708 lines
41 KiB
Plaintext
708 lines
41 KiB
Plaintext
Urantia Book Paper 92 The Later Evolution Of Religion
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SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET.
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia
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: The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On
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Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The
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Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color
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The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary
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Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution
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Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet
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The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden
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The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In
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The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization
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The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The
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Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes,
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Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And
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Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa
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Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings
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In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The
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Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of
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Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The
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Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of
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The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And
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Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation
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Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals
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...
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Paper 92 The Later Evolution Of Religion
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Introduction
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MAN possessed a religion of natural origin as a part of his evolutionary
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experience long before any systematic revelations were made on Urantia. But
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this religion of natural origin was, in itself, the product of man's
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superanimal endowments. Evolutionary religion arose slowly throughout the
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millenniums of mankind's experiential career through the ministry of the
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following influences operating within, and impinging upon, savage, barbarian,
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and civilized man:
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1. The adjutant of worship--the appearance in animal consciousness of
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superanimal potentials for reality perception. This might be termed the
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primordial human instinct for Deity.
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2. The adjutant of wisdom--the manifestation in a worshipful mind of the
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tendency to direct its adoration in higher channels of expression and toward
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ever-expanding concepts of Deity reality.
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3. The Holy Spirit--this is the initial supermind bestowal, and it unfailingly
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appears in all bona fide human personalities. This ministry to a
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worship-craving and wisdom-desiring mind creates the capacity to self-realize
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the postulate of human survival, both in theologic concept and as an actual and
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factual personality experience.
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The co-ordinate functioning of these three divine ministrations is quite
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sufficient to initiate and prosecute the growth of evolutionary religion. These
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influences are later augmented by Thought Adjusters, seraphim, and the Spirit
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of Truth, all of which accelerate the rate of religious development. These
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agencies have long functioned on Urantia, and they will continue here as long
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as this planet remains an inhabited sphere. Much of the potential of these
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divine agencies has never yet had opportunity for expression; much will be
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revealed in the ages to come as mortal religion ascends, level by level, toward
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the supernal heights of morontia value and spirit truth.
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1. THE EVOLUTIONARY NATURE OF RELIGION
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The evolution of religion has been traced from early fear and ghosts down
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through many successive stages of development, including those efforts first to
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coerce and then to cajole the spirits. Tribal fetishes grew into totems and
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tribal gods; magic formulas became modern prayers. Circumcision, at first a
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sacrifice, became a hygienic procedure.
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Religion progressed from nature worship up through ghost worship to fetishism
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throughout the savage childhood of the races. With the dawn of civilization
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the human race espoused the more mystic and symbolic beliefs, while now, with
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approaching maturity, mankind is ripening for the appreciation of real
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religion, even a beginning of the revelation of truth itself.
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Religion arises as a biologic reaction of mind to spiritual beliefs and the
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environment; it is the last thing to perish or change in a race. Religion is
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society's adjustment, in any age, to that which is mysterious. As a social
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institution it embraces rites, symbols, cults, scriptures, altars, shrines, and
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temples. Holy water, relics, fetishes, charms, vestments, bells, drums, and
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priesthoods are common to all religions. And it is impossible entirely to
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divorce purely evolved religion from either magic or sorcery.
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Mystery and power have always stimulated religious feelings and fears, while
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emotion has ever functioned as a powerful conditioning factor in their
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development. Fear has always been the basic religious stimulus. Fear fashions
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the gods of evolutionary religion and motivates the religious ritual of the
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primitive believers. As civilization advances, fear becomes modified by
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reverence, admiration, respect, and sympathy and is then further conditioned by
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remorse and repentance.
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One Asiatic people taught that "God is a great fear"; that is the outgrowth of
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purely evolutionary religion. Jesus, the revelation of the highest type of
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religious living, proclaimed that "God is love."
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2. RELIGION AND THE MORES
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Religion is the most rigid and unyielding of all human institutions, but it
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does tardily adjust to changing society. Eventually, evolutionary religion does
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reflect the changing mores, which, in turn, may have been affected by revealed
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religion. Slowly, surely, but grudgingly, does religion (worship) follow in the
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wake of wisdom--knowledge directed by experiential reason and illuminated by
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divine revelation.
