Episode:Religion in Depth—Foundations of Faith (Part 2)
There is no real religion apart from a highly active personality. True religion is alive, and true religion must act. A growing religious experience entails incessant activity in spiritual growth, intellectual expansion, factual enlargement, and social service.
Keywords: Urantia, Religion, Mind, Meaning, Triunity
Summary by Kermit
Commentary on Review
We followed the review with some additional observations about the degree to which the revelators called out the materialist philosophy of Bertrand Russell, highlighting its abnegation of the innate faculty of insight in favor of reason. We also noticed that the revelation is more directed toward mankind’s march in pursuit of the far-in-the-future-destiny of light and life than with issues of personal survival and salvation.
102:2. Religion and Reality
Noting the title of the section, we observed the revelators’ use of words and the order in which they arrange them. It is always significant. As they so often do, they order words such that the foundational concept of their phrase is signaled by the term in the second position. In this case reality is the foundation upon which religion is to be considered. And reality as we experience it is founded on the reality response encircuitment in the Holy Spirit we all enjoy by grace. As such, religion, sparked by the third cosmic intuition is a natural possession of the human race, and the perceptions thereof are subject to the full spectrum of human shortcomings—ignorance, superstition, sophistication, and philosophic delusions.
Genuine religious assurance displays the elements of absoluteness of affirmation, and stanchness of attitude in juxtaposition with poise and unselfishness. These two modes of bearing reflect the dual consecrations to God the Father’s will on one hand and God the Mother’s balance and harmony on the other. Recognizing that the religious experience is derived from dual sources, the human mind and the divine Adjuster, the force of genuine religious expression should be seen to arise from this human divine partnership rather than from the personal agenda of the individual religionist. Avail yourselves of the archive for the intriguing discussion of wisdom and the role of the Adjuster’s experiential nature in contrast to its existential nature in serving as the everlasting source of all wisdom, as this all relates to Father and Mother Deity.
Our author describes the genuine religionist as one with his feet anchored in eternity engaging life originally and spontaneously, free from the deleterious reactions to the vicissitudes of daily life, with hands in time, free to do the work of the world. Such a stabilization of personality and tranquillity of character thus become compellingly authoritative as observed by those who have eyes to see. Here’s a challenge, to make your grounding in eternity and partnership with spirit a conscious part of your daily life. (Sounds like a self-reminding prayer practice to me.)
The attainment of knowledge requires time. Religion allows immediate access to its benefits albeit growth (time) is indispensible to advancement therein. The certainty of knowledge is always partial, characterized by increasing probability of approximation while the certitude of religious experience is available to the religionist now!
In and through mind mortal man experiences universal realities. Never can he directly experience matter or spirit substance. While the mind perspective will never discover the existential unity of the source of reality, the First Source and Center, someday it will find the experiential synthesis of energy, mind, and spirit in the Supreme Being. This unification is possible only through recognition of the triunity of functional reality. Such unity so discovered yields a personality satisfaction of the realization of cosmic constancy and consistency. Only through a philosophic approach sparked by the spiritual insight of the third cosmic intuition is this philosophic unity experienced.
The remainder of this section was aimed at the incorrect perceptions of religion widely held today. Some of the more prevalent forms of so-called religious pursuits amount to varieties of escapism, notably sentimentalism and mysticism. Religion is not to be a refuge from the challenges of evolutionary living. The mission of genuine religion is to prepare mortal man for bravely even heroically facing these challenges. Religion represents evolutionary man’s supreme endowment which allows him to live, feet anchored in eternity, hands available for the works of time.
Thus, a key characteristic of religion is action in the world, notwithstanding such action may be unwise or irreligious. It is always dynamic!
Notes by Brad
- Quotes from Blaise Pascal (easily searchable on the Internet) are witty and wise. Bertrand Russell's quotes are comic in places, but quite dark, by contrast.
- Knowing religion by its fruits reminds me of a person I hear about often at my workplace, spoken so highly of. No one can quite pin down why they liked him so. But I learned that he retired and became pastor of a small rural church.
- The source of all wisdom is (1) existentially, the Paradise Trinity, (2) experientially, God the Mother
- "Even the discoveries of science..." paragraph is a key paragraph in the 5th ER.
- "Mere unity" (as opposed to triunity) is flat and two-dimensional, only seeing the spirit side of things. Because it is so flat, it leads to platitudes like "It's all good" and "We are all one," which feel pleasing to say, but cannot be truly obeyed.
- The etymology of the word "platitude" is rooted in "plat", which means flat, as in plateau.
- An image comes to mind. With one's feet standing on eternity, and their hands reaching into time to do work here, one might appear upside down to the rest of the world.
- What kind of courage does it take to comport oneself in this way in the world? And independence?
- Give it enough time, though, and it becomes apparent that it is the majority of the world that is upside down.
