The Urantia Book

[Caligastia]

Has anyone else here come across this amazing book?

I have read it through, and found that it presents a very interesting picture of the universe.

It also has a lot of interesting things to say about race:

www.squarecircles.com/matarticles/raceincontext/raceincontext.htm

[captainusa1]

I read some of it. It reminded me of a combination of a bible and a textbook. The sections about race were fascinating. Who knew that Adam was a purple giant?

[vela]

Caligastia said:

Has anyone else here come across this amazing book?

I have read it through, and found that it presents a very interesting picture of the universe.

It also has a lot of interesting things to say about race:

www.squarecircles.com/matarticles/raceincontext/raceincontext.htm

I have it. But to be honest, I haven't read it all.

It is quite amazing as you say. It is also quite amazing the way it is supposed to have been written. Have you heard or read?

[Caligastia]

Vela said:

I have it. But to be honest, I haven't read it all.

It is quite amazing as you say. It is also quite amazing the way it is supposed to have been written. Have you heard or read?

I don't think anyone knows for sure how it was written, but the book itself claims celestial authorship. I'm not so worried about how it came about (although it would be interesting to know), I find the contents of the book more than enough to fascinate me. If you already it you should flick through it sometime. Part III covers some particularly interesting topics.

The link I posted is also worth checking out...

[Caligastia]

Captain said:

I read some of it. It reminded me of a combination of a bible and a textbook. The sections about race were fascinating. Who knew that Adam was a purple giant?

Actually, I don't think the Violet race was actually Violet in appearance (maybe only slightly). The Urantia Book says they were "fair" in complexion.

Adam and Eve were the founders of the violet race of men, the ninth human race to appear on Urantia. Adam and his offspring had blue eyes, and the violet peoples were characterized by fair complexions and light hair color--yellow, red, and brown. UB 850; 76:4.1

[captainusa1]

Caligastia said:

Actually, I don't think the Violet race was actually Violet in appearance (maybe only slightly). The Urantia Book says they were "fair" in complexion.

Adam and Eve were the founders of the violet race of men, the ninth human race to appear on Urantia. Adam and his offspring had blue eyes, and the violet peoples were characterized by fair complexions and light hair color--yellow, red, and brown. UB 850; 76:4.1

I read part of the section about Adam. It reminded me of a Bible story written by a science fiction writer. If I remember correctly, the author said that Adam and Eve were giant people. It was imaginative, but I won't be converting to Urantia any time soon.

I read some of the linked web site. I didn't like the statements about race because they mentioned inferior and superior races. They made me question the beliefs of the writer(s) of the Book of Urantia. BTW, I think that the original material supposedly mysteriously apppeared in a box on someone's doorstep.

[vela]

Captain said:

...
...
BTW, I think that the original material supposedly mysteriously apppeared in a box on someone's doorstep.

The way I remember, it was a cummulative work done over a number of sessions by an unseen person. Somebody provided new supplies of paper and pencil each day to a locked room and then returned each day to pick up what was written the day before. Something like that, anyway.

[Caligastia]

Captain said:

I read part of the section about Adam. It reminded me of a Bible story written by a science fiction writer. If I remember correctly, the author said that Adam and Eve were giant people. It was imaginative, but I won't be converting to Urantia any time soon.

Heh, it does sound rather like science fiction, doesn't it.;D

I don't know about "converting" ... it's not like you join a church or something ... I just read the book and what it has to say makes sense to me.

I read some of the linked web site. I didn't like the statements about race because they mentioned inferior and superior races. They made me question the beliefs of the writer(s) of the Book of Urantia. BTW, I think that the original material supposedly mysteriously apppeared in a box on someone's doorstep.

As I said, nobody really knows how it got here, so I prefer not to speculate.

With regard to race, I don't think there is anything wrong with recognising that different races have different average potential. It's all part of God's plan for us to learn tolerance and understanding.

There are many good and sufficient reasons for the plan of evolving either three or six colored races on the worlds of space. Though Urantia mortals may not be in a position fully to appreciate all of these reasons, we would call attention to the following:

1. Variety is indispensable to opportunity for the wide functioning of natural selection, differential survival of superior strains.

2. Stronger and better races are to be had from the interbreeding of diverse peoples when these different races are carriers of superior inheritance factors. And the Urantia races would have benefited by such an early amalgamation provided such a conjoint people could have been subsequently effectively upstepped by a thoroughgoing admixture with the superior Adamic stock. The attempt to execute such an experiment on Urantia under present racial conditions would be highly disastrous.

3. Competition is healthfully stimulated by diversification of races.

4. Differences in status of the races and of groups within each race are essential to the development of human tolerance and altruism.

5. Homogeneity of the human race is not desirable until the peoples of an evolving world attain comparatively high levels of spiritual development.

[vela]

Caligastia said:

Heh, it does sound rather like science fiction, doesn't it.;D

I don't know about "converting" ... it's not like you join a church or something ... I just read the book and what it has to say makes sense to me.

As I said, nobody really knows how it got here, so I prefer not to speculate.

With regard to race, I don't think there is anything wrong with recognising that different races have different average potential. It's all part of God's plan for us to learn tolerance and understanding.

If you want to get a better perspective of the Urantia book and how it got here I recommend you check your library for a book titled "A History of the Urantia Papers" by Larry Mullins.

Many concepts in the book are definitely out of the ordinary and thought provoking, but I think this is a classic case either of a premeditated religion born out of an unanticipated opportunity or an opportunistic act to herd in a group of spontaneous believers.

[Caligastia]

I'm aware of that book, and have read a summary of it in addition to some writings by other people on the origins of the UB, but nothing very concrete ever surfaces. It is somewhat of an interesting topic, but all the theories are mere speculation.

I don't think that the book was the result of an attempt to create some sort of religion. If you wanted to start a new religion with a book, you wouldn't put this sort of thing in it:

Evolutionary religion makes no provision for change or revision; unlike science, it does not provide for its own progressive correction. Evolved religion commands respect because its followers believe it is The Truth; "the faith once delivered to the saints" must, in theory, be both final and infallible. The cult resists development because real progress is certain to modify or destroy the cult itself; therefore must revision always be forced upon it.

Cults and religions always claim to reveal the ultimate truth. The UB makes no such claim.

[Dienekes]

The Urantia Book is a scam.

skepdic.com/urantia.html

[Caligastia]

"The Urantia Book is a scam"

Because a website says so? The critique presented on that site shows total ignorance of what the UB actually says. The authors of the UB freely admit to using many human sources, so pointing out the similarity of some human writings to parts of the UB says nothing about whether the UB is a "scam" or not.

If you are interested in the UB, don't just read what a couple fo people wrote about it and conclude that it is a "scam". Look also at what UB readers have said in response to Martin Gardner:

www.freeurantia.org/mgreview.htm

[vela]

You're right, Caligastia. Because a website says that the UB is a scam doesn't make it so.

What happens is that everyone has a different "incredulity threshold" when it comes to religious matters.

[Dienekes]

Calligastia, the Urantia book is short on evidence for its extraordinary claims. Its theory is non-falsifiable, because e.g., a statement such as"A local universe is the handiwork of a Creator Son of the Paradise order of Michael." cannot be tested.

One must accept the Urantia book on faith, and there are frankly much better faiths out there than the bizarre Urantia book.

[Dienekes]

If anyone is interested in how the universe works, read The Road to Reality:

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679454438?v=glance

You'll learn about real physics as opposed to the non-scientific "ultimatons" of the Urantia Book.