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Religion clings to the mores; that which was is ancient and supposedly sacred.
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For this reason and no other, stone implements persisted long into the age of
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bronze and iron. This statement is of record: "And if you will make me an altar
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of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for, if you use your tools in
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making it, you have polluted it." Even today, the Hindus kindle their altar
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fires by using a primitive fire drill. In the course of evolutionary religion,
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novelty has always been regarded as sacrilege. The sacrament must consist, not
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of new and manufactured food, but of the most primitive of viands: "The flesh
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roasted with fire and unleavened bread served with bitter herbs." All types of
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social usage and even legal procedures cling to the old forms.
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When modern man wonders at the presentation of so much in the scriptures of
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different religions that may be regarded as obscene, he should pause to
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consider that passing generations have feared to eliminate what their ancestors
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deemed to be holy and sacred. A great deal that one generation might look upon
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as obscene, preceding generations have considered a part of their accepted
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mores, even as approved religious rituals. A considerable amount of religious
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controversy has been occasioned by the never-ending attempts to reconcile olden
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but reprehensible practices with newly advanced reason, to find plausible
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theories in justification of creedal perpetuation of ancient and outworn
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customs.
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But it is only foolish to attempt the too sudden acceleration of religious
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growth. A race or nation can only assimilate from any advanced religion that
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which is reasonably consistent and compatible with its current evolutionary
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status, plus its genius for adaptation. Social, climatic, political, and
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economic conditions are all influential in determining the course and progress
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of religious evolution. Social morality is not determined by religion, that is,
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by evolutionary religion; rather are the forms of religion dictated by the
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racial morality.
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Races of men only superficially accept a strange and new religion; they
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actually adjust it to their mores and old ways of believing. This is well
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illustrated by the example of a certain New Zealand tribe whose priests, after
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nominally accepting Christianity, professed to have received direct revelations
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from Gabriel to the effect that this selfsame tribe had become the chosen
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people of God and directing that they be permitted freely to indulge in loose
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sex relations and numerous other of their olden and reprehensible customs. And
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immediately all of the new-made Christians went over to this new and less
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exacting version of Christianity.
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Religion has at one time or another sanctioned all sorts of contrary and
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inconsistent behavior, has at some time approved of practically all that is now
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regarded as immoral or sinful. Conscience, untaught by experience and unaided
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by reason, never has been, and never can be, a safe and unerring guide to human
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conduct. Conscience is not a divine voice speaking to the human soul. It is
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merely the sum total of the moral and ethical content of the mores of any
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current stage of existence; it simply represents the humanly conceived ideal of
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reaction in any given set of circumstances.
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3. THE NATURE OF EVOLUTIONARY RELIGION
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The study of human religion is the examination of the fossil-bearing social
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strata of past ages. The mores of the anthropomorphic gods are a truthful
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reflection of the morals of the men who first conceived such deities. Ancient
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religions and mythology faithfully portray the beliefs and traditions of
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peoples long since lost in obscurity. These olden cult practices persist
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alongside newer economic customs and social evolutions and, of course, appear
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grossly inconsistent. The remnants of the cult present a true picture of the
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racial religions of the past. Always remember, the cults are formed, not to
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discover truth, but rather to promulgate their creeds.
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Religion has always been largely a matter of rites, rituals, observances,
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ceremonies, and dogmas. It has usually become tainted with that persistently
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mischief-making error, the chosen-people delusion. The cardinal religious ideas
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of incantation, inspiration, revelation, propitiation, repentance, atonement,
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intercession, sacrifice, prayer, confession, worship, survival after death,
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sacrament, ritual, ransom, salvation, redemption, covenant, uncleanness,
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purification, prophecy, original sin--they all go back to the early times of
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primordial ghost fear.
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Primitive religion is nothing more nor less than the struggle for material
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existence extended to embrace existence beyond the grave. The observances of
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such a creed represented the extension of the self-maintenance struggle into
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the domain of an imagined ghost-spirit world. But when tempted to criticize
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evolutionary religion, be careful. Remember, that is what happened; it is a
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historical fact. And further recall that the power of any idea lies, not in its
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certainty or truth, but rather in the vividness of its human appeal.
