© 2002 Jean Royer
© 2002 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| Does Man Need God to Live? Is It Weakness to Believe in God? | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 23 — Autumn 2002 | Dalamatia, the City of the Hundreds of Caligastia, Dilmun, the City of the Nodites |
We have all read chapter 2 on pages 266 and 267, but what did we remember? Generally, on first reading, not much. However, this chapter is full of interesting information provided we can correlate them. Let’s look at it a little more closely.
The first paragraph tells us:
Notwithstanding that the cosmic mind of the Universal Intelligence is cognizant of the presence and whereabouts of all thinking creatures, there is operative in the universe of universes an independent method of keeping count of all will creatures. (UB 24:2.1)
This means that the Infinite Mind has knowledge of all thinking creatures, from those contacted by the intuitive mind of a Creative Mind to intelligent beings who are entirely subject in their action to automatic reactions, such as certain physical controllers or the Directors of the Census themselves. Volitional creatures are also thinking beings, but of a special category, and this category can in turn be subdivided. For example, man is one of the finite thinking beings and subject to error, sin, and even iniquity, while a son of destiny trinitized by creatures, although in the finite, really belongs to a future age of the universe and cannot commit error in his own domain but commits error in all others and, so far as we know, commits no sin.
Their number is unknown to us. (UB 24:2.2) Curiously, the Divine advisor who writes this will then give us figures: there are seven on the circuits of Havona and one hundred thousand in the seventh superuniverse. We should not deduce that all the universes are currently in place in Orvonton, because it is simply said that these are those which are assignable (and not assigned) to the local universes. The Director of the Census of Nebadon bears the number 81412, but we are not told his name, at least not here, we have to look it up in UB 37:8.4, Salsatia, while the name of the Director of the Census of Orvonton is given to us: Usatia. We could deduce that satia in the Orvonton language means Director of the Census and U represents Uversa while Sal represents Salvington. This is a hypothesis.
And why are we given Salsatia’s number? The only figure that comes close to that is the number of circuit supervisors on Uversa, that is to say 84,691. Are we being made to understand, as William Sadler Junior suggests, that we could thus have a range of estimates of the state of progress of the evolution of our superuniverse? These figures seeming to relate to series of 100,000, our superuniverse would have reached between 81% and 84% of its development? This is a hypothesis. They are created with the faculty of maintaining perfect synchronism with the technique of reflectivity of the superuniverses and at the same time they are personally sensitive and receptive to intelligent will. (UB 24:2.2)
If they are in synchronism with reflectivity, it is because they belong to a time after Majeston, the head of reflectivity, and probably they are dependent on him. The question arises as to whether their sensitivity to intelligent will is a phenomenon linked to reflectivity or totally independent. And if we say intelligent will, does that mean that there could be a non-intelligent will? I believe not, and that here intelligent will is a specific expression (we only find it twice in the book and it is in this chapter) and that the author wanted to distinguish this will from animal will as the brief remark of UB 24:2.8 seems to show. The partial emergence of the will observed in the reactions of certain higher animals does not fall within the domain of the Directors of the Census.
It would be interesting to analyze this emergence of will in relation to personality functioning in man prior to the arrival of the Adjuster, but that is another matter.
Let us end this brief overview of this chapter with a question: Why then do the official archivists of Uversa record in their annals the situation of the superuniverse as it appears from the records on and in the personality of Usatia if these census data are specific to the superuniverse; these reports are transmitted neither to Havona nor to Paradise? (UB 24:2.6) Is it a question of evaluating the specific evolution of the superuniverse or of making comparisons with the other superuniverses? Who can consult these archives?
Jean Royer
| Does Man Need God to Live? Is It Weakness to Believe in God? | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 23 — Autumn 2002 | Dalamatia, the City of the Hundreds of Caligastia, Dilmun, the City of the Nodites |