Sir Isaac Newton’s first law of motion is written in these words:
“Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a
straight line, except in so far as it is compelled, by force, to change
that state.”--(Encyc. Brit. (9 ed.) 15, p. 676, “Mechanics.”)
“Energy may be defined,” says the Britannica, “as the power of doing
work, or of overcoming resistance. A bent spring possesses energy,
for it is capable of doing work in returning to its natural form; a
charge of gun powder possesses energy for it is capable of doing work
in exploding; a Leyden jar, charged with electricity possesses energy,
for it is capable of doing work in being discharged.”--(Encyc. Brit. (9
ed.) 8, pp. 205-206, “Energy.”)
“Force is that which affects the motion of matter.”--(Encyc. Brit. (9
ed.) 7, p. 581, “Dynamics.”)
“The conclusion, which appears inevitable,” it says on another page,
“is that whatever matter may be the other reality in the physical
universe, energy, which is never found unassociated with matter,
depends, in all its widely varied forms upon motion of matter.” (Encyc.
Brit. (9 ed.) 15, p. 748, “Mechanics.”)
The sense of the above quotation is this: There are two realities in
the physical universe: (1) matter, whatever it may be; (2) energy,
which is always associated with matter. Energy “depends, in all its
varied forms, upon motion of matter.” For example, let us suppose that
we have three balls, designated as A, B, C, resting on a table in a
straight line, one inch apart. Suppose that I strike A and drive it
against B, that B strikes and moves C. In this case my arm moves and
generates energy or force, which moves A against B, and B against C.
The motion of my arm is the force which moves A; the motion of A is the
force which moves B, and the motion of B is the force which moves C.
Thus, we have demonstrated that energy or force generates motion; and
that motions produces force; that is, that each is convertible into the
other.
“Motion” is defined as “change of place; transition from one point or
position in space to another; continuous variation of position.” (Cent.
Dic. 5, p. 3872.)
Every human being begins life as a fertilized ovum, which is about as
large as one-sixth of a pin’s head. At birth, an infant weighs from
five to nine pounds, the average weight being six and one-half pounds.
(New International Encyc. 7, p. 775.) It is then millions of times
larger than a fertilized ovum. In other words: millions of atoms have
been selected, assembled, chemically combined and mechanically arranged
and grouped in such a manner as to form the body of a living infant,
which is a complete miniature model of the body of a man or woman.
It is obvious that the materials of which the embryo body is built up,
except the fertilized ovum, are derived from the food eaten by the
mother; that her heart and arteries generate the forces and produce the
motions which carry the materials to the building site of the embryo,
just as the builder assembles the bricks, stones, sand, lime, lumber,
nails and other materials to build a house.
The embryo body is a compound physical structure built of cells,
as a house is built of bricks. The atoms and cells, of which it is
composed, are subject to all the laws of force and motion, to the same
extent, and in the same manner that bricks are. Nor have they any more
intellect, memory nor will-power than a brick has.
Perhaps the first thing that an infant does, after birth, is to
breathe. In order to do this, air must be forced into, and out of its
lungs. To enable the heart to beat, its auricles must dilate and take
the blood into it; and its ventricles must contract and force the blood
out of it, and into the arteries. So that every time one breathes,
and every time one’s heart beats, force is exerted and motion of air
and blood is produced. Every time one takes a drink of water or a
bite of bread he must exert sufficient force to raise it, and produce
sufficient motion to bring it to his mouth. Every time one takes a step
he exerts sufficient force and produces sufficient motion to move his
body the distance that he steps. For example, suppose that A, weighing
two hundred pounds, gets on an electric street car and rides a mile.
It is obvious that the electric motor has exerted sufficient force and
produced sufficient motion of A’s body to move two hundred pounds, the
distance of a mile. Now, if A had walked along the same railway track
the same distance, it is clear that he would have exerted the same
force and produced the same motion of his body that the motor did.
We eat, drink, speak, move, act, work, live--do everything by force and
motion. When they cease, death comes.
Everything that a man can do with a physical body is resolvable into
force and motion. He may move a body from one place to another; he may
group two or more bodies together; or he may take two or more bodies
apart; or he may cut or break a body into two or more parts. But, at
last, all of these operations are equivalent to moving one or more
bodies from one place to another, by force and motion.
A sewing machine, adding machine, watch, steam engine, and every other
machine is constructed by force and motion. Every piece of music is
sung or played by force and motion. Every painting is made by grouping
two or more pigments (colors) together in a particular manner by force
and motion.
