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Page 11 of 13, posts 51 - 55 of 62
Is it unreasonable to be disaster-ready in a world which has regularly seen disaster?
Fellows in the revelation:
Seven years before I was born, atomic explosives were used to kill humans for the first time, and for the last time. Since that time, we have seen wars and rumors of wars, and a proliferation of nuclear weaponry. We have seen a Cold War end up with nuclear sabre-rattling several times, come thisclose to all-out atomic war. Despite some relief in the Cold War tensions, humanity still has enough nuclear firepower to lay waste to civilization, and sufficient international hostility to initiate such suicidal war. It is not humanity's fellowship and love which has so far prevented atomic weaponry from again being used against fellowkind; rather, it is self-preservation. If Pakistan decides to nuke India, Pakistan is likely to suffer just as much. All nations, by and large, are healthy and wealthy and sane enough, even the most crazy nations, that sustained civilization is better than nuclear suicide.
But this precious fearful balance may not hold. There is no reason to presume that nuclear explosives won't be used again to kill fellow humans. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have stood as warning against another world war, and the nations of the world have been more than ever forced to arbitrate their disputes, or at least confine them to conventional weapons. But all nuclear disaster requires is one world leader, someone slightly more bent than the media depiction of Saddam Hussein for example, or some vengeful terrorist group who feel that a major city is far enough away from their homeland that they could use a nuke, and off the map go millions of people.
All-out nuclear war is not as likely a scenario as a terrorist nuke at this time. The nations may very well restrain themselves and continue to grow into supernations and even ultimately a world government, passing what Jesus' paraphrased Urmia lectures
call that most dangerous point, without resort to nuclear war. A scenario of terrorists nuking a city… or two… is all too likely, however.
Currently, we have a Soviet general claiming that some hundred suitcase-size Soviet nukes are missing. Both Russia and the US have hastened to say the Soviets never had such nukes, much less are any missing, but (1) they could be just trying to allay panic and (2) there could very well be such small nukes on the international black market regardless of the source.
I am not trying to incite fear. The last time the Cold War came close to going hot, ABC-TV had a dramatization of a nuclear war, the major news magazines all had cover stories on nuclear war, and a prominent Urantia Book preacher convinced many that nuclear war was imminent, sell your goods and head for the caves. The response which Mary Jo and I had to that threat was to restate our faith in the continuance of civilization in the most dramatic way we could — to have another child. In response we got two children, and we named those twin boys Michael and Christopher. I would want them, their older sister, their children, and all the world's children, to see continuing civilization, without ever seeing another Hiroshima. I live as if we will have this continuing civilization.
But I also recognize that wishful thinking and even prayer do not necessarily affect reality. World War III is really too all-consuming to care about — if it comes to that, we're back to the caveman days, at best, and it'll be so devastating it won't really matter what happens. But a little bit of nuclear war, say a regional conflict in Southeast Asia (putting it at a good distance from myself — Southeast Asians might want to put it in South America), or a terrorist nuking of a major Western city, that could cause severe problems enough. Responses to such an attack might include tyrannical restrictions of civil liberties, and we might all be suffering severe effects of radiation or other physical consequences.
As I say, I don't mean to cause distress. When we hear a Grim message that nuke war is going to happen, and then it doesn't, there's a tendency to relax, to say, "whew! false alarm," (or "I knew it wouldn't happen" or "Gee! Our prayers were answered and it didn't happen") and get on with the everyday. There's also, for some, considerable education that the efforts toward self-preservation, besides being mostly foolish, were also vain. Are followers of Jesus really willing to hide in our nuclear shelters, shoot our suffering neighbors to defend our canned goods, and otherwise play the game that height-of-the-Cold-War 1950s-fashion way?
When the thought adjuster attempts to flash its message across to our minds, we often get the flash accompanied by all sorts of less-inspired static. One might get a flash about preparedness against a disaster, for example, and the brain will mischievously add on details never included in the original message — where to hide out, when it will happen, who should be told (or not told). When the non-inspired matters prove to be dirty bathwater, out it goes along with the baby of truth contained therein. I'm not saying that by this I believe there was a germ of truth in the unfortunate affair the Urantia Moovement suffered years ago. I just acknowledge the possibility.
