The TRUTH about Adam and Eve

sillygeezer10 said:

Not to offend, but this is a very strange book and anyone would find this odd. It sound like a cult proganda or misguided satire to me. I barely read it because it is so inane but I am interested that how did you get hold of this book?

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Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery by Martin Gardner

From the Publisher

Martin Gardner, one of America's most acclaimed science writers, has here compiled the first complete history of a growing, modern religious cult. Gardner traces the cult's beginnings back to its "bible," The Urantia Book, a book supposedly revealed solely by celestial beings to correct the flaws in the traditional Bible. Published in 1955 under the direction of cult leader Dr. William Sadler, The Urantia Book (Urantia is the cult's name for the earth) is the largest work ever said to have been channeled by unseen higher beings through human contacts. It differs from earlier channeled "bibles" in that it contains a vast amount of modern science as well as a detailed biography of Jesus Christ, complete with facts not found in the Gospels. As a result, many scientists and scholars are dedicated Urantians. In addition to discussing the beliefs of the Urantia cult, Gardner reveals two major developments that threaten to splinter the movement. The first is a sectarian rift that has split the movement into two major competing factions. The second is the growing belief of hundreds of Urantians that they, too, are receiving their own messages from the celestials, who they claim are preparing Urantia for a new revelation intended to usher in a utopia of "light and life." Such secondary revelations are seen as jeopardizing the authority of The Urantia Book. Among the other topics addressed are the extent to which Seventh-day Adventist beliefs influenced the writing of The Urantia Book, the flaws in Urantian science, and allegations of plagiarism on the part of the authors of The Urantia Book.

From The Critics

Publisher's Weekly

First published in 1955, the Urantia Book, a 2097-page tome hailed by its advocates as the channeled wisdom of celestial beings, posits one infinite God, the great I AM, and billions of lesser gods. It contains pronouncements on evolution, cosmology, physics and quantum mechanics, which Gardner (The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher) finds deeply flawed, and it includes a biography of Jesus that asserts he toured Rome and Greece at ages 28 and 29, becoming an adept of Greek philosophy, mathematics and art. The Urantia cult was founded by two former Seventh-day Adventists-Chicago psychiatrist William Sadler (1875-1969) and his brother-in-law, Wilfred Kellogg (1876-1956), a businessman. In this intriguing expos, Gardner, former Scientific American mathematics columnist, makes a strong case that the Urantia Book is filled with plagiarized passages from other cult books. He also charts bitter schisms among the Urantians and looks at other Adventist splinter groups, notably David Koresh's Branch Davidian cult consumed by flames near Waco, Tex. (Apr.)

BookList - Dennis Winters

"The Urantia Book" is at the center of one of the more interesting esoteric American sects in a century full to bursting with them. As such, it was" bound to attract premier debunker Gardner's attention. Gardner begins by regrettably briefly recapitulating the book itself and summarizing the history of the Urantians' connections with Sister Ellen White and the Seventh-Day Adventists and other fin de siecle religionists, and he closes with a panorama of the present state of the Urantia movement and its reforms and schisms. But Gardner uses the core of his text to establish, by textual analysis and other tools, Dr. William Sadler as "The Urantia Book"'s main, if not sole, author. Whether he succeeds in this endeavor each reader will decide individually; his case is certainly remarkably compelling. There are a few flaws, for the sheer weight of facts unearthed by his research sometimes overpowers the thread of his argument. And sometimes Gardner allows himself to wax sarcastic at an especially egregious example of inanity. But then, who wouldn't?

Booknews

Popular science writer and occult debunker Gardner takes on the Urantia movement. He begins with the 1955 Urantia Book, the longest work channeled directly from celestial being, showing how its science is flawed, passages are based on or copied from human sources, and the ideas draw heavily on Seventh-Day Adventist thought. The movement itself he shows as threatened by a sectarian rift and inconvenient revelations by newer adherents. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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Gardner notes that one of the book’s more objectionable anthropological claims is that the black (or “indigo”) race was the most inferior; although it claims that these people “have exactly the same standing before the celestial power as any other earthly race.” Gardner observes that this “is exactly what southerners in the United States, including their ministers, used to say about the African American slaves.” This revelation will certainly fail to endear potential converts who are African or African American.

