The Urantia Book

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The Urantia Book is a spiritual and philosophical tome that discusses God, science, religion, history, philosophy, and destiny. Sometimes it is referred to as "The Urantia Papers", or the "Fifth Epochal Revelation". The book originated in Chicago, Illinois sometime between 1924 and 1955, but its authorship is a mystery. (See Mysterious origin.)

The Urantia Book seeks to clear up numerous misconceptions regarding God, divinity and deity. It addresses Jesus, the origin and meaning of life, and humankind's place in creation. The book is 2,097 pages long, and consists of a foreword and 196 papers, divided into four parts.

The Urantia Book defines the word Urantia as the name of the planet Earth. "Urantian" is a derivation used to denote anyone or anything that originates on Earth. Sometimes, the word "Urantian" is used colloquially to denote an individual who admires and believes in the book, but this application is not used in the book itself.

The Urantia Foundation first published The Urantia Book in 1955 in English. Translations into numerous languages are available. In 2001 the Urantia Foundation lost the U.S. copyright to the English version in a court decision, and the text of the original English version is now in the public domain. Free, searchable editions of The Urantia Book are available on the Internet.

Contents

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Overview of The Urantia Book

The Urantia Book consists of the following:

Table of Contents
Foreword
Part I: The Central and Superuniverses
Part II: The Local Universe
Part III: The History of Urantia
Part IV: The Life and Teachings of Jesus

The Foreword is in outline form and is presented as a guide to the words, ideas, ideals and complex philosophical and religious concepts found throughout the book. The definitions of the words used in the text are provided because the authors anticipated the natural differential of their use as well as the likelihood that the meanings would change over time.

Part I consists of 31 papers regarding "The Central and Superuniverses". Some of these papers are "The Universal Father", "God’s Relation to the Universe", "God’s Relation to the Individual", "The Eternal Son", "The Infinite Spirit", "The Paradise Trinity", and "The Eternal Isle of Paradise". Through the presentations of these papers, Part I addresses what are considered the highest levels of creation beginning with the concepts of the eternal and infinite God.

Part II consists of Papers 32 through 56, which are dedicated to an array of subjects pertaining to "The Local Universe". Papers include "The Evolution of the Local Universes", "Administration of the Local Universe", "Personalities of the Local Universe", "The Seraphic Hosts", "Physical Aspects of the Local Universe", "The Seven Mansion Worlds", "Planetary Mortal Epochs", "The Lucifer Rebellion", and "The Spheres of Light and Life". Part II expands on Part I and presents narratives on the inhabitants of local universes and their work, as it is coordinated with God’s plans in the larger schemes of creation.

Part III consists of Papers 57 through 119 and compiles a broad history of the earth titled, "The History of Urantia". Topics include "The Origin of Urantia", "Life Establishment on Urantia", several narratives on evolution, "The First Human Family", "The Planetary Rebellion", "The Default of Adam and Eve", "The Origins of Worship", "The Foundations of Religious Faith", "Deity and Reality", "The Adjuster and the Soul", "Personality Survival", and "The Bestowals of Christ Michael". Part III presents a story of yet further examination and explanation of the origin, history, purpose and destiny of the planet and of its inhabitants.

Part IV consists of Papers 120 through 196 and narrates "The Life and Teachings of Jesus." Included are papers on the "Bestowal of Michael on Urantia", "Birth and Infancy of Jesus", "The Early Childhood of Jesus", "The Later Adult Life of Jesus", detailed narratives on Jesus’ trip to Rome, "John the Baptist", "Baptism and the Forty Days", "The Twelve Apostles", and "Beginning the Public Work." Part IV presents details about several preaching tours 1234, miracles1234, crises 12, and events that led to the crucifixion, death and resurrection. It continues from there with papers on Pentecost and finally, "The Faith of Jesus". Part IV makes use of the idealogical concepts presented in the first three parts some of which are illustrated through the story of the example of Jesus' life.

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Teachings

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God and the individual

God in the narrative of The Urantia Book is the creator and upholder of all reality — an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite and eternal spirit personality. The Urantia Book presents a cosmological concept that God resides at the center of creation on the eternal Isle of Paradise and that he exists in a Trinity of three persons: the Universal Father, Eternal Son, and Infinite Spirit.

