Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book

Q: Why are we born? What is the purpose of living? Why am I living?

A: Thank you for your note to Truthbook.com, a website dedicated to the teachings of The Urantia Book. I will answer your questions with Urantia Book quotes, and I hope you will click on each link to expand these important ideas

We are born to come to know and love God as our spirit Father.

(1:0.2) The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually inhabited by many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could know God, receive the divine affection, and love him in return. The universe of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. "God created the heavens and formed the earth; he established the universe and created this world not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited."

(1:1.2) The Universal Father never imposes any form of arbitrary recognition, formal worship, or slavish service upon the intelligent will creatures of the universes. The evolutionary inhabitants of the worlds of time and space must of themselves - in their own hearts - recognize, love, and voluntarily worship him. The Creator refuses to coerce or compel the submission of the spiritual free wills of his material creatures. The affectionate dedication of the human will to the doing of the Father's will is manâ€™s choicest gift to God; in fact, such a consecration of creature will constitutes man's only possible gift of true value to the Paradise Father. In God, man lives, moves, and has his being; there is nothing which man can give to God except this choosing to abide by the Father's will, and such decisions, effected by the intelligent will creatures of the universes, constitute the reality of that true worship which is so satisfying to the love-dominated nature of the Creator Father.

Our purpose in life is to share and co-create our lives with God.

(108:0.2) Nothing in the entire universe can substitute for the fact of experience on nonexistential levels. The infinite God is, as always, replete and complete, infinitely inclusive of all things except evil and creature experience. God cannot do wrong; he is infallible. God cannot experientially know what he has never personally experienced; God's preknowledge is existential. Therefore does the spirit of the Father descend from Paradise to participate with finite mortals in every bona fide experience of the ascending career; it is only by such a method that the existential God could become in truth and in fact man's experiential Father. The infinity of the eternal God encompasses the potential for finite experience, which indeed becomes actual in the ministry of the Adjuster fragments that actually share the life vicissitude experiences of human beings.

(2:2.6) God is eternally and infinitely perfect; he cannot personally know imperfection as his own experience, but he does share the consciousness of all the experience of imperfectness of all the struggling creatures of the evolutionary universes of all the Paradise Creator Sons. The personal and liberating touch of the God of perfection overshadows the hearts and encircuits the natures of all those mortal creatures who have ascended to the universe level of moral discernment. In this manner, as well as through the contacts of the divine presence, the Universal Father actually participates in the experience with immaturity and imperfection in the evolving career of every moral being of the entire universe.

We are born to develop God-consciousness.

(0:12.12) ...we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience â€” God-consciousness.

(5:5.11) God-consciousness, as it is experienced by an evolving mortal of the realms, must consist of three varying factors, three differential levels of reality realization. There is first the mind consciousness â€” the comprehension of the idea of God. Then follows the soul consciousness â€” the realization of the ideal of God. Last, dawns the spirit consciousness â€” the realization of the spirit reality of God. By the unification of these factors of the divine realization, no matter how incomplete, the mortal personality at all times overspreads all conscious levels with a realization of the personality of God.

You are living to grow an immortal soul of survival value, and then, live forever.

(1:3.7) In the inner experience of man, mind is joined to matter. Such material-linked minds cannot survive mortal death. The technique of survival is embraced in those adjustments of the human will and those transformations in the mortal mind whereby such a God-conscious intellect gradually becomes spirit taught and eventually spirit led. This evolution of the human mind from matter association to spirit union results in the transmutation of the potentially spirit phases of the mortal mind into the morontia realities of the immortal soul. Mortal mind subservient to matter is destined to become increasingly material and consequently to suffer eventual personality extinction; mind yielded to spirit is destined to become increasingly spiritual and ultimately to achieve oneness with the surviving and guiding divine spirit and in this way to attain survival and eternity of personality existence.

(5:5.13) Eternal survival of personality is wholly dependent on the choosing of the mortal mind, whose decisions determine the survival potential of the immortal soul. When the mind believes God and the soul knows God, and when, with the fostering Adjuster, they all desire God, then is survival assured.

Finally, you are a completely unique individual in the family of God. No one else can do what you have to do here on the earth. You are the only one who can reflect back to the world your unique part of the personality of God.

(12:7.9) The love of the Father absolutely individualizes each personality as a unique child of the Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity, a will creature irreplaceable in all eternity. The Father's love glorifies each child of God, illuminating each member of the celestial family, sharply silhouetting the unique nature of each personal being against the impersonal levels that lie outside the fraternal circuit of the Father of all. The love of God strikingly portrays the transcendent value of each will creature, unmistakably reveals the high value which the Universal Father has placed upon each and every one of his children from the highest creator personality of Paradise status to the lowest personality of will dignity among the savage tribes of men in the dawn of the human species on some evolutionary world of time and space.

