Planet Urantia

Is Love Logical?

What an interesting concept.  Personal development / self improvement book recommendation:

The Logic of Love: Finding Faith Through the Heart-Mind Connection, by Halbert Katzen

"The Logic of Love is written for those who embrace love - the desire and willingness to do well for others - as the most important value in life. The tools of logic are used to fabricate a paradigm of spiritual family from the material of commonly shared experiences. This structure is held together with love. "

"The Logic of Love demonstrates how faith in God can be a logical extension of love. If you do not have faith in God, this book offers an approach to faith that does not play upon your emotions or ask you to believe testimonials. In fact, it is written from an agnostic perspective. If you do have faith, but have trouble communicating to others that this is reasonable, the ideas presented here can help you express your faith to others as a logical and loving approach to life. This is a conversation about spirituality that is based on nothing more than love and freewill. It is not about trying to prove the existence of God. It is about exploring the possibilities and making a choice."

.....continued below...

Calling the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings

  From El Shaddai Ministries:

Greetings to everyone from around the world!  You know how at sporting events they have “the wave” where one group starts it and then it cycles all the way around and back to the beginning? Do you remember when at the year 2,000 they showed on television all the New Year celebrations going on around the world as the New Millennium began?  Here is what I want to propose: 

Let’s have an around the world shofar assembly in every time zone on the Feast of Trumpets (the evening of September 29th) announcing to Messiah we are awake and anxiously anticipating His return. What a dress rehearsal! Won’t that stir His heart!!

This sounds like a good idea to me so we have signed up to toot our horns - and we suggest that you and your family, or your local religious congregations follow suit!

Visit El Shaddai Ministries for more Information: 

The Feast of Trumpets Wave

How Great Thou Art, sung by Alan Jackson:

Is there a God? Where is the Proof?

Do you really want to know the answer to that question, or are you just trying to justify your current philosophical mindset? 

The proof is in the search.  If within your heart, mind, body and soul you are truly seeking the answer to the question "Is there really a God?", there will come a time when you will realize that there is.  If you're not truly searching, you cannot expect an answer.

This realization is probably the 'born again' experience billions of people have had since the beginning of humankind.  Through the generations there develops in each of us an awareness that something is holding all this up, that we are not doing it all by ourselves.  Prior to this awakening, we are nothing but selfish, self-preserving, survivalist animals.  We become fully human when we make the connection described above. 

The only effect I, or anyone else can have on your awakening is to plant seeds, provide a spark of inspiration, invoke curiosity, or live by example. 

My strong faith came about in steps, I will briefly list those steps here: 

Self-Conscious Unselfishness

The present state of human consciousness can discern the reality or presence of God.  We can also intuitively sense the spiritual reality of the indwelling Spirit of Truth.  This ability to recognize the reality of God and this Spirit of Truth implies that we can also recognize ourselves among all this spiritual reality. 

There is this communication between the three that makes us aware, or self-conscious, of who we are, because we are the ones who make the active decisions - we are the ones who act upon this communication.  The more we listen to and learn from the indwelling spirit of God and the Spirit of Truth (two different things, or manifestations), the more we become like God (disclaimer:  not God, but having personality attributes like God, thinking like God).  One way to look at the two different spiritual manifestations is like this:  The indwelling spirit of God is within you, the Spirit of Truth pervades the entire atmosphere.

Urantia Radio Program

New - Urantia Radio Program

The Cosmic Citizen Radio Show - Saturdays at Noon (11 AM CST - USA)
A radio program that focuses primarily on the study and discussion of the teachings of the Urantia Book.  Broadcast on Blog Talk Radio ONLINE only:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cosmiccitizen

7/12/08 First Show:  Featured guest, James Woodward, former executive director of the UAI (Urantia Association International), will address with host Andre and co-host Paula a general introduction to The Urantia Book. This first in a series of programs is intended for both readers and non-readers of this amazing book.

7/19/08 Planned Topic & Guest:  Part I of the Urantia Book, as well as the Foreword, with our distinguished guest, Chris Halvorson. 

Good Wealth Bad Wealth

How to deal with it:  In an attempt to provide counsel to inquiring minds, Jesus gave a discourse on good wealth and bad wealth.  Following is a summary of this discourse, which is paraphrased from Paper 132, Section 5, of the Urantia Book. 

This discourse on wealth deals with Jesus' advice to one particular individual, and we are specifically told that this information does not necessarily dictate what every person should do with their wealth; you'll have to decide this according to your own consciousness and the guidance of the indwelling spirit of God. 