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Evolutionary religion makes no provision for change or revision; unlike
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science, it does not provide for its own progressive correction. Evolved
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religion commands respect because its followers believe it is The Truth; "the
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faith once delivered to the saints" must, in theory, be both final and
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infallible. The cult resists development because real progress is certain to
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modify or destroy the cult itself; therefore must revision always be forced
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upon it.
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Only two influences can modify and uplift the dogmas of natural religion: the
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pressure of the slowly advancing mores and the periodic illumination of epochal
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revelation. And it is not strange that progress was slow; in ancient days, to
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be progressive or inventive meant to be killed as a sorcerer. The cult advances
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slowly in generation epochs and agelong cycles. But it does move forward.
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Evolutionary belief in ghosts laid the foundation for a philosophy of revealed
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religion which will eventually destroy the superstition of its origin.
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Religion has handicapped social development in many ways, but without religion
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there would have been no enduring morality nor ethics, no worth-while
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civilization. Religion enmothered much nonreligious culture: Sculpture
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originated in idol making, architecture in temple building, poetry in
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incantations, music in worship chants, drama in the acting for spirit guidance,
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and dancing in the seasonal worship festivals.
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But while calling attention to the fact that religion was essential to the
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development and preservation of civilization, it should be recorded that
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natural religion has also done much to cripple and handicap the very
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civilization which it otherwise fostered and maintained. Religion has hampered
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industrial activities and economic development; it has been wasteful of labor
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and has squandered capital; it has not always been helpful to the family; it
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has not adequately fostered peace and good will; it has sometimes neglected
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education and retarded science; it has unduly impoverished life for the
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pretended enrichment of death. Evolutionary religion, human religion, has
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indeed been guilty of all these and many more mistakes, errors, and blunders;
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nevertheless, it did maintain cultural ethics, civilized morality, and social
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coherence, and made it possible for later revealed religion to compensate for
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these many evolutionary shortcomings.
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Evolutionary religion has been man's most expensive but incomparably effective
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institution. Human religion can be justified only in the light of evolutionary
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civilization. If man were not the ascendant product of animal evolution, then
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would such a course of religious development stand without justification.
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Religion facilitated the accumulation of capital; it fostered work of certain
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kinds; the leisure of the priests promoted art and knowledge; the race, in the
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end, gained much as a result of all these early errors in ethical technique.
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The shamans, honest and dishonest, were terribly expensive, but they were worth
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all they cost. The learned professions and science itself emerged from the
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parasitical priesthoods. Religion fostered civilization and provided societal
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continuity; it has been the moral police force of all time. Religion provided
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that human discipline and self-control which made wisdom possible. Religion is
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the efficient scourge of evolution which ruthlessly drives indolent and
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suffering humanity from its natural state of intellectual inertia forward and
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upward to the higher levels of reason and wisdom.
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And this sacred heritage of animal ascent, evolutionary religion, must ever
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continue to be refined and ennobled by the continuous censorship of revealed
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religion and by the fiery furnace of genuine science.
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4. THE GIFT OF REVELATION
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Revelation is evolutionary but always progressive. Down through the ages of a
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world's history, the revelations of religion are ever-expanding and
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successively more enlightening. It is the mission of revelation to sort and
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censor the successive religions of evolution. But if revelation is to exalt and
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upstep the religions of evolution, then must such divine visitations portray
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teachings which are not too far removed from the thought and reactions of the
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age in which they are presented. Thus must and does revelation always keep in
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touch with evolution. Always must the religion of revelation be limited by
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man's capacity of receptivity.
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But regardless of apparent connection or derivation, the religions of
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revelation are always characterized by a belief in some Deity of final value
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and in some concept of the survival of personality identity after death.
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Evolutionary religion is sentimental, not logical. It is man's reaction to
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belief in a hypothetical ghost-spirit world--the human belief--reflex, excited
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by the realization and fear of the unknown. Revelatory religion is propounded
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by the real spiritual world; it is the response of the superintellectual cosmos
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to the mortal hunger to believe in, and depend upon, the universal Deities.
