avatarChad Gates
# Summary

The article advocates for viewing the universe as a friendly and personal space, supported by the prevalence of life and the existence of love.

# Abstract

The article "What’s the Best Way to Consider the Universe; Friendly or Hostile?" posits that the way we perceive the universe, either as friendly or hostile, significantly influences our life perspective. It argues that despite evidence that could sway one's view in either direction, the choice to see the universe as friendly is more beneficial. This stance is supported by the idea that the vastness of the cosmos, revealed by telescopes like Hubble and Webb, suggests the certainty of other intelligent life forms. Furthermore, the article suggests that love, an attribute exclusive to personal, free-will beings, indicates a universe created by a personal, loving entity, reinforcing the argument for a friendly cosmos.

# Opinions

- The article suggests that a friendly universe view is a conscious and important decision for individuals to make, as it can color their entire view of life.
- It implies that evidence from astronomy, particularly the discovery of countless galaxies in what was once considered 'dark' sky, supports the idea of a universe teeming with life and activity, making the existence of other intelligent beings a certainty.
- The author asserts that love is a unique phenomenon between persons, which would not exist in a purely material universe, and thus its presence is evidence of a divinity that is personal and friendly.
- The piece cites The Urantia Book to reinforce the idea of a well-administered and nurtured universe, implying that each planet is cared for as if it were the only one.
- It is mentioned that the most powerful force in the cosmos is the experience of being loved, which could only be created by a personal and loving deity.
- The article concludes by encouraging readers to embrace the philosophy that the universe is not only friendly but also benevolent to the individual.

What’s the Best Way to Consider the Universe; Friendly or Hostile?

One of the more important questions in life

Photo by Gabby Orcutt on Unsplash

Defend against enemies or cooperate with friends?

This single choice colors your entire view of life. Even Einstein found it fundamental enough to declare it’s “the most important decision we can make”.

There is plenty of evidence to sway your mind back and forth. The news is full of it. History is full of it. Your own life experience is probably full of it, mine certainly is, good and bad.

Before we dither too long hunting for a clue, let’s just cut to the chase: you should choose for the good.

You should come down on the side of a friendly, personal universe.

Why?

I’ll give you two reasons.

There’s no such thing as a dark patch of sky

Photo by Denis Degioanni on Unsplash

When you gaze into the heavens at night, most points of light aren’t merely stars, they’re entire galaxies. The chances of other life out there like us — intelligent, self-conscious, adventure-seeking — are so enormous as to be a certainty.

Thanks to the Hubble space telescope, and it’s Deep Field imaging, we discovered that illustrated each “dark” centimeter of the night sky was actually teeming with celestial activity. The Webb telescope will only confirm this and more.

“Your planet is a member of an enormous cosmos; you belong to a well-nigh infinite family of worlds, but your sphere is just as precisely administered and just as lovingly fostered as if it were the only inhabited world in all existence.”-The Urantia Book, 15:14.9 (183.1)

Love is proof of divinity

Photo by Kevin Gent on Unsplash

In a cold, mechanical, purely material universe, love has no function. It has no meaning.

Quarks interact but they do not love. Molecules split and change and recombine but they do not love. Trees, planes, battleships, supernovas, and nebulae might move and interconnect, even transmogrify and mechanistically reproduce, but they do not love.

Love is a phenomenon that exists only between persons; free will, discriminating, personalities.

The love between you and another has no weight and casts no shadow, yet it’s the most real thing in existence.

The reason we continually reach out to each other — in darkest desperation or in hope and joy — is to feel for the first time (or once again) the unparalleled, irreplaceable sensation of being loved.

Only a personal, friendly creator would bother to make such a fulfilling experience the most powerful force in the cosmos. Only a personal creator would even be capable of sharing such attributes.

The great proof that the author of all we see is super-material, super-mindal, and transcendently spiritual shows itself in love.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” — The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery

We may mar existence itself through misguided, desperate, even purposefully terrible decisions, but its foundation and operation remains benevolent.

Settle in your life philosophy this fundamental idea: the universe is not just friendly, but more importantly, friendly to you.

Illumination
Spirituality
Philosophy
Love
Urantia
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