According to Wikipedia, religion is a system of beliefs and practices that defines the relationship between the differently understood sphere of the sacred and the divine sphere and society, group or individual. It manifests itself in the doctrinal dimension, in religious activities, in the socio-organizational sphere and in the sphere of individual spirituality.
And this is also how many perceive religion; as a belief in God (or gods) wrapped up in an ideology formalized by rites and laws. The spiritual realm looms somewhere in the background. Therefore, when we talk about religion, we most often refer to religious communities that bring together believers, while practicing religion means involvement in its rituals. There is a reflex here that connects religion with a specific (or not) “system of beliefs and practices”. As anecdotal evidence, I will recall my own experience, when the reaction to the declaration “I believe in God” was consternation like “But how come? You don’t go to church.” Well, because a believing Pole is most likely a Catholic and believing Arab is most likely Muslim. The statistics depend on the latitude.
Separating faith from doctrine can be difficult (or impossible). If there is a God, then formalities, feasts and blessed messengers go before Him. The Catholic model exerts such a strong social influence in Poland that some people do not understand how it is possible to believe in another God at all, and even if it does, this other faith must be institutionalized as much as ours. A different God means different seals, rites and priests-authorities. Otherwise, it simply does not count.
This text is a subjective interpretation of the Urantia Papers concerning religion. I will talk about how The Urantia Book defines religion, and the main idea of the above introduction is not accidental. It will also be about revelation — about God presenting himself to man and about how we pervert this knowledge. By the way, I will mention the organization of religion in society. In the end, it will turn out whether every religion must be in conflict with science.
Personal experience
If you feel a “hunger for divine reality” — you seek God because you are searching for truth — you have a religious tendency; when you realize that you know the truth because you have found God, you have a religious experience.
The unity of religious experience among a social or racial group derives from the identical nature of the God fragment indwelling the individual. It is this divine in man that gives origin to his unselfish interest in the welfare of other men. But since personality is unique—no two mortals being alike—it inevitably follows that no two human beings can similarly interpret the leadings and urges of the spirit of divinity which lives within their minds. A group of mortals can experience spiritual unity, but they can never attain philosophic uniformity. And this diversity of the interpretation of religious thought and experience is shown by the fact that twentieth-century theologians and philosophers have formulated upward of five hundred different definitions of religion. In reality, every human being defines religion in the terms of his own experiential interpretation of the divine impulses emanating from the God spirit that indwells him, and therefore must such an interpretation be unique and wholly different from the religious philosophy of all other human beings.
103:1.1 (1129.8)
The Urantia Book redefines religion. Not as a “system of beliefs and practices”, but as a personal spiritual experience – to know God as Father and, consequently, man as a brother.
And here I could stop. If the papers were summarized in one sentence, this is how they characterize religion: As a personal and unique way to discover and understand God, for each of us and by everyone. Whether it is the animal fear of the unknown of the newly evolving man or the religious liberty of those who are fully conscious of sonship with God, in either case it is religion. And the same for everybody in between.
The Urantia Book of true religion says always and as if everything. Religiosity is one of its guiding ideas and if the papers do not refer to religion directly, it is always there somewhere in the background. This should not be surprising, as it is a strictly religious work. True religion, however, resonates from there very subtly. So that the reader has to determine for themselves what this experience is. In this way, it frees religion from formalism and intermediaries. An intimate spiritual experience excludes any system of beliefs and practices.
Religion
The many religions of Urantia are all good to the extent that they bring man to God and bring the realization of the Father to man. It is a fallacy for any group of religionists to conceive of their creed as The Truth; such attitudes bespeak more of theological arrogance than of certainty of faith. There is not a Urantia religion that could not profitably study and assimilate the best of the truths contained in every other faith, for all contain truth. Religionists would do better to borrow the best in their neighbors’ living spiritual faith rather than to denounce the worst in their lingering superstitions and outworn rituals.
92:7.3 (1012.4)
The Urantia Book identifies four types of religion functioning on earth:
- Natural, evolutionary religion;
- Revelatory religion, supernatural religion;
- Modern (practical) religion, which arises from the interweaving of natural and supernatural religions;
- Philosophical religions, philosophical theological doctrines and religions created by reason.
Religion as such manifests itself in two stages:
- Evolutionary Religion. It springs from the experience of primitive worship. Its source is the mind. It is a human religion.
