Mormon Physics/metaphysics
Mormon scripture, and the teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr., include a number of details concerning the nature of light, elements, matter, "spirit matter", and intelligence.
According to Mormon scripture, "the elements are eternal". This means, according to Smith, that the elements are co-existent with God, and "they may be organized and reorganized, but not destroyed. They had not beginning, and can have no end." This was elaborated by Brigham Young, who said, "God never made something out of nothing; it is not in the economy or law of which the worlds were, are, or will exist." Thus, Mormons deny ex nihilo creation and instead believe that God created or "organized" the universe out of pre-existing elements.
Along with physical matter, Mormons believe that spirit "intelligences" have existed co-eternally with God.
Mormons believe in a universe and a God governed by physical law, in which all miracles, including acts of God, have a natural explanation, though science does not yet have the tools or means necessary to explain them.
Read more about this topic: Mormon Cosmology
Famous quotes containing the words mormon, physics and/or metaphysics:
“I never understood exactly why people get engaged—The only time I ever did the most disastrous things happened—but I feel that there’s a great deal to be said for immediate matrimony always. If I once got started I’d probably have to become a mormon to cover my confusion. What I mean is that if he and she are crazy about each other it is sheer tempting God to stay apart, come what may. And if people arent crazy about each other being engaged wont help them.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Although philosophers generally believe in laws and deny causes, explanatory practice in physics is just the reverse.”
—Nancy Cartwright (b. 1945)
“The form of act or thought mattered nothing. The hymns of David, the plays of Shakespeare, the metaphysics of Descartes, the crimes of Borgia, the virtues of Antonine, the atheism of yesterday and the materialism of to-day, were all emanation of divine thought, doing their appointed work. It was the duty of the church to deal with them all, not as though they existed through a power hostile to the deity, but as instruments of the deity to work out his unrevealed ends.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)