This posting is more technical than most of my posts, it raises interesting ideas and gives us food for thought.
Einstein talked about the fabric of space; there is more to space than emptiness. He used this concept to explain gravity; large planets distort the fabric of space creating what we call gravity. This applies to the universe we are familiar with. However, our revelation, The Urantia Book, states there is no space on Paradise; what does this mean? The explanation is somewhat lengthy so let’s get started.
Material Reality
We all live and breathe in material reality; this is all we have ever known. We have great difficulty imagining anything beyond what we see and know. In this matter let us trust this revelation and see where it takes us.
The reality we are familiar with is based on space and time. To get from here to timeless and spaceless Paradise will take a very long time; we here take baby steps to reach a partial understanding.
We live in material reality and know something about it. In our awareness there are three dimensions to reality; that defines our space, material reality. In this context, the number of dimensions in a given region equals the number of mutually perpendicular lines that can be drawn through any point. A floor is two dimensional and a room is three dimensional.
Spiritually, we recognize God as our Heavenly Father, creator of all things and beings. We also somewhat comprehend the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. Our highest comprehension of God, the trinity, is three dimensional. Perhaps there is a relationship between our understanding of God and the reality we perceive.
Morontia Reality
In Paper 130, “On the Way to Rome,” Jesus says: Ultimately, surviving mortals achieve identity in a seven-dimensional universe.[1]
I interpret this to mean three dimensions for material reality, one for mind, and three for spiritual reality. Since we are grounded in material reality, we cannot fully understand any reality beyond it until we get there and actually experience it.
When we meet our Creator Son, Michael, we have experienced the first level of God the sevenfold. Before we leave Salvington we will begin to understand God the sevenfold: Creator Sons, Ancients of Days, Master Spirit, Supreme Being, Infinite Spirit, Eternal Son, Heavenly Father. Again, both perceived reality and comprehension of God have the same number of apparent dimensions.
Havona
Occasionally while studying our revelation I become aware of a truth so strongly, I am positive it is in the book but I can never find it. I call these “virtual” quotes. One of these is that when pilgrims of the evolutionary worlds prepare to enter the perfect and eternal central universe Havona, they struggle to comprehend God the 49 fold. This suggests Havona is in 49 dimensional space and that God is approachable there in 49 dimensions. This is certainly way beyond our current ability.
Paradise – no Space no Time
This brings us to Paradise at the center of all things. God, who is infinite, cannot have a dwelling place that is less than infinite. True, it is limited physically, but spiritually it must have an infinite number of dimensions. Twice it is called the center of infinity. Highlands on Paradise are not physical but spiritual highlands.
In the seven evolving superuniverses, space is configured to seven dimensions; in the perfect central universe it is configured to 49 dimensions. It is reasonable that space could not be configured into an infinite number of dimensions; therefore, either God would have no home, or space could not exist on Paradise.
Actually, Paradise is involved in the respiration of space, but that is a topic for another time.
This brings us to time. They state that space and time are related, but few details are given. Space is measured by time, but the reverse is not true. No concise definition of time is given. If space does not exist then time does not exist.[2]
For our purposes the best we can do is to select various events and examine how time functions therein. First is easy, movement. The more space we must travel through, the more time it takes. Walking across the room would be instantaneous relative to a journey to Mars.
Another aspect is chemical reactions. They do not involve a change in space, but time is certainly a factor in any such reaction. An example of this is rust appearing on iron exposed to the elements.
A final aspect we examine is a succession of events. Imagine a library with many people reading books. One is a proof reader who takes a long time studying each page. Another is a student taking notes. One is reading a novel for relaxation and the final reader is a speed reader. Each does the same action, turn a page, but at a different rate.
An event in the life of Jesus illustrates the final two aspects: the wedding at Cana. Many more guests attended than were expected and they ran out of wine; Mary was concerned. Angels working with Jesus knew something was going to happen so they gathered ingredients to make wine; this was a succession of events. When Mary confronted Jesus, he had pity and thought if it were according to God’s will…. And there was wine. This production of wine was an instantaneous reaction because the Personalized Adjuster (who said God was OK with it) is a non-time being and Jesus has creator powers.
Adjusters experience a succession of events. They start as virgin adjusters and gain experience as they indwell various beings. They are non-time beings but experience a sequence of events. It will take a considerable length of time before we can truly comprehend this dichotomy.
On Paradise movement is volitional; we move from place to place by an act of will, there is no walking. Yoda would say “on Paradise you are here or there—is no travel.” Except for the substance of Paradise, called Absolutum, everything else is pure spirit. This reality is radically different from what we are accustomed to on Urantia.
Even though there is no space on Paradise, there is plenty of room. There is room for every evolutionary mortal who has attained residence on Paradise and this takes up considerably less than one percent of the available room. There will be room for everyone who attains Paradise from the seven superuniverses and the outer space levels throughout our eternal future.
Tags: Paradise, space, time
[1] 1439.5; The Urantia Book, one column edition in the format page:paragraph. All references are to The Urantia Book.
[2] 120.3 describes this.