The Urantia Book

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Big Love! (Atheist mystic)
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This is an invitation to @Norm and anyone else who's interested to discuss the Urantia Book.

I know next to nothing about this revelation (I hope this was the appropriate term, happy to be corrected).

To start things off, where does the name "Urantia" come from?
 
Hi Powessy again.
Here's a picture from my living room.
On the far right a stars and sun shower curtain that we use as a room divider. A throwback to hippie days, though I never was a bona-fide hippie. To the left is a 16 inch Japanese Buddha, quite heavy, that we got at an auction in rural Minnesota for $2. Dirty mirror behind that, and everything needs to be dusted. lol. Further left above the TV is the three concentric circles I was telling you about. It's 3 x 5 feet. I call it the Flag of God. I have one of those in the bedroom as well. And one in the garage. To the left of that in the small picture frame is a stereogram that calms me, and just above that but close you might be able to make out the ears of a Furby, if you remember those. To the left of that, probably hard to see is a porcelain statue of a Japanese Madonna and child, also about 16 inches tall. Off screen on the left is a Smiling Fat Buddha. On other walls I have a beautiful 8x10 framed glossy print of a blue Lord Krishna playing the flute of course, and with a peacock in the picture, next to an 8x10 framed picture of Bugs (Bunny), the Tasmanian Devil, and Yosemite Sam on motorcycles. Fun stuff. I love Bugs Bunny.


Hello Norm

I am from south west Minnesota. I am only 52 years old, born in February 1970. I graduated high school and joined the military from 88 - 91. After the military I decided to further my education from fall of 91 until the fall of 96. I am the father of four children all out of high school and I have been married for 26 years.

I was never religious nor was religion even a thought until 8 years ago.

Wikipedia shows this image for sacred geometry
0BFB2832-887C-4CEA-8F92-FC2A71C53000.png
If you zoom into the image you can see the three rings as in your image.

I see several things when I look at the urantia flag geometry. The first thing I see is the trinity, I can explain this finally I hope without losing anyone. How is it that the father, son and holly spirit are all the same?

This happened because first off the son became something born to some world. The next problem is minds teach us inside yourself. Let me try to show this as numbers once, we should be 5,4,3,2,1, but minds teach us inside yourself so now the numbers look like this 4,5,3,2,1. 3 can not become 5 without becoming 4 first this creates a knot. So what happens is 321 = the son, 5 = the father and 4 = the holly spirit. He was really just one mind one person but torn into three.

The other thing I see is two minds inside themselves this is interesting also as urantia means earth. The veil is two minds inside themselves Gaia and cealzabus. Two world soul objects embedded inside each other to create a matrix.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and time.

powessy
 

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This is an invitation to @Norm and anyone else who's interested to discuss the Urantia Book.

I know next to nothing about this revelation (I hope this was the appropriate term, happy to be corrected).

To start things off, where does the name "Urantia" come from?
Hey, Everyone (!)

Yes, it's an epochal, divine revelation (the fifth one to our planet's humanity, of five in total, so far)...

The book itself does not say what Urantia means, but it says this in its very very very first paragraph (in its own 'Foreword' Paper):
0:0.1 (1.1) IN THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia—that being the name of your world—there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity. Human beings are still more confused and uncertain about the relationships of the divine personalities designated by these numerous appellations. Because of this conceptual poverty associated with so much ideational confusion, I have been directed to formulate this introductory statement in explanation of the meanings which should be attached to certain word symbols as they may be hereinafter used in those papers which the Orvonton corps of truth revealers have been authorized to translate into the English language of Urantia.
However:

The meaning of the word Urantia is etymologically, this: 'Etymology of Coined Terminology' (URANTIA-related site).

As to more info on what URANTIA is about, see URANTIA's Paper 92 (the book text in English is already in the public domain since the previous decade):
92:4.4 (1007.4) There have been many events of religious revelation but only five of epochal significance. These were as follows:

92:4.5 (1007.5) 1. The Dalamatian teachings. The true concept of the First Source and Center was first promulgated on Urantia by the one hundred corporeal members of Prince Caligastia’s staff. This expanding revelation of Deity went on for more than three hundred thousand years until it was suddenly terminated by the planetary secession and the disruption of the teaching regime. Except for the work of Van, the influence of the Dalamatian revelation was practically lost to the whole world. Even the Nodites had forgotten this truth by the time of Adam’s arrival. Of all who received the teachings of the one hundred, the red men held them longest, but the idea of the Great Spirit was but a hazy concept in Amerindian religion when contact with Christianity greatly clarified and strengthened it.

92:4.6 (1007.6) 2. The Edenic teachings. Adam and Eve again portrayed the concept of the Father of all to the evolutionary peoples. The disruption of the first Eden halted the course of the Adamic revelation before it had ever fully started. But the aborted teachings of Adam were carried on by the Sethite priests, and some of these truths have never been entirely lost to the world. The entire trend of Levantine religious evolution was modified by the teachings of the Sethites. But by 2500 b.c. mankind had largely lost sight of the revelation sponsored in the days of Eden.