Besides nuclear disasters, we have plenty of other threats which might come upon us suddenly. The too-recent Iraqi conflict demonstrated that some folks are still too willing to unleash chemical and biological weapons, which can be more widely devastating than would a local nuclear bomb. Nature can out-do small nukes easily, with (for North American examples) the anticipated San Andreas "Big One," or the less-well known but as-anticipated Madrid earth-shaker which could devastate numerous cities the unprepared heartland of America. An asteroid smaller than the one that is alleged to have hit the Yucatan millions of years ago could still have catastrophic consequences.
Okay, what's the point, fellow truth-seekers and love-doers? Panic and anxiety are not reasonable reactions. Fear is stupid. But should we dismiss preparedness as vain? Is it unreasonable to be disaster-ready in a world which has seen regular disasters all along? Stocking up on food and water may not do us much good if hoardes of hungry neighbors overrun us, and having plenty of fresh batteries for your flashlights and fuel for your heater isn't sensible if you're at ground zero. In such extreme cases, preparedness won't help. Those whose love-inspired charity would not let them preserve their own family while watching fellows die for want of food or medicine would have to make hard decisions in a real disaster. If you're the only family in miles that was ready, you might as well have been unready.
Does this argue against preparedness, though? There are civil defense folks (one example) who have been striving (mostly in vain) to prepare cities like Chicago and Memphis for the very real possibility of a horrific repeat of the Madrid quake of the early 1800s. Should Noah not have followed his own advice to build his house as a boat and take the animals on-board at night during the flood seasons, just because all his neighbors were deaf to his wisdom?
My belief is, disaster will come. It could be local, or it could be worldwide. It could be financial or physical. The ongoing continuous civilization of the past, oh, several centuries, say, is no guarantee that we won't suffer a major setback to civilization. Sometimes we can avoid problems. A Jew in central Europe in the late 1930s might have had enough sense to get one's immediate family out of the way of the oncoming holocaust, and some did. But it can be a bit harder to dodge an unexpected nuke, biological weapons, or an asteroid.
Can you grow your own food? Do you have a water well? Is your shelter strong and secure enough? Do you have fuel and resources to survive for days, or even years, in case of emergency? If not, then, basically, you're running a risk. It may seem an acceptable risk, as year after year you live in relative peace and health, but if you are caught up in an Event, you may wish you'd had insurance. It is not human nature to prepare for winter like ants but rather to play like grasshoppers until the frost. The government widely advertised and promoted low-cost flood insurance in anticipation of flooding that hit Northern America recently, and few were interested.
Even if there's just a small localized disaster, your preparedness may make the difference between life and death for your family or even your neighbors, depending on circumstances. It's rather like fastening your seat belt in a car. A bad enough wreck, a seat belt won't help. Certain wrecks, you'd be better off without a seat belt. But statistically, you should wear it. This is wisdom. And the higher powers, I am given to understand, aren't always all that helpful to those who refuse to act on their light of knowledge and wisdom.
Regardless of whether the Armegeddonists have it right or wrong, preparedness is wise in this world. Faith is good. Trust is important. We cannot save ourselves in all circumstances, and we should always live in principle, act in love, and be so unattached to the world that it doesn't matter if the earth itself should pass away (wow! that asteroid's so big, all we can do is sing psalms until it hits). But we are also given this life, and just as we budget for next week's bills (or ought to — sometimes I have trouble making ends meet), so we would be wise to protect ourselves and our families as much as possible.
This has been a message from your local universe civil defense preparedness organization. This is a test. This is only a test. Had this been a real emergency, you would be wishing you'd stocked up on canned goods, bottled water, and energy sources. (Or, maybe, if it was emergency enough, as the old joke goes, you'd get underneath your desk, stick your head between your legs, and kiss your a$$ goodbye.)
Beep repaired!
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Links refer to the Urantia Papers online and open in a separate window.
"Jesus taught the twelve always to pray in secret; to go off by themselves amidst the quiet surroundings of nature or to go in their rooms and shut the doors when they engaged in prayer." [UP144 §3 ¶14] Jesus himself "went out in the hills to pray so many times because there were no private rooms suitable for his personal devotions." [UP145 §5 ¶2] We are instructed to keep personal devotions private.