The most fundamental teaching about God in the book is that above all other concepts he is to be considered a loving Father. Even during the development of numerous other themes in The Urantia Book, "God as a loving Father" is emphasized as the central, unifying attitude of God toward his creation.

Jesus is described as a Son of God of the order of "Creator Son", a divine personality of high importance who incarnated on Earth and whose life and teachings are portrayed as the fullest revelation of the personality and attitude of the Father ever given to humanity.

Paper 196, the final paper, states:

"To 'follow Jesus' means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master's life of unselfish service for 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 exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it."

God is described as the Father of each individual through the direct gift of a fragment of his eternal spirit, called a Thought Adjuster. The Thought Adjuster is also called a "Mystery Monitor," "inner voice," "divine spark," and "pilot light." The concept of the Thought Adjuster is in ways comparable to the Hindu atman and the ancient Egyptian ka. From philosophy, the concept is similar to Socrates' "daimonion." In relation to Christian traditions, it is described by the book as the meaning behind "being made in God's image" and the "kingdom of God is within."

God is said to achieve a personal relationship with all of his "children" through this indwelling spirit presence. According to The Urantia Book, each normal-minded person receives one such fragment at the time of his or her first independent moral decision, typically around the age of six, and the Adjuster then serves non-coercively as a divine partner for the rest of life, constantly attempting to lead the person toward more mature, spiritualized thinking. Through the practice of learning how to follow the inner leadings of the Adjuster — choose "God's will" — the individual progresses to greater God consciousness and spiritual growth.

A person's Thought Adjuster is described as distinct from the soul. In The Urantia Book's teachings, the degree to which a human mind chooses to accept its Adjuster's guidance becomes the degree to which a person's soul "grows" and becomes a reality that can then survive death. The soul is in essence an embryonic spiritual development, with one parental factor being the divine Adjuster and the other being the human will.

The book many times links the biblical New Testament teachings of becoming like a little child in attitude of trust and sincerity as being the essential and ideal stance each person should have toward God. This attitude of open-minded teachability is what facilitates spiritual growth in liaison with the work of the Thought Adjuster and invariably leads a person to love and serve other people. The book is strongly fideistic and teaches that neither science nor logic will ever be able to prove the existence of God, faith is necessary to become conscious of God's presence in human experience, the indwelling Adjuster.

From Paper 101, "The Real Nature of Religion":

"Religious experience, being essentially spiritual, can never be fully understood by the material mind; hence the function of theology, the psychology of religion. The essential doctrine of the human realization of God creates a paradox in finite comprehension. It is well-nigh impossible for human logic and finite reason to harmonize the concept of divine immanence, God within and a part of every individual, with the idea of God's transcendence, the divine domination of the universe of universes. These two essential concepts of Deity must be unified in the faith-grasp of the concept of the transcendence of a personal God and in the realization of the indwelling presence of a fragment of that God in order to justify intelligent worship and validate the hope of personality survival. The difficulties and paradoxes of religion are inherent in the fact that the realities of religion are utterly beyond the mortal capacity for intellectual comprehension."

Persistently embracing sin is the same as rejecting the leadings of the Adjuster, the same as rejecting the will of God. Constant selfishness and sinful choosing will lead eventually to iniquity and full identification with unrighteousness, and since unrighteousness is unreal, it results in the eventual annihilation of the individual's identity — personalities like this become "as if they never were." The book says that "in the last analysis, such sin-identified individuals have destroyed themselves by becoming wholly unreal through their embrace of iniquity." There is not a concept of Hell or earthly reincarnation in The Urantia Book.

From Paper 5:
"The great God makes direct contact with mortal man and gives a part of his infinite and eternal and incomprehensible self to live and dwell within him. God has embarked upon the eternal adventure with man. If you yield to the leadings of the spiritual forces in you and around you, you cannot fail to attain the high destiny established by a loving God as the universe goal of his ascendant creatures from the evolutionary worlds of space."

To want to know God and become like him should be the supreme quest of each person. God mandated "be you perfect, even as I am perfect," so a vast universe scheme of ascension was created and now exists to assist mortal man in attaining this eternal goal. Mortal man is an experiential creature and so he must 'experience' in order to 'become'. The destiny of humankind is to traverse the universes of creation to 'meet God'. Humans go from a beginning existence in finite time-space creation through a long series of 570 translations in an intervening space heretofore unknown to mankind termed "morontia" which prepares him one world at a time for the final translation to eternity-infinity. Once they graduate they will figuratively come 'face to face with God' on the Isle of Paradise. In the book, the universe is "one vast school" that prepares a surviving mortal for fulfillment of the mandate. After attainment of this status, the book goes on to discuss the potential destinies of these 'glorified mortals of the realms'.