Thank you for this most important question. I hope my reply has been helpful

Labels: God, God-Consciousness, individuality, purpose of life, sharing, soul, The Urantia Book

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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Who am I?

Conventional answers focus upon characteristics of a physical and social nature. Most people know their name, race, creed, ethnic group, nationality, occupation, family role, personality traits, social status, etc. They ARE all of these. Yet, knowing this, they continue to ask "Who am I?" There is something beyond their vital statistics and social data which people desire to know. It is as if they sense that they are part of something greater than their niche in the physical environment, and long to find out what it is.

There is not a biography in "Who's Who in America" which has a soul satisfying answer to this haunting question. All leave unanswered the identity of the biographer from a theological point of view, and leave unsatisfied the craving to know who we are in the universe or cosmos.

To discover who we are from a theological, universal or cosmic view, we must begin by exploring our characteristics which have theological, universal or cosmic significance. These should point toward who we really are.

As members of the human race, the highest order of animal life on earth, we share those characteristics held in common by human beings. If humans have any common characteristics of theological, universal or cosmic significance, then they also apply to you and me.

1. A Personality.

All who read this have one thing in common: each is a person. Persons have characteristics not shared by non-persons. These characteristics give us significant clues as to who we are.

Self-consciousness. Only persons can know that they exist as separate and distinct entities; can conceive of "I." This characteristic makes persons self-conscious: I am "I," every other person is "you," and every non-person is "it." Self-consciousness is absolutely essential to moral choosing.

Uniqueness, Individuality. No two persons are alike; each occupies a separate body and has different experiences. Each reacts differently to similar stimuli. "I" am unlike, to some extent, every other creature in the universe; and this makes "me" an individual: truly unique. (1225:37-1226:3) An understanding of this characteristic is essential to an assessment of human value. No one else can substitute for, or replace, a truly unique person.

Interpersonal Relations. Only persons have interpersonal relations. Relationships between persons and non-persons are not interpersonal. Animals and inanimate objects, not being persons, cannot interrelate "personally" with us. God is a "person," and this characteristic allows persons to have a personal relationship with God.

Wisdom. Of all material beings, only persons are endowed with minds capable of distinguishing between good and evil. Not all persons have this capability at all times; however no physical creature other than a person has wisdom. This characteristic is essential to the ability to make a free-will choice between good and evil.

Worship. Persons are the only material creatures who have a tendency to (a "spirit of") worship. Only persons can perceive that there is reality beyond the material, sense that it is "personal" in nature, sincerely esteem it for its values, and crave to develop a closer personal relationship with it. This characteristic is essential to our love and worship of God.
The above characteristics form the basis of personality. Each creature endowed with these characteristics has a separate and distinct personality, and is a personality. Personality is the key to individuality. No two personalities are the same.

Science cannot explain where personality comes from. There is nothing in the laws of genetics or the theories of evolution to indicate that personality has a scientific basis. The URANTIA Book says personality is a gift of the Father (79:9-11 1225:18-19 1226:14-15); that it is personality which gives mankind the prerogatives of self-determination, self-evolution, and self-identification with Deity. (1301:12-14) Why do we have this gift?

I am the totality of that unique personality who conceives of itself as "I"; there is no other such creature in the universe. I will always be that personality. The personality who I know as "I" is constant and changeless. I am self-conscious: I know the difference between good and evil, and can choose to do either; I can foresee the social consequences of my acts. The cosmic status of my personality is affected by these choices.

2. Man. the Highest Animal. Material man is seen as the highest order of animal life, the acme of creation. He has been given dominion over all the earth. (Genesis 1:26-28) Where did man come from? What does this power signify?

Logically, man could have arrived on earth by one or more of four means:
(1) evolved here by natural processes as a result of a colossal series of incidents, accidents, and coincidences;
(2) created here as man by fiat of God;
(3) created here by mindful use of principles of evolution and mutation; or
(4) transported here from another place.

Pure science has no better answer than that man sprang from method (1), a colossal series of incidents, accidents and coincidences. The odds favoring production of mankind in such a manner are so infinitesimally small that most sensible people reject it as a viable theory. It is said that, under the laws of probability, if enough apes were set before enough word processors and given enough time, one of them would produce a photo-ready copy of The Encyclopedia Britannica. It is one thing to speculate, statistically, that the entire work can be reproduced in that manner, and quite another to propose that it was actually written in that manner. Those believing that the universe, with mankind in it, was actually produced by mindless, directionless phenomena of chance accept something far more implausible than that The Encyclopedia Britannica was accidentally written by an ape.