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Evolutionary religion pictures the circuitous gropings of humanity in quest of
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truth; revelatory religion is that very truth.
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There have been many events of religious revelation but only five of epochal
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significance. These were as follows:
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1. The Dalamatian teachings. The true concept of the First Source and Center
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was first promulgated on Urantia by the one hundred corporeal members of Prince
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Caligastia's staff. This expanding revelation of Deity went on for more than
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three hundred thousand years until it was suddenly terminated by the planetary
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secession and the disruption of the teaching regime. Except for the work of
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Van, the influence of the Dalamatian revelation was practically lost to the
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whole world. Even the Nodites had forgotten this truth by the time of Adam's
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arrival. Of all who received the teachings of the one hundred, the red men held
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them longest, but the idea of the Great Spirit was but a hazy concept in
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Amerindian religion when contact with Christianity greatly clarified and
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strengthened it.
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2. The Edenic teachings. Adam and Eve again portrayed the concept of the Father
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of all to the evolutionary peoples. The disruption of the first Eden halted the
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course of the Adamic revelation before it had ever fully started. But the
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aborted teachings of Adam were carried on by the Sethite priests, and some of
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these truths have never been entirely lost to the world. The entire trend of
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Levantine religious evolution was modified by the teachings of the Sethites.
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But by 2500 B.C. mankind had largely lost sight of the revelation sponsored in
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the days of Eden.
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3. Melchizedek of Salem. This emergency Son of Nebadon inaugurated the third
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revelation of truth on Urantia. The cardinal precepts of his teachings were
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trust and faith. He taught trust in the omnipotent beneficence of God and
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proclaimed that faith was the act by which men earned God's favor. His
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teachings gradually commingled with the beliefs and practices of various
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evolutionary re-
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ligions and finally developed into those theologic systems present on Urantia
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at the opening of the first millennium after Christ.
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4. Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Michael presented for the fourth time to Urantia
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the concept of God as the Universal Father, and this teaching has generally
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persisted ever since. The essence of his teaching was love and service, the
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loving worship which a creature son voluntarily gives in recognition of, and
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response to, the loving ministry of God his Father; the freewill service which
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such creature sons bestow upon their brethren in the joyous realization that in
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this service they are likewise serving God the Father.
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5. The Urantia Papers. The papers, of which this is one, constitute the most
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recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia. These papers differ
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from all previous revelations, for they are not the work of a single universe
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personality but a composite presentation by many beings. But no revelation
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short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other
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celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically
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adapted to local conditions in time and space. While such admissions as this
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may possibly detract from the immediate force and authority of all revelations,
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the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank
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statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of
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this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of
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Urantia.
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5. THE GREAT RELIGIOUS LEADERS
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In evolutionary religion, the gods are conceived to exist in the likeness of
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man's image; in revelatory religion, men are taught that they are God's
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sons--even fashioned in the finite image of divinity; in the synthesized
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beliefs compounded from the teachings of revelation and the products of
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evolution, the God concept is a blend of:
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1. The pre-existent ideas of the evolutionary cults.
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2. The sublime ideals of revealed religion.
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3. The personal viewpoints of the great religious leaders, the prophets and
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teachers of mankind.
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Most great religious epochs have been inaugurated by the life and teachings of
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some outstanding personality; leadership has originated a majority of the
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worth-while moral movements of history. And men have always tended to venerate
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the leader, even at the expense of his teachings; to revere his personality,
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even though losing sight of the truths which he proclaimed. And this is not
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without reason; there is an instinctive longing in the heart of evolutionary
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man for help from above and beyond. This craving is designed to anticipate the
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appearance on earth of the Planetary Prince and the later Material Sons. On
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Urantia man has been deprived of these superhuman leaders and rulers, and
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therefore does he constantly seek to make good this loss by enshrouding his
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human leaders with legends pertaining to supernatural origins and miraculous
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careers.