Jesus said to the apostles: "…when you pray, go apart by yourselves and use not vain repetitions and meaningless phrases." And "…be not given to fasting with a sad countenance to be seen by men." [UP140 §6 ¶11] Obviously, the self-vaunting kind of public praying (or braying) is what's disapproved here.
Jesus "did not fully approve of the practice of uttering set and formal prayers" [UP144 §1 ¶10] and a Brilliant Evening Star likewise decries that even today "You address one another in common, everyday language, but when you engage in prayer, you resort to the older style of another generation, the so-called solemn style" [UP87 §6 ¶14]. Jesus "rarely uttered his prayers as spoken words. Practically all of Jesus' praying was done in the spirit and in the heart — silently." [UP144 §4 ¶10] Such informality and spirituality is more characteristic of personal communion than group prayer.
"But prayer need not always be individual. Group or congregational praying is very effective in that it is highly socializing in its repercussions. When a group engages in community prayer for moral enhancement and spiritual uplift, such devotions are reactive upon the individuals composing the group; they are all made better because of such participation. Even a whole city or an entire nation can be helped by such prayer devotions. Confession, repentance, and prayer have led individuals, cities, nations, and whole races to mighty efforts of reform and courageous deeds of valourous achievement." [UP91 §5 ¶2]
Them's mighty potent words, eh? Moreover, "There is a certain danger associated with overmuch private praying which is corrected and prevented by group praying, community devotions." [UP91 §7 ¶13] As he was about to resurrect his friend Lazarus from the dead, Jesus prayed aloud, and if that wasn't for some good effect upon those at hand who were grieving, then why do it? Jesus prayed, "because of those who stand here with me, I thus speak with you, that they may believe…." [UP168 §2 ¶2]
Point 11 in a list of points Jesus emphasized at Jotapata includes this: "Let your real petitions always be in secret. Do not let men hear your personal prayers. Prayers of thanksgiving are appropriate for groups of worshipers, but the prayer of the soul is a personal matter. There is but one form of prayer which is appropriate for all God's children, and that is, 'Nevertheless, your will be done.'" [UP146 §2 ¶12] So there's the difference between personal and public praying.
Group prayer, that is to say group petition as opposed to prayers of thanksgiving, would seem to be for group or community purposes, or for those things beyond the individual's ability. At any rate, prayer "has been wrongly emphasized by modern religions, much to the neglect of the more essential communion of worship. The reflective powers of the mind are deepened and broadened by worship. Prayer may enrich the life, but worship illuminates destiny." [UP102 §4 ¶5]
"In the old order you fasted and prayed;
as the new creature of the rebirth of the spirit,
you are taught to believe and rejoice."
—Jesus [UP143 §2 ¶3]
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Originally, this page carried a copy of a short review of The Urantia Book, written by one Steven Kosek and published in Oui magazine in the early 1970s, under the title "A Cosmic Bible." On 1997-Aug-13, I received an email from Mr. Kosek refusing permission for reprinting his review and insisting I remove it from my website. What follows is my email sent to him in response. Obsolete portions have been marked out with a line through them and corrections added [in brackets in this color].
Wed Aug 13 20:43:14 1997
From: mindful@sprynet.com [mindfulguy@mindfulwebworks.com] (Don Tyler)
To: SteveKosek@aol.com
Subject: Re: Review has been removed
Re: your email of Wed, 13 Aug 1997 15:31:22 -0400 (EDT)
Mr. Steve Kosek:
I removed your Urantia Book review from my website (both on the main and the twin sites, http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/mindful/cosmic.htm and http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mindful/cosmic.htm) immediately upon receipt of your message.
When I go online to Compuserve shortly, I will remove the material from Compuserve's Religion Forum (on Compuserve, GO RELIGION, Library 6: Interfaith Dialogue Library, filename UBOOK.TXT[75775,473]). My having posted it there is solely my responsibility, and neither CompuServe nor the Religion Forum managers at the time or since should be considered liable.
Please note that in both the above instances, I gave notice that the material was authored by you, was posted without your permission, and solely for purposes of religious edification and discussion. While this might be (expensively) arguable under copyright law, I certainly will not stand by that argument if it is against your wishes that the material continue to be so used. (I suppose I also made the excuse to myself that the review was brief, minor, and relatively unavailable enough, but none of these, I know, is a valid argument for my actions.)
