Excepting perfect beings of Deity origin, all will creatures in the superuniverses are of evolutionary nature, beginning in lowly estate and climbing ever upward, in reality inward. Even highly spiritual personalities continue to ascend the scale of life by progressive translations from life to life and from sphere to sphere. (32:3.8)
Caterpillar to Butterfly Transformation
Observing a caterpillar would not give a hint of its destiny of becoming a butterfly. Even careful observation or scientific examination would not reveal that the homely, crawling, and plant damaging caterpillar would become a beautiful, graceful, flying creature doing good by pollinating plants. The caterpillar somehow transitions to a distinctly different type of creature.
Evolution as Transformation
Evolution is a technique that deity employs to produce progressive change. It is planned. Evolution is a tool to ensure progress. Change is occurring constantly on all material levels. Characteristics which enhance survival tend to persist and become the norm. Evolution works by testing change against experience.
Spiritual Transformation in Each Person
We participate in spiritual transformation by our individual choices for goodness, beauty and truth.
The spiritual dimension in which we are destined to live lures us to participate by giving us joy resulting from being loved, from loving others, and from doing good for others. As a result of our positive, loving choices, attitudes of individual people and of humanity evolve. When attractive and fulfilling choices are made by many individuals, over time they become the norm for society. Eventually all things spiritual and scientific are destined to evolve, unite, and cooperate in the new order of love and service.
The Urantia Book reveals that evolution is no accident. An important part of God’s plan is to use time, space, and evolution to transform humanity into beings of spirit energy who behave like deity. It is hard to imagine a wider gap to be bridged. Such a shift requires millions of evolutionary changes over billions of years.
Awareness of Eternal Destiny
While science has not identified the rules of evolution in the spiritual realm, we humans have a knowingness that we have the potential to become much more than we are. This is a conviction we cannot escape. We may sometimes doubt its validity, but eventually the idea springs up again. This knowingness can even affirm that our spiritual self already exists and is advancing toward a goal of moral and ethical goodness.
The Evolution of Civilization
The evolution of humanity, of society, and of each person all contribute to the transformation of civilization. People make individual choices to change their motives from an animal ambition to have and control things for themselves to a spiritual aspiration to love and share with everyone.
Path to Spiritual Transformation
Love and service on a large scale has not been seriously tried on our planet in modern times. When individuals choose to love and freely serve others consistently through hard and easy times, experience will prove these choices to be vastly superior and transformative. Already this is observable in the satisfactions of service to others and in the sense of purpose that service gives to its practitioners.
Evolving into a culture of loving and serving is likely to require a long span of time and patience. Evolutionary transformation depends on choices by individuals.
The Urantia Book explains the function of evolution and the reasons deity has for using evolution to produce progress. It reassures us regarding the inevitability of progress toward a time of truth, goodness and peace.