Providence of God

Providence:  Benevolent guidance of God 

Benevolence: Kind, good. 

The Providence of God has to do with the creation of a stable, harmonious, coordinated, and interlocking universe system, and not so much the human genie-in-a-bottle idea.  The providence of God puts the universe at your fingertips and gives you the honor (and power) of assisting the Universal Father in the task of advancing civilization toward a higher state of being.  Perhaps God is Providence, and we are the genies, if you will.  Not genies in the arbitrary (think superficial or whimsical), material sense; but actual producers and providers of the qualities of life which are worth creating and having. 

A waterfall finds its way by carving out a path toward its destiny, it is guided by the condition of the land, likewise; there is a path that remains once we have reached our destiny, guided by the perfect conditions created as a result of God's supreme will and eternal purposes. 

God creates and maintains the perfect conditions for us to create and secure the abundant and prosperous life we crave, and we utilize these great gifts correctly when we use them according to God's perfect will.  Abundance and prosperity do not necessarily relate to money, but nor do they exclude the idea of financial wealth.  We have at our fingertips, everything the world needs to live an abundant and prosperous life - if only we would use our collective brain power to work out the details of distribution.

Abundance and Prosperity:

• Freedom to worship 
• Spiritual Advancement 
• Joy of Discovery & Creation 
• Ability to Share 
• Uninterrupted Progress 

There is no limit to the guidance and forces God will use to preserve the perfect conditions that enable creation to advance spiritually and to achieve his purpose.  God has an eternal purpose in which he offers us an opportunity to play a part and enjoy with him.  He has set the vision and goal of eternity and Paradise in our hearts, and other yet unknown and undisclosed pursuits described as fascinating await us even beyond Paradise attainment.   God is truly majestic and magnificent.  Truly great things can happen when man partners with God. 

Do not mistake nature for the perfect conditions described above - there is much more that needs upholding and management by God and his delegates than our mere planet or immediate universe.  Like us humans, nature is unfinished, incomplete, and imperfect.  It too, is in a state of gradual development and progress toward a wonderful condition known as 'light and life'. 

These imperfections of us and of the earth we walk upon are one of the forces that God uses to show us the difference between perfection and imperfection (a philosophy the Buddha picked up on).  Nature is not God, nor is it an object of worship.  We are called to take care of the earth insofar as we are able, but we are not to worship the earth. 

Urantia Papers - References: 

• Paper 4 - Section 0 and 1 
• Paper 4 - 2:6-7 
• Paper 132 - 7:9 

So What is God's Purpose?

We now know that we have a majestic purpose - which is:

The Supreme Purpose of Life is to develop a Majestic and Well-balanced Personality.

The Urantia Papers - 195 - 10:17

.... but do we know if God has a purpose, and if so, what is it? 

God's purpose is great and glorious - that of a high spiritual ideal, an eternal land of spiritual reality and supernal existence.  His plan is to implement the eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited, progress, and life eternal.

God causes his purpose to embrace all of creation, setting in motion the wheels of progress.  These wheels create in us, his supreme creation; the desire to strive for and ultimately attain the spiritual ideal.  The path to this ideal begins with human life with all its joys, trials, and sorrows, good and bad; designed to give us function and experience.  God is concerned with our welfare and destiny, knowing full well all of our needs. 

God has delegated the achievement of his purpose to capable Creator Sons and Administrators, while at the same time being fully involved - actually, literally, and personally - in the process.

The Universal Father has an eternal purpose pertaining to the material, intellectual, and spiritual phenomena of the universe of universes, which he is executing throughout all time. God created the universes of his own free and sovereign will, and he created them in accordance with his all-wise and eternal purpose

The Urantia Papers - 195 - 10:17

Urantia Papers - References:

• Paper 32 - Sec 4 & 5

Levels of Human Experience - Body, Mind, Spirit, Soul, Personality, and Morontial

What follows is a description of the terms body, mind, spirit, soul, personality, and morontial.  Learn how each aspect of the human life is integrated, unified, and coordinated with each dimension of our being.   

Body - The material container which houses the physical organism of man.  The body does reflect something of your personality, to a degree.  While this material container is discarded at death, certain meanings and values of the earthly mind are continued in the surviving soul, where physical appearance is more directly related to your personality. 

Mind - A mechanism of the body which allows you to think, perceive, and feel.  It is the mind that first chooses to seek God.  A fully functioning mind gives us the ability to know and be known, it always dominates the body (although we don't always seem to realize this), it can think even when deprived of choice, it gives us the ability to learn, create memories, it is flexible, it leads us to God, it is progressive and creative, is somewhat unpredictable, is responsive to energy.  Sin causes the mind to lose equillibrium.  The mind is teachable and responsive. 

