Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book

Q: Is farming and eating animals right?

A: The Urantia Book makes no pronouncements regarding the morality of eating meat, or the farming and raising of animals for food.

We do learn though, that Adam and Eve were vegetarians, as in this quote:

(76:3.7) Up to the time of leaving the first garden, Adam and his family had always subsisted on fruits, cereals, and nuts. On the way to Mesopotamia they had, for the first time, partaken of herbs and vegetables. The eating of meat was early introduced into the second garden, but Adam and Eve never partook of flesh as a part of their regular diet. Neither did Adamson nor Eveson nor the other children of the first generation of the first garden become flesh eaters.

(66:4.7) The practice of subsisting on a nonflesh diet dates from the times of the Caligastia one hundred, for this custom spread near and far to affect the eating habits of many surrounding tribes, groups of origin in the once exclusively meat-eating evolutionary races.

However, just because these beings chose a non-flesh diet, it does not mean that meat-eating is somehow a moral issue.

Consider this passage from a section called "The Cradle of Civilization:"

The evolutionary peoples (notably the Chinese) early learned to plant seeds and to cultivate crops through observation of the sprouting of seeds accidentally moistened or which had been put in graves as food for the departed. But throughout southwest Asia, along the fertile river bottoms and adjacent plains, the Andites were carrying out the improved agricultural techniques inherited from their ancestors, who had made farming and gardening the chief pursuits within the boundaries of the second garden.

For thousands of years the descendants of Adam had grown wheat and barley, as improved in the Garden, throughout the highlands of the upper border of Mesopotamia. The descendants of Adam and Adamson here met, traded, and socially mingled.

It was these enforced changes in living conditions which caused such a large proportion of the human race to become omnivorous in dietetic practice. And the combination of the wheat, rice, and vegetable diet with the flesh of the herds marked a great forward step in the health and vigor of these ancient peoples. (81:1.6)

Thanks for this question. I hope my answer has been helpful. Please click on any of the links for more information.

Labels: Adam and Eve, animals, diet, health, meat-eating, The Urantia Book, vegetarianism

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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Christian The Lion

Human beings are supposed to be the highest life form on this planet, right? We are supposed to know all about things like Love. Certainly, more than mere animals, who are said not to have the ability to self-reflect, to make value judgments, etc.

Yes, well, don't be so sure...

Watch this. And if this doesn't tear you wide open with joy and smiles from ear to ear, then you are among the Walking Dead.

Believe me....I would not put this before you if I did not think it was worth every second your time. You GOTTA WATCH THIS.

What would it take for us to show that kind of love to every human being on the face of the earth? And what kind of planet do you think we would have if we did?

What IS love, anyway, except remembering who we really are? Isn't that all that is happening here? Isn't that what this video is all about?

When I see things like this I wonder again out loud about a violent, angry, and vindictive God -- the God that is talked about by so many people in our world who claim to have an Inside Track on who and what God is, and about What God Wants.

Labels: animals, God, lion, love, Neale Donald Walsch, video

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Friday, February 24, 2006

I dearly love my wonderful pets. Can I ultimately have them back in the future life?

Q: I dearly love my wonderful pets. Can I ultimately have them back in the future life? Perhaps recreated for me?

A: Where would we be without our pets or without animals in general who give us such appreciation, happiness and joy, attention, love and affection? Unlike other people, animals can give us attention and show us affection when we want it. Pets are like visible ministering angels; they can help the mentally and physically sick heal faster, give love to the unloved, and help us feel the joyous sense of being alive. They offer us the opportunity to take responsibility for a thinking and feeling creature other than ourselves. Their majesty, beauty, power, delicacy brings us a sense of humility and awe and often mirrors back to us like no other encounter can. Surely we are blessed to have the variety of animals living here with us that we do; we're all the better because of them in their infinite variety.

From The Urantia Book we learn that our deep appreciation for animals is natural since human origins are from animal ancestry although now there are a number of traits that elevate us above the animals, one being our moral and religious natures and the other being personality. Humans can learn not only through experience but by thinking ahead and drawing conclusions, looking before we leap, whereas animals ordinarily learn only by leaping. They achieve goals based on accumulated experience; we can examine the goal and judge its value, can discriminate between ends as well as between means, can know what we are doing, why we are doing it, where we are going, and how we will get there without ever having to have the actual experience.

One of the challenging concepts of The Urantia Book is that animals do not possess personality whereas humans do, and that it is personality that survives physical death; this means that we continue on in our existences once our lives here on earth are through but that our beloved pets don't. And any pet owner will readily say their cat or dog definitely does have a personality so obviously The Urantia Book is wrong. The difficulty lies in what we commonly define as personality and the Urantia book definition. In Urantia book terms, personality is the unique gift of the Father in heaven bestowed upon free-will creatures. Human beings are the lowest order of free-will creatures in creation. Animals, being lower on the scale of life than human beings, are not free-will creatures and do not have personality bestowed upon them. The personality we recognize in our animals is the result of the interaction between animal and human and the accumulated experiences of the animal; we associate their interaction with us as being their unique personality.