- Revealed religion. A universe world view of spirit origin. It is a part of the cosmic plan whereby evolutionary religion is destined, sooner or later, to receive the spiritual superstructure of revelation. It is a divine religion.
Wake up
When a moral being chooses to be unselfish when confronted by the urge to be selfish, that is primitive religious experience. No animal can make such a choice; such a decision is both human and religious. It embraces the fact of God-consciousness and exhibits the impulse of social service, the basis of the brotherhood of man. When mind chooses a right moral judgment by an act of the free will, such a decision constitutes a religious experience.
103:2.8 (1131.7)
Religion is something natural for man. It doesn’t matter how much someone may dislike such a statement. The fact that we can effectively deny such a statement and deny religion does not change anything. Because spiritual insight – the impulse to look for something more, is in each of us. It does not depend on the place of origin, education or intelligence. It does not
result from the sacraments or from the rites. It is not a secret of the chosen ones. Neither I, nor you, nor the Pope has been singled out in any way. Neither we, nor you, nor the Papuans lack anything. God goes out to meet everyone, and everyone in one way or another, will look for God. Everyone. To notice it, you only need (as much) as one honest decision. Although natural, religion is also a matter of choice. We are religious (or not) by, and in accordance with our free will. Religious growth does not exist without conscious effort and personal determination.
I assume that atheists will like the thesis that in people religion is natural. But is not their attitude the result of spiritual discernment? Since they did not find God, they had to look for him. Isn’t atheism just a consequence of a conscious choice? And when belief systems and practices are removed from the equation, atheists can appear to be more religious through the lens of The Urantia Book than those professed believers who nod unhesitatingly to priestly inventions.
We are used to the fact that all changes, and therefore progress, are noticeable. The will has a universal meaning here. Because “to want is to be able”, by practicing we are getting better and better. It can be somehow proven, and often objectively measured. We confuse musical notes less often, win chess more often and lose weight. Material development is embedded in matter and visible in the midst of it. Spiritual growth is embedded in the spirit; therefore, it happens beyond material consciousness. We are God’s children, and he himself is in us. This is true, but only in a spiritual sense. Therefore we shall never discover divinity with the material senses. Spiritual progress then is vague. We often do not distinguish the world of the spirit in general, should we easily see changes in it? It takes a certain concentration, a certain spiritual insight to feel supermaterial progress. And in the end, it may seem static anyway.
The very emergence of religion in personal experience will not be sudden or sprinkled with lightning. But when you allow yourself to be religious, it eventually becomes a fact. Such sincere religious birth never overwhelms with a sense of conversion or other such emotional episodes. It is not the result of the outpouring of divine favor or of sudden enlightenment. Religion will not be stifled by the pressure of fear. Neither is it a shame. All of this, of course, may encourage insight, but it is neither a prescription, nor a harbinger, nor a proof of the birth of true religion. Religion can appear in spiritual pain and I sometimes feel that way. Such births can be accompanied by “marked mental disorders”. But religion can also come peacefully and naturally. It is always subtle in itself.
If we sincerely want to, each of us can discover God. The Urantia Book calls this “being born again”, born of the spirit. This is the beginning of true religion.
Philosophize
So how do we embrace other worldly realities? We don’t know. That is why we philosophize. And something, we somehow determine. The process of naming or arranging experiences in this matter — the formation of religious philosophy — proceeds in four stages.
At first, we believe someone, mindlessly surrendering to tradition. A person then accepts (and reassures himself and others in this) that it has to be the way it is, because it has always been this way and it will always be so. The second stage is the safety stage. The line is thin, but it is the time when it begins to dawn, when we realizes that in the dogmas of our religion not everything is as it should. And it starts to itch. For peace of mind, however, we consider it safer not to touch it. Then next comes the intellectual approach. Because we were ticking. It was necessary to scratch these doubts, but instead of an open wound, the head opens. At this stage, a person tries to embrace his religion with logic. The fourth level of religious philosophy “is free from all conventional and traditional handicaps and emboldens to think, act, and live honestly, loyally, courageously, and sincerely”.
True religion never ceases to grow. We can get stuck at every stage. It is easy to see those who stopped at the first two. Third, the risk of stagnation stems from “cultural slavery”. This is where many atheists end their search — their love of science can become an obsessive limiter. Jesus taught: “The spiritually blind individual who logically follows the dictates of science, the social customs, and the dogmas of religion is in mortal danger of sacrificing his moral liberty and losing his spiritual freedom. Such a soul will become an intellectual parrot, a social automaton, and a slave to religious authority”.
