Reflective Meditation on Cosmic Meanings
by David Glass
General Conference 1990 Snowmass, Colorado
I want this to be a meditation of the meanings of the cosmos. And this survey will begin with the question: "What is the first single word that comes to mind when we consider the cosmos?" I believe that word is "BIG"!
It takes eight minutes for sunlight to reach our eyes. The sun is 93 million miles away. The light from the nearest star left that sun in 1986. Orvonton is 500,000 light years in diameter. The first outer space zone is 25,000,000 light years wide. Light from stars in that first outer space zone left those stars when Urantia was in the age of elephants and horses. At the time that the westward continental drift of North America came to a halt causing the rugged upsurge of the bedrock beneath the then western plains into the towering Rocky Mountains, light from stars in the second outer space zone reached Urantia.
William Sadler, Jr., described the size of the master universe in this way: If the size of the grand universe were that of a tennis ball, the first outer space zone would be the size of a living room. The second would be the size of a cubic city block. The third outer space zone would be the size of a large cubic city. And the fourth zone would be the size of the moon.
The revelators said that there are as many stars in the master universe as there are glasses of water in all the oceans of our world.
There will eventually exist approximately seven trillion (7,000,000,000,000) inhabited planets in the grand universe. We humans can grasp somewhat the sense of the number "one trillion." America's national budget has reached two trillion dollars this year. MacDonald's restaurant has probably served more than seven trillion hamburgers by this time. Perhaps you remember when they used to keep track of how many were served in their advertising.
Our registered planetary number in the grand universe is over five trillion, explicitly: 5,342,482,337,666. There seems to be an upper limit of trillions in the specific numerical values cited in The Urantia Book, since, to my recollection, no number larger than those in the trillions is mentioned. Sudna, a onetime Graduate Guide who is now a Havona Servital, was the 842,842,682,846,782nd graduate guide so to be transformed.
However, in dealing numerically with reality, with values upwards of trillions, the revelators give no precise numbers. For example, while they reveal the number of our planet in the registry of the grand universe, over five trillion, as cited above, a Universal Censor from Uversa states: "I know the physical-sphere registry number [of Urantia], but it is of such an extraordinary size that it is of little practical significance to the mortal mind." (*182:7)
Technically, numbers are usually regarded as factual, rather than meaningful. But the human psyche has a faculty which seems to sense a kind of "meaning" conveyed by normal, as well as by extraordinarily large or small numbers. Numbers are relative given various measuring units, but numbers in the trillions seem to be on the horizon of the meaningfulness of numbers. For example, the numerical figure referred to as Planck's constant is a dimensional measurement which, when expressed in ordinary numbers, is quite meaningless. Indeed, scientists themselves are of the opinion that at such large or small physical dimensions even the basic laws of physics cannot apply.
To get a sense of the approximate number of inhabited worlds in the grand universe--seven trillion--imagine a football field covered with Urantia Books to the depth of four books; the number "seven trillion" would refer roughly to the number of individual letters and punctuation marks in all those books.
Enough! We have a sense of the truth that the cosmos is BIG and that certain measurements of the universe are practically valuable and some are humanly incomprehensible except in the relativity of the values of numbers under consideration. We should not think that it is only we lowly mortals who find such gigantic dimensions and numerical values nonunderstandable. A Divine Counselor of Uversa, one of the highest ranking personalities of those who collaborated in the composition of The Urantia Book, states: "the enormousness of the master universe staggers the concept of even my order of being." (*128:1)
We have established the fact that the master universe, the revealed cosmos, is BIG! There is another three-letter word which describes the universe and which gives us an insight into the "meaning" of the cosmos. That word is "OLD"!
Perhaps an even more emphatic word, "Ancient," might better characterize the age of the universe. When I was in school, we employed the term "ancient" to refer to the civilizations of pre-Christian times--those of Sumer, Egypt, and Greece. If we wish to use the words "old" or "ancient" to describe the age of the universe, we will have to stretch the meanings of those words to the extremities of human comprehension.
The first event associated with the history of Nebadon took place about a trillion years ago: "987,000,000,000 years ago associate force organizer and then acting inspector number 811,307 of the Orvonton series, traveling out from Uversa, reported to the Ancients of Days that space conditions were favorable for the initiation of materialization phenomena in a certain sector of the, then, easterly segment of Orvonton." (*651:5) It is interesting to me that the revelators employed that other word for old, "ancient," when referring to the oldest beings in the superuniverses, the Ancients of Days, deriving that term from Christianity.
