© 2004 Jean-Claude Romeuf
© 2004 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
In 1767, Georges Louis Leclerc undertook to date the age of the earth and the planets. With the help of laboratory experiments on the cooling of incandescent balloons and with the help of mathematics, this man of genius, but full of buffoonery (without o), concluded at an age of ten million years. Some conclude more quickly, it is a matter of feelings and means.
However, in 1778, in his “Epoches of Nature”, he only admitted 75,000 years, which is a lot compared to the biblical 6,000 years. Why this lie, carefully considered and intended by such a man?: quite simply because the mind of his time was not ready to accept and understand such large numbers!
Nowadays, we are used to juggling millions, especially at the Caisse d’Epargne. At the Paris Observatory, a cesium 133 fountain clock is accurate to the second for 31 million years. Ten million light years is for us only five times the distance that separates us from the Andromeda galaxy, the closest in Outer Space! If you want to talk about numbers, let’s take the bus and go to Paradise!
The second zone of the central area of Upper Paradise is, according to The Urantia Book, dedicated to the ascending beings of the seven superuniverses. According to Bill Sadler’s calculations, it could accommodate 10010^2817^ active groups in just one of the larger residential units and could hold a hundred times as many.
It is difficult for my mind to evaluate the size of this number. So, to try to understand, I had fun making comparisons.
Anticipating my destiny, I allowed myself to transcend time as certain inhabitants of the Master Universe can do, notably the Havonians. We have just made this journey into the future together and we now find ourselves in Paradise. Let’s see if we were right to take with us: dogs, cats, horses, white mice, parrots and mothers-in-law (mine is adorable, but yet some sons-in-law do not consider theirs as a human being!)
The human body contains approximately one million billion cells, or 106 x 109 = 1015. Only 10% of them build flesh and bone. The remaining 90% of cells are bacteria or saprophytic fungi or others. Let’s not be selfish, let’s take them with us to Heaven too; we’re going to laugh because it’s going to be annoying! As for the viruses that aren’t even cells and that never stop bothering our lives, they just have to stay on earth and continue to take care of computers!
Let us round the population of Urantia and all habitable planets to 10 billion inhabitants. There are therefore at this moment on each planet 1015 x 1010 = 1025 cells in the body of all human beings with one, two or three brains.
Let us assume that life is about 100 years and that sexual reproduction lasts 10 billion years. Over all planetary eras, the total of all cells is therefore: 1025 x 1010: 102 = 1033. But, over the course of each individual’s life, some cells die while others reproduce until the healing cycle diminishes and ends in death. A thousand mitoses for each cell seems a more than acceptable number. Therefore, over the course of sexual life on a planet, the quantity of human cells produced does not exceed 1036.
Let us lay down the criterion that when all the worlds of the seven superuniverses are settled in light, all seven superuniverses will be settled also.
At this time we will have had:
As we have seen, this calculation only takes into account human ascenders; we must not forget triune, dual or unique personalities either. Assuming that their totality does not pass through spiritual death, we would still not be squeezed into the residences of the second zone of the central area of High Paradise! The angels would have space to unfold their wings and have speed contests by jostling a few bigots leaning over the celestial holy water fonts.
The moral of this story is perhaps that we should not take the numbers proposed by The Urantia Book at face value. Despite the immensity of 102817 compared to the result of calculations on human cells, 102817 remains a limited number that does not even approach infinity. Can we say that it is coabsolute? We will know in a few billion years when we all find ourselves together, for good this time, with the donkeys of Noah’s Ark, in Paradise.
Times change, the vision of space changes too. In 1922 the Soviet Friedmann stated solutions to the equations of relativity describing an expanding Universe. Lemaître, then Hubble a little later, arrived at the same conclusions: yes, the universe is expanding and has been for less than two billion years, they say. From there, to believe that the day D when this expansion began corresponds to the day of the appearance of space, there is only one step too easy to take. Yes, but here we are in 1929, at that time the Earth is 6 billion years old (in 2004, it has curiously rejuvenated, it is only 4.5 billion years old) and the age of the Universe cannot be less than that of the age of the Earth. It is only in 1960 that the name Big Bang will be mentioned. What a false path! If only scientists would read The Urantia Book, they would know all about space breathing!
Yes, but there you go again! We readers would also have something to worry about if we had to dialogue with astronomers who are passionate about cosmology! It is time that we too learn to change our vision of Space, otherwise, like Buffon’s fellow citizens, we will be condemned to the benevolent and slightly ironic smile of future generations. We will be confronted with inescapable and verifiable physical laws to which we can only respond with metaphysical arguments. We do not want that! It is time that we change our vision of the Universe! Let us no longer revolve around Paradise in a materialistic way!
We live in a Space where at least two levels of space coexist:
There would be many other things to say, but it would be, proudly speaking, nothing but buffoonery!
Jean-Claude Romeuf