© 2001 Ken Glasziou
© 2001 The Brotherhood of Man Library
In recent years, a strong interest has been developing in the theological offspring of a little known branch of philosophy known as process philosophy. This development owes much to Charles Hartshorne, a former student, and later associate, of Alfred North Whitehead, the real founder of modern process philosophy. Whitehead, incidentally, also earned fame as a mathematician and logician, being the author, with Bertrand Russell, of an enormous classical work, Principia Mathematica.
In some most basic proposals on what constitutes “reality,” interesting and parallel lines of thought are emerging between what is described in the Urantia Papers and academic studies now gathering strength under the banner of process theology.
Some of these have received mention in earlier issues of Innerface. In this particular article, we explore parallels relative to the transformation of possibilities and potentials,static at the infinite level of reality, to that of becoming recognizably real to our mortal minds.
However, it is well to admit that any pretensions we mortals might make to an actual understanding of the infinite are simply self-deception. For any such understanding we are entirely and irrevocably dependent upon revelation.
Let it also be clear that both process theology and the Urantia Papers utterly reject hard core scientific materialism. Both postulate an experiential God, active in the finite world.
Materialist philosophies are substance philosophies that postulate a universe built upon a foundation of static and permanent building blocks—such as the atoms of the elements that constitute ordinary matter.
In contrast, modern process philosophy assumes everything is in a state of dynamic becoming. Even the particles that exist at subatomic levels are transient, they are made up of “occasions of experience” or “actual entities,” that, having completed their moment of becoming, grasp or “prehend” other particles so as to influence, in turn, their moment of being.
For Whitehead, the combined influences of his “actual entities” bring about societies or groups that make up the living and non-living objects of finite reality.
Seen as a quite outlandish return to the dark ages when first proposed by Whitehead in the late 1920’s, this concept has become less and less outlandish as the findings of modern physics have unearthed deeper and deeper levels of existence below that of the atom.
For example, current evidence indicates that the protons and neutrons that make up the atomic nucleus are themselves made up of even smaller particles—the quarks and gluons, but these still only account for about 50% of the angular momentum of a nucleon. The remaining momentum is assumed to be distributed over “virtual” particles that borrow energy from the vacuum to support their moment of existence. Evidence for the actual existence of these virtual particles is overwhelmingly strong.
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thinking to get at once all the gold that the goose could give, he killed it, and opened it only to find . . . nothing.
Aesop
Hence, the more scientists have delved into the “substance” of matter, the more sense Whitehead’s proposals have made.
These concepts put forward by Whitehead run parallel with many statements made in the Urantia Papers. The Papers tell us that things, whether of matter, mind, spirit, events, or ideas that are destined to become part of our finite reality, actually commence their existence as “existential possibilities and potentials” that have their being in the Unqualified Absolute. At the behest of the Paradise Trinity these potentials become causally activated. Subsequently they are “transmutated” through the agencies of the Deity Ultimate on their way to becoming finite potentials in the keeping of the Supreme.
Once with the Supreme, all these potentials are available to be called into actuality by the Supreme Creators for their purposes of universe building—or beings such as ourselves during the tasks of our normal living.
Detail of this process, as described in the Urantia Papers, is presented in abbreviated diagrammatic form on The Transmutation of Existential Potentialities and Actualities to the Finite Level of Reality.
When studied in fine detail, it becomes apparent that the concepts described and illustrated must have originated from an extremely unusual intelligence. To me, the Urantia Papers appear to be so far in advance in concept and quality of anything else written on this topic that it is virtually impossible to believe that they could have originated from a human mind.
A problem that has long occupied the speculations of theologians is about how God can be both immanent (present everywhere) in the finite world and yet be transcendent—beyond time and space.
Whitehead’s solution was to make God dipolar but this is different from the dipolarity he ascribes to his minuscule “actual entities” that have both a mental and a physical aspect.
These have, within themselves, a physical pole that can “prehend” or grasp others and be influenced by them, and also a mental pole through which they can grasp ideals and values.