The personal philosophy of religion comes from within; it is and must be ours. But we also live (above all?) outside. From there, we are shaped by the environment. In a bizarre way, it filters human religious experience (and its fruits) so that true religion becomes even more individual. Economic conditions, education (not only religious), politics, family and work, also intellect and temperament. They do not in any way condition predispositions to religious inclinations, but all this affects the shape of subjective religious philosophy.
We are all human. Although similar, each of us is unique and we are well aware of this. Therefore, no two paths to God are identical. We are going our own way, which no one has ever walked before us, and no one will ever follow in our footsteps.
Therefore, personal spiritual experiences are always original and at the same time practically elusive. “There is no word in any human language that can be used to describe this ‘sense’, ‘feeling’, ‘intuition’ or ‘experience’ of what we have chosen to call God-consciousness”. We will try, we have been doing it for centuries, but we will never be able to describe a real religious experience.
The Religion of the Imperfect
True religion is in human nature. It is also natural to need to grasp this experience with one’s mind. So we try. And if I interpret the text of the book correctly, it is not only impossible, but it can also be harmful.
Man tends to transform religion into something material or humanistic, because we are simplifying. We use symbols, comparisons. And when this does not help, we agree to compromises. Only in this way can we try to grasp what is intangible. At the same time, we do not realize that our insight is fragmentary. That the shape in which we have dressed our spiritual feelings (although it may seem familiar), is only their vague, earthly shadow. Such simplifications distort religion and dazing those with whom we want to share it. “Investigations falsify their subject”.
Unaware of our limitations, we make this experience shallow. So this way does not escape, because it is easier to control it, “Because it was so”. We resort to metaphors in poetry, but most often here to the prose of life. Personal religion then falls from the spiritual heights and becomes a feature of the temporal world. And this is what religion should refrain the most. From there, it is only a step to the “belief and practice system”.
After all, the source of such experiences is always true religion, even if we distort it with childish fantasies and erroneous assumptions, even if it is skewered by social pressure. This personal and sincere understanding of God is the essence of religion and is always valid. Just because we may be wrong about certain aspects of our concepts of God does not mean that spiritual experiences are not real. However, we should remember that religion does not touch money, the environment, the law, or even health and life. The attitude towards these things may (should and will) reflect our religion, but religion itself has nothing to do with matter at all. God is spirit and spirit alone, and it is materialism that pollutes His image the most.
In a human way
The Universal Father will never tell you what to do, what is permitted and what is not. You have free will from this. Through true religion, however, you can find out what kind of person he would like you to become.
We can believe in God. We can assume that it is and hypothesize whether it is possible at all, but the certainty of its existence can only be brought by personal religious experience. My religion can give me the certainty of God’s existence. However, it will not allow others to prove it. God can tell me what kind of person I can be, but he will never give me the right to dictate it to others.
Said Jesus: “You do well to seek the religion of eternal salvation, but you err to seek for such glorious truth in the midst of man-made mysteries and human philosophies. Don’t you know that the mystery of eternal salvation dwells in your soul? Do you not know that the God of heaven has sent his spirit to live in you, and that this spirit will carry all truth-loving and God-serving mortals out of this life through the portals of death to the eternal heights of light where God awaits his children? And never forget: You who know God are the sons of God if you truly desire to be like him”.
True religion always expresses itself in a subdued and gentle manner. Even if it is inflexible and all-encompassing at its core, it is devoid of emotion and unobjectionable imposition. And since it is only personal, it is not perfect, just like us. It grows with us and, just like us, it will always change. Therefore, it allows you to make mistakes and err; look for and correct. Thanks to this, it is resistant to attacks, and criticism can only reform it.
Religion cannot be seen in the most colloquial, pious sense of the word; much less can it be understood from without. Two people who have discovered God in each other will come to an agreement. Although they will not be able to fully verbalize it, they will never need to prove anything to anyone. These are rather those who are not sure of their faith, not only can they demand a uniform religious message, but in general nothing will convince them. Taking the religious easy way out when we take priestly teachings for granted can be temporarily reassuring. After all, they are close to the goal – they speak about God, truth, love. But true religion is personal, so they will never hit, to what we sincerely feel.
