CONCLUSION |
|
The facts speak for themselves. The universe, life, and its evolution were designed by a God. If so, how did life get to our planet and for what purpose? Have we humans truly evolved from lower life forms? Who were the first human beings? What is the purpose of human life? What happens after we die? Is everyone guaranteed life after death? What is the soul? Is there a spirit and what is its function? Why is there so much suffering? Can there be peace without God? What is the difference between organized and individual religion? Is there a "true church?" What does it mean to follow Jesus? What is God like? Was there a universal flood? Are there other inhabited planets? The list is endless. As mentioned in the Introduction, the answer to these and many other scientific and cosmological (some dated), historical, social, philosophical and religious topics, as well as a detailed narration of the life and teachings of Jesus can be found in The URANTIA Book, the divine revelation to our planet. Published in 1955, it can be found in libraries,bookstores, and at www.urantia.org. Here are the answers to the questions: (p. 396) "Life does not originate spontaneously. Life is constructed according to plans formulated by the Architects of Being and appears on the inhabited planets either by direct importation or as a result of the operations of the Life Carriers of the local universes." (p.398) "The original life plasm of an evolutionary world must contain the full potential for all future developmental variations and all subsequent evolutionary changes and modifications. ...in and through this long process there runs the thread of the wise and intelligent formulations of the original designers of the planetary life plan and species scheme." (p. 731) "The story of man's ascent from seaweed to the lordship of earthly creation is indeed a romance of biologic struggle and mind survival. Man's primordial ancestors were literally the slime and ooze of the ocean bed in the sluggish and warm-water bays and lagoons of the vast shorelines of the ancient inland seas, those very waters in which the Life Carriers established the three independent life implantations on Urantia." ( p. 710) "To the Life Carriers on Urantia--Greetings! We transmit assurance of great pleasure on Salvington, Edentia, and Jerusem in honor of the registration on the headquarters of Nebadon of the signal of the existence on Urantia of mind of will dignity. The purposeful decision of the twins to flee northward and segregate their offspring from their inferior ancestors has been noted. This is the first decision of mind--the human type of mind--on Urantia and automatically establishes the circuit of communication over which this initial message of acknowledgment is transmitting." (p. 532) "On the mansion worlds the resurrected mortal survivors resume their lives just where they left off when overtaken by death. p. 533: On mansion world number one (or another in case of advanced status) you will resume your intellectual training and spiritual development at the exact level whereon they were interrupted by death. Almost the entire experience of mansion world number one pertains to deficiency ministry. Survivors arriving on this first of the spheres present so many and so varied defects of creature character and deficiencies of mortal experience that the major activities of the realm are occupied with the correction and cure of these manifold legacies of the life in the flesh on the material evolutionary worlds of time and space." (p. 447) "As to the chances of mortal survival, let it be made forever clear: All souls of every possible phase of mortal existence will survive provided they manifest willingness to co-operate with their indwelling Adjusters and exhibit a desire to find God and to attain divine perfection, even though these desires be but the first faint flickers of the primitive comprehension of that "true light which lights every man who comes into the world." (p. 1478) "The soul is the self-reflective, truth-discerning, and spirit-perceiving part of man which forever elevates the human being above the level of the animal world. Self-consciousness, in and of itself, is not the soul. Moral self-consciousness is true human self-realization and constitutes the foundation of the human soul. It is that part of man which represents the potential survival value of human experience. Moral choice and spiritual attainment, the ability to know God and the urge to be like him, are the characteristics of the soul.The soul of man cannot exist apart from from moral thinking and spiritual activity. A stagnant soul is a dying soul. But the soul of man is distinct from the divine spirit which dwells within the mind. The divine spirit arrives simultaneously with the first moral activity of the human mind, and that is the occasion of the birth of the soul." (p. 1185) "The mission of the Thought Adjusters to the human races is to represent, to be, the Universal Father to the mortal creatures of time and space; that is the fundamental work of the divine gifts. Their mission is also that of elevating the mortal minds and of translating the immortal souls of men up to the divine heights and spiritual levels of Paradise perfection. And in the experience of thus transforming the human nature of the temporal creature into the divine nature of the eternal finaliter, the Adjusters bring into existence a unique type of being, a being consisting in the eternal union of the perfect Adjuster and the perfected creature which it would be impossible." (p. 1661) "Man brings down upon himself unnecessary affliction as a result of his persistent refusal to walk in the better ways of the divine will. Affliction is potential in evil, but much of it has been produced by sin and iniquity. ...The Father does not send affliction as an arbitrary punishment for wrongdoing. The imperfections and handicaps of evil are inherent; the penalties of sin are inevitable; the destroying consequences of iniquity are inexorable." (p. 1569) "Seek first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and in finding these, all
other things essential to eternal survival shall be secured therewith."