Nebadon is about one third actualized at this point with more than three million out of an eventual ten million inhabited planets in existence. Allow for another one or two trillion years, and then the entire local universe might be in light and life. For convenience, let's say that it takes about three trillion years for a local universe to complete its evolution, from the time of the beginning of the amassing of the energy which will form the physical foundation of the local universe to that distant day when the entirety of a local universe swings into the stable circuits of cosmic light and life.
At the time of the inditing of the Urantia Papers, there were 611,121 local universes in existence. We cannot simply multiply the number of local universes, say, 600,000, times the time it may approximately take for a local universe to complete its evolution, say, three trillion years, because local universes are developing simultaneously. In a very conservative estimation, let's suppose that local universes are initiated in thousand-year intervals. That is, local universe A begins in year zero, universe B begins in year 1000, and C in 2000, etc. Adopting this scheme, I arrive at the figure 1.8 quintillion, that is, 1.8x1018, for the minimum age of the grand universe. Again we arrive at a quantity which is, humanly speaking, meaningless. Like visible light, there is a band of quantities which are "visible" or meaningful for people.
It always strikes me as humorous that we estimate universe time in terms of the revolution of a somewhat small planet around a star on the outskirts of the Milky Way.
With true respect for today's theoretical cosmologists, I would like to point out that the currently going estimate for the age of the universe is fifteen to twenty billion years. To acquire insight into contemporary astrophysics and cosmology, A Brief History of Time is an overview both interesting and engaging. Millions of hardbacks of this book kept it on the best seller list for over two years, and it is now a best seller in the paperback. I mention this because I think that these millions of copies of the book sold indicates that there is a tremendous amount of interest in cosmology and in the origin and destiny of the universe. Such a situation signifies the advent of a "scientific springtime" in which large sectors of humanity are questing after reliable facts about the universe, such as those which are discoverable in The Urantia Book. Only the basis of such facts can adequately enable man to begin the reflective meditation on cosmic meanings.
The origination of meanings in and of the cosmos must be derived from God's revelation of himself in the creation of the universe. Meanings are appreciations of the thoughts of the Deities which always precede cosmic actualization. Comprehending the preactualized thought of God is the equivalent of approaching him. The revered British cosmologist, the late Sir James Jeans, once commented that the universe is coming to look more like a great thought than a great thing. And thoughts only become meaningful when they are revealed, in evolutionary evolution, to be purposeful. Goals or purposes are the preferred unifying factors among religionists. The purposes of the future can reveal the highest and truest meaning of the present.
Final meanings and ultimate purposes--the will of God--are known in their entirety probably only by the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. But the step-by-step purposes of time disclose the deepening meanings of the progress of the present toward the future, revealed in finite increments which mortals can comprehend and take. Some of these time purposes are: teamwork, scientific discovery, loving God and one's fellows, service, and the effort to transcend the finite and to transform one's personality.
The prior and eternal purpose of the Father is initially a thought and the progressive comprehension of the Father's thoughts reveals that the master universe is a concept within his mind. A Mighty Messenger writes, "There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every creature of all his vast domains, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life." (*365:3, italics mine)
In such a universe, the evolution of meanings and of language is progressively becoming relevant to higher and higher verbal significance and valuable concepts and vocabulary, such as the revelators provide, e.g., Divinington, morontia, absonity, etc.
But even at the highest level of the scrutiny of cosmic meanings and eternal purposes, the Masters of Philosophy on Paradise hold numerous and diverse opinions. The quest for meanings must be as endless as the eternal purpose of God.
Each step is like a foothold on the perpendicular face of el capitans on the climb to perfection and each foothold is an idea or ideal which reveals each progressive meaning of the ascent.
When thoughts change, meanings change, and "behold, all things have become new"; they have each acquired a new and higher significance. When masses of meanings change, completely new contexts appear in the continuum of meaning evolution.
Revelation is indispensable to universal evolution, because certain concepts and meanings do not appear spontaneously within the human psyche. Just as babies are not expected to evolve into teenagers without almost continuous care and supervision, so is thoughtful and uninformed evolving mankind not expected to progress independent of the ministry of revelation.
For me, one of the most towering autorevelations of humankind was Lao Tse's intuition of the existence of the triad of Deities--the First, Second, and Third Sources and Centers.
Progress can occur independent of a standstill in the discovery of new facts because intuitive perception can discern new meanings in facts already well known by mankind.
God could have created us with great inherent knowledge, but it appears he is interested in providing us, his children, with the exhilaration of discovery and the sweetness of achievement. And this very process vastly increases our love for God and our zeal to perform his will.