Religious life
Then exclaimed Ganid: “Teacher, let’s you and I make a new religion, one good enough for India and big enough for Rome, and maybe we can trade it to the Jews for Yahweh.” And Jesus replied: “Ganid, religions are not made. The religions of men grow up over long periods of time, while the revelations of God flash upon earth in the lives of the men who reveal God to their fellows”. But they did not comprehend the meaning of these prophetic words.
132:7.6 (1467.2)
True religion is not a part of life as it is now understood. When religion is only a Sunday mass, an annual carol, days off from work, confession, and when it is appropriate to go to communion – it is a fragment of time which we have set aside for its practice. True religion is much more: The way of life “the independent realm of man’s reactions to life’s situations”. Separating fragments of everyday life to indicate that they are a religion, is its distortion. True religion is in every moment of everyday life.
However, it is impossible to identify the universal components of religious experience. And even if one can be identified, the results of further analysis will be only subjective. There is not and will not be a recipe for true religion. But Melchizedek of Nebadon suggests that it is easy to spot those who are truly religious. Such people “go forward as if they were already in the presence of the Eternal”. There is a “convincing originality and spontaneity of expression” in their lives; they seem to live free from the oppressive rush and ubiquitous stress. “They exhibit stable personalities and calm characters”. Religious people react to temporality, as if eternal life was already here, oh, at our fingertips. Not ostentatious flaunting of one’s religious affiliation, but the attitude to life and the nature of relationships with others are the fruits by which you will recognize religious people.
From the broadest perspective, religion stands above science, art, philosophy, ethics, or even morality. This does not mean that it is independent or more important from them. It is difficult to make a proper comparison, because all this adds up in human experience and can always be religious. It is not that we should devote our lives to practicing religion. It is religion that sanctifies the practice of life.
Faith
Religion does not exist without faith. If reason is the way science acts, and logic the way philosophy acts, the way religion acts is faith. It is true that “the things of men must be known in order that they may be loved, but the things of God must be loved in order that they may be known”. Faith expresses confidence in the unspoken (and indisputable) plan of the Universal Father. Belief in the survival of the highest values, those that have a timeless meaning, those that we become aware of only through personal experience. Even if we cannot define them satisfactorily. Faith has no connection with beliefs, and unfortunately it is commonly (certainly in Poland) equated with them.
You won’t believe it!
Faith is the distinguishing mark of true personal religious experience. But the mind reaches the levels of faith only when it dominates the way of life. Intellectual certainty is not faith. Especially when we accept that the spiritual truth is what they say. Such a belief is limiting; at best, it reassures. Belief does not encourage searching, it kills curiosity. It stifles creativity and drowns out inspiration and, from the broadest perspective, God. Sincere faith liberates, and thus develops. It glorifies personal knowledge of God and manifests itself in service to one’s neighbor. It is a hope bordering on certainty that trust in the true religion makes the highest sense.
Beliefs can characterize groups, so their elements can also be implemented in groups. Faith grows in the heart of the individual. Personal experience does not induce fanaticism, intolerance, or a monopoly on knowledge. Faith does not limit the imagination or fear scientific discoveries. It does not encourage us to avoid problems, because it does not have our head in the clouds, denying reality. Faith then, is not perseverance or obstinacy in observing imposed religious principles. You can’t go in life through the motion of faith with a sacrament, or forced by fear, or just in case. A confession of faith does not give permission to force religion on others. It’s just (or as much as) being honest with yourself.
True religion is a life of faith: The courage to always trust in one’s personal spiritual guide (i.e., de facto God). This is also how you can share your faith – being an example. An example that it can be done differently, and this is better way. In its true essence, religion is faith-trust in the goodness of God. That it would be okay because I wanted to be better. Even like him. And a sincere and trusting attitude toward the Universal Father always bears fruit. Such an experience has both human and divine origins. It is the co-ordination of man and the indwelling fragment of God, the Thought Adjuster. It is this divine particle that is the source of the desire for righteousness that we all feel. The call of perfection is the eternal voice of God. True religion, on the other hand, is the present decision to follow him steadfastly; an act of faith, accepting this inner stimulus that lures us to the divine.
Supermaterial
True religion, though unquestionably and exclusively immaterial, helps in dealing with worldly difficulties. However, not in the way we would like it to be. Because religion does not eliminate problems; God does not solve the problems of the faithful and prayer does not work as the Church teaches.