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Many races have conceived of their leaders as being born of virgins; their
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careers are liberally sprinkled with miraculous episodes, and their return is
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always expected by their respective groups. In central Asia the tribesmen still
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look for the return of Genghis Khan; in Tibet, China, and India it is Buddha;
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in Islam it is Mohammed; among the Amerinds it was Hesunanin Onamonalon-
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ton; with the Hebrews it was, in general, Adam's return as a material ruler. In
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Babylon the god Marduk was a perpetuation of the Adam legend, the son-of-God
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idea, the connecting link between man and God. Following the appearance of Adam
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on earth, so-called sons of God were common among the world races.
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But regardless of the superstitious awe in which they were often held, it
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remains a fact that these teachers were the temporal personality fulcrums on
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which the levers of revealed truth depended for the advancement of the
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morality, philosophy, and religion of mankind.
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There have been hundreds upon hundreds of religious leaders in the million-year
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human history of Urantia from Onagar to Guru Nanak. During this time there have
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been many ebbs and flows of the tide of religious truth and spiritual faith,
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and each renaissance of Urantian religion has, in the past, been identified
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with the life and teachings of some religious leader. In considering the
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teachers of recent times, it may prove helpful to group them into the seven
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major religious epochs of post-Adamic Urantia:
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1. The Sethite period. The Sethite priests, as regenerated under the leadership
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of Amosad, became the great post-Adamic teachers. They functioned throughout
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the lands of the Andites, and their influence persisted longest among the
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Greeks, Sumerians, and Hindus. Among the latter they have continued to the
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present time as the Brahmans of the Hindu faith. The Sethites and their
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followers never entirely lost the Trinity concept revealed by Adam.
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2. Era of the Melchizedek missionaries. Urantia religion was in no small
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measure regenerated by the efforts of those teachers who were commissioned by
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Machiventa Melchizedek when he lived and taught at Salem almost two thousand
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years before Christ. These missionaries proclaimed faith as the price of favor
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with God, and their teachings, though unproductive of any immediately appearing
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religions, nevertheless formed the foundations on which later teachers of truth
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were to build the religions of Urantia.
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3. The post-Melchizedek era. Though Amenemope and Ikhnaton both taught in this
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period, the outstanding religious genius of the post-Melchizedek era was the
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leader of a group of Levantine Bedouins and the founder of the Hebrew
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religion--Moses. Moses taught monotheism. Said he: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord
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our God is one God." "The Lord he is God. There is none beside him." He
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persistently sought to uproot the remnants of the ghost cult among his people,
|
||
even prescribing the death penalty for its practitioners. The monotheism of
|
||
Moses was adulterated by his successors, but in later times they did return to
|
||
many of his teachings. The greatness of Moses lies in his wisdom and sagacity.
|
||
Other men have had greater concepts of God, but no one man was ever so
|
||
successful in inducing large numbers of people to adopt such advanced beliefs.
|
||
|
||
4. The sixth century before Christ. Many men arose to proclaim truth in this,
|
||
one of the greatest centuries of religious awakening ever witnessed on Urantia.
|
||
Among these should be recorded Gautama, Confucius, Lao-tse, Zoroaster, and the
|
||
Jainist teachers. The teachings of Gautama have become widespread in Asia, and
|
||
he is revered as the Buddha by millions. Confucius was to Chinese morality what
|
||
Plato was to Greek philosophy, and while there were religious repercussions to
|
||
the teachings of both, strictly speaking, neither was a religious teacher;
|
||
Lao-tse envisioned more of God in Tao than did Confucius in humanity or Plato
|
||
in idealism. Zoroaster, while much affected by the prevalent
|
||
|
||
top of page - 1010
|
||
|
||
concept of dual spiritism, the good and the bad, at the same time definitely
|
||
exalted the idea of one eternal Deity and of the ultimate victory of light over
|
||
darkness.
|
||
|
||
5. The first century after Christ. As a religious teacher, Jesus of Nazareth
|
||
started out with the cult which had been established by John the Baptist and
|
||
progressed as far as he could away from fasts and forms. Aside from Jesus, Paul
|
||
of Tarsus and Philo of Alexandria were the greatest teachers of this era. Their
|
||
concepts of religion have played a dominant part in the evolution of that faith
|
||
which bears the name of Christ.