Intellect, memory and will-power are necessary to produce two or more
forces and motions in a prescribed order and within a given time. For
example, each note in a piece of music requires, for its production,
a certain force and peculiar motion (vibration) of cord, pipe or
string within a certain time. It is obvious that intellect, memory
and will-power are necessary to sing or play any piece of music.
Before anyone can speak any given word he must have intellect, memory
and will-power: (1) he must know the word to be uttered, (2) he must
remember it until it is uttered, (3) he must have the will-power
necessary to exert the force and produce the motion of air necessary
to utter it. Let the reader speak the words: “earth,” “air,” “fire,”
“water,” and analyze the process.
Intellect, memory and will-power are necessary to generate, guide, and
control the forces and motions required to make a watch or any other
compound machine or structure, within a given time. Suppose that a
watchmaker is required to make each spring, wheel and part of a watch
by hand, to put every part in its place and start it to running on or
about the 280th day after he begins the work. (Haeckel Ev. Man, p.
199.) To do this work he must have intellect, memory and will-power to
generate, guide, and control and time the forces and motions which are
necessary to make each part of the watch and to fit and group them
together when completed. He must know and remember every part of it;
remember the material of which it is made; remember its form and size;
compare each piece with the pattern; remember the time in which he is
to do the work. He must have the will-power to begin and continue the
work until it is done, doing such part of it each day as to complete it
on or about the day fixed.
But the forces and motions, which build up the body of the embryo,
work in the dark without brain or sense-organs. To put the watchmaker
on the same basis with the Creator, we will have to suppose that the
watchmaker is blind and has no sense of touch. Would it be possible for
him to make a watch under these conditions?
The mother’s food is taken into her mouth, chewed and mixed with saliva
and passes into her stomach. Here it is mixed with gastric juice
and converted into chyme. It then passes into the small intestine
(duodenum) where it is mixed with pancreatic secretion, bile and “the
secretion of the glands Brunner and the Crypts of Lieberkühn” and thus
converted into chyle. Most of the “nutritive constituents” of the chyle
pass through the epithelium of the small intestines into the subjacent
blood and lymphatic vessels and are carried off. Those passing into
the blood capillaries are taken by the portal vein to the liver; while
those entering the lacteals are carried into the left jugular vein by
the thoracic duct. (Martin, Human Body, pp. 361-377.)
This is a very brief outline of the processes, by which the food, one
eats is converted into blood and passes into the arteries and veins.
The embryo at first, has no heart, arteries, nor veins. After its body
has developed and grown to a certain extent, the mother’s heart and
arteries carry arterial blood to it through the “umbilical vein.” This
blood finally reaches the heart of the embryo, and is carried by its
heart and arteries to every part of its body, then returned through
“two umbilical arteries” and the placenta to the veins of the mother.
In this way, the embryo has a sort of circulation of its own. But it
appears to have no independent circulation during the first three or
four months of its life; and the blood which circulates through it must
be aerated or oxygenated in the mother’s lungs.
We may say, in general terms, that the mother’s heart and arteries
exert all the force and produce all the motion which build up the
embryo. It is true that the work of her heart and arteries is
supplemented, after a time, by that of the heart and arteries of the
embryo but the latter work is a small part of the whole.
The water in a stream runs from its head to its mouth because the
latter is nearer to the center of the earth than the former. In
other words, the water in every stream is carried forward by the
force of gravitation. The water in a stream carries silt (mud, fine
earth, etc.) which is deposited along its course and at its mouth. As
already stated, the mother’s blood is carried to the embryo body by
the force of her heart and arteries. Her blood conveys to the embryo,
the materials of which it is built up, as the water in a stream
carries silt to its mouth. Her blood has no more intellect, memory nor
will-power than the water in a stream.
If a portion of the silt at the mouth of the Mississippi should be
deposited at its mouth in the form of a colossal man, showing his head,
neck, body, arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, etc., it
would be considered a great miracle. But the formation of the embryo
body in the womb of its mother, with all its organs and parts is far
more miraculous than the formation of the silt man of the Mississippi
would be.
The reader may reply that the atoms of which the embryo is built up
are not merely deposited but they are absorbed by the fertilized ovum
and its daughter-cells, and converted into new cells; that these cells
are chemically combined and differentiated and mechanically arranged
in such a manner as to form the embryo body, etc. True; but force
and motion are necessary to produce new cells, to make the necessary
chemical combinations and mechanical arrangements; and these forces and
motions must be generated, guided and controlled by a Being possessed
of a conscious intellect, memory, will-power and creative force.