In explaining the principles which should guide those who preach the new gospel, Jesus said: “Teach all believers that those who enter the kingdom will not thereby become immune to the accidents of time or to common natural disasters. Faith in the gospel does not protect you from getting into trouble, but it does guarantee that you will be fearless when trouble comes upon you”.
Emotions and post-animal feelings have a material origin. They therefore lead to material actions; most often selfish. Sincere spiritual motivations lead to higher and intangible actions — kindness and service. True religion does not shy away from the difficulties of earthly life, hoping that somehow someone will sort everything out. He does not romanticize pain. However, it allows you to look at them from a broader perspective. It helps to understand that material accidents and subjective misfortunes are part of experience; even a privilege available only to man. Of course, there can be no glorification of suffering. True religion transcends suffering. It makes it easier to ground them, and thus to endure them. Through faith, it illuminates the material impermanence of most problems, which can reduce their importance even to zero.
Revelation
Intuitively, we have always known. After all, we have been looking for God from the first glimpses of what can be called humanity. This is the genesis of evolutionary religion. Human gods-superheroes (or rather supervillains…) are however, the peaks of our imagination. To learn more, to be able to reach the truth, we needed divine help — revelation.
The Urantia Book lists three phenomena by which we can learn that there is a divine particle in man. The first is personal experience, true religion. The second is man’s reactions to everyday situations and difficulties that reveal the potential divinity of his soul. The third is revelation.
Religious experience is the human way of knowing God. Revelation is the divine way of making Himself known to man.
[…] Unaided evolution never originated gods higher than the glorified, exalted, and evolved spirits of deceased humans. In early evolution religion creates its own gods. In the course of revelation the Gods formulate religion. Evolutionary religion creates its gods in the image and likeness of mortal man; revelatory religion seeks to evolve and transform mortal man into the image and likeness of God.85:6.3 (948.3)
The Father’s Voice
God speaks to us through many channels, not to say all of them. His words are so ubiquitous that they are commonplace. For many, it is too ordinary and airy to even want to hear it.
In order to hope that the child understands what is being said to him, both the form and the content of the information provided to him should be properly adjusted. It is best when all this is set in a reality that he knows well (like the world of fairy tales and their characters). It’s obvious. You don’t have to be a parent to know that this is the right thing to do. And we are God’s children. And he knows that some adult things can be beyond the grasp of the youngest, that not everything is within our reach anymore. Therefore, as befits a good parent, he bends over to tell us what we need at the moment and in such a way that we understand. This is what revelation is.
Revelation allows us to see in nature the same God whose faith calls in the soul. It is like a bridge connecting the spiritual with the material. Through revelation, man can know God as he is (within human understanding), not just as he imagined himself.
Revelation is not proof of God’s existence. Never associate it with miracles. Revelation is the spark of true religion, so it can only be confirmed by personal experience. The Urantia papers are plain: “True religion has nothing to do with supposed miracles, and revealed religion never presents miracles as proof of authority”. We have imagined that God is trying (or even must) show us that He exists. When he does everything to make us just want to see him.
In the course of evolution, religious nature drives man to create and develop his own concepts of God. Revelation shows God who develops man. Evolutionary religion is the story of mankind’s quest for truth. Revealed religion is this truth.
Revelation is evolutionary but always progressive. Down through the ages of a world’s history, the revelations of religion are everexpanding and successively more enlightening. It is the mission of revelation to sort and censor the successive religions of evolution. But if revelation is to exalt and upstep the religions of evolution, then must such divine visitations portray teachings which are not too far removed from the thought and reactions of the age in which they are presented. Thus must and does revelation always keep in touch with evolution. Always must the religion of revelation be limited by man’s capacity of receptivity.
92:4.1 (1007.1)
Revelation trains man’s ability to comprehend religion. “[…] it unfailingly enlarges the ethical horizon of evolved religion and at the same time and unfailingly enlarges the moral obligations of all previous revelations.” Not only the form and content of the apparitions are adapted to the viewer’s abilities. Their frames must also be narrowed.
Evidence
Revelation through personal experience is continuous. This is your true religion. Life. The interpretation of such a revelation is always original, but inexpressible, because of that it is unclassified. Therefore, we will not compare the components of our religions. However, revelation can also be a global phenomenon.
The Urantia Book, of many religious revelations, identifies five that were of “epochal significance”:
- The Teachings of Dalamatia. Events practically non-existent in the religious consciousness of most people. These are the times of early human evolution, even before the appearance of Adam and Eve. This was the first time that the true concept of the First Source and Center—the Universal Father—was publicly proclaimed on earth.
