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The Urantia Papers on Finite Reality.
First some definitions to aid our comprehension:
Truth: In the Urantia Papers, truth is treated differently from what is merely correct knowledge. Truth is the domain of the spiritually endowed intellect that is conscious of knowing God. Truth has spiritual value. Truth is an experience of the growing soul.
Knowledge: In contrast with truth, knowledge is demonstrable--such as with the facts of science.
Personality: This, too, has a special meaning in the Urantia Papers. Basically, it is a gift to the individual, directly from the Universal Father, and "is that cosmic endowment, that phase of universal reality, which can coexist with unlimited change and at the same time retain its identity in the very presence of all such changes, and forever afterward."
Soul: Our souls are a storehouse of those experiences that have "spiritual value." Spiritual values have the inherent characteristics of divine truth, beauty, and goodness.
Animal or human? When the physical machinery of animal mind evolves to the point of becoming accessible to the adjutant mind spirits of worship and wisdom, the individual may experience "superconsciousness"--a form of self-consciousness that includes consciousness of consciousness. Such an "animal" then becomes a "human being."
With those brief comments, let's continue:
Finite Reality--its Source
The Papers inform us that "the source of universe reality is the Infinite." The primary realities of infinity are:
Paradise Patterns
The Universal Mind of the Eternal God
Hence all that "is" in the finite universes of time consists in "the time-space repercussions of Paradise Pattern and God's Universal Mind."
Secondary in origin, finite reality has its very "being" in the finite aspect of Deity we know as God, the Supreme.
The reality of the Supreme is existent as:
Causation in the physical world
Self-consciousness in the intellectual world
Progressing selfhood in the spirit world
At the primary level, all that becomes occasions of finite reality in the universes of time has origin in "potentialities" that are resident in the Absolutes of Infinity. These potentials are both infinite and changeless.
The finite reality of the universes is a process of never ending change. Thus, when the changeless potentials of the Absolutes become the "actuals" of the finite worlds, they become a process of transient change brought about through the participation of the Supreme. The Supreme is the direct source of all finite "actuals."
The limits of human comprehension of finite reality are reached in this concept that finite reality is a process of change--the time-space actualization of potentials having origin in the Absolutes of Infinity, becoming transients in the Supreme, and taking form in consciousness as the "actuals" of finite reality.
Humanity is "special"
A characteristic of being "human" is our ability to transcend finite limitations indigenous to the animal world. The ability for such transcendence is because of endowments derived directly from the Universal Father--our individual personalities, and the Father's indwelling spirit fragments.
In addition, we have indirect endowments originating from the Universe Mother Spirit that reach us via the Adjutant Mind Spirits of Wisdom and Worship. Together, these qualities set humanity apart from the animal kingdom.
How far can we go as mortal human beings?
The maximum progression attainable by human creatures culminates with:
Our recognition of the Universal Father
Our knowing of the Supreme
Our achievement of the perfection, harmony, and unanimity of our wills such that the desire to do the Father's will is supreme in our souls and dominant over our minds.
Having attained that desirable state, we qualify to become "as one" with the Father-Spirit within, and thus move on from our mortal limitations towards the potentials of a transcendent spirit existence. From that time onwards our concepts of "reality," finite or transcendent, may be expected to undergo advances that are beyond our current capacity to comprehend. (see pp.1434/5)
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