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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 stated objective of The Urantia Book is to clear up numerous misconceptions regarding God, divinity and deity. Among many other topics, it expands on the origin and meaning of life, attempts to elucidate humankind's place in creation, and presents a biography of Jesus. The book is 2,097 pages long, and consists of a foreword and 196 papers, divided into four parts.

The Urantia Book introduces the word Urantia as the name of the planet Earth. "Urantian" is a derivation used to denote anyone or anything that originates on Earth. Colloquially, the word "Urantian" is sometimes used to denote an individual who admires and believes in the book, but this meaning is not found 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 is now in the public domain. Free, searchable editions of The Urantia Book can be found on the Internet.

Overview of The Urantia Book

The Urantia Book consists of the following:

The Foreword is in outline form and is presented as a guide to the terminology used throughout the rest of the book, introducing explanations for concepts and words that are developed in greater detail with later papers.

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 Earth 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 (1, 2, 3, 4), miracles (1, 2, 3, 4), crises (1, 2), 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 illustrates many of the concepts presented in the first three parts through the story of Jesus' life.

Teachings

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, on average, around the age of five years ten months, and the Adjuster then serves noncoercively 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 — choosing "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 or disprove the existence of God; living faith is necessary to become conscious of God's presence, the indwelling Thought Adjuster in human experience, as it is the sole method of acquiring spiritual experience.

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, "God's Relation to the Individual":

"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."

The book says 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 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 goes on to discuss the potential destinies of these "glorified mortals of the realms". The Urantia 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. To want to know God and become like him is to be the supreme quest of each person. God mandated "be you perfect, even as I am perfect," and brought into existence a vast universe scheme of ascension to assist mortal man in attaining the goal. The destiny of each person who chooses to search for God is to traverse the many levels of creation to "meet God".

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.

Cosmology

The Urantia Book presents a unique cosmological perspective on the universe and humankind's relation to it. It teaches that the universe is vastly older than current scientific theories state, and that the universe is the product of intelligent and purposeful organization, rather than having its origin in a Big Bang.

=Organization of the cosmos
=

The term "universe" is used to denote a number of different scales of organization. (The book was written at a time when galaxies outside of the Milky Way were still called "island universes".) A superuniverse is roughly the size of a galaxy or group of galaxies. A local universe is described as approximately 0.00001 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."

The visualization of the cosmos presented from the center outward is:

  • The Isle of Paradise—"the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe."
  • The Sacred Spheres of Paradise—21 enormous worlds, 3 circuits of 7 worlds each—the Worlds of the Father, the Worlds of the Son, and the Worlds of the Spirit orbiting in three processions on the inner margin of space.
  • Havona—one billion (1,000,000,000) perfect worlds across seven circuits, with "upwards of thirty-five million worlds" in the first or inner circuit, "over two hundred and forty-five million worlds" in the seventh or "outermost" circuit, and "proportional numbers" of worlds in the intervening circuits.
  • Surrounding these are "dark gravity bodies" that "completely encircle and enshroud Havona" and whose "multitudinous bodies" are "divided into two equal elliptical circuits by a unique space intrusion". The Isle of Paradise, the 21 Sacred Spheres, the 1 billion worlds of Havona, and the orbiting dark gravity bodies taken as a whole are interchangeably referred to as the "central universe", the "divine universe", and the "Paradise-Havona system".
  • The central universe is surrounded by a "relatively quiet midspace zone" of lessened motion and undisclosed diameter.
  • Beyond the midspace zone, seven superuniverses swing around the central universe and have an approximate diameter of 400,000 - 500,000 light-years. These contain the evolutionary worlds of time and space. The seven superuniverses are then immediately surrounded by another midspace zone "which varies in width but averages 400,000 light-years". One of the stated purposes of the cosmos is to provide worlds where intelligent life may be created or evolved from primitive life. Each of the seven superuniverses, when fully developed, would have approximately one trillion inhabited worlds. Each divisional level has "architectural worlds", including a headquarters sphere, which are worlds made to order and are independently lighted and heated for the celestial and other life of those spheres. They are created to be administrative and educational worlds and are said to be at the approximate, and sometimes exact, gravity center of their regions of inhabited worlds and physical systems. A detailed organization of superuniverses is provided. Briefly, levels of organization are:
  • Individual inhabited worlds such as Urantia
  • Local systems—1,000 inhabited worlds
  • Constellations—100 local systems
  • Local universes—100 constellations
  • Minor sectors—100 local universes
  • Major sectors—100 minor sectors
  • Superuniverses—10 major sectors
    • Beyond are enormous uninhabited "outer space levels". The first outer space level is estimated to be 50 million light-years in diameter and surrounded by a midspace zone of approximately the same diameter.
  • The second, third, and fourth outer space levels surround each previous level with greater and greater magnitude and each is separated by a midspace zone of about the same magnitude as the previous space level.
  • From Appendix 3, Section 3 in "Sadler, William S., Jr., Appendices to A Study of The Master Universe", the authors of The Urantia Book "postulate an additional and unrevealed creation" beyond this, "a possible never-beginning, never-ending universe of infinity."