- Teachings of Eden. Adam and Eve reintroduced to evolutionary peoples the concept of the Father of all. We almost lost the sense of that revelation. Although history as we know it is falsified, some of the truths proclaimed at that time have survived to this day.
- The Teachings of the Melchizedek of Salem. Machiventa Melchizedek taught trust in God’s almighty goodness and taught that faith, in itself, is the act by which man earns God’s favor. Abraham’s mentor’s messages (Abraham’s conversations with God indicated in the Old Testament were actually his discussions with Machiventa) were mixed with the practices and beliefs of evolutionary religions.
- The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Michael presented to the earth for the fourth time the idea of God as the Father of all.
5. The Urantia Papers. The papers, of which this is one, constitute the most recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia. These papers differ from all previous revelations, for they are not the work of a single universe personality but a composite presentation by many beings. But no revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically adapted to local conditions in time and space. While such admissions as this may possibly detract from the immediate force and authority of all revelations, the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of Urantia.
92:4.9 (1008.2)
Organization
True religion does not exist without the consciousness of God-Father and, consequently, of the human-brother. Therefore, like social consciousness, it is based on the recognition of the fact of the existence of other individuals. Therefore, it has the power to permanently strengthen the sensitivity of one group of people to the needs and hardships of other groups. Empathy makes it easier to understand another person. By putting ourselves in his place, in the right circumstances, allows us to consider his idea as our own. These same mechanisms enable us to receive the guidance of the Thought Adjusters. We know other minds, and the Adjuster signals that we may attempt to know the mind of God himself. So we intuitively look for it, following the true religion.
Most of us believers feel the need to share what we hold important. Religious experience, then, the sense of having found God, moves us to come into contact with our less enlightened brothers. We want everyone to feel the same hope and relief. That’s probably why I’m running this site. Religion leads directly to service; however, when it is poisoned by selfishness, then leads to intolerance.
Such an impulse, when it is a consequence of true religion, is to allow others to find and experience their own way. And encourage it. The same impulse, contaminated by materialism, keeps religious organizations alive. God did not create today’s religions. It is not God who demands mindless obedience and it is not God who preys on human hopes and fears. The Urantia Book says that when theology has mastered religion, it withers away, becoming wholly a doctrine, not life.
True religion is perverted by those who have held their personal experiences to be the only correct ones; and henceforth they impose them on others. How close can modern “belief and practice systems” be to the truth, with their fancy ceremonies, precious sacrifices, and sacred figurines? Even in their boldest ideals? Dogmas and authoritative religious truths are the result of the investigations of those who sought to do the impossible: to combine the human with the divine to create uniform procedures for religious experience. Even if they had good intentions, egoism considered these subjective religious philosophies to be the best and then as the only truths worthy of being called.
Fear God!
The dominant element of belief systems and practices is fear (seasoned with shame). Calculating religious leaders are well aware that it is the fear of the consequences of disloyalty to God that most effectively keeps believers in line. That is why they arouse it and consistently maintain it.
Notice in all this and not so subtle, the desire to make God’s law. Because sin is what (at a given moment) priests do not accept. Not God. A few men have given themselves the inalienable right to speak in his name, as if they were God. And they do it with intolerant audacity.
The truth is different. And we all feel it to a greater or lesser extent; we even know. Hell does not exist. We can sin, but it has little to do with what religions say about sin. God is never cruel or vengeful. Even against the worst of the villains. It does not send diseases, does not bring bad luck or poison pregnancies. He does not require absurd sacrifices (and he did not send his own son to death). There is but one result of persistent, conscious opposition to divine reality — irrevocable death.
However, sin has only a spiritual and personal dimension. Just as true religion will manifest itself in human life, although in this case no man has the competence or right to judge another in this respect. Only we ourselves, in our own personal experience, know whether we are acting in harmony with what we feel most sincerely, in harmony with God.
After the Mass
A separate aspect of organized religion is the attitude of the associated to other, non-religious areas of life. In Poland, the Catholic Church likes politics and poisoning science. It fervently interferes with law and education and is happy to lecture on intimacy, sex and raising children. The Church renamed evangelization to indoctrination. The Urantia Book makes its relation clear: “Religionists, as a group, must never engage in anything but religion”. Of course, truly religious people will act in politics, science or education, but as individuals, not as representatives of religious groups. They will be guided by sincere intentions, not by “divine” laws imposed by priests.