The book describes that a person is ultimately destined to fuse with his or her divine fragment and become one inseparable entity with it if the person has chosen to accept the Adjuster's leadings and become self-identified with it. The act of fusion is described as the moment when a human personality has successfully and unalterably won eternal life, typically taking place in the afterlife, but also a possibility during earthly life. Once fused with his or her fragment of God, a person continues as an ascending citizen in the universe and travels through numerous worlds on a long, adventurous pilgrimage of growth and learning that eventually leads to God and Paradise. Mortals who reach this stage are called "finaliters".

The book places much emphasis on the idea that all individuals have the same opportunity to come to know God, and it says nothing can hinder or hurt a human being's spiritual progression if he or she is sincerely motivated to be spirit led. Humankind is to actively work to understand each other and seek to live in love and peace, being of help to one another. The practice of the "religion of Jesus" is to provide unselfish service to each other, to love the Father with a person's whole being, and to love each other the way Jesus loves people.

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Cosmology

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The Urantia Book uses the term "universe" to denote a number of different scales of organization. A superuniverse is roughly the size of a galaxy or group of galaxies. A local universe is described as approximately .00001 the size of a superuniverse. The modern dictionary definition of universe — all existing matter and space taken as a whole — is referred to as the "master universe". When the term "universe" is used alone, the type of universe usually can be inferred from the context.

From pages 1-2 in the "Foreword":
"Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon. This universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton, from whose capital, Uversa, our commission hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection — the central universe of Havona. At the heart of this eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity and the dwelling place of the eternal God.
The seven evolving superuniverses in association with the central and divine universe, we commonly refer to as the grand universe; these are the now organized and inhabited creations. They are all a part of the master universe, which also embraces the uninhabited but mobilizing universes of outer space."
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The future

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The earth, Urantia, like every other inhabited sphere in the finite creation is destined to sometime reach a stage of "light and life" that is contributory to the rest of the universe and onward. It is the evolutionary destiny of humankind to reach a far off stage of life, "the final epoch", on the planet; a time when all mortals will fuse and translate to the next worlds rather than suffer death. Urantia, at this time, has very few fusion candidates. It, as a whole, must traverse several more evolutionary stages before it reaches the first stage of "Light and Life" where most mortals are able attain the fusion potential during their 'earthy life'.

The plan for the entire finite creation is to "become" something more complete and replete than the stage in which it is found now. Every individual, every planet, every solar system, every sector, every local universe, every universe has an attainment potential and ideal to reach.

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The Lucifer Rebellion

In The Urantia Book Lucifer was a brilliant spirit personality, a "son of God" who at one time ruled the system of "Satania" in our constellation of "Norlatiadek." His was a high position, the System Sovereign, which at that time included 607 inhabited planets.

He fell into a nefarious and iniquitous rebellion against the established and ordained universe governmental regime in a denial of God's existence saying he was God and worship belonged to him. "There was war in Heaven".

According to the narratives, he recruited Satan, to represent his cause on Urantia. The then planetary prince of earth, Caligastia - one and the same as "the devil", believed Satan when he presented Lucifer's cause. Subsequently he aligned himself, along with 37 other planetary princes in the system, with the archrebels. They all attempted to take the entire populations of their planets under the assertion of a false "Declaration of Liberty" and into a reign of sin and iniquity.

When Jesus of Nazareth went up to Mt. Hermon for the "temptation", it was really to settle this iniquitous rebellion once and for all for the entire system. "Said Jesus of Caligastia: "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast down." Subsequently, Lucifer, Satan, Caligastia and all the personalities who followed them, "fell from Heaven". In The Book of Revelation, the Apostle John glimpsed the symbolism of this when he saw the tail of a dragon knock down 1/3 of the stars. All of the high personalities who followed the rebellious Lucifer were "dethroned and shorn of their governing powers". After these nefarious character's efforts to corrupt Jesus and thwart his bestowal mission on Urantia were victoriously overcome, any and all sympathy for these fallen "sons of God", outside the worlds of sin and rebellion, ceased.