Spirit - This is the fragment of God, the divine spirit, known as the Thought Adjuster in the Urantia Papers, that dwells within the mind of man.  This spirit is destined to become one with your personality should you survive your mortal existence.  This spirit force is capable of breaking through material resistance, but never drives the mind, only leads it.  Spirit is divine mind in action.  If this spirit were to leave Planet Urantia (Earth), we would return to barbarism. 

Soul - The soul is emergent, developing as a result of experiencing doing the will of the Father.  The spirit becomes the Father of a new reality in human experience, while the human mind gives birth (born again) as the mother of this emerging soul.  It is this soul which has the potential to survive death.  This reality is a term called morontial. 

Personality - Your personality is a gift from God, a unifying force that directs and progresses the mind.  It is unique, there are no duplicates.  This gift of personality is potentially eternal.  Personality embraces human drive and mind attitudes.  Life is a reaction to its environment.  Personality gives meaning to this association.  Humans are social creatures, which is why it is not good for man to be alone - for no man lives unto himself.  Personality does not perform well in isolation.  Integration, unification, and coordination are good terms to describe the functions of personality. 

Morontial - This is a term used to describe the bridging gulf between the material and the spiritual.  The progressive states of material to spiritual.  A transitional state of being between the absolute material and the new physical spiritual.

Urantia Papers - References:

Foreword

Paper 112 - 6:3

Paper 6 - 6:2

Paper 29 - 4:6

Paper 42 - 12:1-2

Paper 116 - Section 1-5

Paper 67 - 1:3

Paper 34 - 6:11

Paper 109 - 4:4

Paper 0 - 6:10

Paper 112 - Section 0-1

Paper 112 - 1:13

Paper 112 - 1:16

Martyrs: Not just the religious, but philosophers too!

Hippasus of Metapontum (cca. 500-450 B.C.) was thrown overboard by the frustrated Pythagoreans after he proved the horribly undeniable irrationality of √2, with which he actually discovered a whole class of numbers that cannot be expressed as the quotient of two integers and whose decimal expansions never repeat and never terminate. This was too much for the Pythagoreans, who attributed mystic significance and much else to integers and whose ignorant and arrogant dogmatism could not tolerate ‘heresy’. Who knows, perhaps the Pythagoreans deluded themselves by thinking that they were  the ‘custodians’ of the secrets of cosmic beauty and harmony, and as irrational numbers pricked their inflated egos, they thought they could suppress such offensive ugliness by drowning poor Hippasus.   Read about other Philosopher/Scientist Martyrs here:  Reason & Rhyme -  Frank Luger

Scientists often blame religious authorities for making martyrs out of scientists, but in fact, before science was called modern science, it belonged in the realm of philosophy. As you can see by this one example, Hippasus of Metapontum became a martyr, not of philosophy, but of science.  This has been going on since human civilization began, if not sooner.  Christians and other religious adherents have been martyred for their views as well.  Anytime a practice, from religion to gardening to the mystic practices described above, becomes the status quo, there will be opposition and there will always be someone or some group who thinks it should remain the status quo.  Those who choose to dissent will always be vilified, ostracized, criticized, and perhaps even martyred for their cause. 

The take away lesson here is that no one is innocent.  We are all guilty of opinions or beliefs that contradict some of the established teachings and practices of others.  But you know what?  It’s OK if we disagree, but it’s not OK to become bellicose, vilify and ostracize or martyr those with whom we disagree.  If we live with the attitude that others may know something that we do not, we’ll all be better off.  It’s called mutual respect.  All the issues we face are not one-sided issues; each side has a point worth hearing and discussing, we must not shut other people out just because we disagree with them, we must get along with them and realize the valuable role they play in our lives:  they make life interesting for one, and two, they make us think – and there ain nuthin’ wrong wit dat!

Here are four key areas where mutual respect needs to be developed:

• Religion
• Spirituality
• Science
• Philosophy

I for one have grown tremendously in these four areas since reading the Urantia Book; it has really opened my eyes to a lot of long held beliefs that simply aren’t true.  At some point, we’re all going to have to sit down and have a reasonable discussion about some of these issues; we might even have to change our practices.  We might even have to agree to disagree.  Being open-minded is bad if it means you’re easily convinced, but if you believe it means the possibility exists that one might find some good information in a particular pursuit; then being open-mind is good.