© 2024 Claude Flibotte
© 2024 Urantia Association of Quebec
Claude Flibotte
Sainte-Julie
A good friend and French cousin from overseas, Dominique Ronfet, a fervent reader of the Urantia Book, recently sent me an email in which he shared with me one of his readings concerning time in the biography of Francis Wolf. Here is an extract from the book in question concerning time, Einstein and his interlocutor:
One day, Einstein told me [Rudolf Carnap] that the problem of Now seriously preoccupied him.
He explained that the experience of the Now had a special meaning for man, something essentially different from the past and the future, but that this important difference does not and cannot occur in physics.
That this experience could not be grasped by science seemed to him to be a painful but inevitable reason for resignation.
I pointed out to him that everything that happens objectively can be described by science; and on the other hand, that the characteristics of human experience in relation to time, including different attitudes towards the past, present and future, can be described and (in principle) explained by psychology.
But Einstein believed that scientific descriptions cannot satisfy our human needs: and that there is something essential about the Now which precisely escapes the domain of science.
Rudolf Carnap, “Intellectual Autobiography”, in Paul Arthur Shilpp (ed.), The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, La Salle, Illinois, Open Court, 1963, p. 36-37.
¶ Time, this intangible reality, but always present for sub-infinite creatures!
In order to deal with this subject, it would be good to consider it as God first conceives it, and then experience it as creatures feel it according to their own level of existence.
¶ The existential reality of divine eternity
At the level of God’s absolute existence, time as well as space do not exist, there is only the present moment which contains all eternity and the space in Paradise is non-spatial since its surfaces are absolute, and the movement is therefore volitional (UB 11:2.11). Paradise being absolute, this is the reason for finding the personalities of the paradisiacal deities there and nowhere else. On the other hand, this level of existence reached existentially in deity by the Paradise Trinity is not experientially, since this level is not unified, it became necessary for God to create the subabsolute levels (UB 0:1.13).
It goes without saying, for us, simple mortals equipped with a material mental circuit, that conceiving of this level of existence without time or space is currently completely beyond our reach. We only have faith in this truth revealed by the revelators to try to imagine it! On the other hand, we know, still thanks to this revelation, that we will one day have a glimpse of it in the distant future when we arrive in Paradise as a resident. Before this moment, we will be there as a visitor, still constrained by time and space, but after the last sleep of time, we will be able to touch eternity a little as the Father conceives it (UB 27:1.3).
Now that we have considered this divine level of existence without time or space, let us continue our descent into the subabsolute levels to approach what appears to be the first of its levels.
¶ How many levels of space are there in reality?
We are accustomed to speak of the finite level, the absonite level, and the absolute level, but are these only three levels of existence realities to creatures? If we take the central universe of Havona, we are told that there are seven basic forms of living things and beings. These basic life groups may be classified as follows: material, morontia, spiritual, absonite, ultimate, coabsolute, and absolute (UB 14:4.1-8). On the other hand, in UB 106:0.2, we are told that the emerging master universe is constituted by numerous forms and phases of reality, which, in turn, are existent on several levels of functional activity. We have the incomplete finite level, which is our evolutionary level of existence from its primitive beginning up to, but not including, the era of light and life (UB 106:0.3). We have also the finite maxima level, which is the present status of all experiential creatures who have attained their destiny—destiny as revealed within the limits of the present universe age. As an example, certain phases of existence in Havona appear to have attained this level (UB 106:0.4). Then comes the transcendental level, this superfinite level following (anticipating) the finite progression. It involves the prefinite genesis of finite beginnings and the postfinite significance of all apparently finite terminations or destinies. Much of Paradise-Havona appears to be of the transcendental order (UB 106:0.5). The ultimate level. This level embraces that which is of significance on the master universe level and encroaches upon the destiny level of the finished master universe. Paradise-Havona (and particularly the circuit of the Father’s worlds) is in many respects of ultimate significance (UB 106:0.6). The coabsolute level. This level involves the projection of experientials onto a field of creative expression beyond the master universe (UB 106:0.7). The next level is that of the Absolute. This level involves the eternal presence of the seven existential Absolutes. It may also have some degree of associated experiential realizations, but, the revelators here admit their ignorance as to how the experiential can be associated with the existential, unless this is achievable through the personality’s contact potential (UB 106:0.8). You will recall that the personality has a potential of seven dimensions of self-expression or person-realization (UB 112:1.9). And, finally, the level of infinity. This level is pre-existential and post-experiential. The unqualified unity of infinity is a hypothetical reality prior to all beginnings and posterior to all destinies (UB 106:0.9).
