© 1998 Jean-Claude Romeuf
© 1998 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
One of the great intellectual tragedies of the human adventure is not knowing which came first, the chicken or the egg. This is the question we will try to answer. To do this, several paths of thought are possible and although they may seem in opposition, they are not contradictory.
The friend who will read this text will be a little more enlightened on the subject; but I warn him, however, that according to my unfortunate habit, I will try to influence his opinion.
In order not to lose the thread of the demonstration, we must always keep in mind the fact that the egg is the prereality of the hen although it is the hen that lays the egg.
Paragraph in which the chicken comes first
Pages 6 and 7 of the Urantia Book suggest that Reality is actualized from the three Absolutes. These latter are by definition issued from the combined thought of the trinitarian Deities (UB 0:11.1) and are the potential of Reality. They are in a way the absolute Pre-reality.
1º The Unqualified Absolute will bring into existence the undeified reality which one could also call non-personalizable reality. Never and nowhere in the master universe will personality and deity be the fruit of the Unqualified Absolute. The latter only concerns itself with what will become substance or form.
In its pure, undeified state, reality is found only in the Paradise energy. It has been stabilized since time immemorial in Havona. It is evolutionary in the seven superuniverses as well as in the outer realms of the Ultimate.
The non-deified reality is also represented in the chemical and organic substance forming beings of flesh whether or not they have received the gift of personality.
It is also the substance and form of animal or plant morontia creatures.
It is the means of recognition of the purest spirits.
It is in a way the ground on which all the beings of the immense creation rely, evolve, communicate and recognize each other. It is their place and their means of exchange.
2º The Qualified or Deity Absolute will bring into existence the deified reality. We could also call it personality reality, but the term would be insufficient because the areas of action of the Deity Absolute extend from the human personality to the paradisiacal deity.
In its pure state, deified reality is found in the three Paradise Deities. It embraces the evolutionary Deities, the superpersonalities of the Transcendental Beings, all the more or less perfect personalities, and the prepersonalities of the divine Adjusters.
It is the essence of beings subject to the spirit but is neither their substance nor their form.
3º The Universal Absolute coordinates the tension of the two other Absolutes. This tension is made inevitable by the desire of the Trinity to bring into existence creatures endowed with will, intelligence and capable of adoration and wisdom.
The universal reality, issued from the third Absolute, corresponds to the interassociation of the realities of the deified and the non-deified. It is then that a personality and an Adjuster (issued from the deified reality) can be conferred on a material body and mind (issued from the non-deified reality). The whole forms a unique being endowed with free will: Man. In the same way, the interassociated reality will also be effective in the medium, the seraph or the archangel.
Paragraph in which it is the hen that lays the egg
We can assume after all that universal reality is the fruit of the will and desire of an original entity, but does not derive directly from the Absolutes. It is true that all action is preceded by thought (here representing a creative pre-reality) but all thought requires a Thinker. All creative thought requires a Creator to be actualized.
The very first and primordial will would be the work of a Thinker and Original Father. It would have been submitted to the Word of the Son and activated by the Conjoint Actor. The Absolutes would then only play the role of a reservoir or machine and would only be vast gears launched once and for all according to a pre-established and immutable order of action, reaction and coordination. They would be the means by which any actualization would be possible, but would be automatic and devoid of intrinsic will.
As we have just seen, this paragraph shows that the deified reality (the volitional Deity) is prior to the appearance of its desire to create (the three Absolutes).
Paragraph in which the hen does not lay
Before the zero moment when universal reality appears, we can hypothetically define a period where a pre-creative entity is alone. This is how the notion of I Am is born.
The I Am then contains within itself all the potential of the reality of personalities (that is to say the Qualified Absolute) and all the potential of cosmic reality (that is to say the Unqualified Absolute).
This concept can satisfy those who do not recognize the existence of God: the reality of the universe would then be caused solely by the tension exerted between the first two Absolutes and would not necessarily be of divine origin.
We can modify the concept of I Am at will and also say that before the zero moment, God, future Father of people was alone in the middle of an immense cosmic chaos that he created and decided to organize harmoniously: the believer will undoubtedly prefer this solution. In this case, the Reality of the Original Father precedes the Absolutes.
The Great First Cause is loved and respected throughout the vast creation as the Universal Father; he is worshipped as Deity. The three Absolutes are not. They can be considered as the desire of the Gods in the outcome and well-being of things and people; they are not the object of worship but can be the object of purely mental research.
At the end of these intellectual wanderings, everyone can now have an idea about the first appearance of the egg or the chicken. As for me, my opinion has long been made up. Having always had a much more pronounced emotional preference for chickens than for eggs, I prefer to believe that it was the chicken that first made the egg and not the other way around.