92:4.7 (1007.7) 3. Melchizedek of Salem. This emergency Son of Nebadon inaugurated the third revelation of truth on Urantia. The cardinal precepts of his teachings were trust and faith. He taught trust in the omnipotent beneficence of God and proclaimed that faith was the act by which men earned God’s favor. His teachings gradually commingled with the beliefs and practices of various evolutionary religions and finally developed into those theologic systems present on Urantia at the opening of the first millennium after Christ.

92:4.8 (1008.1) 4. Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Michael presented for the fourth time to Urantia the concept of God as the Universal Father, and this teaching has generally persisted ever since. The essence of his teaching was love and service, the loving worship which a creature son voluntarily gives in recognition of, and response to, the loving ministry of God his Father; the freewill service which such creature sons bestow upon their brethren in the joyous realization that in this service they are likewise serving God the Father.

92:4.9 (1008.2) 5. The Urantia Papers. The papers, of which this is one, constitute the most recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia. These papers differ from all previous revelations, for they are not the work of a single universe personality but a composite presentation by many beings. But no revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically adapted to local conditions in time and space. While such admissions as this may possibly detract from the immediate force and authority of all revelations, the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of Urantia.
:cool:
 
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So, for more info on the very origin and history of the book, there's a much better book than Mullins', free and online, by Ernest Moyer (The birth of a divine revelation: the origin of The Urantia Papers; 2000), and he had it on his website but he died a few years ago and his site with him.

It's now here (and elsewhere):

https://ubannotated.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/MoyerBirthRev.pdf (600 pages long)
 
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@Norm
@LuisMarco

Can anyone link an unadulterated pdf copy of the book (without interspersed commentary) that people can read?
 
Thanks!

How do an adherents of the Urantia Book call themselves?

How, if at all, do you organize? Are there gatherings, feasts, or study circles? Is there an organization? A group of Elders or the like?
 
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I had a quick look. It doesn't float my boat. Can't imagine myself ploughing through all that stuff ...

This is the comment that made me decide to look into it. Dense, lengthy material filled with jargon that few people can sit through? My kind of treat.

The part that sold it for me was "But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue." It was then that I knew I would enjoy the read. I'll sift through it some more if I have the time.
 
This is the comment that made me decide to look into it. Dense, lengthy material filled with jargon that few people can sit through? My kind of treat.

The part that sold it for me was "But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue." It was then that I knew I would enjoy the read. I'll sift through it some more if I have the time.
Have at it, young lady. I've found a few claims in it that are easily refutable today, but might not have been to the western English-speaking world at the time the papers were composed. There are points that I do agree with, and some I disagree with. Not enough to draw me in to thoroughly study it.
 
I have to talk about Paper 90, I'm sorry.

"Shamanism" wasn't a religion. "Shamanism" is a general category of various religious practices. So much of this paper is misleading on this point.

Describing shamans as "self-deceived" and "unwittingly stumbling" onto hypnotic practices also feels a bit off to me. Shamans essentially invented and perfected hypnotic practices long before we had a word for hypnosis. They beat us to the mark on that one. As for self-deceived, I'm not sure that this is quite adequate.

Much of shamanism does use the language of spirits and possession, definitely, but it frequently comes from a sort of mental monism. To many shamans, the spirit world, often associated with the world of dreams, is described in the same terms we use for the "real" world. The figures they meet there are treated as separate beings from themselves. This isn't so much a deception as it is a facet of culture and language and it's one that we still often use when describing our dreams to each other.

Also, the use of psychoactive substances is a lot less common in shamanism than people make it out to be, and even rarer are shamans that practice full-on hallucinatory tripping. Usually, mild doses of psychedelics are used in order to promote a more self-reflective state of mind, which modern psychonauts refer to as "microdosing."

Shamanistic religions don't generally have a concept of "witch" or "sorceror." Some of them do and it's hard to tell when they developed those concepts but, for the most part, shamans generally both heal their tribe and curse their enemies. If you're treating baneful magic, it's usually seen as placed on a people by a rival shaman or something. There are a few exceptions to this rule, especially in South African tribes, but for the most part witchcraft isn't really a concept that they have because "witchcraft" usually implies that someone is working only with evil powers rather than only with good ones. Shamans worked with all sorts of powers and, if they even label these natural forces good and evil, usually still work with both.

Witchcraft wasn't a religion until the 20th, maybe 19th, century, and it's only fairly recently that it's become diverse.

Saying that shamans use "devious ways" to establish "their reputations as voices of God" isn't really accurate, either. Shamans aren't generally any more or less dishonest than priests are and usually their divination is animistic or polytheistic, not monotheistic. You could say they bullied over their congregation to fork over offerings but this is a criticism that you could still apply to most religious clergy and it would still be just as inaccurate and disingenuous.