Quote: P.613 - §2 Potential evil is time-existent in a universe embracing differential levels of perfection meanings and values. Sin is potential in all realms where imperfect beings are endowed with the ability to choose between good and evil. The very conflicting presence of truth and untruth, fact and falsehood, constitutes the potentiality of error. The deliberate choice of evil constitutes sin; the willful rejection of truth is error; the persistent pursuit of sin and error is iniquity.
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Comparisons to religious teachings

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Comparison to Christianity

Of all current world religions, The Urantia Book's teachings are likely the most consistent with the teachings of Christianity. There are significant differences between The Urantia Book and commonly accepted Christian beliefs. Many believers see it as extending Judeo-Christian religious concepts in the same way the New Testament may be considered an evolutionary expansion of Old Testament ideas.

Jesus is held in high regard by The Urantia Book as he is in the Bible. More than one third of the content in The Urantia Book is devoted to a narrative of his life and teachings. The divinity of Jesus is fully embraced by the authors of the book, as is his human nature.

The following are attributed to Jesus, as in the Bible:

  • He was a Son of God incarnate, born to Mary and Joseph
  • He was God in man; both human and divine
  • He lived a perfect life; he was without sin
  • He is "the light of the world"
  • He revealed God to man as "the way, the truth, and the life"
  • He performed many of the miracles described in the Bible, such as the resurrection of Lazarus, the turning of water into wine, the feeding of the five thousand, and numerous healings of the blind, diseased, and infirm
  • He taught twelve apostles, eleven of whom who went on to spread his teachings
  • He settled a rebellion with Lucifer
  • He was crucified and three days later rose from the dead
  • He will return to our world again some day

The Urantia Book shares the following general concepts of God with most Christian faiths:

  • God is the creator of all reality
  • God is described as a loving personality; "God is love"
  • God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite, and eternal
  • God is a Trinity
  • God has a vast "heavenly host"
  • God is truth, beauty, and goodness, and there is no sin, unrighteousness, or evil in Him
  • Believers can have a personal relationship with God
  • Believers will survive death
  • God knows what people need before they ask it
  • God provides angels to guard and minister to people throughout their lives

Some differences with Christianity include:

  • Jesus' crucifixion is not considered an atonement for the sins of humanity. The crucifixion was an outcome of the fears of the religious leaders of the day. His teachings were a threat to their coffers and their positions of authority.
  • God is never wrathful or angry, but a personality entirely motivated by fatherly love.
  • There was no Fall of Man.
  • When Jesus was 28 and 29, he toured Rome, Greece, and nearby regions in the company of two natives of India, Gonod and Ganid.
  • Jesus is described as the human incarnation of "Michael of Nebadon," one of more than 700,000 "Paradise Sons" of God, or "Creator Sons." Jesus is not considered the second person of the Trinity as he is in Christianity. The book refers to the Eternal Son as the second person of the Trinity.
  • Jesus is said to have a co-creator consort, the Mother Spirit" of Nebadon, also known as the "Divine Minister." This spirit is said to be the bestower of mind to all living things and beings in Nebadon and the Holy Spirit from Christian traditions.
  • Jesus was born on earth through natural means of conception. The Virgin Birth is said to be the product of human myth developed later.
  • In rising from the dead, Jesus was in a "more glorified form," a transitional stage between material and spiritual existence known as the "morontia" life. As with all mortals, his physical body was subject to decomposition, but celestial beings removed his body from the tomb for the immediate dissolution of his remains through a process of "accelerated time."
  • At Pentecost his spirit, known as the Spirit of Truth, was bestowed on all humankind, rather than the Holy Spirit
  • The return of Jesus is described as "an event of tremendous sentimental value," but otherwise "of no more practical importance to human beings than the common event of natural death." The book says that Jesus may return to the world many times. Common Christian eschatology doctrines, such as the Rapture, where Jesus returns to take faithful believers to heaven and leaves behind unbelievers for tribulation, are not supported.
  • Women are equal to men spiritually, and as concerns them overall and in religion, are not to be minimized in any way.
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Comparison to Buddhism

The Urantia Book considers Buddhism one of the "great international, interracial faiths" and says it "has shown an adaptability to the mores of many peoples that has been equaled only by Christianity."

