Episode:Religion in Depth—Reality of Experience (Part 5)

From Symmetry of Soul


Man, in his spiritual domain, does have a free will. Mortal man is neither a helpless slave of the inflexible sovereignty of an all-powerful God nor the victim of the hopeless fatality of a mechanistic cosmic determinism. Man is most truly the architect of his own eternal destiny.

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Keywords: Urantia, Religion, Liberty, Brotherhood, Philosophy

Summary by Kermit

Commentary on Review

We are reminded that while the experience of spiritual communion will most definitely produce sublime feelings, neither these feelings nor sublime feelings in general are spiritual communion. Neither are your highest ideals synonymous with the will of God. Lack of understanding of these issues leads to confusion and self-deception in the religious life.

In your zeal to provide a healing balm to a hurting world, remember we live in an evolutionary domain, and your sovereignty is limited to the inner life and does not extend to the big picture. Supply the favorable conditions to be grown as a part of the whole and guard against a tendency to feel and act as if you are responsible for the whole. Further, transgression of taboos of the current mores is not sufficient to take you to iniquity, and guilt produced therefrom is not equivalent to a consciousness of sin.

103:5.8

Man’s idealism is enhanced and energized when his altruistic impulses are recognized to take origin in the spiritual forces (pl.) indwelling his own mind rather than the natural herd instincts of the 5th adjutant. The potent presence of the Thought Adjuster lends an effective indwellingness to the spirit ministries of the Holy Spirit and Spirit of Truth, which technically are not actually indwelling the human mind. This recognition of the spiritual source of altruism enables man to develop an objective relationship with himself and hence the rest of reality. Thus he is lifted out of and beyond himself and makes real the feelings of human brotherhood. Prior to this objective perspective, the perception of reality is merely a projection of the self.

We clarified some notions regarding mores (taboos) and true morality, noting that as civilizations advance, the closer the mores approximate genuine cosmic ethics and morality and hence represent evolutionary attainments not to be despised. Transitions of the mores are especially problematic today in that they are transitions away from earlier social and legal constraints in the name of liberty, often falsely so-called, rather than transitions toward a nobler society based on a recognition of cosmic reality.

Man truly possesses free will in his spiritual domain. He is neither slave to an all-powerful God, nor a victim of a mechanistic and deterministic cosmos. Mankind’s failure to recognize the harmony and balance of the threefold nature of reality constitutes today’s philosophic emergency. Confusing free will, which pertains to spirit relative to mind, with self-assertion which pertains to mind relative to matter leads mankind unwittingly into the Luciferian doctrines of false liberty.

A recurring theme of our broadcasts is that man cannot cause growth. External pressures on man from home, community, church and state risk deforming the personality, notwithstanding the legitimate role these institutions play in a progressive society. History has witnessed a shift from ecclesiastical pressures of the church to the regulatory pressures of the state to the point that the revelators have included a section on the dangers of secular totalitarianism in [Paper 195]. Failure to recognize the evolutionary nature of all aspects of life coupled with a quickened spiritual consciousness is leading man to meet evolutionary challenges with existential responses. Spiritual ideals are being erroneously and vainly applied to material issues. Wherein is to be found the symmetry of soul we earnestly seek?

The final paragraph of this section attempts to remind us that the institutions and social structures that have evolved have value, but they should not be allowed to become oppressive to the point of deforming the personality and depriving man of his religious liberty. In this discussion the ideas of spiritual unity, theological uniformity, religious liberty, and freedom from institutional pressure were related and developed. Listen to the broadcast for the details.

103:6. Philosophic Co-ordination

We read the first four paragraphs of this section wherein are introduced two methods employed by man in his quest to understand reality. With respect to religion, theology is the philosophy of your religion as experienced in the spiritualized mind. Psychology is the realm of the personal expression of religion in the outer life.

The attempt to understand reality from the outside requires a scientific approach, and yields a picture of the cosmos as mechanical and composed of energy-matter. Pursuing this research from the inside gives rise to theology and metaphysics and a picture of the universe as spiritual in nature. So it is that the nature of the universe is viewed in a dichotomy of materialism vs. spiritism. Man thus develops the art of philosophy in his attempt to reconcile the many discrepancies that arise from these two diametrically opposed avenues of investigation.

Notes by Brad

  • Unity versus uniformity—Does this apply to the United States?
    • Yes, "toward a more perfect union" is about perfecting. Evolutionary thinking by the founders long before Darwin.
  • Unity is a word associated with personality. Personality is about unifying, not making things uniform.
  • To achieve unity, you must shed yourself of absolute individuality and seek harmony. Humans seem to understand harmony fairly well.
  • Unity also is a word that has many shades of meaning in the 5th ER.