The dipolarity of God differs in that one pole, representing the primordial or independent nature of God, is transcendent while the other, God’s consequent or dependent nature, is immersed fully in the finite world. Through this consequent nature, God participates in the experiential world but his actions are always persuasive and never coercive.
The concept of God as presented in the Urantia Papers has similarities to Whitehead’s God but is vastly more detailed and explanatory.
The infinite I AM, the First Source and Center as described in the Urantia Papers, has aspects and phases that can be considered as belonging directly to this “I Am,” but other components that appear to be separate and individual. For example the Qualified, Unqualified, and Universal Absolutes are referred to as phases of the “I Am,” while the Universal Father is that aspect of the “I Am” that is comprehensible to finite mortals such as ourselves. However the Supreme Being, who is virtually completely immersed in finite reality as the experiential God of the Master Universe, approximates to Whitehead’s consequent and dependent nature of his dipolar God.
Similarly with the particulars of transmutation of existential possibilities, potentials, and actuals to becoming “real” components of the finite universes, process philosophy offers no detail other than that “occasions of experience” or “actual entities” originate from God’s vision of all the possibilities there are for the world. Whitehead’s concept is interpreted as meaning that in his primordial nature, God envisages all these possibilities and potentials, then from this store of “eternal objects” he offers aims to each actual entity at the beginning of their period of growth.
Faith is the daring of the soul to go further than it can see.
A friend will joyfully sing with you when you are on the mountain top, and silently walk beside ou through the valley.
In contrast, the Urantia Papers present a detailed account of the pathway by which existential but static potentials resident with the Unqualified Absolute are causally activated so as to be transformed and become potential realities in the finite worlds. However, though a detailed account of the pathway is provided, information about the physical transformation from existential to experiential is not provided. (The Transmutation of Existential Potentialities and Actualities to the Finite Level of Reality).
With respect to the apparent creativity of the minds of mortal beings, the reality appears to be that it is, in fact, in the way we select among the possibilities and potentials already resident in the Supreme. This is the decision-making deemed to be so important for our spiritual progress. (UB 39:4.8)
Of interest is that among those who research the subject of consciousness and self- consciousness, there are, at one extreme, those who deny the existence of either and, at the other extreme, those who are trying to marry the bizarre findings of quantum physics with their work in neurophysiology.
From these “quantum neurophysologists” has come the suggestion that the “I” that is the central reality of each individual actually operates as a “control variable.” It does so by selecting among the myriad of superposed potential possibilities that are presented to the “I” as a result of the combined sensory inputs and recalled experiences that originate from the perceived world. This was discussed briefly in an article on consciousness in Innerface Vol. 7, No.1.
Put in plain language, the suggestion is that in response to a series of events for which we need to make a decision, from its library of prior experiences that are approximate matches to the present situation, our brains offer us the possible courses of action among which we can make our selection.
This concept of what “I” does has similarities to what the Urantia Papers tell us, the difference being that for the Papers, our “brain” is really a mechanical relay station that is connected to the Supreme via the Adjutant Mind Spirits and the Universe Mother Spirit. The Supreme is the holder of the “library” of combinations of potentials among which we must make our decisions in accordance with the leading of our Thought Adjusters and Spirit of Truth (if we are listening) and the desires of our own will.
Now that the field of process theology has become “popular” with an academically-minded group of people, it may happen that opportunities will present themselves to Urantia Book readers to draw their attention to parallels in the Papers. Our task is to sow seeds so that others may reap.
Former trustee and long-time Urantia Book stalwart, Dr. Jim Mills (now dec’d), held a strong opinion that process philosophy would be the avenue by which the Urantia Papers would find their way into the academic world and thence back to the churches. To the present time, Jim’s hope has not born tangible fruit. Perhaps it was premature, but perhaps new windows of opportunity are now opening.
Further information may be found at the Center for Process Studies. Their Internet address is: www.ctr4process.org/
The courage to speak must be matched by the wisdom to listen.
Spiritual progress is predicated upon the desire to know God and to be like him.