--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Merrill, Joseph F. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 19 number: 12 published: 1916-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Joseph F. Merrill, "Why Not Be Consistent?," *Improvement Era* 19, no. 12 (October 1916): 1047–1050.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1912unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1912unse start_page: 1047 end_page: 1050 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1916-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1912unse publication_year: 1916 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1916, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Why Not Be Consistent? Improvement Era Vol. XIX. OCTOBER, 1916. No. 12 Why not be Consistent? BY DR. JOSEPH F. MERRILL, OF THE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH 4 It is characteristic of the human mind to be dogmatic. It is common to hear opinions expressed with a positiveness that almost amounts to arrogance. Particularly do we find a tendency to dogmatism common among a certain class of young people the class composed of those who pride themselves on their liberal and original thinking. To this class usually belong those who, with an assumption of mental superiority, affirm a disbelief in spiritual things. The purpose of this paper is to point out the inconsistency of those who take this stand. To achieve our purpose, let us take a few glances into the socalled ''natural world"— the world of science. Our knowledge of this world has been organized into departments which we call sciences— as botany, mineralogy, zoology, geology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. Not that nature itself is divided into well defined departments with sharp division planes, but for convenience of study we classify our knowledge of nature into these departments. Going into one of these departments, physics, for example, we study some of the properties of matter, learn something about electricity, light, heat, magnetism and various other phenomena. We get an acquaintance with the force of gravity and laws of motion of inanimate bodies. In the law of gravitation we dis- — cover an explanation of why the heavenly bodies planets, etc. sweep on through space with a harmony that is truly wonderful. Gravitation tells us why the earth, whirling- in its orbit about the sun, at the rate of nearly twenty miles a second, though requiring a whole year to complete the cycle, accomplishes the journey with most remarkable precision, the time required for successive cycles not varying by a measurable part of a second. And gravitation— the force of attraction between heavenly bodies — tells us how these bodies attract one another, but it does not tell us why 1048 IMPROVEMENT ERA they attract one another. And why they attract no man can tell. In physics and chemistry we may learn much about the properties of matter — that entity which occupies space and takes up room, that something which makes up substances, the things that we can feel and handle and which we call material things. Nothing is so common as matter. Our very bodies are composed of it. We eat it, drink it, wear it, breathe it, and cannot get away from it. We burn it for warmth and use it for coolness. By means of it we move and travel. In all our, works of construction we use it and it alone. Nothing in the world is so familiar. Of it the world is made up. Tf we know anything we surely know what matter is. But no, we do not know what matter is. The enigma of what it is has not been solved Again, in physics we study magnetic phenomena. We learn that the earth is a magnet, at least acts as if it were one. To this fact is due the use of the compass, the mariner's friend that guides him by day and by night while he sails with perfect assurance over the bosom of the deep. The usefulness of the earth's magnetism is almost immeasurable. To what is this magnetism due? Again we have another unanswered question. But magnets are so common and magnetism is so useful and has been so intently studied that men surely know what magnetism is. If it were not for magnetism there would be no dynamos, no electric motors, no electric cars, no telephones or telegraph lines, nor a thousand other things essential to modern modes of life. What then is this agent, so useful and necessary and so much studied? The answer is, we have here another impenetrable mystery. — This is an "electrical age" a period in which we almost cease to marvel at the manifold wonders brought to pass by the subtle agent, electricity. Under control, this agent operates with unerring accuracy, however great or small the work to be done. And in a myriad of ways this agent is daily doing a larger part of the work of the world. The laws by which electricity may be developed, transmitted, applied, and controlled, are well understood. But what is this wonderful agent? To this question learned men shake their heads. In physics we read of a subtle medium, called the ether, that is said tofill all space and to permeate all bodies. In it all substances float, as it were. By means of this medium light is transmitted, also wireless telegraphic messages. By means of it, also, electric, magnetic, and gravitational forces are exerted. Through it the earth and the heavenly bodies move without resistance as through a perfect fluid. Yet for light and electric waves, such as those used in wireless telegraphy and telephony, this remarkable *^v»dium acts as a perfect solid. Surely a wonderful medium to WHY NOT BE CONSISTENT? 