This evening, I will also alter the UB Comix currently posted on my website (http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/mindful/ub05pg02.gif seen on the page http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/mindful/ub05pg02.htm and the mirror file on my Compuserve website) [see: Theories of Origin Considered] which makes use of a relatively unreadable copy of the article for humorous purposes, so that the main material is more assuredly unreadable, keeping clear the relevant quote necessary to the cartoon. I will presume, unless I hear from you otherwise, that this is satisfactory.
Looking at the printed version of the same comic, the copy of your material is more clearly readable (although likely to cause severe eyestrain). In distributing any further copies of the comic, I will also mark over the article to ensure that it, too, is unreadable. Again, I will presume, unless I hear from you otherwise, that this is satisfactory. If you wish, I will mail you a copy of the printed version for your records. (With the article as it originally appeared, and altered as proposed, if you wish.) UB Comix are not for profit, although a few people have made donations to support printing and postage. Of the original 200 printed copies of the issue (#5) in which your review was used, I still have about 80.
Please accept my sincere apologies for use of your material insofar as you hold it to be in violation of your copyright. No harm to you or your rights was intended, and if you determine that I have caused injury or loss, please let me know that I might make it up to you.
If it seems by the above that I have taken liberty with your article, know that the use was a gradual process. I have the original, laminated, as a bookmark, and have enjoyed showing it to fellow students of The Urantia Book for over two decades. I first shared it with fellow students of the book, and of religion, through Compuserve over ten years ago. While my having posted it on the Religion Forum library without permission may be objectionable to you, I do want to tell you that it is the oldest and most-downloaded file, of many relating to The Urantia Book, in the Religion Forum libraries. And when I first started my personal website, I copied your article to the web in the same spirit of education and discussion as intended in posting it on Compuserve. Its use in UB Comix was a bit different of a motivation, to show a bum finding golden tablets in a slum. You say you didn't originate that rumor. Thank you for the information. It was perhaps unfair of me, in light-hearted intent, to suggest on my web page that it might be your contribution to the mythology, but it was the most outlandish version of its origin I'd ever heard, and I was glad to have seen it, and have it as an excuse for my cartoon.
To make full confession, I have even made photocopies of the article, laminated, as gifts for fellow Urantia Book students. Regardless of the unpleasant legality of the circumstances of our coming to correspond, I am glad to finally have made enough of a noise about it that I should hear from you. I have always wondered about you, and have always wanted to be able to tell you in person how I and many have enjoyed that little review, although I suppose my excesses in use of it might have made that admiration less than admirable to you. While I'm aware that copyright holders (myself included) do not much consider bootlegging as flattery, please nevertheless try to accept my broad use, or abuse as the case may seem, of your material as an accolade. Of all the many words written about the UB which I have read over the past twenty years, some critical and many self-inflated, your few light, wry remarks remain at the top of my recommended list, a rare gem found in a most unlikely place!
I regret if I seem to you to have transgressed your rights in my enthusiasm. I really did often give thought, if insufficient action, to trying to find you and seek permission for reproducing the article.
If you won't grant permission for me to have the review on my website, or otherwise, please, if you should ever post the material yourself to the web, I would like to be able to have a link to it from my site. If it is more readily available in some republication, let me know that, also. At the very least, please if you know tell me in which issue of the magazine it appeared, so that I can after all these years get that in my records.
:Don L. Tyler, Washington County, Oklahoma
A copy of this email will be posted in place of and under the former filename and URLs of the article.
[Note: When I went to remove the file from Compuserve, it was already gone.]
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I appreciate the Urantia Teachings first and foremost as a religionist, but nextmost as a theologian. As a religionist, the UB offers me a vocabulary for faithful living, and inspires fellowship, courage, and forbearance.