- see Book Review

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I was recently reading Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason", and was struck by the contrast between Paine's style of writing in his attempt to prove his case, and Martin Gardner's style of writing. The only debate tactics or techniques that Paine used were those of calm logic, reason and eloquence. He clearly did not feel threatened by the material he was debunking. Gardner's debate style on the other hand is a scorched earth, use any tactics, win at any cost style. As evidence of this, review his paper "The Great Urantia Mystery", from the Skeptical Inquirer, Winter 1990. At first I thought that particular article might have been an aberration, but in a later comment in the Letters to the Editor section of the Skeptical Inquirer, Martin referred to it as a Mencken type attack after one H. L. Mencken, who apparently went to the Don Rickles School of Journalism. It's too bad it has to be an attack at all, and one wonders why Martin feels the need to attack, especially so viciously. It's sad that he couldn't figure out how to use a Thomas Paine type attack, if attack be needed.

But Martin has a problem of which we all should be aware. His job is to debunk, and most of his targets have been easy. This time however, he has chosen a religious target. If he can't debunk The Urantia Book to his satisfaction, where does that leave him? It leaves him faced with the prospect of having to change or modify his own belief system, if he is intellectually honest. Subconsciously perhaps, Martin is trying to preserve his own belief system, and the best way to do that is to attack that which is perceived as threatening. The Urantia Book is a threat to Martin, just as Jesus' teachings were a threat to many. Nor is Martin unique in this. It is the same with many, be they Christians, Moslems, Jews, Deists, Urantians or Atheists. Most people with strong religious views will do almost anything to avoid having their belief system altered. Martin is like Saul, going after the new Christians with a vengeance. He simply must succeed in debunking The Urantia Book. His present belief system depends upon it.

Martin's book is all over the map. He flops from Adventism to OAHSPE, from Mormonism to constipation and masturbation. For the most part, it's an unfocused, scatter-gun approach to a serious critique of The Urantia Book. In short, it's a mess.

I have tried to cover as many of Martin's mistakes, misstatements and misrepresentations as possible, but the sheer number of them makes the task difficult. In some cases, I am not knowledgeable enough to deal with a suspected problem, but it can be inferred from the large number of found problems that the balance of the book is similarly flawed.

Martin has a penchant for making bald unsupported statements. He speculates wildly. He loads sentences with enormous spin, faulty assumptions and distortions. In this review, I will try to hit the high spots, the glaring problems with his book. I know those with expertise in other areas will also want to comment on Martin's musings.

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sillygeezer10 said:

I am aware of this expression. Firstly The bible is 1200 pages which make it hard for people to read through it but still can be done, and sell 2 billion copies.People don't know about the Ubook and they would have no idea what it's talking about. The Bible is much more clearer on say, fall of man but the old words and the bad translations obsurce the meaning a bit but still clear. As you said there is 2100 pages on everything that's "relevant" in the Ubook but The bible is more relevant than your book. The bible is very high on moral truth but low on the language- It is written in ancient languages but still morally relevant to us. Please prove that the Ubook is more relevant and I will believe in it IF that book is very relevant. Please keep in mind that The Bible were and still is the most perscuted and laughed at book in the world and the most printed book of all time and the most famous of all time. There is lots of superlatives describing this holy book called The Holy Bible. Hope I didn't offend you.

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Irenicas said:

Maybe you haven't noticed, but everyone has dropped out. If you believe all of this, then fair enough. But you haven't even attempted to field any questions that others have had. You might as well have been posting on a blog, not on a forum. You invited no input from others. As was mentioned earlier, this was a monologue, not a dialogue. Try to put your own ideas across, and not just rely on one single source. Use your own brain.

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