It must be said that these levels of reality presented in this description correspond to the compromises made at our level of existence and for the present age of the universe (UB 106:0.10).
¶ The special case of the Havona universe!
Just as Urantia’s atmosphere and magnetic field support life in all its forms on the surface of the planet, thus forming a protective buffer between fragile life and the “hostile” environment of cosmic and solar rays of space, Havona also acts as a buffer between absolute Paradise and finite creations. The absolute and the subabsolute cannot exist side by side without this time-delaying and protective mechanism. Material man cannot be in the presence of God who is pure spirit for the same reason unless he undergoes a long evolutionary transformation until he himself becomes spirit. This state of affairs explains why this universe is the perfect model for all future creations containing an example of all forms of living creatures as described above. It also explains the function of transcendental-type beings working at this level while remembering that Havona, although an existential universe, is not a transcendental, it is Havona (UB 105:7.2)!
¶ The absonite level of transcendence of time and space
So, in order not to complicate our lives unnecessarily in our view of the levels of existence, let us say that there are three as mentioned above! The revelators tell us that the four levels of outer space will be of the absonite type. What exactly does this level of reality which transcends time and space mean? What exactly is transcended in this description of the word absonite? As we have seen in the description of the transcendental functional level, what is transcended at this level is the entire evolutionary process of experiencing the finite to start from the imperfect in order to reach the maximum perfection of the finite. This being true as much for the creatures as for the new deity in formation. It is through the unification of personality-power that the creatures and the Supreme Being experientially realize the supreme unification of their identity in and through the personality.
By this actualization of the Supreme Being at the end of the second age of the universe, all possible material, morontia and spiritual experiences will have been accomplished, bringing together all the facts, meanings and maximum values. It is from this level of perfection reached that the new beings of these four levels of space called absonites will begin. It is not that time and space will not exist for them and for us who will be finaliters working on these spheres. Although these beings to come will have their existence already endowed with this form of perfection, they will have to push this perfection further towards what can be called ultimate and possibly co-absolute, while seeking to assimilate, through our future ministry, the understanding of the perfection of the Supreme.
As proof that time and space already exist on these four levels of outer space, we can already identify the grouping of at least seventy thousand aggregates of matter, each larger than any superuniverse of present time (UB 31:10.19). These aggregates are continually evolving to eventually form planets where life can flourish.
¶ Our usual level, that of the finished level
What characterizes our level of existence is the total imperfection of the beginning towards the learning of perfection. From the primitive evolutionary animal man, this one must reach the status of finaliter, status granting him the perfection of intention (UB 26:4.12) or if you prefer the perfection of design and the divinity of desire in the living faith by approaching the receiving world of Havona (UB 26:4.13). There, the pilgrims of time will have to develop the perfection of intelligence and the technique of understanding which are so indispensable to the paradisiacal perfection of the personality (UB 26:4.14). Once reached Paradise with the status of residence, these same pilgrims will have reached the limit of the current divine perfection, but not the finality of service (UB 31:3.6). To arrive at this result of perfection, we will benefit from all the possible help of the celestial beings of Paradise-Havona of all categories, descending, for some, to encourage us to rise ever higher. In our destiny we will be called to do the same for our brothers and sisters of the four outer space levels by being worthy representatives of the God of the finite, the Supreme Being.
¶ How to describe the infinite cosmos?
This level of space will not only be post-supreme, but also post-ultimate. That is, it will include the experiential perfection of the finite level as well as the experiential perfection of the four outer space levels of the absonite.
This high level of perfection achieved could be designated by the search for co-absolute perfection since it will invariably tend towards the perfection of the absolute level of divinity. Qualitatively, we will be able to reach this perfection, but as the absolute reservoirs of the Absolute of Deity, the Unqualified Absolute and the Universal Absolute are precisely absolute, they can never be totally exhausted experientially as a quantity. And this is the whole interest and wisdom of our Universal Father, because he has planned for all eternity for his children a perpetual adventure of endless discoveries and infinite creativity!
¶ Conclusion
Although I have long thought that there was more than one level of time by the qualifications given to the different levels of space, I realize today that there are in reality two conditions of existence. The timeless and spaceless existence of the existential level of the seven absolutes of infinity and the existence of creatures, whether they are of the finite level constrained by time and space, or of the absonite level existing at the beginning with the already attained perfection of the finite. What characterizes the experience of these two levels is the degree of divine experiential perfection that will be attained in the material realm, the mental realm and the spiritual realm. On each of the levels of existence, we will discover the Father as the supreme, ultimate personality and through an eternal search as absolute and infinite!