Fundamentalist Christian theology holds that man came to earth by way number (2), fiat creation by God. Whether or not this is a fact, it contains the essential truth that man appeared on earth as a creative act of Deity, which is theologically significant.

The URANTIA Book teaches that the basic human stock was placed on this planet by way number (3): creation by mindful use of evolution and mutation. (667:33-39) It was planned to up step the human race by interbreeding with material stock brought to earth by way number (4): transportation from another place (Adam & Eve, 583:8-10),however, relatively little benefit accrued from this effort because of the Adamic default. (736:30-35)

For all practical purposes, it is immaterial whether mankind arrived on earth as a result of way (2), (3) or (4), or by any combination thereof; the point is that man appeared--not by accident--but as a result of creation by Deity. Why would Deity create (by any means) "man in His own image" and give him "dominion over" all other physical creation? This is a significant question. Its answers give further clues as to who we are.

Let us postulate that the physical universe of galaxies, suns, planets, moons, etc., was created (by whatever means) to provide a physical environment within which to bring into existence various forms of life designed to support, and to culminate in, "beings" with the qualities of mankind. If so, the development of life forms not only would advance toward the desired end of producing mankind, but also would support him when he came into being. This is exactly what happened on earth; we can only speculate whether it happened elsewhere. If no higher form of physical creature appears, we can reason that the creative process was designed to culminate in, and support, mankind.
I am the capstone of physical creation. I, and those like me, have dominion over all the earth. But why? How does this help Deity?

3. Free Will and Mandatory Choices.

Man is said to exercise free will; and so he does. But only to the extent that he can perceive options and understand their consequences. Wisdom is essential to free will. Civilized society does not hold its members criminally accountable for their misdeeds unless the culprit knew, or should have known, that the act was wrong. This is the basis for excusing the insane from criminal responsibility. Deity has at least as high a standard.

Out of all material creation, only man is aware of the qualities of his relationship with others, has the ability to foresee the consequences of his conduct in terms of impact on others. Only man is able to know the difference between good and evil. See definition of Evil in Part III.A, below. Therefore, only man has the ability to do evil.

There is another reason why man is the only material creature able to do evil: man, alone is able to overcome his animal nature. Animal behavior is governed by genetics and environment only; but man is able to overcome these by another behavior-regulating force: wisdom, and the free will to use it.

Lower animals always respond to a situation in accordance with their nature and training. A hungry tiger finding a lost child in the jungle acts in accordance with its nature, with no thought of any consequences. A starving man finding the child is instantly aware that a moral choice, if not a spiritual one, is involved. The tiger is absolved of moral blame if it eats the child; the man is not. Why this difference? The two reasons are:
(1) because only the man could know it was wrong, if not evil, and
(2) only the man had control over his own conduct: free will. These differences are of major theological significance.

The fact that man recognizes the difference between good and evil in any situation places upon him the inescapable burden to choose between the two. The more sensitive he becomes, the more differences he observes, and the more choices he must make. Most people constantly face such choices.

Choices between good and evil usually take the form of choices between self interests and (1) societal interests or (2) spiritual interests. Societal interests involve "right vs. wrong," sociological terms pertaining to morality. Spiritual interests involve "good vs. evil," theological terms pertaining to spirituality. This is an important difference. That which seems right may be evil. (Proverbs 14:12) Knowledge of good and evil is not the same as knowledge of right and wrong.

It is said that God provides no rewards or punishments; only consequences. God provides "consequences" only for free-will choices. He judges by the "heart:" the intent to do that known to be either good or evil. Good done accidentally or under duress has no spiritual value to the do-gooder. Evil done through ignorance or accident has no spiritual consequences upon the evildoer; but the choice of evil over good is sin, and the wages of sin is spiritual death.

Why did Deity enable mankind to ignore its animal nature? This quality of free will is given to man in order that he may perform important service to Deity, service which would be impossible without it. In Part I.C, above, four "desires" of Deity are proposed which are attainable through creatures with (1) the ability to ascertain the will of God and (2) the absolute power to obey or disobey it as they choose.

I AM an animal liberated from my animal nature and given both the wisdom to recognize the nature and con sequences of my acts and the free will to act as I choose. I therefore face constant choices of both a moral and spiritual nature. I have the power to ascertain the will of God if I seek to do so. I can increasingly gain knowledge of good and evil. (Compare Genesis 2:9,17; 825:39-40) Most knowledge comes from the Indwelling Spirit within me. (1457:40-43) Much comes from revelation, and some is portrayed in holy books. These provide the knowledge which makes me accountable for my subsequent acts.

The three human characteristics mentioned above do much to reveal who we are from a theological and cosmic point of view.

Labels: characteristics, Christian, free will, God, identity, individuality, personality, relationship, self-consciousness, The Urantia Book, universe, Who's Who in America, wisdom, worship