Its call to faith is profoundly abetted by an elaborate but exquisite, consistent and complete theology. Admittedly derived from the cream of human discovery, the Urantia Teachings' theology harmonizes banks of different theological approaches which each alone had satisfied certain theological questions while invoking disturbing others. The progressive Deity who makes demands of suffering and growth is here in all Supreme Majesty, full of sharing and oneness in our progression of perfecting, through all joys and pains. Here also, though, is that Original Father, beyond time and space, Our Creator-Parent and Paradise Destiny, the Eternal. Each are One, of course, as are we. Evil is explained without Pandoras. A robust theology filled with passion.
So these, a personal religion and the satisfaction of highly refined questions of cosmic philosophy (giving rise, of course to new questions — indeed, whole new seas for inquiry) endear the Urantia Teachings to me forever. I had asked, and they answered.
But... when presenting this teaching to the unititated, I and many others go to great pains to point out its worthy, ideals-oriented, faith-grounded values, or draw upon its magnificent and sweeping portrayal of Master Jesus, consistent in spirit with the rest of the Urantia Teachings without departing critically from Gospel sources of historic credibility. All fine and grand, but if this should ever actually induce a listener to obtain and read a Urantia Book, there are many other teachings which will seem so utterly outrageous as to be laughed to scorn, if taken out of the impressive and integrated whole of the Teachings' vast cosmic theology.
I found my way into the UB's depths, first by intrigue of certain hints about its cosmology derived from writings by my brother Larry based on the Teachings, co-ordinating with those late-night in-depth sessions of contemplation of the Origins and Destiny of time-space to which 1970s liberal-arts collegians were inclined. Later, however, I found myself actually drawn into the text deep in the History of Urantia section, seeking what this huge, strange work had to say about the origins of humanity.
The later-mammal pre-human development, while just a few pages of generalization, gave me as clear a comprehension of the stages of physical and mental evolution as anything I had ever gleaned from anthropology or biology. Other than that the whole book is attributed to personalities from beyond humanity (and the very idea of having supermortal reportage of very specific prehistoric developments is incredible), the given depiction of the appearance (and, by the way, definition) of the first two humans is entirely reasonable.
The first two human beings, Andon and Fonta as the Teachings dubbed them, appeared essentially as science and psychology might predict — a slightly new capacity of brain and mind in already-erect, tool-using primates gives the potential for these twin sports to make the quantum leap to human self-awareness. The Urantia Teachings embrace adaptive evolution punctuated by sudden progressive mutations, which theory, as far as I know, has withstood the decades since the book's reputed origin in 1934-1935 and its publication in 1955. This may not comport with some or even majorly-accepted theory, especially in the "beneficient monster" aspects, but in the whole given context of the Teachings' evolutionary depiction, the veracity of the theory is not only made more reasonable by virtue of its completeness, it also comports yet today with scientific data. So here we have the true parents of humanity, without resort to absurdities of the like of those religionists who would promote their ideas of a young earth or fiat creation which have no basis in bone or stone.
But all this believable reasonableness comes dressed with the fantastic. Andon and Fonta, we are told, sought to send greetings to us from the afterlife, and this is reported along with the tongue-in-cheek deadpan-delivery observation that permission to transmit greetings was wisely denied them. (I hope I need not, but just in case shall, belabor the irony, that we were implicitly greeted anyway, just one of many examples of the gentle and hearty humor which one can find in the teachings — whether intended or not, one rarely could say for sure, but they are subtle yet hilarious.)
"Then you go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like...." goes the old song. No sooner have we had the ancient and antiquated fable of Genesis origins replaced with a new and scientific-age-worthy myth of Andon and Fonta than they turn right around and say Adam and Eve were nonetheless historic beings, and the Garden of Eden was a real place, indeed a city, some 35,000 years ago as the Cro-Magnon flies.
Adam and Eve were nothing less than literal material beings from the agency of the government of God, specifically tinkered to be genetically compatible with evolved mortals, dispatched to our world to be genetic uplifters, to hasten toward biologic improvement what might take practically forever in natural breeding. The Genesis tale is seen to be more than a fabrication, a historical distortion, even a remarkably enduring report of transactions of that ancient revelation. The Genesis threads of Adam and Eve's creation we can now see are what might reasonably be expected to survive, after thirty-five millenia, of the witnessing of their being "reassembled" (beam us down, Scottie!) after transit to our globe from their wondrous garden worlds unspecified light-years away. Adam walked the already-built walls of the city prepared for his arrival and "named the animals," impressing the natives that he had already mastered the local parlance. The Eve-bitten apple is a tragedy of default in their mission to us.
