© 1989 Hannu Jarvinen
© 1989 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
I got the idea for this talk from a book by Voitto Viro. I have been deeply affected by the book wherein he states that it is a great misfortune that things which are not self-evident are regarded as such. The fact that we are here is not self-evident. The fact that we do exist, that man exists, is a great miracle. I know that I am not conscious enough to deeply grasp the significance of that.
Life is not self-evident. It is an inconceivable miracle. It is an immense creation of higher mind. Even in these matters, we must become childlike; we must start believing in miracles again.
An example for me of taking things for granted in this way came from a television show I watched in which a man was asked his opinion about God. His answer was, “I’m a thinking man, I need to see God first.” This was said by a man who, himself, is living evidence of infinitely wise planning. His comment, unfortunately, well reflects the spirit of the time.
Life is not self-evident. It is an inconceivable miracle. It is an immense creation of higher mind. Even in these matters, we must become childlike; we must start believing in miracles again.
The revelation of The URANTIA Book teaches that “…the universe is neither mechanical nor magical; it is a creation of mind and a mechanism of law,” (UB 42:11.1) “The wise philosopher will always look for the creative design which is behind, and pre-existent to, all universe phenomena. The creator thought invariably precedes creative action.” (UB 2:7.5)
Albert Einstein understood this amazing fact that “the most inconceivable thing in the universe is that it can be conceived.” With this statement, Einstein beautifully verified the words of the revelation: “The ability to discern and discover mind in universe mechanisms depends entirely on the ability, scope, and capacity of the investigating mind engaged in such a task of observation.” (UB 42:11.3)
The following story is told about another real scientist, Newton. Newton once had made a small working model of our solar system. In this model, balls representing the planets were driven by gears and belts so that they circled the sun in proportions similar (in scale) to our solar system. A friend of Newton’s, another scientist, who didn’t believe in God, was fascinated with the model and asked Newton who made it. Newton replied that no one had; it just came together by chance in that form. The scientist then responded that Newton must think him mad to believe such a thing; of course someone must have made the model. Newton then told his friend that, “this model is only an insignificant replica of a much more magnificent system, whose laws you know. Yet, while you are sure that someone must have designed and built the replica, you claim to believe that the great original, the solar system, has been born without a designer or a maker. Tell me, what brought you to such a disproportionate conclusion?”
“The true child of universe insight looks for the living Spirit of Truth in every wise saying.” (UB 180:5.4)
Are we like Newton’s scientist friend? Professor Emeritus K.V. Laurikainen makes Newton’s point in another way: “One who can’t see God’s hand in the regular forms of snowflakes, or in the appropriate structure of living organisms, has been too long staring at the details of human knowledge and techniques to be able to discem the greater facts they express.”
The solar system is also a creation of the mind. I’m going to examine some creations of the mind briefly. I will use sources other than The URANTIA Book, encouraged to do so by the statement therein that “The true child of universe insight looks for the living Spirit of Truth in every wise saying.” (UB 180:5.4)
We don’t see the Spirit, we only see some of its consequences in the forms we do see. In the same way we don’t actually see God, but we can observe his fingerprints everywhere. The book says that “…‘the invisible things of God are partially understood by the things which are made.’ Today and as you are, you must discern the invisible Maker through his manifold and diverse creation…” (UB 1:5.3) Let’s observe nature, then, in this way: perfection is in nature, but yet, nature is not perfect. Things we take for granted which express this include the genius of the human blood circulation system. And, consider the circulation of water and oxygen in our natural and life-giving system.
Ilkka Koivisto, Zoology Professor, says that the human central nervous system is the most unique system which has been born during evolution so far. It is a biological machine which can apparently observe itself, knows it is working, and at least to some extent, understands itself. In a lecture, Philosopher Seppo Pietila talked about brains, the creations of the mind, and pointed out that: there are 12-14 x 109 brain cells; there are about 7 x 1011 RNA molecules in each cell. Thus, the total capacity of the brain is 10 trillion memory locations according to present knowledge. To make that clearer, it could be said that all the knowledge that has been uncovered on earth during the past 10,000 years could find space in the brain of a single human being, which brain was created by mind. “He has decreed the time and manner of the manifestation of all forms of energy-matter.” (UB 3:2.4) The central nervous system is an inconceivable computer; I understand that you can’t buy a computer today which “no one” has designed or made!
How about a single cell? There are about 100 quadrillion or 100 million billion cells in a human being. A cell is the smallest single particle holding all the characteristics of life (metabolism, growth ability, etc.). The number of genes in a cell is astronomical. The length of one human being’s gene strip is 40 times the distance to the sun and back again.
Professor Wilder-Smith says that a cell is much more complicated than any human invention. A fertilized ovum, which was our beginning, includes a huge coded program to build every detail in a human being. If we wrote down the genetic prescriptions of one fertilized ovum using the typewriter, we would have 500,000 pages of text full of information and chemical instructions. That would be 250 URANTIA Books full of detailed programming about the cell whose size is some tenths of a millimeter. Could that have happened by chance?
Our revelation teaches us a still more amazing thing about the cell: “The original life plasm of an evolutionary world must contain the full potential for all future developmental variations and for all subsequent evolutionary changes and modifications.” (UB 36:2.17) The midwayers assembled over 50,000 facts of physics and chemistry which they claim show unfailingly that creation has an intelligent purpose. (UB 58:2.3) I think that a cell is one of these examples.
Our time here only allows us to scratch the surface in this matter and it is not even possible to touch on those creations of mind that man has brought about with the help of his free will. I will, however, use one sad example from our own nature. One of its most poignant representatives is the Sea Eagle. The bird is nearly extinct and is classified as a flying garbage problem as a result of man’s activities; what kind of a garbage problem, then, is man?
The midwayers assembled over 50,000 facts of physics and chemistry which they claim show unfailingly that creation has an intelligent purpose. (665.6) I think that a cell is one of these examples.
It is really time for changes and we who read The URANTIA Book should be able to see the things Albert Schweitzer was talking about when he said that he trusted in the power of truth and spirit, and believed in the future of mankind. He observed that an ethical and appreciative view of the world hides in life itself as an emerging value of optimism and hope. Thus he was not afraid of today’s sad reality. From faith we can get the power of the truth and of spirit and from the revelation we can read comforting words about the eventual perfection for which this entire universe has been made by mind: “And the whole scheme of living existences on the worlds of space is centered in the divine purpose of elevating all will creatures to the high destiny of the experience of sharing the Father’s Paradise perfection.” (UB 2:2.5)
Hannu Jarvinen
Sasi, Finland