 Robert Todd Carroll
|
 |
Urantia BookAccording to The Urantia Book Fellowship (UBF), The Urantia Book (UB) is
The UB Fellowship was founded in 1955 as the Urantia Brotherhood and is an association of people who say they have been inspired by the "transformative teachings" of the UB. According to the UBF, these "superhuman personalities" are from another world. They synthesized the work of more than 1,000 human authors in a variety of fields, including an "astronomical-cosmological organization of the universe" unknown to modern science and an elaborate extension (700 pages) on the life of Jesus. The UB also reveals that the "Universe is literally teeming with inhabited planets, evolving life, civilizations in various states of development, celestial spheres, and spirit personalities." In short, the UB is over 2,000 pages of "revelations" from superhuman beings which "correct" the errors and omissions of the Bible. "Urantia" is the name these alleged superhumans gave to our planet. According to these supermortal beings, Earth is the 606th planet in Satania which is in Norlatiadek which is in Nebadon which is in Orvonton which revolves around Havona, all of which revolves around the center of infinity where God dwells. Others aren't so sure of the celestial origin of these writings. Matthew Block, for example, has identified hundreds of plagiarized passages in the UB. Martin Gardner is also skeptical of the UBF's claims. He believes the UB has very human authors. Originally, he says, the UB was the "Bible" of a cult of separatist Seventh Day Adventists, allegedly channeled by Wilfred Kellogg and edited by founder William Sadler, a Chicago psychiatrist. According to Gardner, in addition to an array of bizarre claims about planets and names of angels and the like, the UB contains many Adventist doctrines. Sadler died in 1969 at the age of 94 but his spiritual group lives on. Sadler got his start working for Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, Adventist surgeon, health and diet author, and brother of cornflake king William Keith Kellogg. These are the same Kellogg brothers who were featured and lampooned in the movie "The Road to Wellville." One can easily understand why Gardner suspects that the UB has human rather than superhuman origins. The book has all the traits of humanity upon it. For example, our human philosophers and theologians are mimicked perfectly in passages such as the following:
Any medieval casuist would be proud of such writing and thinking.
Some UBFers are attracted not so much to the theology, but to its great insights. Here are a few of those insights culled from paper 100, "Religion in Human Experience." Ask yourself if a superhuman being was necessary to reveal these gems.
If the philosophical, theological or spiritual insights do not impress you, then you might want to consider the scientific insights of the UB, such as the resurrection of the pre-Adamite thesis of Isaac de la Peyrère (1596-1676), who felt compelled to believe that the Bible is the history of the Jews, not of all people, and that in order to explain things such as racial differences the most reasonable hypothesis is that races of people existed before Adam and Eve. Not everyone agrees with Gardner's claim that the UB was channeled by Wilfred Kellogg. Ernest Moyer, for example, believes that the UB is a revelation from God that appeared "out of thin air" in fully developed form, exactly as we know it today. Moyer claims that Sadler was put through a lengthy process by our "planetary supervisors" in order to prepare him to accept the UB as true revelations. The process began by introducing Sadler to the Sleeping Subject (SS), whose nocturnal ramblings would later be understood to be preparatory messages from extraterrestrial "midwayers." According to Moyer, "SS was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, a highly pragmatic, hard-nosed business man who did not believe in 'psychic' phenomena or any such nonsense." Why SS was selected for this task is unknown, but Moyer assures us that the midwayers never took over SS's mind and came only at night when SS was unconscious so as not to disrupt his life too much. Moyer contrasts this with the evil spirit who invaded Edgar Cayce during the daytime, a sure sign that Cayce was a false prophet. Sadler was selected, according to Moyer, because of his personality and training. Moyer is convinced that we are on the verge of a nuclear holocaust and that the UB offers advice on how to save oneself from destruction and what to do afterward. This is all part of God's plan, as revealed to Sadler. According to Moyer, "God is using this technique to screen the human race." It seems to me that God tried this once before with water instead of nuclear bombs. Well, if at first you don't succeed.... further reading
Gardner, Martin. On the Wild Side (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1992), chapters 8, 13 and 14. Gardner, Martin, Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery ( Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 1995). |
|
|
©copyright 2007 Robert Todd Carroll |
Last
updated 12/03/07 |
||
UFOs