Urantia Book Questions

[The Kilted Heathen]

Okay, that didn't really answer my question, or give much information to use.

 

[Super Universe]

Okay, that didn't really answer my question, or give much information to use.

It differs from religions in that there are no regularly scheduled group meetings, that I know of.

There are no UB church's or other religious buildings that I know of.

There are no traditions associated with it.

You don't have to do anything.

The UB is just information that explains God, the trinity, angels, Jesus, the Lucifer Rebellion, Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the history of the Earth, and a few other universal things.

 

[buddhist]

There are no traditions associated with it.

You don't have to do anything.

The UB is just information that explains God, the trinity, angels, Jesus, the Lucifer Rebellion, Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, the history of the Earth, and a few other universal things.

... so what you're saying is that it's another Abrahamic religion?

 

[Super Universe]

... so what you're saying is that it's another Abrahamic religion?

It's not a religion. There is no organization, well, other than the Urantia Foundation but, I think, they just print the book for purchase and provide it free online.

Whether it is Abrahamic, it does tell the story of Adam and Eve and Abraham and others. It also addresses the evolution of the human species, evolution of civilization and government, and to a small degree it mentions the concepts in Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, and others.

 

[Quintessence]

Religions don't need to be organized. Much of contemporary Paganism is so disorganized I wonder how we are even a movement some days.

Sounds like an Abrahamic offshoot religion to me.

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

Much of contemporary Paganism is so disorganized I wonder how we are even a movement some days.

Ain't that the truth!

 

[BSM1]

I think you're asking me what the UB is about? To make a very long story short, there are many universal levels and many varieties of angels who do work for the universe.

The universe is basically a school system designed to give God's children, humans and other sentient beings, experiential experience followed by formal schooling on how God and the universe really work.

God only does the things that only God can do. He creates the universe and provides personality to all beings.

Although it's hard to pinpoint the gist of the UB, you have summed it up nicely. I think most people have been led to believe that UB is an organization, religion, or cult and they are missing the wealth of knowledge that can be gained from the book. Granted, like any other faith based book, it has to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

So it's not an organization, but it sells a book. It's not a religion or a cult, but it's book is faith based. That doesn't track...

What wealth of knowledge can be gained from the book that can't be gained elsewhere?

 

[BSM1]

So it's not an organization, but it sells a book. It's not a religion or a cult, but it's book is faith based. That doesn't track...

What wealth of knowledge can be gained from the book that can't be gained elsewhere?

Have you read the book?

 

[Super Universe]

Religions don't need to be organized. Much of contemporary Paganism is so disorganized I wonder how we are even a movement some days.

Sounds like an Abrahamic offshoot religion to me.

One of my greatest fears is that someone will try and start a religion based upon the UB. That would ruin everything it tries to teach. When people form groups they develop a sense of superiority over others. No one is superior, we might be better at certain things but we're not superior to anyone else.

I guess you could see the UB as an Abrahamic offshoot. It essentially tries to tell the tales of the bible but from the perspective of the angels, not the primitive humans who lied and misunderstood so many things. But it's not just about bible stories, it also goes more into detail about God, Spirit, and the many angels and their duties in the many universe levels.

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

Have you read the book?

Would I be asking what knowledge can be gained from it if I had?

And don't feed me the "read before you judge" line again. I'm not judging the book - yet - I am asking what is unique about it. What knowledge does it have? Why should I spend any amount of money on it?

 

[Super Universe]

So it's not an organization, but it sells a book. It's not a religion or a cult, but it's book is faith based. That doesn't track...

What wealth of knowledge can be gained from the book that can't be gained elsewhere?

They sell the UB if you want a printed version or you can download it for free online or read it free online.

Is it faith based? When you drive over a bridge aren't you putting faith into science and workers you've never met? When you eat food you have a certain amount of faith in others who prepared it for you, right? When you walk down the street aren't you putting faith in others that they won't kill you?

The word faith, as it applies to God, and as I take it, is not about believing in something you can't see, feel, or sense. It's about believing in what you can see, feel, and sense and keeping an open mind about what you can't YET see, feel, and sense. If you die on the earth and wake up at the next level they will try to teach you the truth. If you refuse to learn, there is nothing that can be done with you. They will cut bait and move on. You have to be willing to learn.

What wealth of knowledge can be gained from the book that can't be gained elsewhere? No other book has anywhere close to the amount of information on God, Spirit, angels, Jesus, and the many universe levels. It's 1,800 pages. Nothing comes close.