The love and association we experience through our pets enriches our lives, makes us better people, enlarges us emotionally, all of which is to the benefit of the development our our soul, the vehicle that carries personality on into the spirit world. And there we will again encounter lower life forms that will be like our animals were here, where we will receive love and recognition and have the opportunity to express them to lower forms just as we have here.

We may think it unreasonable or unjust that we're not reunited with our earthly pets when we depart here but consider that many people and some religions believe/teach that when we die it is all over, that nothing survives death, that despite the example Jesus provided we live, we die, and that's it for the human personality. In light of such nihlistic thought the understanding that it's our pets that don't survive takes on a different significance. Which would make more logical sense, that your life as a human being is of no ultimate value and ceases when you die, or that animal life, unblessed by free-will and divine personality does not survive?

When our beloved pets die their life energy returns to whence it came; they survive in our memories. When we die we will be blessed with associations of other life forms like the animals left behind. Think of the love and attachment you felt for the first pet you had and how, when it died you thought there would never be another to replace it. Then eventually you had another pet that you loved as much as the first -- you remembered the first as fondly as you cherished the next. You couldn't have the first back but you found something that substituted so well you were equally delighted with the second. So it will be in the life to come.

Yours is a good question and we've added it to our discussion board so that you can have the benefit of the thoughtful responses of our online Urantia Book reader community. You can visit this board and see these responses by clicking here: http://forums.truthbook.com/viewforum.php?f=11. and going to the forum titled "Questions & Answers."

May I also recommend that if you're not already signed up that you consider subscribing to the Quote of the Day. It's a free service that offers a daily quote from the incomparable teachings of this marvelous book along with a beautiful and inspiring image, a great way to start one's day as well as to begin to understand the teachings of the book. To subscribe go to the upper right corner of our home page, click on Quote of the Day and follow the instructions.

Thank you for your question.

Larry Watkins
Truthbook.com

Labels: animals, free will, humans, Jesus, Larry Watkins, memory, personality, pets, The Urantia Book

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Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Why is there so much injustice towards all animals in this world? Why are we, humans, so cruel to our animals?

Q: Why is there so much injustice towards all animals in this world? Why are we, humans, so cruel to our animals?

A: Perhaps the easiest answer is that, as sophisticated as we are, we humans are not so far removed from being animals ourselves. Our ascent from an animal origin to becoming fully realized and spiritual is a long one, particularly here on earth. The human species evolved from the animal kingdom about one million years ago, which is a very short time in evolutionary terms. Many of us still respond to the primitive emotions of ghost fear, superstition, magic because as a species we haven't evolved beyond those primitive influences â€“ our brains are still wired to be receptive to them so to speak. Injustice is still a part of our makeup â€“ not just to animals but to our fellow humans as well. After a million years of evolutionary progress we're just on the verge of giving up on slavery; women are finding equality with men; governments are responding to the will of the people. These are positive steps, but injustice still prevails. Here is a quote from The Urantia Book that speaks to this:

The whole idea of primitive justice was not so much to be fair as to dispose of the contest and thus prevent public disorder and private violence. But primitive man did not so much resent what would now be regarded as an injustice; it was taken for granted that those who had power would use it selfishly. Nevertheless, the status of any civilization may be very accurately determined by the thoroughness and equity of its courts and by the integrity of its judges. (70:11.10)

If we exhibit injustice towards one another certainly injustice will also be exhibited towards animals. However, animals and humans don't have the same rights. We are stewards of the planet meaning that the animals come under our care and supervision. Whether they're to be used as food or for labor or simply to give us pleasure it's our duty to treat them with love and respect â€“ since we don't treat one another that way yet it's too much to expect that we will do so with the animals under our care. But, in my estimation, animals are usually treated better than we treat one another. So, wherever you confront injustice it is valuable to speak out to try to change the condition.

Labels: animals, cruelty, humans, injustice, respect, The Urantia Book

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Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Where do animals go after death?

Q: Where do animals go after death?

A: Here's a quote from The Urantia Book:

The life bestowed upon plants and animals by the Life Carriers does not return to the Life Carriers upon the death of plant or animal. The departing life of such a living thing possesses neither identity nor personality; it does not individually survive death. During its existence and the time of its sojourn in the body of matter, it has undergone a change; it has undergone energy evolution and survives only as a part of the cosmic forces of the universe; it does not survive as individual life. The survival of mortal creatures is wholly predicated on the evolvement of an immortal soul within the mortal mind.
Page 404 (36:6.5)

Many people who have owned pets or have had a close relationship with an animal have found this statement to be difficult to accept, particularly because it says that animals don't possess identity or personality. The problem stems from taking the term out of context. When used by The Urantia Book the word personality is given a different interpretation from what we commonly use it for. We all know our cat or dog has personality â€“ that's why the pet becomes special to us. But what TUB is relating is that the eternal evolutionary course for creatures of free will intent (human beings) is separate and different from what becomes of other forms of life.

When our beloved pet dies the life force that made it special and unique to us is absorbed back into the Supreme Being. When we die we go on to the mansion worlds where we will encounter even more appealing forms of plant and animal life to associate with.

Labels: animals, death, personality, soul, Supreme Being, The Urantia Book

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