LDS teaching is the the spirit that unites with a mortal body at some point between conception and birth is matter. No LDS (that I know of) are saying that abstracts, ideals, and emotions are refined matter,
Here is the link to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism on matter:
eom.byu.edu/index.php/Matter
I hope this helps…
Thanks, Gazelam. Although that website is not an official source of official church doctrine and as far as I can tell the general membership did not vote on what is written there, and it certainly hasn’t been placed in the scriptures, I accept it as generally acceptable. My thanks are serious. What I had heard was different, but I think I either misunderstood or the person expressed himself incorrectly. Thank you again.
Either way, then, since
intelligence is put into spirit (more or less, I don’t know how the process is specifically described in current Mormon apologetics), and spirit into the body (more or less), then is “intelligence” an even more fine type of matter, or is it only as fine as spirit, or is “intelligence” neither matter nor spirit? (The more official the source, the better. We can’t be saved in ignorance!)
Another question this brings immediately to mind has to do with the
Priesthood. Is the power of the Priesthood a material power, a physical power, even if a “more fine” one than, say, horsepower? Is Priesthood simply another natural and cosmic force like gravity, and electromagnetism? Or is its nature or essence somehow different from purely physical powers. Does the Priesthood power pervade the universe, or is it a localized power like the strong force binding nuclei or the shorter-ranged weak force?
I see no logical or natural reason for a human life to require
two bodies. Of course, to Mormons it’s part of a “plan.” But that plan has always been in place, so I have been told by everyone from bishops on up to apostles, so it’s more of a property of existence rather than a deliberated and volitionally chosen course of axtion as we normally think of plans. God must truly be human to have been unable to create a being that could eternally co-exist with Him. The best he could do was to create a symbiote of sorts. The physical body cannot survive without the fine body, and the fine body is handicapped with the coarse body. Obviously I do not believe this. I would however sincerely like to understand how Mormons try to logically defend it. I don’t mean formal logic necessarily, just some reasonable discourse on the rational behind it, and what it says about God’s excellence in making provisions rather than His limitations and lack of imagination.
I am currently participating in a course on “philosophy of religion,” and so am trying to understand how Mormonism fits into the various arguments for God’s
perfections,
necessities,
free will, etc.