= Comparison to science
=

The book describes alternative explanations to current hypotheses in science regarding the universe's origin, and suggests sources of error in current astronomical observations.

"Many influences interpose to make it appear that the recessional velocity of the external universes increases at the rate of more than one hundred miles a second for every million light-years increase in distance. By this method of reckoning, subsequent to the perfection of more powerful telescopes, it will appear that these far-distant systems are in flight from this part of the universe at the unbelievable rate of more than thirty thousand miles a second. But this apparent speed of recession is not real; it results from numerous factors of error embracing angles of observation and other time-space distortions. "

The concept of "space respiration"—that all of space itself undergoes "two-billion-year expansion-contraction cycles"—is claimed to be part of the explanation for astronomic redshift. The Urantia Book says we are currently almost half way through an expansion cycle.

History and destiny

Urantia, Earth, is an evolutionary world destined to sometime reach a stage of "light and life" like every other inhabited sphere in the finite creation. The growth from primordial life to primitive human development through social evolution culminating in the height of what human civilization can become, is the destiny of every human world. The contribution this makes to the rest of the universe is beyond human imagination.

"From the inception of life on an evolutionary planet to the time of its final flowering in the era of light and life, there appear upon the stage of world action at least seven epochs of human life. These successive ages are determined by the planetary missions of the divine Sons, and on an average inhabited world these epochs appear in the following order: Pre-Planetary Prince Man. Post-Planetary Prince Man. Post-Adamic Man. Post-Magisterial Son Man. Postbestowal Son Man. Post-Teacher Son Man. The Era of Light and 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.

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 'earthly life'.

=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.

From Paper 54, "Problems of the Lucifer Rebellion":

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.

Comparisons to religious teachings

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 though. 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 and 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 with most Christian faiths:

  • God is the creator of all reality
  • God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite, and eternal
  • God is described as a loving personality–"God is love"–and there is no sin, unrighteousness, or evil in him
  • God is a single deity but exists in a Trinity of three persons
  • God has a vast "heavenly host"
  • Believers can have a personal relationship with God and are to be "born of the spirit"
  • Believers will survive death
  • Angels are sent 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 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.

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."

Comparison to other world religions

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.

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. Skeptic Martin Gardner considers Part IV to be an especially "well-written, impressive work," and says, "Either it is accurate in its history, coming directly from higher beings in position to know, or it is a work of fertile imagination by someone who knew the New Testament by heart and who was also steeped in knowledge of the times when Jesus lived."

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 city can not be lit by a candle."* The Foreword 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, and through privately raised funds, the book was published under international copyright on October 12, 1955.

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.

Criticism of claims as a revelation

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

The book has been in print since 1955, but in comparison to other religious or holy books that 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 - not accepted by today's scientists. 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, 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.

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 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 [http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/C/catashypoth.html. 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 fast enough for all sides to see exposure to the sun.
  • The book says that a solar eclipse was predicted in 1808 by the Native American prophet Tenskwatawa. The eclipse actually was predicted in late April of 1806 and occurred on June 16, 1806.
  • The book can be interpreted as saying that sunlight is "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.

Dr. Meredith Sprunger, a liberal believer in The Urantia Book and retired minister in the United Church of Christ, writes "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.

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 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* not only to a varied internal structure, but also to a certain harmony in that variation suggestive of some organized plan in building the atom.

contrast with 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.

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.

Symbols

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.

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.
  • The psychedelic/rock group Spirit likewise released a series of albums influenced by The Urantia Book during the mid-1970s. This was well after the band's commercial heyday had ended and the influence is most notable on the albums Spirit of '76 and Son of Spirit.

See also

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

External links

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "The Urantia Book".

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