The Urantia Book. Introducing a bigger frame in which to think. Part 1: Universe Frames. Part 2: the Personal Universe. Part 3: a Family Affair

Transcription

1 The Urantia Book Introducing a bigger frame in which to think Part 1: Universe Frames Part 2: the Personal Universe Part 3: a Family Affair Part 4: Cosmology Part 2: the Personal Universe page 1

2 Part 2: the Personal universe ( continued from Part 1 ) Part 2: the Personal Universe page 2

3 As a world, we anticipate contact with more-than-human life. But our scientific method has led many to believe to believe that we are nothing but an evolutionary accident, that No display of energy, nor expression of trust, can carry us (personally) beyond the grave You can see the problem. How on earth to deliver, to present, Part 2: the Personal Universe page 3

4 a wider view of the world, a bigger frame", to a sceptical, scientific age? Part 2: the Personal Universe page 4

5 This Urantia Book is an attempt. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 5

6 Ok, so what do these papers offer a skeptical, scientific age? Two things: The first is simply a description of the way things are, as seen from some other, higher frame. The second is something that required this wider view: a revelation about ourselves. Ok, but what do they actually reveal? Part 2: the Personal Universe page 6

7 They reveal surprising answers to three of our most basic questions: Number 1: Where we are? These papers describe our place in a finite manifold in a more-than-finite space. Number 2: What we are? They explain the components of which we are really made. And number 3, the big one: Why are we? These authors offer us a hint of a glimpse of our true, personal (potential) place in Eternity. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 7

8 Now, number 1 may be intriguing for astronomers, but for everybody else well, not so much. So let s leave that for later. Number 3 requires an understanding of what we really are So let s begin with number 2: their revelation about ourselves. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 8

9 Of what components are we really made And where does personality fit in? Part 2: the Personal Universe page 9

10 Every human culture has tried to explain what we humans really are. Our beliefs about ourselves combine concepts of matter, mind and spirit, in all sorts of ways. And it s these beliefs which polarise our groups: In one corner, Spiritualists tend to see anything non-spiritual as crude or illusion. Likewise Materialists see all spiritual belief as fiction, and thus not even wrong. Meanwhile, philosophers and religionists try to make sense of the numinous impinging upon our private, inner world. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 10

11 The Urantia Book coordinates all this in a way which may surprise, even delight, all our factions of belief. It presents reality as the interaction of four distinct domains. Three we recognize as matter, mind and spirit. But they add one more. One which motivates and integrates all else. They call this personality, which may seem like a familiar word. But in these papers the concept personality is absolutely redefined. * * * Now, one thing about these four domains Part 2: the Personal Universe page 11

12 is that each is said to be lit by a characteristic light : material light, intellectual insight, spirit luminosity. Each of these forms of light serves as currency as currency in the economy of its domain. So what lights up persons? What serves as currency in the personal domain? This is where love comes in: Personality is illuminated by love. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 12

13 It s against this background, of Personality illuminated by love, that these authors can at last explain the phenomenon of man. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 13

14 They begin by describing, step by step, how this remarkable package our body and mind evolved. While confirming the basic outlines discovered by science, they add some missing links: they explain why evolution took the path it did, and how a system of mind was woven into the evolving animal forms. But this organic evolution just sets the stage. So let s skip past the biochemistry and go straight to the heart of the matter: Part 2: the Personal Universe page 14

15 The Urantia papers reveal this package to be serving as a womb, from which something remarkable is born. They reveal something made of personality fertilizing something made of spirit. This fertilization allows gestation, and a second birth. Let s move this womb aside, and take a closer look. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 15

16 We find three things: Personality, a divine Presence, and a Soul. Our personality they describe as something unimaginable, an unblemished gift bestowed upon a system of body and mind. This Presence they reveal to be a divine indweller, an absolute essence of an infinite being. And our soul? Here s where it gets interesting. Let s take one more look at that poet s ancient question: Part 2: the Personal Universe page 16

17 What is man, that You are mindful of him? (Psalm 8) In this frame, the answer is simple: Our substance, our soul, combines His essence with Himself. These components of which we are really made Let s take them one by one. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 17

18 Of Personality, they say this: The personality of mortal man is neither body, mind, nor spirit; neither is it the soul. Personality is the one changeless reality in an otherwise ever-changing creature experience; The Urantia Book (Foreword, section 5) And this: The love of the Father absolutely individualizes each personality as a unique child of the Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity, a will creature irreplaceable irreplaceable in all eternity. The Urantia Book (138.4) 12:7.9 Part 2: the Personal Universe page 18

19 Of this Presence, this divine Adjuster, they say this: The Adjusters are the actuality of the Father s love incarnate in the souls of men The Adjuster is an absolute essence of an infinite being It is the indwelling Adjuster who individualizes the love of God to each human soul. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 19

20 And of our Soul, they say this: Personality may survive mortal death with identity in the surviving soul. The Adjuster and the personality are changeless; the relationship between them (in the soul) is nothing but change, continuing evolution; As presented in these papers, our soul becomes a technique for salvaging us from death, a way to wean us as Persons from the material domain. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 20

21 But see the simplicity of our human situation: o from the choosing we do within our mind arena of choice, o the indwelling adjuster o weaves for us a soul. The key here is choice: it s our choices that allow this Adjuster literally to weave new fibres in our soul. To put this another way, Part 2: the Personal Universe page 21

22 As humans, our mind enables us: to discover, recognize, interpret, and choose. The Urantia Book (2094.9, 196:3.10) Our lives become a sequence of decisions, and the opportunity to choose. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 22

23 And the good news? A simple, sincere life of free-will moral choice is all it takes to zip together our essential DNA, our two true parts Part 2: the Personal Universe page 23

24 Personality and Adjuster. And simply given time, Part 2: the Personal Universe page 24

25 our true nature unfolds. Part 2: the Personal Universe page 25

26 Up next: Why are we? Why do we exist at all? Who invented humans, and why? And what s Love got to do with it? Part 2: the Personal Universe page 26

27 The Urantia Book Presenting a larger frame in which to think. Freely available across the world, downloadable as an iphone app. Next: a Family Affair ( see Part 3 ) Part 2: the Personal Universe page 27