Episode:Religion in Depth—Real Nature (Part 5)

From Symmetry of Soul


Revelation is a technique whereby ages upon ages of time are saved. Part of the universe plan is that, sooner or later, evolutionary religion is destined to receive the spiritual expansion of revelation. And revealed religion lays increasing emphasis on loving, the golden rule.

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Keywords: Urantia, Religion, Body, Spirit, Mind

Summary by Kermit

Commentary on Review

Before beginning our reading for the evening we focused attention on the five ways revelatory statements about cosmology clarify knowledge. Such clarification of knowledge is intended to provide the prerequisites for the potential to recognize truth. Truth is a subtle fact to recognize. Truth reveals a wholeness of reality that can only be perceived by insight. Consider error a wholeness of unreality by contrast. Subjectively experienced, error is very like the wholeness of reality. Unaided by revelation the plain man or woman is certain to have difficulty discerning error from truth. Thus, does revelation reduce confusion by the authoritative elimination of error. We discussed the issue of authority noting that all previous epochal revelations were presented authoritatively by individuals and groups of personalities, whereas the 5th ER has no descending son of god, as a personal presence, to embody its truth.

In coordinating known or about-to-be-known facts and observations the 5th ER authors demonstrate profound precision in their use of language to imply the existence of the about-to-be-known knowledge. Knowledge we can accurately and readily recognize as contributing to a truthful whole upon its general acceptance.

Restoring bits of lost knowledge concerning epochal transactions in the distant past, and filling in vital missing gaps in otherwise earned knowledge enable us to appreciate the wholeness of reality in terms of origins, history, and destinies.

The cosmic data provided in the 5th ER orient us to the wholeness of the cosmos, not just our connection to spirit. This cosmic data is given to assist us in recognizing and discarding our preconceived opinions, settled ideas, and long standing prejudices thereby engaging the revelation truthfully.

We jumped to Paper 92, Section 4, The Gift of Revelation where the authors capsulize the five revelations of epochal significance to our world. They go on to frankly admit the partial nature of all revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father. With this recognition we are challenged to go beyond the religion of intellectual assent, credulity, and established authority to embrace faith, cultivate trust, and find assurance in genuine revealed religion.

A caller asked about authority as associated with sovereignty. Real sovereignty is an inner life phenomenon, and while we are mightily challenged to find valid external authority, it is the authority of our inner sovereignty that must be the nucleus from which our thoughts originate. This in turn led to a discussion of the liberty found in law, and further to the imperative to attain certitude, to be sophistry proof.

101:5. Religion Expanded by Revelation

The natural bottom up perspective of the striving human does not lead to appreciation or realization of the wholeness of reality.

Spirit engages mind from a top down direction. Revelation (a top down perspective) greatly facilitates the culling of errors of evolution from truths of spirit acquirement.

As has been mentioned before on this broadcast, in relation to truth and fact, truth (as well as error) can be obeyed, facts cannot. It is possible to have a truthful relationship with a primitive worldview that is short on facts. But it likely requires the creative help of revelators.

In the interplay of the facts of science, with the values of religion, philosophy (enlightened by revelation) attempts to unite the meanings of both to arrive at a concept of complete reality. But religion comes in two flavors, evolutionary, a mind derivative from primitive worship, and revealed, a spirit derivative. Such revealed religion consists in the assurance of and belief in the conservation of eternal realities, the survival of personality, and eventual attainment of the cosmic Deity. Refer to the archive for the details of our discussion of distinctions between our spiritual Father and cosmic Mother.

As with science and religion, so too must philosophy begin its quest for unity and wisdom with certain generally accepted bases for logical deductions. Philosophy in human experience begins assuming the reality of three things: the material body, the soul or indwelling spirit—the supermaterial aspect of the human being, and the superadditive consequence of the two universal substances of matter and spirit—mind. Again, listen to the archive for the details of the discussion of the role of mind as the mechanism for the interaction of spirit and matter. Truth is impossible of attainment without this three-fold picture of reality.

Feeling and emotion are invariable concomitants of religion, but are not religion per se. Neither rationalization nor emotion are essentially part of religious experience, but may be present according to the status and temperament of the mind of the individual in question.

The final three paragraphs of our reading for the evening were discussed briefly. In our discussion we touched on how evolutionary religion was highly instrumental in stabilizing relatively ethical civilizations. Revelatory religion is especially concerned with the expansion of truth. Evolutionary religion drives home to the individual the idea of personal duty; revealed religion lays increasing emphasis on loving, the golden rule. From this perspective we examined the statement in the revelation, “Love is the desire to do good to others.” The distinction between the desire to do good and doing good to others is important in understanding a major misunderstanding concerning true religion i.e., an inner life phenomenon and what is widely considered religion today i.e., external world behaviors.

Our final paragraph explores the working union of human faith and divine truth, introducing the next phase of religious growth.

Notes by Brad

  • Why are bits of lost knowledge filled in by epochal revelation? So that truth can be found. Truth is a wholeness, and gaps will impede the flow of truth.
  • It's natural to project one's own self onto The Urantia Book. Understanding it for what it is, that's an artform.
  • Threefold actuality of universal reality: things, meaning, and values. Facts of things, truth of meanings, and goodness of values.
  • Philosophers systematize associations of ideas.
  • Love is the desire to do good (not "stuff") for others.
  • The words trust and truth have the same root.