Aphrodite
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Member # 2573
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posted 07-23-2005 10:08 PM
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Overview
The book describes an intricate, structured universe that has a scale similar to what is described by modern science. The book simultaneously espouses the concept of evolution proceeding over billions of years and central Christian concepts of an eternal, trinitized God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), angels, and an afterlife with Paradise as the destination for those who have faith in God. The book embraces the Platonic concept that the material cosmos is a shadow of larger, more important spiritual realities. The book contains voluminous descriptions of the near and far reaches of this universe, especially as it pertains to the human and divine roles within it.
Tenets
The primary tenet of The Urantia Book is that all normal-minded individuals are provided with a fragment of God, which tries to lead each individual toward a greater understanding of God. The book most commonly refers to such a fragment as a Thought Adjuster, and also variously terms it as a "Mystery Monitor", an inner voice, and a "pilot light." The book links the term to the Judeo-Christian concepts that individuals are "created in God's image", that each person is a temple of God, and that there is a "true light which lights every man who comes into the world." The concept is in ways comparable to the Hindu atman and the ancient Egyptian ka. From philosophy, the concept is similar to what Socrates' referred to as his "daimon." The book warns that most often what individuals would take to be the voice of their Thought Adjuster is the psychological products of their own subconscious. The voice of the Adjuster, if actually heard, would literally be the voice of God according to the book.
A person's Thought Adjuster is described as distinct from the soul. The book lists five constitutive aspects to humans: the physical body, the mind, the personality, the Thought Adjuster, and the soul. The physical body is described as a product of evolution and as wholly material. Humans, from the cosmic perspective, are taken to be little more than animals, largely dominated by their hereditary drives, emotions, and inclinations toward self-interest. The mind is described as arising from the electro-chemical mechanism of the brain, but also as having the capacity for free will, and as being indwelt by the Adjuster, which is constantly attempting to lead each individual toward more spiritualized thinking. In the Urantia Book's teachings, the degree to which a human mind chooses to accept the leadings of its Adjuster becomes the degree to which a soul "grows" as an "embryonic" reality that can then survive death. Personality is described as a somewhat mysterious attribute that is distinctive for each individual and is retained in the afterlife.
According to the book's doctrine, persistently embracing sin and rejecting the leadings of the Adjuster is analogous to choosing not to accept the will of God, leading to the eventual annihilation of the individual's identity at death and the absorption of their personality into the oversoul of creation. The book many times links the biblical New Testament teachings of becoming like a little child in attitude of trust toward God as the ideal stance of a person toward the "inner voice" of the Adjuster. It emphasizes the need for all people to be "born of the spirit."
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 has successfully and unalterably won eternal life, typically taking place in the afterlife, but also a possibility during earthly life. The result during earthly life is a spontaneous immolation of the material body as the soul is "translated" to the hereafter (e.g. Elijah being taken to heaven without death in "chariots of fire"). Once merged with his or her fragment of God, a person continues as an ascending citizen in the universe, traveling through numerous worlds on a long, adventurous pilgrimage of growth and learning that leads eventually to Paradise. There is not a concept of Hell or earthly reincarnation in The Urantia Book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urantia--------------------
"He who controls others maybe powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” - Lao Tsu
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Posts: 238 | From: Minnesota | Registered: Jul 2005