Gautama Siddhartha is called a real prophet whose doctrines were revolutionary and amazing for their time. He is credited with being one of the seven outstanding teachers in human history, a group that includes Moses, Laozi, and the Apostle Paul.

The teaching that a divine nature — the Buddha-nature — resides in all people, and that through their own endeavors people can attain a realization of this inner divinity, is cited as one of the clearest presentations of the concept of the Thought Adjuster to be found in non-revelatory religion.

The book says Gautama's experience was tragic, however, in that he was an "orphan prophet" whose philosophy failed early on to envision the reality of a spiritual God.

Despite this, the book states: "Buddhism is a living, growing religion today because it succeeds in conserving many of the highest moral values of its adherents. It promotes calmness and self-control, augments serenity and happiness, and does much to prevent sorrow and mourning. Those who believe this philosophy live better lives than many who do not."

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Comparison to other world religions

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Numerous facets of the book are recognizeable in other world religions. There are commonalities with Islam, Taoism, Judaism, Hinduism, Shinto, and Confucianism, and several other religions throughout recorded history. The authors of The Urantia Book encourage the study of all religions to take "the best" from them.

Paper 131: The World's Religions discusses more in-depth those facets of some of the world's religions which have commonalities with the religion of Jesus, but there are also numerous other references to the world's various religions throughout Part III, The History of Urantia beginning with Paper 86 - Early Evolution of Religion.

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Consideration as literature

The Urantia Book has been enjoyed as a form of science fiction, historical fiction, or fantasy. The Urantia Book is noted for its high level of internal consistency and an advanced writing style. Even Gardner, in his critical book, writes that it is "highly imaginative" and that the "cosmology outrivals in fantasy the cosmology of any science-fiction work known to me."

Parts I, II, and III are chiefly written in expository language. The papers are informational, matter-of-fact, and instructional. Part IV of the book is written as a biography of Jesus' life, and some feel it is a rich narrative with well-developed characters, high attention to detail, woven sub-plots, and realistic dialogue. Considered as literature, Part IV is favorably compared to other retellings of Jesus' life, such as The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago and Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock.

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Mysterious origin

The exact circumstances of the origin of The Urantia Book are not known. There is not a human author associated with the book, and it is written as if directly presented by numerous celestial beings to provide a new spiritual revelation to humankind.

The documented history is that a person whose identity has remained unknown received the material from spirit beings while asleep. This individual, known as the "sleeping subject" or "contact personality", is said to have been purposefully kept anonymous to prevent undesirable veneration or reverence for him.

As early as 1908, Dr. William S. Sadler, a surgeon and psychologist in Chicago, Illinois, became the attending physician of the sleeping subject after the individual's wife reported that he had been acting strangely in his sleep. Over time, the unconscious subject produced communications that seemed as if they were from entities who claimed to be spiritual beings. Dr. Sadler was a respected physician and a debunker of paranormal claims, who is generally portrayed as not believing in supernatural claims.

A group of Sadler's friends, former patients, and colleagues originally began meeting for intellectual discussions in 1924, but became interested in the strange communications of the sleeping subject when Sadler mentioned the case and read samples at their request. Shortly afterwards, a communication was received that this group would be allowed to devise questions and that answers would be given by the celestial beings through the contact personality.

Sadler presented this development to the group, and they generated hundreds of questions without full seriousness, but it resulted in the appearance, one by one, of answers in the form of fully written papers. The process continued as they became more impressed with the quality of the answers and continued to ask questions, until all papers now collected together as The Urantia Book were received. The group was known as the Forum. A smaller group called the Contact Commission, including Dr. Sadler and his wife Dr. Lena Kellogg Sadler, was responsible for gathering the questions from the Forum, acting as the custodians of the handwritten manuscripts that were presented as answers, and arranging for proofreading and typing of the material that arrived.

The Sadlers and others involved, now all deceased, claimed that the papers of the book were physically materialized from 1925 until 1935 in a way that was not understood even by them, with the first three parts being completed in 1934 and the fourth in 1935. The last Forum gathering was in 1942. Also documented are methods of reception that Dr. Sadler refuted as the way the papers were received.

