After a substance had passed through ages of experience in acquiring a knowledge of cohesion and motion, it would be qualified to begin to exert these elementary forces systematically, according to prescribed laws. The next thing, perhaps, in the great school of experience would be for one portion to form itself into an immense number of atoms of the same size and form, and for another portion to form itself into a vast number of atoms of another size and form, and in this way all the elementary atoms of nature could be formed out of the same substance; their difference of their hardness, depending upon the intensity of the cohesion of their parts. Thus might the elements of spirit, light, heat, electricity, oxygen, hydrogen, mtrogen, and of all other substances, be formed originally from one substance. These various atoms uniting by their own self-moving powers, according to prescribed laws, would form all the various compounds of nature with all their various properties. For instance, a definite proportion of oxygen uniting with a definite proportion of hydrogen, heat, light, &c., would form a molecule of water; and several molecules of water united with a certain intensity of cohesion would form a liquid; with less heat the molecules would crystalize and form a solid; with a greater amount of heat they would exist in the form of vapour. After substance has learned by experience all operations, they would be qualified to act according to systematic laws, or those laws that are generally called chemical laws. ...
... All substances have been already reduced to less than sixty kinds, which chemists term elementary, only because their imperfect experiments have not succeeded in decomposing them. Many bodies which, a few years ago, were considered elementary, have been resolved into simpler kinds; and we have no reason to suppose that we have as yet discovered even one elementary substance. If the process of decomposition were carried to its fullest extent, we should find, no doubt, that all the ponderable substances of nature, together with light, heat, and electricity, and even spirit itself, all originated from one elementary simple substance, possessing a living self-moving force, with intelligence sufficient to govern it in all its infinitude of combinations and operations, producing all the immense variety of phenomena constantly taking place throughout the wide domains of universal nature. ...
... That portion of this one simple elementary substance which possesses the most superior knowledge, prescribes laws for its own action, and for the action of all other portions of the same substance which possesses inferior intelligence. And thus there is a law given to all things according to their capacities, their wisdom, their knowledge, and their advancement in the grand school of the universe. To every law there are bounds and conditions set, and those materials that continue within their own sphere of action, and keep the law, are exalted to new spheres of action ...
17. - All the organizations of worlds, of minerals, of vegetables, of animals, of men, of angels, of spirits, and of the spiritual personages of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, must, if organized at all, have been the result of the self combinations and unions of the preexistent, intelligent, powerful, and eternal particles of substance. These eternal Forces and Powers are the Great First Causes of all things and events that have had a beginning. If the skillful arrangements and wise adaptations of the different parts of vegetables and animals to every other part indicate design, as that celebrated theologian Archdeacon Paley asserts, and if design, as he still further declares, implies a designer, and therefore, a beginning of those intricate arrangements and adaptations, then there must have been a designer or designers before any such arrangements and adaptations could exist. Paley also states, that the more perfect the being, the greater are the evidences of design; for instance, he considers that the complicated adjustments of each part to every other part, exhibited in the personage of man is a greater evidence of design than is manifested in any of the lower orders of being. If this be the case, then the spiritual personages of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, must exhibit more evidences of design in the wise adaptations and arrangements of the different portions of substance of which they consist, than any other persons in existence [note that the 5th Lecture on Faith explains that the personages of the Father and Son are constituted by, i.e., made of, the omnipresent Holy Spirit or Divine "Mind"] and to carry out Paley's argument, we are compelled to believe that these - the most superior of all other personages - must have had a beginning, for inasmuch as they indicate a design there must have been' an anterior designer - this designer must have been a self-moving intelligent substance capable of organizing itself into one or more most glorious personages. We are compelled to admit that the personage of God must be eternal, exhibiting no marks of design whatever, or else we are compelled to believe that the all-powerful, self-moving substance of which he consists organized itself. But in either case, whether his person be eternal or not, His substance, with all its infinite capacities of wisdom, knowledge, goodness, and power, must have been eternal. It is this substance which is the Great First Cause; it is this substance which governs and controls all organization by wise and judicious laws. Parts of this most glorious substance now exist in the form of personages; parts exist in an unorganized capacity, mingling more or less with all other things, forming a world here, and an animalcule yonder, governing a universe, and yet taking notice of the lowest orders of being, and imparting life and happiness to all. He is in all things and through all things, and the law by which all things are governed; and all things are not only by him and for him, but OF him. His majesty and power, His wisdom and greatness, His goodness and love, shine forth in every department of creation, with a glory that is ineffable, immortal, and eternal.