The criticism of organized religion resonates very clearly and always in a parental manner from The Urantia Book. Not so subtly on my part. However, it should be remembered that erroneous, selfish beliefs do not invalidate the personal religions of people associated in churches. Theology attempts to interpret these subjective experiences, although the resulting beliefs need not be merely erroneous. The deceived faithful are able, can, and will sincerely experience God. It can be seen, for example, in the Polish Church, where in theory there are uniform laws and principles established in the Vatican, and still practically every member of it believes in his own way, despite priestly manipulations. Regardless of meaningless procedures and sacraments, personal, true religion is always important.
Me, me, me and only me
Give every developing child a chance to grow his own religious experience; do not force a ready-made adult experience upon him. Remember, year-by-year progress through an established educational regime does not necessarily mean intellectual progress, much less spiritual growth. Enlargement of vocabulary does not signify development of character. Growth is not truly indicated by mere products but rather by progress. Real educational growth is indicated by enhancement of ideals, increased appreciation of values, new meanings of values, and augmented loyalty to supreme values.
100:1.3 (1094.5)
Religion, in order to be true, cannot be reduced to mere acceptance of doctrines; we will not piece it together from theological propositions. True religion is “the act of the individual soul in its self-conscious relationship with the Creator”. Organized religion is an attempt to socialize, so in a sense, to indicate the golden, universal mean of these relationships. And such a thing does not exist. True religion is alive because it dynamically actualizes itself. Dogmas, even if overthrown, do not want to fall.
Religion cannot be given, religion cannot be received or borrowed, religion cannot be taken away from anyone; religion cannot be taught. It is not possible to save a man by compulsion or to ennoble him against his will. You can bend his personality, but not force him to develop it. Fear and shame are completely worthless motivations for religious life. The Urantia Book teaches that spiritual progress is most intense when external pressures are kept to an absolute minimum.
So why are all kinds of religious organizations and sects so popular? Although the answer does not follow directly from the papers, I would again point to the culprit – egoism. An elusive religion call us all, but the animal nature is still strong within us.
We are lazy and selfish. And subjectively understood God requires responsibility and reacting to changes. That is why we are looking for an escape from the hardships of a truly religious life. It is easier when the authority explains to us what and how. We do not have to look or doubt, because someone has already learned the answers and will present them to us. We then shift the responsibility for our own development, and sometimes even for ourselves in general, onto others. That is why so often people live in a delusion created for this occasion, looking for a false refuge in doctrines. This is what religious organizations and sects live on. The Urantia Book says that “the intellectual crystallization of religious concepts is the equivalent of spiritual death”.
Along with laziness, selfishness remains at play. Because we want to be better, smarter than others; chosen and privileged. So someone must be worse and more stupid; condemned and overlooked. When we are brothers in God’s eyes, the ego will tell us that my religion must be the one; the rest are wrong. And if we extend religion to a way of life, religious fanaticism will take even more victims.
We are only human. And even if we consider them equals, the temptation to gain an advantage and power over others will not disappear. This can be seen in probably all areas of social life; in the family, at work, or with friends. This can manifest itself in obvious self-aggrandizement, but also in false modesty or condescension. And when egotistical religion claims to be superior to others, it may claim that it has power over them. How many wars, murders and human meanness resulted from a sense of religious superiority? How many consciences are calmed by such a feeling? The desire to dominate also shines in the ubiquitous hierarchy in the structures of organized religions. However, it is the hostility towards heretics (and non-believers) that frightens the most.
Evolutionary religions are armed with materialism and lined with selfishness. Although we believe that God is worthy of respect by all people, even though we preach equality and justice, we easily discredit false gods. When doctrines allow them to condemn non-believers from the position of the Creator, believers will willingly exalt themselves. They gain an egoistic feeling that they are allowed, or even that they should expect the universal application of their religious law (even from non-believers), and sometimes even accepting their beliefs as the truth. Of course, they do not have to reciprocate such respect themselves. After all, it was God who anointed them, they will burn in hell anyway. That is why the followers tend to be so intolerant; justifying the persecution. After all, they want to save their neighbors! And those outside their own group are sometimes treated as subhuman; with a prayer on his lips.
