[Footnote A: Journal of Discourses, vol. 7:285. (Brigham Young.)]
[Sidenote: A lower intelligence cannot become a higher intelligence except by disorganization.]
This doctrine does not permit of the interpretation that a lower intelligence, such as that of an animal, may in time become the intelligence of a man. "It remaineth in the sphere in which I, God, created it."[A] The horse will ever remain a horse, though the intelligence of the animal may increase. To make any of the constituent parts or forces of an animal, part of the intelligence of a man, it would be necessary to disorganize the animal; to organize the elements into a man, and thus to begin over again.
[Sidenote: Joseph Smith anticipated science in the modern conception of life.]
Men, beasts and plants--those beings that possess the higher life, differ from inanimate nature, so called, by a higher degree of organization. That is the dogma of "Mormonism," and the doctrine of science. About 1831 Joseph Smith gave this knowledge to the world; a generation later, scientific men arrived independently at the same conclusion.
[Sidenote: The thinkers and writers of Mormonism have taught the foregoing doctrine of life.]
The thinkers and writers of "Mormonism" have more or less directly taught the same doctrine. Apostle Orson Pratt believed that the body of man, both spiritual and earthly, was composed of atoms or ultimate particles--of the Holy Spirit for the spiritual body and material elements for the mortal body. It has already been shown that the Holy Spirit of "Mormonism" may be compared with the ether of science, vibrating with the greater force of the universe--intelligence. For instance: "The intelligent particles of a man's spirit are by their peculiar union, but one human spirit."[A] "Several of the atoms of this spirit exist united together in the form of a person."[B] Undoubtedly Elder Pratt believed that the living man is simply organized from the elements and elementary forces of the universe.
[Footnote A: Absurdities of Immaterialism, ed. 1849, p. 26.]
Perhaps the best and safest exposition of the philosophy of "Mormonism" is Parley P. Pratt's Key to Theology. In it he states definitely that the spirit of man is organized from the elementary Holy Spirit. "The holiest of all elements, the Holy Spirit, when organized in individual form, and clothed upon with flesh and bones, contains, etc."[A] That the earthly body was likewise organized is equally plain for he says "At the commencement--the elements--were found in a state of chaos."[B] Then man was "moulded from the earth as a brick."[C] Again, "The spirit of man consists of an organization of the elements of spiritual matter,"[D] which finds entrance into its tabernacle of flesh. In another place he defines creation by asking "What is creation? Merely organization...... The material of which this earth was made always did exist, and it was only an organization which took place during the time spoken of by Moses."[E]