Episode:Evolutionary Religion—Later Evolution (Part 2)

From Symmetry of Soul


Religion clings to the mores; that which “was” is ancient and supposedly sacred. And religion has at one time or another sanctioned all sorts of contrary and inconsistent behavior, has at some time approved of practically all that is now regarded as immoral or sinful. Therefore, conscience, untaught by experience and unaided by reason, never has been, and never can be, a safe and unerring guide to human conduct.

Listen to the broadcast

Keywords: Urantia, Religion, Mores, Conscience, Dogma

Summary by Kermit

Commentary on the Review

The influences of the superanimal 6th and 7th adjutants plus the supermind bestowal of the Holy Spirit constitute the ministry initiating the birth and development of man’s evolutionary religion. It may be helpful to consider the engagement of these two adjutants as the completion of the creature’s mindal self as a part. The HS in turn relates this part to the whole resulting in the superconscious birth of the potential for objective consciousness. As was mentioned, this movement of part to whole is repeated upward through the hierarchy of individualities of the whole i.e., the local universe, superuniverse, and central universe spanning the Paradise ascent.

The religious practices of current day still retain the remnants of the fear origins of evolutionary religion albeit modified by reverence, admiration, respect, and sympathy and further conditioned by remorse and repentance.

92:2. Religion and the Mores

Religions of evolution are man’s most rigid unyielding of institutions. But over time evolutionary religion eventually strikes step with the mores, which in turn are subject to the influence of revealed religion. This bottom up religion is fueled by the energy of the 6th adjutant and is outer-life oriented, propelling a society toward a culture thence toward a civilization.

Evolutionary religion spawned from the mores becomes existentialized, divorced from its human origins and falsely attributed to divine origins. And this attribution is not without reason as the superconscious supermind bestowal of the Holy Spirit (HS) has an existential quality. However this tendency to existentialize the temporal goes beyond religious applications and can be found in all types of social usage and even legal procedures. This dynamic can be seen to operate in the failure of advancing generations to discard and eliminate olden but reprehensible practices and outworn customs. However, attempts to accelerate religious growth too rapidly is labeled as foolish by the revelators. Races and nations are only able to assimilate that which is reasonably consistent and compatible with their current evolutionary status. This does not mean that select individuals cannot experience sudden religious reorientation, albeit this too is not without some peril. We are told that social morality is not determined by evolutionary religion, rather the other way around. This is aptly illustrated by the example of the New Zealand tribe’s superficial conversion to Christianity and subsequent claims of direct revelations from Gabriel conveniently condoning continuance of their olden and reprehensible customs. It’s important to note that the revelators use the word morality, not in the highest sense of conformity with the cosmos, but in a sense signifying that aspect of the mores that often masquerades as the moral discriminator in the 2nd cosmic intuition. Even the 5th ER is subject to these impediments as seen in the post publication history of its readership.

We completed this section with an elucidating discussion of the mechanism of conscience and its lack of utility as a safe and unerring guide to human conduct, but merely the sum total of the moral and ethical content of the mores of any stage of existence. Thus is simply represents the humanly conceived ideal of reaction in any given set of circumstances.

92:3. The Nature of Evolutionary Religion

Now that the evolutionary nature of religion has been established, the revelators address its nature. We read the first three paragraphs of this section. The study of human religion (evolutionary) is really a perusal of man’s social history. The cardinal elements of evolutionary religious practices all go back to the early times of primordial ghost fear. Primitive religion has essentially been the struggle for material (external world) existence extended to include life beyond the grave. Before criticizing the obvious shortcomings of evolutionary religion remember the past is historical fact and we mortals are still mightily drawn to ideas based as much on their vividness of appeal as on their certainty or truth.

Notes by Brad

  • A complete mindal self is obtained with the 6th and 7th of the seven adjutant mind-spirits. But it is a completeness of the part. A completeness of the whole is made potential with the addition of the Holy Spirit.
  • And it's always parts in relation to whole, forever and out to infinity. All nested within one another. These words fail to capture this remarkable concept.
  • Can you transcend feelings? Discover real religion?
  • Sym + pathy: together + feeling
    • Instead of "I'm fearfully praying for you," how about "I'm thankful for you?" Could you write that on social media?
  • Wisdom: knowledge directed by experiential reason and illuminated by divine revelation.


  • Note that section 2 is about evolutionary religion. Outer life religion. These adjectives are implicit in the reading. Avoid more or less distortion of meaning.
  • Don't be satisfied with mere outer life religion. It's evolutionary, sure, and not bad in and of itself. But you can only go so far with it.
  • The 6th adjutant doesn't reveal anything to you, it just adds a flavor to the outer life. Changes a society into a culture.
  • Fad diets are playing off the 6th adjutant's zeal, which tends to "lock in" ancient modalities.
  • A child of God, cannot escape the evolutionary religion tendency to existentialize the ancient.
  • Naturally, the 6th adjutant will "play around" in the horizontal, subjective space. It is subjective.
    • But precisely because of its subjectivity, you can subject it to a vertical influence.
  • A so called religionist who tries to get you to emote your bad feelings is inadvertently driving you down--180 degree from the direction you should be going.
    • It's natural to go 180 degrees backward.


  • Instead of admixing matter with your emotion, why not admix spirit with it?
    • Initial it will not seem you're going in the proper direction. It appears as if the feelings are recededing. But that's because you're finding a new foundation.
    • Some traditions have noticed that matter should not be brought into emotion. But you don't want to just bask and bliss out in the emotions. Go up as an individual.


  • Existentialised mores are dogma.


  • The outrage du jour in popular society is designed to get you to stop thinking, to only feel emotion.
    • "I don't want you to think, because if you did you might reason. And perhaps even use logic. Then I'll never be able to control you."
    • The outrage du jour is easier than ever to be subject to in this age of global, instant, "democratized" computer communication.
    • A courageous and independent cosmic thinker is not subject to the outrage du jour.
    • An individual can be reformed rather quickly; the nation and the race cannot, they are evolutionary.


  • The evolutionary process is inescapable with mere children of God.
    • Urantia Book readers who follow a notion of additional revelation from Gabriel? Um, so did a New Zealand tribe.
    • Urantia Book readers who want to be the chosen people? Um, New Zealand tribe.
    • This is not a book to be easily transitioned into. If if feels like an easy transition, you're skipping a stone across its surface. You're seeing your own reflection shimmering off the surface of the words on its pages.
    • And pause to reflect: as radical as the Urantia Book is, it is still evolutional--essentially meeting us where we are at.
      • Which is also why it can be read by someone for decades with no apparent tension.
      • Only upon unpacking it do its implications become gigantic. Perhaps even fearfully so, if you're still subject to such fear.
    • A race or nation can only absorb a little of revelation. But individuals? Courageous and independent cosmic thinkers?
      • Can you step aside from the evolutionary mainstream?
      • Can you avoid old wineskins?


  • Compare:
    • The Evolutionary Nature of Religion
    • The Nature of Evolutionary Religion
    • "So, having established the fact of existence of evolutionary religion, what is its nature?"



  • See [92:3.2] for the full list of concepts rooted in primordial ghost fear.
    • Ahem. Including prayer. And survival after death.
    • So, then. What is real religion if it doesn't involve such primordial matters?
    • When we say out with the old, we mean pretty much anything you can think of.


  • "I want to help people understand what the Urantia Book says about survival after death, because that is what is most important people."
    • Sure. But that isn't the primary point.
    • Remember that vividness is the ace in the hole. Vivid islands of heat.
    • Still small voices are not essentially vivid. But they are solid and powerful.