Urantia Book Commentary and Articles

Charter for Compassion
Posted at: 2009-11-15
Author: Austen Ivereigh

As a fan of the writer Karen Armstrong -- a former nun who has become one of the leading authorities on religion and its deformation in the modern world -- I was intrigued to learn of an initiative she has just launched: no less than a global charter calling for the restoration of the principle of compassion. It is backed by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and other world worthies.

There's a danger that such all-inclusive single ideas aimed at uniting the world melt into glibness: is there a hint here of the Enlightenment project, which sought to create a universal "reasonable" religion, and ended up eviscerating all that was best in faith?

Actually I think the Charter -- read it here or watch it being voiced in a clever video -- escapes this danger, because it is written by a woman who deeply respects and understands religion.

Please click on "external source" to access the entire article, including a link to the "Charter for Compassion" in a compelling video.

Labels: Austen Ivereigh, compassion, golden rule, Karen Armstrong, video

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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Four Myths Defy Modern Science

This is a very interesting article posted by Dr Mercola. Enjoy the movie...To view additional comments by Dr Mercola, please click on "external source" below.

Following are some Urantia Book quotes which illustrate the soundness of the ideas presented in this video, and their harmony with Urantia Book teachings:

MECHANICAL UNIVERSE MYTH

103:6.4 When man analytically inspects the universe through the material endowments of his physical senses and associated mind perception, the cosmos appears to be mechanical and energy-material. Such a technique of studying reality consists in turning the universe inside out.

42:11.1 In the evaluation and recognition of mind it should be remembered that the universe is neither mechanical nor magical; it is a creation of mind and a mechanism of law. But while in practical application the laws of nature operate in what seems to be the dual realms of the physical and the spiritual, in reality they are one.

42:11.2 Mechanisms do not absolutely dominate the total creation; the universe of universes in toto is mind planned, mind made, and mind administered. But the divine mechanism of the universe of universes is altogether too perfect for the scientific methods of the finite mind of man to discern even a trace of the dominance of the infinite mind. For this creating, controlling, and upholding mind is neither material mind nor creature mind; it is spirit-mind functioning on and from creator levels of divine reality.

LIFE IS BASED ON SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

49:1.6 The early stages of life evolution are not altogether in conformity with your present-day views. Mortal man is not an evolutionary accident. There is a precise system, a universal law, which determines the unfolding of the planetary life plan on the spheres of space. Time and the production of large numbers of a species are not the controlling influences. Mice reproduce much more rapidly than elephants, yet elephants evolve more rapidly than mice.

71:5.3 Throughout the earlier ages of any world, competition is essential to progressive civilization. As the evolution of man progresses, co-operation becomes increasingly effective. In advanced civilizations co-operation is more efficient than competition. Early man is stimulated by competition. Early evolution is characterized by the survival of the biologically fit, but later civilizations are the better promoted by intelligent co-operation, understanding fraternity, and spiritual brotherhood.

LIFE EVOLVED AS A RANDOM PROCESS

49:1.7 The process of planetary evolution is orderly and controlled. The development of higher organisms from lower groupings of life is not accidental. Sometimes evolutionary progress is temporarily delayed by the destruction of certain favorable lines of life plasm carried in a selected species. It often requires ages upon ages to recoup the damage occasioned by the loss of a single superior strain of human heredity. These selected and superior strains of living protoplasm should be jealously and intelligently guarded when once they make their appearance. And on most of the inhabited worlds these superior potentials of life are valued much more highly than on Urantia.

GENES CONTROL YOUR LIFE

116:6.1 In the evolutionary superuniverses energy-matter is dominant except in personality, where spirit through the mediation of mind is struggling for the mastery. The goal of the evolutionary universes is the subjugation of energy-matter by mind, the co-ordination of mind with spirit, and all of this by virtue of the creative and unifying presence of personality. Thus, in relation to personality, do physical systems become subordinate; mind systems, co-ordinate; and spirit systems, directive.

19:1.5 ...The human mind would ordinarily crave to approach the cosmic philosophy portrayed in these revelations by proceeding from the simple and the finite to the complex and the infinite, from human origins to divine destinies. But that path does not lead to spiritual wisdom. Such a procedure is the easiest path to a certain form of genetic knowledge, but at best it can only reveal man's origin; it reveals little or nothing about his divine destiny.

Labels: Dr Bruce Lipton, Dr Mercola, evolution, genetics, mechanical universe, spiritual growth, The Urantia Book, video

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Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Big Bang Briefly

Truthbook did not produce this video, but only offers it for your interest...

We [not Truthbook] made this video about the Big Bang because the theory is important and amazing, but often misunderstood.

This video was produced without any funding from any outside sources. It was put together with donated creative time from a group with a desire to further public cognition of science.

Science has many amazing stories to tell, this is the first. The Big Bang Briefly.
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Story Teller: Janna Levin
Director: Keith Olwell and Elizabeth Kiehner
Producer: Keith Olwell and Elizabeth Kiehner
Animation Studio: Thornberg & Forester
Director of Animation: Justin Meredith
Editorial: Proton Studio
DP: Luke Geissbuhler
Music: Copilot
Color: James Long

In the interest of advancing revealed cosmological truth from The Urantia Book we also offer the following collection of quotes taken from our new study of Evolution. They may help in addressing some of the issues brought up in the video.

________________
In The Beginning...

"In the eternity of the past...," The Urantia Book reveals, God the Spirit - the third person of the Trinity - came into existence. He is the God of Action

The stage of universal space is set for the manifold and never-ending panorama of the creative unfolding of the purpose of the Universal Father through the personality of the Eternal Son and by the execution of the God of Action, the executive agency for the reality performances of the Father-Son creator partnership.(8:1.3)

The Perfect Worlds of Havona are Created. This is center of the universe of universes.