After all of the written material was received in 1935, an additional period of time took place where requests for clarifications resulted in revisions. Dr. Sadler and his son William (Bill) Sadler, Jr. at one point wrote a draft introduction but were supposedly told by the revelators that they could not add their introduction because "a candle cannot light the sun." The Forward was then provided by the celestial beings. Bill Sadler is noted to have composed the table of contents that is published with the book, however.

The communications with the celestial beings purportedly continued for another two decades while members of the Forum began to study the book in-depth, and according to Dr. Sadler and others, permission to publish the book was given to them in 1955. An organization called Urantia Foundation was formed from early believers in the book, and through privately raised funds, the book was published under international copyright on October 12, 1955.

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Critical views

The Urantia Book has received limited published or formal critical analysis. Likely the most common points of contention include:

  • It claims to be a revelation from celestial beings and is written as if directly presented by these celestial beings.
  • To those who assert that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, it denies some Christian doctrines that are held to be true and therefore is not acceptable.
  • From a scientific point of view, parts of the science it describes conflict with modern theories.
  • Some of the concepts are alleged to have been plagiarized.
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Criticism of claims as a revelation

In Paper 92, "The Later Evolution of Religion" , the authors list the papers as the fifth epochal revelation to humankind, the fourth epochal revelation having been the life of Jesus.

The book has been in print since 1955, but in comparison to better known religious or holy books that also have a recent origin and revelatory claims, such as the Book of Mormon, popularity of The Urantia Book has not grown as fast.

Unlike new religious movements with higher growth rates such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Scientology, and Church of Christ, Scientist, the movement inspired by The Urantia Book has no institutions such as churches, reading rooms, or temples, and has no membership by which a census of the number of followers can be taken. As of 2004, the Urantia Foundation has one office in Chicago and five people on staff.

The claim of revelation in The Urantia Book has been criticized for various reasons. Skeptics such as Martin Gardner say it is a product of human efforts rather than a revelation because some of its science is flawed. Because the book does not support certain fundamental tenets of Christianity, while at the same time presenting an account of Jesus' life with non-Biblical elements, those with a Christian viewpoint have argued it cannot be a divine revelation. Some have considered it to be gnostic for this reason, however The Urantia Book does not advocate tenets associated with Gnosticism. Other critics have felt that at over 2,000 pages — nearly twice the length of the King James Bible — it is too long, complex, and bureaucratic in its thinking.

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Criticism of science

In Paper 101, "The Real Nature of Religion," the authors write:

"We full well know that, while the historic facts and religious truths of this series of revelatory presentations will stand on the records of the ages to come, within a few short years many of our statements regarding the physical sciences will stand in need of revision in consequence of additional scientific developments and new discoveries. These new developments we even now foresee, but we are forbidden to include such humanly undiscovered facts in the revelatory records. Let it be made clear that revelations are not necessarily inspired. The cosmology of these revelations is not inspired."

Skeptics like Martin Gardner see the science in The Urantia Book as clear reflections of the views that prevailed at the time the book is said to have originated. The claim by the authors that no unknown scientific discoveries could be imparted is seen as a ruse to allow mistakes to be dismissed later. That presentation of post-1955 scientific knowledge is avoided is seen as evidence it was written by humans and not by celestial beings with superior knowledge.

Criticisms regarding the science in The Urantia Book include:

  • The formation of the solar system is consistent with the Chamberlin-Moulton planetesimal hypothesis [1]. Though popular in the early part of the 20th century, by the early 1940s it was discarded by Henry Russell's argument that it was incompatible with the angular momentum of planets such as Jupiter [2]. The currently accepted scientific explanation for the origin of the solar system is based on the nebular hypothesis.
  • The age of our universe is stated to be more than 1,000,000,000,000 years old and the universe is said to periodically expand and contract — respire — at 2-billion-year intervals. The big bang theory is not supported.
  • A fundamental particle called an "ultimaton" is proposed, with an electron being composed of 100 ultimatons. The particle is not known to be described anywhere else and the concept is not supported by modern particle physics.
  • Some species are said to have evolved suddenly from single mutations without transitional species. The theory originated with Dutch botanist Hugo De Vries but was short-lived and is not now supported.
  • According to The Urantia Book, colored human races originated suddenly in one generation and in one family, producing brothers and sisters that variously turned blue, yellow, red, green, orange, and indigo when exposed to sunlight. Their offspring favored the parent color subsequently. Later, Adam and Eve produced a violet race. In the book's account, the superior races were violet, blue, yellow, and red, and the other three were inferior. The green and orange races were driven to extinction, and the rest mixed over time. Modern evolutionary theory does not support the account.
  • The book repeats the idea prevalent at the time of its origin that one side of the planet Mercury always faces the sun due to tidal locking. In 1965, radio astronomers discovered that Mercury actually rotates slightly and all sides see exposure to the sun.
  • The book says that a solar eclipse occurred in 1808 that was predicted by the Native American prophet Tenskwatawa. The eclipse actually occurred on June 16, 1806.
  • The book says that sunbeams are "highly heated and agitated electrons." Solar radiation consists of photons, however, not electrons. Gardner finds it odd that the term "photon" is not used in the book. It was coined in 1926.