|
||
|
||
6. The sixth century after Christ. Mohammed founded a religion which was
|
||
superior to many of the creeds of his time. His was a protest against the
|
||
social demands of the faiths of foreigners and against the incoherence of the
|
||
religious life of his own people.
|
||
|
||
7. The fifteenth century after Christ. This period witnessed two religious
|
||
movements: the disruption of the unity of Christianity in the Occident and the
|
||
synthesis of a new religion in the Orient. In Europe institutionalized
|
||
Christianity had attained that degree of inelasticity which rendered further
|
||
growth incompatible with unity. In the Orient the combined teachings of Islam,
|
||
Hinduism, and Buddhism were synthesized by Nanak and his followers into
|
||
Sikhism, one of the most advanced religions of Asia.
|
||
|
||
The future of Urantia will doubtless be characterized by the appearance of
|
||
teachers of religious truth--the Fatherhood of God and the fraternity of all
|
||
creatures. But it is to be hoped that the ardent and sincere efforts of these
|
||
future prophets will be directed less toward the strengthening of
|
||
interreligious barriers and more toward the augmentation of the religious
|
||
brotherhood of spiritual worship among the many followers of the differing
|
||
intellectual theologies which so characterize Urantia of Satania.
|
||
|
||
6. THE COMPOSITE RELIGIONS
|
||
|
||
Twentieth-century Urantia religions present an interesting study of the social
|
||
evolution of man's worship impulse. Many faiths have progressed very little
|
||
since the days of the ghost cult. The Pygmies of Africa have no religious
|
||
reactions as a class, although some of them believe slightly in a spirit
|
||
environment. They are today just where primitive man was when the evolution of
|
||
religion began. The basic belief of primitive religion was survival after
|
||
death. The idea of worshiping a personal God indicates advanced evolutionary
|
||
development, even the first stage of revelation. The Dyaks have evolved only
|
||
the most primitive religious practices. The comparatively recent Eskimos and
|
||
Amerinds had very meager concepts of God; they believed in ghosts and had an
|
||
indefinite idea of survival of some sort after death. Present-day native
|
||
Australians have only a ghost fear, dread of the dark, and a crude ancestor
|
||
veneration. The Zulus are just evolving a religion of ghost fear and sacrifice.
|
||
Many African tribes, except through missionary work of Christians and
|
||
Mohammedans, are not yet beyond the fetish stage of religious evolution. But
|
||
some groups have long held to the idea of monotheism, like the onetime
|
||
Thracians, who also believed in immortality.
|
||
|
||
On Urantia, evolutionary and revelatory religion are progressing side by side
|
||
while they blend and coalesce into the diversified theologic systems found
|
||
|
||
top of page - 1011
|
||
|
||
in the world in the times of the inditement of these papers. These religions,
|
||
the religions of twentieth-century Urantia, may be enumerated as follows:
|
||
|
||
1. Hinduism--the most ancient.
|
||
|
||
2. The Hebrew religion.
|
||
|
||
3. Buddhism.
|
||
|
||
4. The Confucian teachings.
|
||
|
||
5. The Taoist beliefs.
|
||
|
||
6. Zoroastrianism.
|
||
|
||
7. Shinto.
|
||
|
||
8. Jainism.
|
||
|
||
9. Christianity.
|
||
|
||
10. Islam.
|
||
|
||
11. Sikhism--the most recent.
|
||
|
||
The most advanced religions of ancient times were Judaism and Hinduism, and
|
||
each respectively has greatly influenced the course of religious development in
|
||
Orient and Occident. Both Hindus and Hebrews believed that their religions were
|
||
inspired and revealed, and they believed all others to be decadent forms of the
|
||
one true faith.
|
||
|
||
India is divided among Hindu, Sikh, Mohammedan, and Jain, each picturing God,
|
||
man, and the universe as these are variously conceived. China follows the
|
||
Taoist and the Confucian teachings; Shinto is revered in Japan.