It might be easier to laugh off the idea of Adam and Eve as eight-foot-tall, violet-skinned, slightly-luminous manufactured demigods if they didn't fit so perfectly and critically in the intricate cosmology-theology of the Urantia Teachings on the one hand, and on the other the evidence of significant biological and cultural transformations deriving from the Mesopotamian at approximately the period given for the development and dispersals of the Adamic infusion. The glow-in-the-dark alien uplifters fit frighteningly well with pre-Sumerian indicators. The Myth bonds seamlessly to History.
Once you've accepted one or two outrageous precepts, there's not a lot to stop the cascade of outlandish possibilities. I was inspired to write tonight by an Economist article (1997 March 1, page 82) concerning the icy moon of Jupiter, Europa. Such globes are a topic of considerable speculation among some students of the Urantia Papers, because of the teasing revelation that there is a world of material mortals alleged to be close to ours in space. Some suggest this only means nearby stars, but others believe the "nearness" used in the text blatantly implies that we are not the only mortals in this solar system! Moreover, the physical mortal type given for these extraterrestrial neighbors is that of the "non-breathers." While the exact meaning of the various "breathing" types is not all that clear, this specifically rules out the likes of Mars, called a sub-breather type environment, or Venus, described as more suited to superbreathers. Speculation ranges from the fringes of Mercury to the more likely moons of Jupiter. Most intriguing, of course, is just why divine revelators would let slip this particular tidbit — certainly to inform, but also in anticipation of imminent first contact? While there is an entire paper on "Government on a neighboring planet," that is a world described as being similar to ours in development and, so I gather, a world only as "neighboring" as within our local star cluster, not our solar system. These nearby nonbreathers are another world, and while one may infer that they have reached the stage of human will we have not a hint whether they are, as it were, stone age, or far advanced.
As a reviewer said decades ago, it's tempting to dismiss the whole thing as nonsense, but nonsense is rarely so well-written, or so reasonable. For every outrageous addition of incredible myth, there are a dozen threads delicately and credibly tying the myth to reality. It occurs to me that this acts as scaffolding to the building of the tower of poetic appreciation from which we ultimately take the bungee leap of faith. Each bizarre revelation further loosens our feet from misperceptions and prejudices of the dissembling mind and then with its consistency in context and equation with experience, propels us to the brink where doubt no longer thwarts acceptance, and the coherent mind prevails. If this or that absurdity can be made believable, we have been trained in being believing without abandoning reason. What is more incredible, to modern skepticism, than the very precept of Deity at all? Only the most ludicrous, impossible outrage of all — that existence is. To be is to wonder, and be wonderful.
Links open in separate tab or window.
UP 49.The Inhabited Worlds
UP 62.The Dawn Races of Early Man
UP 72.Government on a Neighboring Planet
UP 73. The Garden of Eden
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1.
Am C
How hard is Judas working
Dm7 C
to make up for what he did?
Am C
I know before he died
Bb
he learned the facts.
2.
Am C
How long will we be paying
Dm7 C
for the secrets we thought hid,
Am
Our multitude of
C Bb
cruel and thoughtless acts?
3.
Am C
How terrible is judgement!
Dm7 C
Judge ye not, not even he.
Am C
If you'd been in his sandals
Bb
are you sure
4.
Am C
You'd have the will to follow
Dm7 C
when you didn't really see?
Am
Would you have known
C Bb
the Master was so pure?
5.
Am C
(How) presumptuous to betray him
Dm7 C
or to think he doesn't know
Am C
(How) crushing is our guilt
Bb
when we find out!
6.
Am C
(Do you) sell your soul for silver,
Dm7 C
missing substance for the show?
Am
Doubting faith
C Bb
but having faith in doubt?
7.
Am C
Observe the little children,
Dm7 C
as a family begins,
Am C
Unknowing of how much
Bb
the parents give.
8.
Am C
How infinite is mercy
Dm7 C
to encompass all our sins
Am
In perfect love,
C Bb Am
does even Judas live
2016 Sep 16: Performed in music video Mindful Webworkshop #6.
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