1049 be a fluid and a solid at one and the same instant Enough to ! show that we do not know what the ether is. If we carefully examine a snowflake we may be astonished to find a delicate and intricate structure not unlike that which might come from the hand of a most skilful workman. Common salt separates out of a hot, saturated solution, on cooling, as beautiful crystals. And no matter how numerous the crystals or from how many solutions obtained they are all alike in structure. Granite, limestone, and other mountain- forming rocks, are crystalline in structure. Precious stones are beautifully crystalline, each with a characteristic structure. Now why do snowflakes, chemical salts, and the mineral constituents of mountain-forming rocks all have a delicate, complex, and characteristic crystalline structure? It is their nature. No other answer can be given. Who can explain the color of the rose, of the apple, of the cherry, of the peach, of the grass and of the leaves? Who can tell why some paints are red, others green, and still others yellow? Why, any student of physics, you say. Yes, any physicist can explain these phenomena but no physicist can really tell why the apple gives out only red light and the grass only green light and the paint only yellow light. In the simple phenomena of color, then, there are unanswered questions. — — In the study of plants and animals living things we learn much about the conditions of growth and of life. But man, in all his wisdom and power and glory, cannot make even a blade of grass. He knows the conditions necessary for life, but he cannot make life, he does not even know what life is. And so instances might be multiplied showing that in every — — department of nature in every science there are myriads of unanswered questions, mysteries so deep and profound that the most learned can not even guess at their solution. Surely we live in a wonderful world ! Wise men in the presence of nature stand in reverent awe. Our critical students do not believe ini the existence of a spiritual world because they do not understand it. Yet they do not refuse to study and believe in science, though at every turn they are confronted by mysteries. They do not disbelieve in the existence of matter, of electricity, of magnetism, of gravitation, even though they cannot know or understand what these things are. They do not doubt the existence of life, though powerless to create it, and unable to know what it is. They doubt the existence of a spiritual world because they cannot see it. Why not doubt the existence of electricity and of magnetism ? They have never seen either of these. But they see their effects, it may be argued, and so cannot doubt their existence. Just so, and for the same reason observing people who 1150 IMPROVEMENT ERA reason logically cannot doubt the existence of a spiritual world, even though they themselves have no convincing personal experiences of this existence. But effects and evidences of this existence are seen on every hand. Is it not, then, absurd to refuse to study and investigate the claims of true religion on the ground that some of these claims* are not fully understood? If the same attitude were taken toward science, there would be no science and no students of science. The whole of nature,, in that case, would be a dark mystery with no light of knowledge shining from any source. Every student of mathematics has experienced difficulty in understanding some mathematical demonstrations. But because cf this the demonstrations were not declared false, and the truths they established rejected. Rather has the student attributed his failure to understand to his own stupidity. Why not take this same attitude towards things spiritual? Would it not be just as logical to reject mathematics as to reject religion, because of a failure on the part of a student to understand? _ Science teaches, and all students of science believe, that two entities make up the physical universe, matter and energy, each indestructible though changeable in form. All the ceaseless changes involved in,, physical phenomena do not, and cannot, it is said, produce any change in the amount of either entitv. With this doctrine in mind, how is it possible to believe that life, more subtle than either matter or energy, is destructible, is destroyed by death or ceases to exist at death? Life, as exemplified in man, has, to a large extent, dominion over both matter and energy.' These cannot be destroyed. Then is it not absurd to believe that life perishes, ceases to exist? The existence of facts and things may be established on the _ testimony of a sufficient number of reputable witnesses. Our critical students accept, without question, this kind of evidence; when it relates to physical occurrences. Now, thousands of reputable men and women testify, with absolute assurance, of spiritual manifestations in great variety. Is it not illogical for a rational mind to reject those testimonies? We conclude, then, that consistency and logic require us to assume the same attitude of sympathy and trust toward religious and spiritual things that we assume toward science and material things. This reasonable attitude will result in faith, the foundation of a religious life.