Universe and its formation

We present in this issue the topic #61 from the Systematized Study of the Spiritist Doctrine, that is being presented weekly, according to the programme elaborated by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), structured in 6 modules and 147 topics.

If the reader uses this program for a study group, we suggest that questions proposed be discussed freely before the reading of the text that follows. If you would like to study alone, we ask you to try to answer the questions at first and only then read the text that follows. The answer key can be found at the end of the lesson. 

Questions

1. How did God create the Universe?

2. What are the two general elements of the Universe?

3. What is matter, according to the general conception of the name?

4. What are chemical elements and how many of them exist?

5. Is there in the Universe a unique primitive substance in which all the others derive from? 

Text

God created the Universe by an act of His will

1. All that exists and it is not man-made, God made it. That’s why we say divine creation when we report to this immense Universe that, according to Kardec, covers the infinity of worlds we see and the one we do not see, all the animated and inanimate beings, all the starts that move in space, as well as the fluids that filled them in. But, how did God create the Universe?

2. The answer to this question is still a mystery, as it is the existence of the Creator itself, and will not be the human intelligence, in the state we are by now, that will solve such mystery. We have to accept, so, about this, what Kardec received from the Spirits of High Degree and it is in question 38 from The Spirits’ Book: “How did God create the universe?” A.: “To borrow a well-known expression, by His will. Nothing can give a better idea of the action of that all-powerful will than those grand words of Genesis, "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.”

3. We know, however, through the revelation of such Spirits, that God created basically two different principles, opposed by its general qualities, they are the two general elements of the Universe: the material element, primary and totally inert, and the spiritual element, intelligent, susceptible of elaboration and development, aiming the accomplishment of conscientious individualities, provided with reason and will.

4. With this second element, God created the Spirits, who are intelligent beings, conscientious and free from the Universe. With the first –the material element – God formed the worlds that roll in space, subject to the laws of the Celestial Mechanics, as well as all the beings that make up the nature of these worlds. About this element we are going to talk here, at the same time that, according to the Spiritist Doctrine, we will try to penetrate, at least try, the origin and formation of the worlds. Let us call it as matter and try to explain it.

It is infinite the extension of the physical Universe

5. In a summarized definition, we can say that matter is all that exists in the physical Universe, it means, where occur the phenomena that affect our senses, whether they are unarmed or armed with powerful optical instruments – telescopes, spectroscopes, microscopes – that provided us with observations beyond the natural reach of our organs, taking us to gigantic worlds, stars and galaxies that fill the space, and to the inner self of beings and things of our world and others close to Earth.

6. As the extension of the physical universe is infinite, to study the matter, in order to understand and explain it, the man necessarily has to reduce his observations to limited portions of the matter that is within his reach, verifying the possibility to generalize the results from the observations made to all the matter of the Universe.

7. Even if the bodies have general properties which identify them as material, at the simplest and quickest observation, it is seen that they differ extraordinarily ones from the others, showing varieties of infinite forms. They differ in first place by its physical state, as they can be solid, liquid or gaseous, or still in intermediate states, such as pasty or steam. If we focus now only on solid bodies, we will see that they differ by the exterior shape, and through these shape that we name them: a cylinder, a sphere, a cube, a pyramid, a plate, a thread, a ring, a bookshelf etc.

8. Besides form, solid bodies can also be distinguished by its dimensions, existing still a third point that allows us to distinguish even deeper the bodies’ ones from the others: the substance of the body. There are glass bodies, wood, irons, copper and so on. There are bodies which their individual substance is constituted of equal parts, making up what we could call as pure body, but not all bodies are like that, the majority in Nature are made up of different ones, and can be separated through special procedures, which means that, in fact, they are mixtures of two or more substances, mixtures that can be more or less heterogeneous or apparently homogeneous, according to the dimensions of the particles in which they are divided. 