The God of Action functions and the dead vaults of space are astir. One billion perfect spheres flash into existence. Prior to this hypothetical eternity moment the space-energies inherent in Paradise are existent and potentially operative, but they have no actuality of being; neither can physical gravity be measured except by the reaction of material realities to its incessant pull. There is no material universe at this (assumed) eternally distant moment, but the very instant that one billion worlds materialize, there is in evidence gravity sufficient and adequate to hold them in the everlasting grasp of Paradise.(8:1.4)

Gravity, Spirit and Personality in Relation to the Perfect Creation of Havona

There now flashes through the creation of the Gods the second form of energy, and this outflowing spirit is instantly grasped by the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son. Thus the twofold gravity-embraced universe is touched with the energy of infinity and immersed in the spirit of divinity. In this way is the soil of life prepared for the consciousness of mind made manifest in the associated intelligence circuits of the Infinite Spirit.

Upon these seeds of potential existence, diffused throughout the central creation of the Gods, the Father acts, and creature personality appears. Then does the presence of the Paradise Deities fill all organized space and begin effectively to draw all things and beings Paradiseward. (8:1.5)

This is the one and only settled, perfect, and established aggregation of worlds. This is a wholly created and perfect universe; it is not an evolutionary development. This is the eternal core of perfection, about which swirls that endless procession of universes which constitute the tremendous evolutionary experiment, the audacious adventure of the Creator Sons of God, who aspire to duplicate in time and to reproduce in space the pattern universe, the ideal of divine completeness, supreme finality, ultimate reality, and eternal perfection.(14:0.2)

Havona is the home of the pattern personality of every mortal type and the home of all superhuman personalities of mortal association who are not native to the creations of time. (14:6.34)

In brief, the Infinite Spirit testifies that, since he is eternal, so also is the central universe eternal. And this is the traditional starting point of the history of the universe of universes.(8:1.9)

From the Infinite to the Finite - The Time-Space Creations, and the "Growth Cycle"

When the perfect worlds of the Central Universe have been created, there remains the creation of the worlds of time and space - the finite creations whereon mortal beings have their existence by the freewill choice of the First Source and Center.

Finite possibility is inherent in the Infinite, but the transmutation of possibility to probability and inevitability must be attributed to the self-existent free will of the First Source and Center, activating all triunity associations. Only the infinity of the Father's will could ever have so qualified the absolute level of existence as to eventuate an ultimate or to create a finite.

With the appearance of relative and qualified reality there comes into being a new cycle of realityâ€”the growth cycleâ€”a majestic downsweep from the heights of infinity to the domain of the finite, forever swinging inward to Paradise and Deity, always seeking those high destinies commensurate with an infinity source.

These inconceivable transactions mark the beginning of universe history, mark the coming into existence of time itself. To a creature, the beginning of the finite is the genesis of reality; as viewed by creature mind, there is no actuality conceivable prior to the finite.(105:5.6)

The universe response involved an activation of the architectural plans for the superuniverse space level, and this evolution is still progressing throughout the physical organization of the seven superuniverses. (105:6.3)

Enjoy the show...

Labels: astronomy, Big Bang, cosmology, God, Janna Levin, science, the universe, The Urantia Book, video

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Friday, October 17, 2008

What Is The Urantia Book?

This video is the result of interviews conducted with various Urantia Book readers, who explain in their own words what The Urantia Book is. In heartfelt and inspiring fashion, "What Is The Urantia Book?" helps others understand why this Revelation is such an important source of truth, beauty and goodness, and how it has impacted some of those whose lives it has touched.

Labels: God, interviews, readers, searching, The Urantia Book, truth, video

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

My stroke of insight

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

(The following Urantia Book section is a discussion of our two-brain types, and aligns well with this article. ed.)

Brain Type

p566:1 49:5.6 2. Brain-type series. The one physical uniformity of mortals is the brain and nervous system; nevertheless, there are three basic organizations of the brain mechanism: the one-, the two-, and the three-brained types. Urantians are of the two-brained type, somewhat more imaginative, adventurous, and philosophical than the one-brained mortals but somewhat less spiritual, ethical, and worshipful than the three-brained orders. These brain differences characterize even the prehuman animal existences.
p566:2 49:5.7 From the two-hemisphere type of the Urantian cerebral cortex you can, by analogy, grasp something of the one-brained type. The third brain of the three-brained orders is best conceived as an evolvement of your lower or rudimentary form of brain, which is developed to the point where it functions chiefly in control of physical activities, leaving the two superior brains free for higher engagements: one for intellectual functions and the other for the spiritual-counterparting activities of the Thought Adjuster.

Labels: Jill Bolte Taylor, left brain, right brain, stroke, The Urantia Book, Thought Adjuster, two-brained, video

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The Pale Blue Dot

This short video, with the voice of Carl Sagan, and powerful images, is a sweet, sad, and yet hopeful meditation on our beloved home, Urantia.

Labels: Carl Sagan, love, planet earth, video

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Thursday, July 12, 2007

Work, And Self-Importance

Work for the Kingdom, service for others, toiling for goodness...such important work. There's only one thing that can delay or halt it altogther. Learn more here.

This short video is long on inspiration...

Labels: Allison Zopel, self-importance, The Urantia Book, video, work

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Is world peace possible?

This short video contains an inspiring message about the possibilities of world peace, referencing Urantia Book quotes. It is quite brief, but worth a look and a listen.

Try it, you'll like it!!!