I wouldn't use the term "sin" in the way this paper does and I would instead use a term like "spiritual pollution" but that's a minor nitpick.

Much of the methods of diagnosing and treating diseases in the last part of the paper is a haphazard mix of a bunch of completely separate cultures. It's really not a very accurate view of any shamanic tradition.

It isn't quite a proper explanation of sweat lodges, either, and tom-toms are not universal among shamanic cultures.

I don't think Greek medicine was too much more "rational" than Egyptian medicine and Egyptian medicine is some of the oldest medicine we have manuscripts on. People just didn't know as much as we know now, like the chapter already mentioned earlier (to its great credit.)

Swearing doesn't come from ritual names, as far as I know. In English, it mostly comes from French aristocrats not wanting to associate with the German working class, from what I recall.
 
Thanks!

How do an adherents of the Urantia Book call themselves?

How, if at all, do you organize? Are there gatherings, feasts, or study circles? Is there an organization? A group of Elders or the like?

After reading through the book, I think the term "adherents of the Urantia Book" might not be an adequate phrase. Much of the book emphasizes what it refers to as "the religion of personal experience" and spirituality as a personal relationship and communion with God. There's quite a bit of antagonism towards the idea of organized religion strewn throughout it.

The book itself is quite nonsectarian. It seems to be written more with the intent to help people modify their existing faith rather than adopt a wholly new one.

After a brief look into the subject online, however, the book is a central text in a few different groups here and there.
 
My final question is; the Urantia Book outright says that much of its scientific and historical knowledge is wrong and that the authors supposedly know that it's wrong.

I understand not giving the information if you're forbidden to but why give false information?
 
My final question is; the Urantia Book outright says that much of its scientific and historical knowledge is wrong and that the authors supposedly know that it's wrong.

I understand not giving the information if you're forbidden to but why give false information?
sorry, Guys, i delayed without wanting to...

Ella S., not false, it's outdated scientific information (and as you can see in this following quote too, URANTIA, besides giving outdated science knowledge and information, gave us advanced, ahead-of-its-time science):
4. The Limitations of Revelation
101:4.1 (1109.2) Because your world is generally ignorant of origins, even of physical origins, it has appeared to be wise from time to time to provide instruction in cosmology. And always has this made trouble for the future. The laws of revelation hamper us greatly by their proscription of the impartation of unearned or premature knowledge. Any cosmology presented as a part of revealed religion is destined to be outgrown in a very short time. Accordingly, future students of such a revelation are tempted to discard any element of genuine religious truth it may contain because they discover errors on the face of the associated cosmologies therein presented.

101:4.2 (1109.3) Mankind should understand that we who participate in the revelation of truth are very rigorously limited by the instructions of our superiors. We are not at liberty to anticipate the scientific discoveries of a thousand years. Revelators must act in accordance with the instructions which form a part of the revelation mandate. We see no way of overcoming this difficulty, either now or at any future time. We full well know that, while the historic facts and religious truths of this series of revelatory presentations will stand on the records of the ages to come, within a few short years many of our statements regarding the physical sciences will stand in need of revision in consequence of additional scientific developments and new discoveries. These new developments we even now foresee, but we are forbidden to include such humanly undiscovered facts in the revelatory records. Let it be made clear that revelations are not necessarily inspired. The cosmology of these revelations is not inspired. It is limited by our permission for the co-ordination and sorting of present-day knowledge. While divine or spiritual insight is a gift, human wisdom must evolve.

101:4.3 (1109.4) Truth is always a revelation: autorevelation when it emerges as a result of the work of the indwelling Adjuster; epochal revelation when it is presented by the function of some other celestial agency, group, or personality.

101:4.4 (1109.5) In the last analysis, religion is to be judged by its fruits, according to the manner and the extent to which it exhibits its own inherent and divine excellence.

101:4.5 (1109.6) Truth may be but relatively inspired, even though revelation is invariably a spiritual phenomenon. While statements with reference to cosmology are never inspired, such revelations are of immense value in that they at least transiently clarify knowledge by:

101:4.6 (1109.7) 1. The reduction of confusion by the authoritative elimination of error.

101:4.7 (1109.8) 2. The co-ordination of known or about-to-be-known facts and observations.

101:4.8 (1110.1) 3. The restoration of important bits of lost knowledge concerning epochal transactions in the distant past.

101:4.9 (1110.2) 4. The supplying of information which will fill in vital missing gaps in otherwise earned knowledge.

101:4.10 (1110.3) 5. Presenting cosmic data in such a manner as to illuminate the spiritual teachings contained in the accompanying revelation.
Where's that advanced science¿, here: UBannotated.com (and elsewhere)...

Excuse me, Ella, how old are you¿, in one of my few previous posts i gave my age, but i'm just asking you out of curiosity, ooops!. :)
 
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