© 1988 Rod McCourt
© 1988 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
Sometimes, as a form of reversion from the deeper spiritual aspects of The URANTIA Book, it may not be a bad idea to reflect on some of the scientific or cosmic aspects which we would term as astronomy.
Well, what’s all this got to do with the price of bread on Urantia, you might say.
Perhaps you could say the Sun has a lot to do with the price of bread on Urantia. But let’s get more to the point and go back in time to the formation of the Solar System. The URANTIA Book takes us on a journey through space, encompassing Superuniverses and massive outer space levels that extend far beyond our imagination.
So how about if we take a closer look at our own back yard first — The Solar System.
The URANTIA Book tells us it is called: MONMATIA. What an incredible, breathtaking, beautiful and mysterious planetary system we live in. Big question marks still follow many of our statements about the Solar System; until of course our space probes reveal more.
The following is my own perspective, after reading the relative sections in The URANTIA Book, and our present day knowledge revealed from space exploration, ( not necessarily up to date, or indeed altogether correct; if anyone can throw more light on the subject, I would be grateful for the information.)
Origin of Monmatia is UB 57:5.1.
Our Solar System of planets, moons, asteroids, meteors, space dust and all that stuff, was formed when the giant ANGONA system, the centre of which was a dark giant of space with tremendous gravity pull. Indeed, pull it did, drawing off enough Solar Mass to start the formation of a planetary system. Bulging in the centre and tapered at the ends, this enormous stream of gaseous matter transformed into the TWELVE PLANETS of the solar system.
Jupiter and Saturn were formed from the large bulging centre of the solar extrusion. From these two planets, the others are referred to as the FIVE INNER and FIVE OUTER planets. Bear in mind today we officially only recognize NINE planets from Earth.
Just hold on to your planets for a moment, there is more to come.
When the ANGONA system came closer to our solar mass, THREE of its outer planets were captured by our system. Using my vast knowledge of mathematics: 12 + 3 = 15. Fifteen planets that is.
So who has been playing planetary billiards with our solar system?
Reading on further in The URANTIA Book, we find that the fifth planet was captured by Jupiter when traversing an irregular orbit and was fragmentized.
FOURTEEN planets are now left.
NINE accounted for by astronomers on Earth to this day.
So now we enter the realms of almost complete hypothesis. Here goes:
One other planet was fragmentized by tidal friction by either Saturn or Jupiter.
One (or two) dark gravity spheres exist beyond the orbit of Pluto.
One or more of the giant moons orbiting ( either/or Saturn, Jupiter or Neptune) are captured planets. Mystery Solved? (maybe not)
To continue the saga I’ll point out some relevant knowledge from our own Earth sources and interspace with statements from The URANTIA Book. (marked U.B.)
Jupiter has 14 (?) moons orbiting this enormous gaseous planet which is more than eleven times the diameter of Earth.
“…they were in reality secondary suns for a short period after their formation as separate space bodies.” (Jupiter and Saturn) UB 57:5.10
“Many of these enormous spheres have satellites, sometimes a half dozen or more, and these moons are often in size very near that of Urantia, so that they are almost ideal for habitation.” UB 49:0.4
Saturn has ten satellites, the largest being TITAN which is larger than Mercury and has an atmosphere thought to consist mainly of Nitrogen. (earlier accounts stated methane) Vigorous volcanic action has been photographed on one of Jupiter’s moons called I-O.
Other large moons of Jupiter called Ganymede, Callisto and Europa seem to have ice deposits on them. They also seem to absorb large amounts of radiation emitted by Jupiter. The electron bursts are said to reach Earth and even as far as Mercury.
Uranus is tilted at about 90° to the ecliptic and has retrograde rotation. Its outer neighbour Neptune has a large moon Triton, which has retrograde motion.
“Retrograde motion in any astronomic system is always accidental and always appears as a result of the collisional impact of foreign space bodies. Such collisions may not always produce retrograde motion, but no retrograde ever appears except in a system containing masses which have diverse origins.” UB 57:5.14
The most important aspect is of course the life on the planets.
“Beings such as the Urantia races are classified as mid-breathers; you represent the average or typical breathing order of mortal existence. If intelligent creatures should exist on a planet with an atmosphere similar to that of your near neighbour, Venus, they would belong to the superbreather group, while those inhabiting a planet with an atmosphere as thin as that of your outer neighbour, Mars, would be denominated subbreathers.”
“If mortals should inhabit a planet devoid of air, like your moon, they would belong to the separate order of nonbreathers.” ( 11.2% of inhabited Satania worlds) UB 49:2.13-14
“You would be more than interested in the planetary conduct of this type of mortal because such a race of beings inhabits a sphere in close proximity to Urantia.” UB 49:3.6
I have tried to imagine what it would be like to be a nonbreather, by holding my breath for long periods, but eventually get very dizzy. How then do these beings cope with being dizzy all the time? If we encountered these mortals, would we accept them as they are, or try to convert them to breatherism?
SATANIA — “Its 619 inhabited worlds are located in over five hundred different physical systems. Only five have more than two inhabited worlds, and of these only one has four peopled planets, while there are forty-six having two inhabited worlds.” UB 32:2.10
“In your solar system only three planets are at present suited to harbor life.” UB 15:6.15
I wonder how close we came to.having mortal neighbours in our planetary system. But of course our space probes have proven conclusively there is not even a basic living cell in the rest of our solar system.
Personally, I feel uneasy about making such dogmatic statements; what do you think?
Rod McCourt, Cockatoo, Vic.