There is in the Universe a unique primitive substance

9. Pure bodies are few and far between in Nature, for example the samples of quartz or rock crystal, made up of silicate, substance that in these samples is found in its pristine state. The obtaining of pure bodies is work of the chemical industry. Once the pure bodies were obtained, chemical analysis has shown that not all of them are constituted of material principles that can be separated, and the great majority revealed to be reduced into other substances, and the latter could still be reduced. They are called composed substances.

10. There is, though, a small number of simple substances, that are, irreducible, from them it is impossible to extract other substances, only themselves, showing they are one of their kind, that’s why they were called chemical elements. Chemistry, up to now, could establish the existence of a certain number of elements, which make up, by themselves or isolated, or combined, all the substances of the bodies. The natural chemical elements, classified since the hydrogen up to the uranium, are in total 92. When they aggregate atoms of just one element, we have simple substances; when we combine atoms of two or more elements, we have composed substances – to sum it up, this is what Chemistry could establish. 

11. Where, though, chemists could not penetrate with their powerful instruments of analysis, the Spirits of High Degree do so revealing, beyond the dense state that we know in our world, the matter covering more subtle states, purely fluidic ones. These fluids fill up all space and are originated, from a unique primitive substance – the universal fluid or cosmic matter – which, in fact, is the source where, because of modifications and variations, all come from in the Universe, even the dense matter.

12. We also need to consider, by the beauty and truth they show, the statement that the Spirit of Galileo made and that Kardec inserted on chap. VI in Genesis:  “At first sight, nothing would appear so profoundly varied, so essentially distinct, as the diverse substances which compose the world. (...) However, we can state as an absolute and fundamental truth, that all the substances known and unknown, however dissimilar they may appear, either in view of their constitution, or in regard to their reciprocal action, are only different forms through which matter presents itself; only varieties into which it is transformed under the direction of the innumerable forces which govern it. (...) It is of those questions that we ourselves, Spirits, lovers of Science, speak when we assert that the opinions we express are merely conjectural. (...)Upon those questions I will either keep silent, or prove my knowledge. To those who then would be tempted to see in my words only a dangerous theory, I will say: learn, if possible, by investigation, the multiplicity of the operations of Nature, and you will recognize that, if one admits not the unity of the matter, it is impossible to explain not only the science of the suns and spheres, but without going so far, the germination of a seed in the earth, or the production of an insect. (...) If one observes such a diversity in matter, it is because the forces which have presided at its transformations, the conditions in which they are produced being unlimited in number, the various combinations of the matter must be unlimited also. Then, the substance that one desires to comprehend belongs properly to fluids; that is to say, imponderable bodies, or it may be those dressed with the ordinary properties of the matter. There is in all the Universe only one primitive substance: the cosmic matter or cosmos of uranography”.

Answer key

1. How did God create the Universe? A.: “To borrow a well-known expression, by His will. Nothing can give a better idea of the action of that all-powerful will than those grand words of Genesis, "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.”

2. What are the two general elements of the Universe? A.: The material element, primary and totally inert, and the spiritual element, intelligent, susceptible of elaboration and development, aiming the accomplishment of conscientious individualities, provided with reason and will.

3. What is matter, according to the general conception of the name? A.: In a summarized definition, we can say that matter is all that exists in the physical Universe, it means, where occur the phenomena that affect our senses, whether they are unarmed or armed with powerful optical instruments.

4. What are chemical elements and how many of them exist? A.: There is, though, a small number of simple substances, that are, irreducible, from them it is impossible to extract other substances, only themselves, showing they are one of their kind, that’s why they were called chemical elements. Chemistry, up to now, could establish the existence of a certain number of elements, which make up, by themselves or isolated, or combined, all the substances of the bodies. The natural chemical elements, classified since the hydrogen up to the uranium, are in total 92.

5. Is there in the Universe a unique primitive substance in which all the others derive from? A.: Yes, the universal fluid or cosmic matter – which, in fact, is the source where, because of modifications and variations, all come from in the Universe, even the dense matter.

Bibliography:

The Spirits’ Book, by Allan Kardec, items 38, 39, 41, 44, 47 and 49.