 

[Bogg]

My father in law read this book 3 times to take in all of its contents. Then one day he woke up and threw it in the bin and said it was full of rubbish. I don't think he could comprehend it's contents as it is a heavy read.
Consequently I have not read it. What he did tell me of it was interesting and baffelling.

 

[InChrist]

I read the Urantia Book in its entirety years ago way before I was saved by Jesus Christ. I really did find it very interesting and intriguing, but something about it did not ring true for me. Now, I realize that it falls into the category of what the Bible would call spiritism. The claim is that it was authored by high deity authorities and by numerous supermortal personalities, then the papers were received by a small group of people in Chicago whose leader was Dr. William S. Sadler.

The Bible gives warning about receiving information or guidance from spirit beings for the reason of protecting individuals from deception, which I suppose William Sadler did not feel worth heeding. The information in the Urantia Book is extremely elaborate and does go into extensive detail about the supposed realities of the universe; God, Jesus, spiritual and human beings and on and on. Yet, the information within it pages directly contradicts the biblical scriptures about listening to other spirits who give another gospel (Galatians 1:8-10), present a different Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4), it denies the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the need of His saving grace for forgiveness of sin, along with basically all the major teachings of the Bible. It even denies small details as the biblical account of the shepherds hearing angels singing at the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. From my perspective now, the Urantia book is nothing less than new age gnostic enlightenment book with a space age twist which lures people into believing that it is revealing advanced secret knowledge. I believe the goal and message seems to be to unify all religions and have people abandon their particular beliefs for spiritual unity as they race for perfection in their attainment of divinity.

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

They sell the UB if you want a printed version or you can download it for free online or read it free online.

I'd rather just hold a discussion about it. See, that would tell me that it has knowledge more than reading it myself, as the "wealth" of information that it has within it would be impacting and easy to recall in conversation. As are all things of import.

(and there's nowhere to get it for free.)

Is it faith based? When you drive over a bridge aren't you putting faith into science and workers you've never met?

And is that the kind of "faith" that the UB presents? Fact via constants and social expectations? Sounds like word-play, to me, for a book that discusses god and mythology.

The word faith, as it applies to God, and as I take it, is not about believing in something you can't see, feel, or sense. It's about believing in what you can see, feel, and sense and keeping an open mind about what you can't YET see, feel, and sense.

Yes, such is the case with every religion known to man. Well, perhaps not Scientology.

What wealth of knowledge can be gained from the book that can't be gained elsewhere? No other book has anywhere close to the amount of information on God, Spirit, angels, Jesus, and the many universe levels. It's 1,800 pages. Nothing comes close.

As has been shown, there can be a lot of words without saying anything at all. 1,800 pages means nothing, if there's nothing of worth inside. I am always skeptical - highly so - of groups that claim to have significant or exceptional knowledge, yet can't manage to share any of it. They always want the best for mankind--for a fee.

 

[Super Universe]

My father in law read this book 3 times to take in all of its contents. Then one day he woke up and threw it in the bin and said it was full of rubbish. I don't think he could comprehend it's contents as it is a heavy read.
Consequently I have not read it. What he did tell me of it was interesting and baffelling.

The concepts are confusing and very foreign to humans. I've read it once in it's entirety and gone back many times, I still go back and read parts.

We can't wrap our mind around the idea that the universe is actually full of life, angels and alien. We have extraordinary ego's. We think that if life exists elsewhere then it has to be microbes. I like to use the Star Trek series as an example, we have this idea that we are the best in all the universe, we have the best technology, when really we're only a few up from the bottom of a very long list.

The thing is this, we haven't been anywhere except the moon so how come we think it's all empty? Because it has to be for us to maintain our inflated ego. If we realize that we're not really special to God then we're just another grain of sand on an endless beach. People can't handle that.

 

[Super Universe]

I read the Urantia Book in its entirety years ago way before I was saved by Jesus Christ. I really did find it very interesting and intriguing, but something about it did not ring true for me. Now, I realize that it falls into the category of what the Bible would call spiritism. The claim is that it was authored by high deity authorities and by numerous supermortal personalities, then the papers were received by a small group of people in Chicago whose leader was Dr. William S. Sadler.