(p. 2082) "Secular
social and political optimism is an illusion. Without God, neither
freedom and liberty, nor prosperity and wealth will lead to peace.
The complete secularization of science, education, industry, and
society can only lead to disaster. During the first third of the
twentieth century Urantians killed more human beings than were killed
during the whole of the Christian dispensation up to that time.
And this is only the beginning of the dire harvest of materialism
and secularism; still more terrible destruction is yet to come." (p. 1729) "The acceptance
of the traditional religions of authority presents the easy way
out for man's urge to seek satisfaction for the longings of his
spiritual nature. The settled, crystallized, and established religions
of authority afford a ready refuge to which the distracted and distraught
soul of man may flee when harassed by fear and tormented by uncertainty.
Such a religion requires of its devotees, as the price to be paid
for its satisfactions and assurances, only a passive and purely
intellectual assent. ... The religion of the spirit means effort,
struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress.
The religion of the mind - the theology of authority - requires
little or none of these exertions from its formal believers. Tradition
is a safe refuge and an easy path for these fearful and half-hearted
souls who instinctively shun the spiritual struggles and mental
uncertainties associated with those faith voyages of daring adventures
upon the high seas of unexplored truth in search for the further
shores of spiritual realities as they may be discovered by the progressive
human mind and experienced by the evolving human soul." (p. 2085) "The true church
- the Jesus brotherhood - is invisible, spiritual, and is characterized
by unity, not necessarily uniformity. Uniformity is
the earmark of the physical world of mechanistic nature. Spiritual
unity is the faith union with the living Jesus." (p. 2090) "To follow
Jesus means to personally share his religious faith and to enter
into the spirit of the Master's life of unselfish service to man.
One of the most important things in human living is to find out
what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the
achievement of his exhalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge,
that which is of the greatest value is to know the religious life
of Jesus and how he lived it." (p 41) "God is never
wrathful, vengeful, or angry. It is true that wisdom does often
restrain his love, while justice conditions his rejected mercy.
His love of righteousness cannot help being as equal hatred of sin.
The Father is not an inconsistent personality; the divine unity
is perfect. ... God loves the sinner and hates the sin: such
a statement is true philosophically, but God is a transcendent personality,
and persons can only love and hate other persons." (p. 875) "The traditions
of a time when water covered the whole of the earth's surface are
universal. Many races harbor the story of a world-wide flood some
time during past ages. The Biblical story of Noah, the ark, and
the flood is an invention of the Hebrew priesthood during the Babylonian
captivity. There has never been a universal flood since life was
established on Urantia. The only time the surface of the earth was
completely covered by water was during those Archeozoic ages before
the land had begun to appear. But Noah really lived; he was a wine
maker of Aram, a river settlement near Erech. He kept a written
record of the days of the river's rise from year to year. He brought
much ridicule upon himself by going up and down the river valley
advocating that all houses be built of wood, boat fashion, and that
the family animals be put on board each night as the flood season
approached. He would go to the neighboring river settlements every
year and warn them that in so many days the floods would come. Finally
a year came in which the annual floods were greatly augmented by
unusually heavy rainfall so that the sudden rise of the waters wiped
out the entire village; only Noah and his immediate family were
saved in their houseboat."
|
 |