|
||
|
||
The great international, interracial faiths are the Hebraic, Buddhist,
|
||
Christian, and Islamic. Buddhism stretches from Ceylon and Burma through Tibet
|
||
and China to Japan. It has shown an adaptability to the mores of many peoples
|
||
that has been equaled only by Christianity.
|
||
|
||
The Hebrew religion encompasses the philosophic transition from polytheism to
|
||
monotheism; it is an evolutionary link between the religions of evolution and
|
||
the religions of revelation. The Hebrews were the only western people to follow
|
||
their early evolutionary gods straight through to the God of revelation. But
|
||
this truth never became widely accepted until the days of Isaiah, who once
|
||
again taught the blended idea of a racial deity combined with a Universal
|
||
Creator: "O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, you are God, even you alone; you have
|
||
made heaven and earth." At one time the hope of the survival of Occidental
|
||
civilization lay in the sublime Hebraic concepts of goodness and the advanced
|
||
Hellenic concepts of beauty.
|
||
|
||
The Christian religion is the religion about the life and teachings of Christ
|
||
based upon the theology of Judaism, modified further through the assimilation
|
||
of certain Zoroastrian teachings and Greek philosophy, and formulated primarily
|
||
by three individuals: Philo, Peter, and Paul. It has passed through many phases
|
||
of evolution since the time of Paul and has become so thoroughly Occidentalized
|
||
that many non-European peoples very naturally look upon Christianity as a
|
||
strange revelation of a strange God and for strangers.
|
||
|
||
Islam is the religio-cultural connective of North Africa, the Levant, and
|
||
southeastern Asia. It was Jewish theology in connection with the later
|
||
Christian teachings that made Islam monotheistic. The followers of Mohammed
|
||
stumbled at the advanced teachings of the Trinity; they could not comprehend
|
||
the doctrine of three divine personalities and one Deity. It is always
|
||
difficult to induce evolu
|
||
|
||
top of page - 1012
|
||
|
||
tionary minds to accept advanced revealed truth. Man is an evolutionary
|
||
creature and in the main must get his religion by evolutionary techniques.
|
||
|
||
Ancestor worship onetime constituted a decided advance in religious evolution,
|
||
but it is both amazing and regrettable that this primitive concept persists in
|
||
China, Japan, and India amidst so much that is relatively more advanced, such
|
||
as Buddhism and Hinduism. In the Occident, ancestor worship developed into the
|
||
veneration of national gods and respect for racial heroes. In the twentieth
|
||
century this hero-venerating nationalistic religion makes its appearance in the
|
||
various radical and nationalistic secularisms which characterize many races and
|
||
nations of the Occident. Much of this same attitude is also found in the great
|
||
universities and the larger industrial communities of the English-speaking
|
||
peoples. Not very different from these concepts is the idea that religion is
|
||
but "a shared quest of the good life." The "national religions" are nothing
|
||
more than a reversion to the early Roman emperor worship and to Shinto--worship
|
||
of the state in the imperial family.
|
||
|
||
7. THE FURTHER EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
|
||
|
||
Religion can never become a scientific fact. Philosophy may, indeed, rest on a
|
||
scientific basis, but religion will ever remain either evolutionary or
|
||
revelatory, or a possible combination of both, as it is in the world today.
|
||
|
||
New religions cannot be invented; they are either evolved, or else they are
|
||
suddenly revealed. All new evolutionary religions are merely advancing
|
||
expressions of the old beliefs, new adaptations and adjustments. The old does
|
||
not cease to exist; it is merged with the new, even as Sikhism budded and
|
||
blossomed out of the soil and forms of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and other
|
||
contemporary cults. Primitive religion was very democratic; the savage was
|
||
quick to borrow or lend. Only with revealed religion did autocratic and
|
||
intolerant theologic egotism appear.
|
||
|
||
The many religions of Urantia are all good to the extent that they bring man to
|
||
God and bring the realization of the Father to man. It is a fallacy for any
|
||
group of religionists to conceive of their creed as The Truth; such attitudes
|
||
bespeak more of theological arrogance than of certainty of faith. There is not
|
||
a Urantia religion that could not profitably study and assimilate the best of
|
||
the truths contained in every other faith, for all contain truth. Religionists
|
||
would do better to borrow the best in their neighbors' living spiritual faith
|
||
rather than to denounce the worst in their lingering superstitions and outworn
|
||
rituals.
