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Contents of the Universe
Matter. The substances that make up the material universe are spoken of as matter. Matter occurs or may occur, according to present views, in 93 forms known as elements, together with an increasing number of variations of each element. According to chemical theory, matter may be reduced to particles known as molecules, which may contain one or several elements.
The substances around us, desk and chair, pen and paper, rock and tree, are composed of molecules, the smallest particle belonging to the world which we may know directly. Molecules in turn are composed of atoms, of another order of world than the one we live in; and atoms are composed of electrons which are yet farther beyond the reach of man. The reduction of matter to electrons is one of the recent, as well as one of the greatest, conquests of science. It is believed that by a rearrangement of electrons, one element may be transmuted into another. In nature a few elements of the higher molecular weight are being degraded passing through the condition of several elements. Some little progress has been made also in that direction with elements of lower atomic weights. The amount of such change seems, however, to be infinitesimal. No transformation of elements of any consequence is going on in our world.
Slowly, some understanding is being won of the subatomic world, and more and more men are coming to believe that all things, great or small, are but manifestations of the one primordial substance or condition, not yet within the understanding of man. This view has progressed so far that many clear-thinking persons hold that matter in its last state may be converted into energy, and is but a form of energy.
Energy. Energy is also found in the universe. It is in constant association with matter. Just as matter occurs in various forms, so energy appears in many forms, as light, heat, electricity, magnetism, x-rays, cosmic rays, and many others. All appear to be so closely related as to be suspected of being drawn from one source. Especially does the unity of all energy seem reasonable in view of the established fact that the various forms of energy may be converted one into another. Light may be changed to heat, heat to light, mechanical energy to electricity and electricity to mechanical energy, and so forth, throughout the whole range of the manifestations of energy. Those who believe that matter may fade away into energy, also hold that energy may appear as matter-that the two are interchangeable.
Personal Intelligences. The Church accepts the certain facts of science as won by patient seekers after truth, and holds in respect the changing inferences set up in the attempt to explain the increasing accumulation of facts. It does not affirm or deny the correctness of modern views regarding the ultimate nature of matter and energy; though it leans, from glimpses of revealed truth, to the doctrine of one ultimate element from which matter and energy are derived.