Band of Brothers
The Urantia Book rebukes modern beliefs as stripped of their most important qualities. The brotherhood of man, resulting, for example, from Christianity, in practice is nothing more than an unfunny caricature. For we are brothers; but they are not from our family…
The concept of God the Universal Father equates us as brethren. All of them. With religion as a personal experience, an experience that cannot be evaluated from the outside, that cannot be taught or discredited, we are divinely equal. Regardless of external factors, internally, spiritually, we are siblings.
In the religious family the wholehearted recognition of the universal and just sovereignty of God the Father (no matter what name we may give him) over each individual leads to universal submission to the one common superior power — the divine. The Urantia Book says that “there will be no lasting religious peace on Urantia until all religious groups have voluntarily surrendered all concepts of divine favor, chosen people, and religious sovereignty. Only when God the Father becomes supreme will men become religious brethren and live together in religious peace on earth”.
OOPS. This is an impious attack on the holy priesthood! Someone here wants to deprive them of comforts; ego-tickling power. And it turns out that it is the one they proclaimed to be their employer.
And while religion is a matter of personal experience, it is important that we learn as many other religious experiences as possible, because we are in this together. It is not a matter of common services or, horror of horrors, proselytizing, but of exchanging ideas. Awareness of different ways of understanding religion helps to gain distance, prevents religious selfishness. We can realize that our perspective, although different from the one from which other people experience God, is just as good and right.
However Urantia mortals may differ in their intellectual, social, economic, and even moral opportunities and endowments, forget not that their spiritual endowment is uniform and unique. They all enjoy the same divine presence of the gift from the Father, and they are all equally privileged to seek intimate personal communion with this indwelling spirit of divine origin, while they may all equally choose to accept the uniform spiritual leading of these Mystery Monitors.
5:1.5 (63.3)
True Religion and Science
The Urantia Book does not negate science. On the contrary. Although it tempers scientific arrogance, true religion never comes into conflict with science. Not because doesn’t want to, or prefers not. Religion simply cannot get involved in such a controversy, because, as the priests are eager to forget, it is not, never has been, and never will be connected with material things. They are completely different worlds (almost literally heaven and earth) that together — science from the outside and religion from the inside — develop human species. True religion is interested not in science, but in the scientist.
For the same reasons, there will never be scientific proofs of God’s existence. The progress of science, of course, consistently and inevitably kills consecutive gods, it happens. This does not apply to a religious person, it suits him. With their sacrifice, ignorance melts away and superstitions that distort the image of the one God disappear. True religion has an interest in truth, even if it would have to change. It’s even advisable. Personal religious experiences can lead you astray, so religion will not be developing if is not purified by science. Revelation, on the other hand, gives true religion and the discoveries of science a common ground.
Scientifically oriented atheists often do not realize that it is not God who denies science, but the man who appointed himself as his messenger. God’s truth is unchangeable, but it is man who is wrong. In this context, science is depriving man of influence and privileges, not God.
The more completely man understands himself and appreciates the personality values of his fellows, the more he will crave to know the Original Personality, and the more earnestly such a God-knowing human will strive to become like the Original Personality. You can argue over opinions about God, but experience with him and in him exists above and beyond all human controversy and mere intellectual logic. The God-knowing man describes his spiritual experiences, not to convince unbelievers, but for the edification and mutual satisfaction of believers.
1:6.6 (30.5)
Believe yourself
Despite our differences, we are all siblings in the eyes of our Creator. And he treats us like an ideal parent — with perfect justice. We are also very similar. We tend to be susceptible to manipulation and too often think of ourselves as superior. We are lazy and find it difficult to admit to being wrong. And we are wrong. Sometimes less, sometimes more, but none of us knows the whole truth. On the other hand, there is no force that can betray our personal, true religion. All of us, regardless of our place of origin, intellect or social status, have been given exactly the same chance to find God. No priest, imam or scientist will take this away from us. No mistake closes the door to salvation for us, because you always decide for yourself, just like me. You can also always change your decision. And we are doing it now.
In the future, The Urantia Book confidently predicts that religious life on earth will form a religious unity (not necessarily uniformity). Religious groups will not be subject to formal religious authority, and none of them will have a monopoly on God. Our children will be free to explore their inner selves, joyfully guided by the impulses of the purest sincerity that guide them. A purified religion will be free from superstitious fear, shame, and intolerance.
You are also the builder of such a future. Because when this vision will come true depends entirely on us.