The Bible gives warning about receiving information or guidance from spirit beings for the reason of protecting individuals from deception, which I suppose William Sadler did not feel worth heeding. The information in the Urantia Book is extremely elaborate and does go into extensive detail about the supposed realities of the universe; God, Jesus, spiritual and human beings and on and on. Yet, the information within it pages directly contradicts the biblical scriptures about listening to other spirits who give another gospel (Galatians 1:8-10), present a different Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4), it denies the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the need of His saving grace for forgiveness of sin, along with basically all the major teachings of the Bible. It even denies small details as the biblical account of the shepherds hearing angels singing at the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. From my perspective now, the Urantia book is nothing less than new age gnostic enlightenment book with a space age twist which lures people into believing that it is revealing advanced secret knowledge. I believe the goal and message seems to be to unify all religions and have people abandon their particular beliefs for spiritual unity as they race for perfection in their attainment of divinity.

How do you think that the books of the bible were given to the Jews and first Christians? Do you think all of them saw a burning bush? If someone today saw a burning bush that spoke to them and said it was God, what would you think? You're not applying the same standard to the UB that you give to the bible.

The high diety's and supermortal personalities are angels. They have different levels and different names for their groups but they just angels.

The bible gives warning about receiving information from spirit beings? Jesus said that you can tell whether something is from a good or bad source by it's fruit. The devil cannot stand if he defy's himself.

William Sadler and others with abilities, to some degree, feel compelled to do what they do. It's like asking a musician not to play music. You, obviously, don't have any abilities so to you, it's bad. You judge them but don't see the speck in your own eye.

The UB does not deny the resurrection of Jesus. It goes into more detail than the bible does about it.

The UB does deny the need for His saving grace because we always had the chance at salvation. It wasn't something new. Jesus awakened the sleeping survivors once He ascended to heaven. The gateway to heaven was closed before Jesus completed His earthly mission but once He finished and ascended to "heaven" it was opened.

The UB denies the shepherds heard the singing of the angels at the birth of Christ? Wow, the whole world must be crazy, I mean, that's like the most important thing ever. What the heck, you mean the shepherds didn't really hear angels singing? Oh well, that's just crazy. We can't have real Christianity without shepherds hearing angels singing songs.

The goal is not to unify all religions. The goal is for people to realize they never needed religion in the first place. And it's not a race.

 

[Super Universe]

I'd rather just hold a discussion about it. See, that would tell me that it has knowledge more than reading it myself, as the "wealth" of information that it has within it would be impacting and easy to recall in conversation. As are all things of import.

(and there's nowhere to get it for free.)


And is that the kind of "faith" that the UB presents? Fact via constants and social expectations? Sounds like word-play, to me, for a book that discusses god and mythology.


Yes, such is the case with every religion known to man. Well, perhaps not Scientology.


As has been shown, there can be a lot of words without saying anything at all. 1,800 pages means nothing, if there's nothing of worth inside. I am always skeptical - highly so - of groups that claim to have significant or exceptional knowledge, yet can't manage to share any of it. They always want the best for mankind--for a fee.

It is free to download here in a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format. Pick the top one, I think it's 14 mb:

http://www.urantiabook.org/downloads.htm

Is that the kind of faith the UB presents? Can you rephrase the question? Not sure what you're asking.

Facts via constants and social expectations? All books are mythology. Name one that isn't and any person can argue that it is.

There can be a lot of words without saying anything at all? 1,800 pages means nothing? You want easy peezy God theory. You don't want to have to work or study or lift too much of a finger. You want it handed to you on a nice plate and look it over and sniff it and turn it away a few times until, maybe, it finally meets your standards.

You're in the wrong universe for that.

 

[siti]

In Paper 101 the UB says:

"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."​

Then, it seems, wherever the Book touches on scientific explanations it basically encapsulates some of the prevailing scientific ideas of the early 20th century - there is no conception of the Big Bang, the evolution of the solar system follows a subsequently outdated model, mercury was thought to be tidally-locked (this was discovered to be untrue in the 1960s)...etc.

The point is, it, more or less by its own admission, is limited to ideas that were already available to humans at the time it was 'revealed'. How then is it 'revelation' at all? And what genuine value could it have to us - except as an increasingly quaint and dated expression of some ideas people had about reality in the early 20th century?

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

Can you rephrase the question? Not sure what you're asking.

You say that the UB is a "book based on faith." Then you give examples like having faith that a bridge with remain structurally sound, or having faith that people won't murder each other. Is that the kind of anecdotal "faith" that the UB is based on?

You want easy peezy God theory.

No, I actually have a fairly complex "god theory." Yet I can answer questions about it, give examples about it--I know it. I don't direct people to buy a book, claim that it has amazing knowledge not found anywhere else, but remain unable to give any indication as to how that knowledge is amazingly exclusive.

It would be nice to have an actual discussion about this book. To have you share some things past "It's an amazing book full of knowledge--go buy it!"