Controversial statements about human races can be found in the book. Supporters state that criticism has arisen mainly due to reading passages out of context. Gardner believes that Dr. William Sadler, who wrote some eugenicist works, had a hand in editing or writing the book, and that this is how the ideas were included.

Some adherents of the book believe that all of the information in The Urantia Book, including its science, is literally true, while others do not believe that the science is correct, accepting the book's caveats.

Meredith Sprunger, a liberal believer in The Urantia Book who is also a retired minister in the United Church of Christ, writes that research "has revealed that virtually all of the scientific material found in The Urantia Book was the accepted scientific knowledge of the period in which the book was written, was held by some scientists of that time, or was about to be discovered or recognized." He argues against its literal infallibility and that fundamentalism over the book is "just as untenable as Biblical fundamentalism."

Other believers maintain that the book has prophetically anticipated scientific advances already. They believe more of its science — if not all of it — will be proven correct in the future. Gardner evaluated many of these claims as of 1995 and found them unconvincing. Some arise because the book is said to have been indited by the revelators by 1935, but then was not published until 1955. Science discovered during the two intervening decades can be perceived as prophetic by believers, while skeptics think such facts were added prior to publication. For instance, the catalytic role that carbon plays in the sun's nuclear reactions is described in the book, though Hans Bethe's announcement of the discovery was not made until 1938.

The only apparent anticipation of science the book has made, in Gardner's opinion, is that it says the magnetic sense that homing pigeons possess is "not wholly wanting as a conscious possession by mankind." In 1980, a British zoologist, Robin Baker, published evidence that humans have a limited magnetic sense.

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Plagiarism allegations

The Urantia Book states in its Foreword that it used "human concepts, assembled from the God-knowing mortals of the past and the present." In recent years, students of the papers have found that the free use of other sources appears to be true, with none of the material allegedly used from other sources cited or referenced within the book.

In 1992, a reader of The Urantia Book, Matthew Block, self-published a paper that showed nineteen alleged examples of The Urantia Book utilizing material published earlier. All of the source authors identified in Block's paper were published in English between 1905 and 1943 by U.S. publishers and are typically scholarly or academic works that contain concepts and wording similar to what is found in The Urantia Book. Gardner found that at least one of the source book authors was quoted in earlier works by Dr. Sadler, and most of the books purportedly would have been available to Dr. Sadler or Forum members in Chicago prior to 1955.

Block claimed to have discovered over 125 source books and articles written by over 90 authors that he reported were incorporated into the papers. The use of outside source materials was studied by Gardner, and he concluded that the book did use many of the sources noted by Block in his 1992 article.

For instance, Gardner and Block note that Paper 85 appears to have been taken from the first eight chapters of Origin and Evolution of Religion by E. Washburn Hopkins, published by Yale University Press in 1923. Each section of the paper corresponds to a chapter in the book, with several passages possibly used as direct material. Likewise, much of The Urantia Book material relating to the evolution of mankind appears to have been directly taken from Henry Fairfield Osborn, Man Rises to Parnassus: Critical Epochs in the Prehistory of Man published by Princeton University Press in 1928.

