Is the universe a material system?

The physical material universe is of no great importance in the scheme of things. It is not necessary to life, but only to the maintenance of a certain kind of life.

This universe could be blotted out of existence today and nothing would be lost. Not an atom of the invisible elements of which the physical material universe is composed would be in any way harmed or destroyed, and all could be reassembled, reformed, recreated—or made new. 

Such a vast change has come to pass many times in the history of the physical material universe.

If the physical material world, of which we know, were to be destroyed today and to be reformed and made new, perhaps the world that would replace it—or be made out of it would be a much superior world to the one of which we know.

Nothing would be required in this reformation except a little time—a few thousand centuries, which compared to all eternity is not so long as one second of our time compared to the length of any one of our physical lives.

Fragments of Spiritual Knowledge Pertaining to the Spiritual World