Paper 49 Overview: The Inhabited Worlds

All planets where humans live began through evolution. These worlds are where mortal races start their journey toward Paradise. Each world serves as a training school for the next level of existence, just like earth is a training school for the first stage of our journey.

All inhabited worlds are organized into local systems, with each system limited to about one thousand evolutionary worlds. The Satania system currently has 619 inhabited worlds, with earth being number 606. Not all planets can support life, as some are too small or too large.

All worlds inhabited by mortals are evolutionary in origin. These worlds are where mortal races begin their journey toward Paradise. Each stage of our existence is a training school for the next stage, starting with our first mortal experience on a planet and continuing to higher levels.

Inhabited worlds are grouped into local systems, with each system limited to about one thousand evolutionary worlds. This limit only applies to actual evolutionary planets where mortals live. Satania has 619 inhabited worlds, with earth (Urantia) numbered as 606, meaning it was the 606th world in this system where humans appeared.

The development of life across the universes happens gradually, not by accident or magic. Even when we don't understand why things happen, cosmic evolution follows definite patterns. Life everywhere develops according to clear rules.

The basic unit of material life is the protoplasmic cell, which combines chemical, electrical, and other energies. The Life Carriers start the reactions that create life on each world. Although every planet in a system shows physical similarities to others, each has its own unique plant and animal life because of decisions made by the Life Carriers.

Life Carriers often need to adjust the basic patterns of life to match the different physical conditions on various worlds. There are seven main physical types of mortal creatures, plus thousands of variations of these types. The Satania system contains all these types, though some are rare.

The physical differences between worlds are mostly determined by their atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere is almost perfect for breathing humans, but human types can be modified to live on planets with different atmospheres. In Satania, about 2.5% of worlds have subbreathers, 5% have superbreathers, and over 91% have mid-breathers like earth.

Most inhabited planets have beings who breathe, but some worlds have intelligent beings who don't need air. In the Orvonton superuniverse, less than 7% of inhabited worlds have nonbreathers. In the Nebadon universe, it's less than 3%, and in Satania there are only nine such worlds.

There are very few nonbreather worlds in Satania because this section of space still has many meteors. Planets without protective atmospheres get hit by these space rocks frequently. Nonbreathers live very differently from breathing beings in almost every way, from how they eat to how they reproduce, but they have similar minds and character.

Despite their differences, all mortals with will dignity stand upright on two legs. There are six basic evolutionary races: three primary (red, yellow, and blue) and three secondary (orange, green, and indigo). Most inhabited worlds have all these races, though some have only the primary types.

Young are usually born one at a time, and family life is similar across planets. On advanced worlds, males and females have equal rights and status. All sunlit planets have seasons and agriculture. Human life spans range from 25 years on primitive worlds to nearly 500 years on advanced ones. All humans form groups, and their social problems vary based on the planet's age and development.

Mortal creatures can be studied from many viewpoints. There are seven main ways to classify them: how they adjust to their environment, their brain type, how they receive spirit, their planetary epochs, their creature kinship, their Adjuster-fusion series, and how they escape their terrestrial life.

These classifications help us understand the many types of mortals. Earth is an experimental world, which makes it different from normal worlds. Humans on earth have two-brained minds, which makes them more imaginative than one-brained types but less spiritual than three-brained beings. However, all three types have equal standing in their journey to Paradise.

All the different physical types of mortals receive the ministry of Thought Adjusters and guardian angels. They are all freed from their physical bodies through natural death and move on to the morontia worlds of spiritual evolution.

There are different ways mortals can be resurrected or move on to the next stage of existence. Some are awakened in special resurrections, but most are repersonalized at the beginning of a new dispensation. The most advanced mortals can fuse with their Adjusters during mortal life and are transported directly to the higher morontia spheres.