In one example cited by Block, the original author discusses the periodicity of the chemical elements and concludes that the harmony in the construction of the atom suggests some unspecified plan of organization. After being "plagiarized," the authors of The Urantia Book assert that this harmony is evidence of the intelligent design of the universe. W. F. G. Swann writes on page 64 of The Architecture of the Universe (italics indicate edits, bolding indicates deletions):

Starting from any one of them [i.e., chemical elements], and noting some property such as the melting point, for example, the property would change as we went along the row, but as we continued it would gradually come back to the condition very similar to that which we started ... The eighth element was in many respects like the first, the ninth like the second, the tenth like the third, and so on. Such a slate of affairs point[s] not only</b> to a varied internal structure, but also to a certain harmony in that variation suggestive of some organized plan in building the atom.

and The Urantia Book's version:

Starting from any one element, after noting some one property, such a quality will exchange for six consecutive elements, but on reaching the eighth, it tends to reappear, that is, the eighth chemically active element resembles the first, the ninth the second, and so on. Such a fact of the physical world unmistakably points to the sevenfold constitution of ancestral energy and is indicative of the fundamental reality of the sevenfold diversity of the creations of time and space.

Block and many believers do not see the use of human source materials as plagiarism. Block writes:

"One probable reason that the human sources were left undisguised was to enable students to discern, through comparative analysis, how this coordination of planetary knowledge was actually effected. As mentioned above, the initial analyses have already proved tremendously illuminating in this regard. Another reason was to keep us aware of the book’s anchorage in a specific time and place. While a very large part of the book is of timeless value and perennial applicability, some of its discussions directly address and respond to the world situation of the early 20th century. Thus, every generation will have to determine the relevance and applicability of certain of the book’s teachings to its own situation.
Emerging from all these discoveries is the gratifying realization that the Urantia Book is exactly what its authors claim it to be...."

It should be noted that the wording and phraseology is not a verbatim replication, and no plagiarism has been proven officially. In some instances, the authors of The Urantia Book have made subtle changes to, or expansions of, the possible source materials.

Believers propose that the source texts were invariably improved and this points to their divine origin. However, in some cases the book also propagates material from the original sources that modern science has claimed to be incorrect.

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Adherents

There is no way to gauge who "adherents" are and no groups to census. However, it appears that a growing number of people are reading the book and forming study groups, creating and joining Internet discussion groups, and hosting or visiting websites about it.

Many people find The Urantia Book to be attractive because it offers a reconciliation for the apparent innumerable discrepancies between modern science and religion. The Urantia Book does not advocate organized religion, neither does it oppose it. Adherents of The Urantia Book have been alleged by some critics as being involved in a cult, however in practice characteristics normally associated with cults are not present. There is no central charismatic figure, no hidden mysteries, no rituals or ceremonies, and there is not a teaching that the book's followers are chosen people whereas all others are lost.

The Urantia Book teaches friendliness, non-violence, and a life of unselfish ministry toward others. Readers say the book contains advanced teachings that are conducive to spiritual growth.

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Symbols

Image:Urantia logo.gif

A symbol described in The Urantia Book consists of three concentric blue circles on a white background. The circles are said to have symbolized several trinity associations in the history of humankind. The authors of The Urantia Book indicate its revealed meaning as being "the infinity, eternity, and universality of the Paradise Trinity of divine maintenance and direction."

The original publisher, Urantia Foundation, placed the concentric circles on the cover of The Urantia Book and has a United States trademark. The circles are used to indicate other organizations affiliated with the Urantia Foundation.

Many groups use the symbol in various altered forms.

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The Urantia Book in popular culture

  • German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen's massive opera cycle Licht is not "based on" the book (as sometimes is said), but does make reference to it in the first and third acts of Donnerstag (Thursday), and in the symbols associated with two of the three main characters, Michael and Lucifer.
  • The American band Deadsy is influenced by The Urantia Book, and makes references to it in several songs.
  • The album Monolith, by the American progressive rock group Kansas, was largely influenced by The Urantia Book, reflecting an interest in the movement by bandmember Kerry Livgren before his conversion to Christianity.
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See also

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References

  • Urantia Foundation (1955). The Urantia Book. Urantia Foundation. ISBN 0911560025
  • Gardner, Martin (1995). Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0879759550
  • Gooch, Brad (2002). Godtalk : Travels in Spiritual America. Knopf. ISBN 0679447091
  • House, Dr. H. Wayne (2000). Charts of Cults, Sects, and Religious Movements. Zondervan. ISBN 0310385512
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External links

eo:Urantio fr:Urantia nl:Het Urantiaboek pt:Urântia fi:Urantia

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