Episode:Religion in Depth—Reality of Experience (Part 10)
Genuine religious experience far transcends the philosophic objectification of idealistic desire; it actually takes salvation for granted and concerns itself only with learning and doing the will of the Father in Paradise. The earmarks of such a religion are: faith in a supreme Deity, hope of eternal survival, and love, especially of one’s fellows.
Keywords: Urantia, Religion, Faith, Hope, Love
Note: James was away this week, and in a rare instance we had only 3 co-hosts this evening.
Summary by Kermit
Commentary on Review
We discussed the difficulty and necessity of having accurate word meanings when attempting to recognize and appreciate the things, meanings, and values revealed in the 5th ER. The very word “meaning” itself is not fully understood nor can many of these words like faith, truth, logic, love, etc. be understood from definitions in our dictionaries. Listen to our discussion of the revelators’ use of the word pairs “materialism” and “pantheism” in [103:8.6], as compared to “materialism” and “spiritism” in [103:6.5] for an even greater appreciation of their linguistic acumen. The fruits of this discussion led to another discussion contrasting the reverence for unity and the worship of God, see [5:5.4]. The takeaway from this discussion string is the cosmic configuration of the triunity with personality, wherein the reverence for unity is predicated on the worship of God, a person, by his child, another person.
Further, recalling the four phases in the evolution of a religious philosophy in [101:7.4], and looking at the most advanced fourth level where we find a religionist who dares to act, and live honestly, loyally, fearlessly, and truthfully, we find something to strive for and we find a yardstick for measuring our own cosmic standing.
Finally, we considered the eventual journey enabled by Adjuster fusion going beyond the scaffolding of religion in the pursuit of the truths of cosmology and divinity as they are encompassed in universe philosophy.
103:9. The Essence of Religion
Considering the intellectual content, philosophic aspects, and spiritual content of religion, as found in theology, metaphysics (revelation), and religious experience respectively, the revelators assure us that notwithstanding the manifold negative elements in our theology and human metaphysics, the spiritual experience of personal religion remains genuine and valid.
Can we bring this grace-given superconscious reality into an uncorrupted conscious experience? Such religion must involve personality (permanence in the presence of change), not merely mind centered on our temporal group or institutional so-called religious associations.
Note the acknowledgement by the revelators that Buddhism in its original form is one of the best religions without a God to have evolved on our world, despite the fact that religion without faith or God is a contradiction, philosophic inconsistency, and intellectual absurdity. Does this not underscore the superconscious nature of this otherwise valid religion?
Most important to remember that the magical and mythological origins of natural religion do not invalidate the later revelatory religions, including the religion of Jesus, rather do they effectively prepare the way for superior religion by assuming the existence and reality of supermaterial values and beings.
Even though religious experience is a purely spiritual subjective experience, it is based on the insights of the 3rd cosmic intuition into objective reality embracing a positive and living faith attitude. This is far more than the objectification of philosophic desire. It actually takes salvation for granted, lifting the individual above those who cling to what passes for religion as an antidote for the natural fear of death. The earmarks of such a genuine religion are:
- faith in a supreme Deity,
- hope of eternal survival, and
- love, especially of one’s fellows.
(Listen to the archive for a most interesting discussion of the phrase “hope of survival” as it is related to taking salvation for granted).
The final seven paragraphs of Paper 103 continue to examine true religion and man’s religious life in terms of the dynamic inter-relationship of reason, wisdom, and faith. I leave further summarization of the insights and discussion threads of these final paragraphs of this paper for the earnest student to pursue in the archive in the interest of brevity.
I conclude with the final paragraph of Paper 103:
There is a reality in religious experience that is proportional to the spiritual content, and such a reality is transcendent to reason, science, philosophy, wisdom, and all other human achievements. The convictions of such an experience are unassailable; the logic of religious living is incontrovertible; the certainty of such knowledge is superhuman; the satisfactions are superbly divine, the courage indomitable, the devotions unquestioning, the loyalties supreme, and the destinies final — eternal, ultimate, and universal. [103:9.12]
Notes by Brad
- ...thinking back on chemistry: what would a philosophically informed, humble freshman chemistry class look like?
- Religion means "being bound back to eternity."
- In section 9 is TRUTH—one of the words appearing in all caps, here suggestive of a top-down source fact (as opposed to definitions used in some places, and the I AM).
- The inner life isn't merely feelings about the outer life.
- Don't get stuck at the poignant feelings you get about the outer life. Let go, don't hold onto them.
- Let go and spirit gravity will lift you up.