|
||
|
||
All these religions have arisen as a result of man's variable intellectual
|
||
response to his identical spiritual leading. They can never hope to attain a
|
||
uniformity of creeds, dogmas, and rituals--these are intellectual; but they
|
||
can, and some day will, realize a unity in true worship of the Father of all,
|
||
for this is spiritual, and it is forever true, in the spirit all men are equal.
|
||
|
||
Primitive religion was largely a material-value consciousness, but civilization
|
||
elevates religious values, for true religion is the devotion of the self to the
|
||
service of meaningful and supreme values. As religion evolves, ethics becomes
|
||
the philosophy of morals, and morality becomes the discipline of self by the
|
||
standards of highest meanings and supreme values--divine and spiritual ideals.
|
||
And thus religion becomes a spontaneous and exquisite devotion, the living
|
||
experience of the loyalty of love.
|
||
|
||
top of page - 1013
|
||
|
||
The quality of a religion is indicated by:
|
||
|
||
1. Level values--loyalties.
|
||
|
||
2. Depth of meanings--the sensitization of the individual to the idealistic
|
||
appreciation of these highest values.
|
||
|
||
3. Consecration intensity--the degree of devotion to these divine values.
|
||
|
||
4. The unfettered progress of the personality in this cosmic path of idealistic
|
||
spiritual living, realization of sonship with God and never-ending progressive
|
||
citizenship in the universe.
|
||
|
||
Religious meanings progress in self-consciousness when the child transfers his
|
||
ideas of omnipotence from his parents to God. And the entire religious
|
||
experience of such a child is largely dependent on whether fear or love has
|
||
dominated the parent-child relationship. Slaves have always experienced great
|
||
difficulty in transferring their master-fear into concepts of God-love.
|
||
Civilization, science, and advanced religions must deliver mankind from those
|
||
fears born of the dread of natural phenomena. And so should greater
|
||
enlightenment deliver educated mortals from all dependence on intermediaries in
|
||
communion with Deity.
|
||
|
||
These intermediate stages of idolatrous hesitation in the transfer of
|
||
veneration from the human and the visible to the divine and invisible are
|
||
inevitable, but they should be shortened by the consciousness of the
|
||
facilitating ministry of the indwelling divine spirit. Nevertheless, man has
|
||
been profoundly influenced, not only by his concepts of Deity, but also by the
|
||
character of the heroes whom he has chosen to honor. It is most unfortunate
|
||
that those who have come to venerate the divine and risen Christ should have
|
||
overlooked the man--the valiant and courageous hero--Joshua ben Joseph.
|
||
|
||
Modern man is adequately self-conscious of religion, but his worshipful customs
|
||
are confused and discredited by his accelerated social metamorphosis and
|
||
unprecedented scientific developments. Thinking men and women want religion
|
||
redefined, and this demand will compel religion to re-evaluate itself.
|
||
|
||
Modern man is confronted with the task of making more readjustments of human
|
||
values in one generation than have been made in two thousand years. And this
|
||
all influences the social attitude toward religion, for religion is a way of
|
||
living as well as a technique of thinking.
|
||
|
||
True religion must ever be, at one and the same time, the eternal foundation
|
||
and the guiding star of all enduring civilizations.
|
||
|
||
[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]
|
||
|
||
top of page - 1014
|
||
|
||
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia
|
||
: The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On
|
||
Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The
|
||
Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color
|
||
The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary
|
||
Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution
|
||
Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet
|
||
The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden
|
||
The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In
|
||
The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization
|
||
The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The
|
||
Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes,
|
||
Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And
|
||
Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa
|
||
Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings
|
||
In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The
|
||
Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of
|
||
Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The
|
||
Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of
|
||
The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And
|
||
Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation
|
||
Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals
|
||
The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny
|
||
Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The
|
||
Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>Ŀ
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<EFBFBD> // <20> <20> <20> <20> <20>
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<EFBFBD> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> <20> SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), <20> <20>
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