Jesus was essential in the transforming of many realities: footwashing, Passover, forcefully imposed death as a revelation of unconditional love. And thereby he introduced eternal meanings into temporal human life and showed that we could also enact that ministry.
It is stated in the book that scientific facts are not in themselves meaningful because, just as the physical sensory sensations of man register and are experienced in the mind, so, "even the discoveries of science are not truly real in the consciousness of human experience until their relevant facts actually become meaningful through encircuitment in the thought streams of mind."
Possibly, the phenomenon of fusion will most radically change for us the meanings which we now have regarding God and reality and our relationship with and within them. We will no longer be faith sons of the Father, we shall be ascending sons of God.
Four of the most significant changes are listed in one brief paragraph. (*1237:3) Fusion with this fragment [of God] means that we immediately become the beneficiaries of these incomparable treasures: (1) "fixation of divinity quality." After fusion we are the Adjuster, a Solitary Messenger states, and Adjusters are of the purest divinity. No longer will we fluctuate between our mortal and immortal components, for we will no longer be "mort-als"--beings subject to physical [mort] death. We become and shall forever remain divine in quality; (2) "past-eternal experience and memory"--think of that! The Adjuster is eternal and has had an existence prior to the personalization of the 21 Ancients of Days and indeed was individuated from the I AM "before" the personification of the Universal Father--Thought Adjusters are prepersonal; (3) immortality--another aspect of our Godlikeness; and (4) a phase of qualified potential absoluteness. What is the meaning of such a statement? This absoluteness is potential now. Since all absoluteness is eternal, that potential will ever be actualizing in our endless future universe careers. This absoluteness is all we will ever need throughout the ages of Supremacy and Ultimacy and on to the infinite absoluteness of the Cosmos Infinite itself. This means that through fusion we have become one with the absolute foundations of the universe; with the Absolute willful Cause of the universe.
The deep well of the meaning of ourselves and of reality will never run dry because we shall have penetrated the bottom of the well of our finite potential and discovered the ever-fresh subterranean streams of life and love--of the subliminal God.
Jesus' most profound revelation of his divinity was the resurrection of Lazarus. And our planet is awaiting its own resurrection and spiritual springtime. Jesus will command, "Urantia, come forth." Our distraught planet will awaken again to spiritual realities and stir with new life. Jesus will call out, "Loose her and let her go." We will shed the graveclothes of divisiveness and conflict and sit up, never to be religiously comatose again.
The eyes of all orders of beings in Orvonton are trained on Urantia, attentively anticipating Urantia's spiritual resurrection. Our sky is crowded with student visitors, seraphim, recorders, superangels, observers, and archangels. What a celestial jubilation will accompany the universal broadcast message that some of the highest spiritual principles and truths are demonstrated to be valid even on erratic Urantia! The scattered and scrambled alphabet of Urantia's ideas will one day spell out again the highest meanings of the universe. And we are called to participate in this great transformation.
"Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. The spiritual renaissance [may have to] await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus' religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world." (*2082:9) Let us not conceive of ourselves as functioning apart from the mainstreams of progress in our day because the Master's cause will one day "rule this very world," and we are already actualizing that supreme goal!
Jesus overthrew Lucifer as a mere human being relying only on his inner Thought Adjuster. Such a spiritual endowment has been provided for every mortal on Urantia. Even more amazing, virtually all Urantians have experienced Adjusters. What potentials for planetary transformation may be ours?!
The achievement of brotherhood on Urantia will be an adventure characterized by unbelievable transformations and astounding personal, individual liberations. The meanings of life in the cosmos and progress based on partnership with God will reach ever-heightening levels of Godlikeness and increasing perfection. Social and economic terms shall be applied to higher levels of human civilization as their meanings are altered and exalted. The meanings of such words as "God," "sonship," "brotherhood," "personality," and "progress" shall increasingly refer to higher spiritual ideals.
Personal isolation gives way to universal brotherhood as higher meanings are perceived. "At last all creatures become conscious of the fact that God and all the divine hosts of a well-nigh limitless universe are on their side in the supernal struggle to attain eternity of life and divinity of status. Such faith-liberated sons have certainly enlisted in the struggles of time on the side of the supreme forces and divine personalities of eternity; even the stars in their courses are now doing battle for them; at last they gaze upon the universe from within, from God's viewpoint, and all is transformed from the uncertainties of material isolation to the sureties of eternal spiritual progression." (1117:3)
One meaning of universal creation is, it can lead to insight into the Father's eternal purposes, one of which is, in my opinion, the maximization of the experientialization of love, for God is LOVE.
A service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship