As to the origin of the special organization called life, science has nothing to say. Science is helpless when she deals with the beginning of things. The best scientific explanation of life is that it is a very complex mode of motion occasioned by a highly complex organization of the matter and ether of the living body. There are still some students who prefer to believe in the existence of a special vital force, which is not subject to the laws that govern other forces. This view, however, is so inconsistent with the modern understanding of the contents of the universe that it has few followers. [Sidenote: The modern conception of life is very recent.] The view that life is a special organization by which the great natural forces are focussed and concentrated, so as to accomplish the greatest works, necessarily implies a belief in the modern laws of nature. Since modern science is of very recent development it was quite improbable for such a conception of life to have been held clearly before modern times. In fact it is within the last thirty or forty years that these views have found expression among scientific investigations. [Sidenote: Joseph Smith taught the universality of life.] As observed in chapters two and three, Joseph Smith taught that the energy of matter or of ether is a form of intelligence. If, according to this doctrine, matter and ether are intelligent; then life also must reside in all matter and ether. Hence everything in the universe is alive. Further, since all force is motion, universal motion is universal life. The difference between rock, plant, beast and man is in the amount and organization of its life or intelligence. For instance, in harmony with this doctrine, the earth must possess intelligence or life. In fact the Prophet says "the earth......shall be sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened again, and shall abide the power by which it is quickened."[A] The statement that the earth shall die and shall be quickened again, certainly implies that the earth possess life, though, naturally, of an order wholly different from that of men or other higher living things. [Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants 88:25, 26.] [Sidenote: Man is coexistent with God.] It is an established "Mormon" doctrine that man is coexistent with God. Note the following statements: "Ye were also in the beginning with the Father." "Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be."[A] "Yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after for they are eternal."[B] [Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants 93:23 and 29.] [Footnote B: Book of Abraham 3:19.] [Sidenote: Joseph Smith taught that man is organized from matter, spirit and intelligence.]