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"Prove it to yourself for yourself"
"When a religion becomes fundamentalist, it inevitably becomes counter-productive, counter-intuitive, and an impediment to the social and spiritual progress of its adherents."
This summation has certainly proven itself true for Jewish, Islamic, and Christian fundamentalism--all of which have committed heinous acts of barbarism in the name of their supposed God.
Features of fundamentalism are the assumption of infallibility at the expense of truth-seeking, rigorous indoctrination of potential adherents, and the assumption of authority by the dominant hierarchy.
The revelators of the Urantia Papers would have been well aware of the potential for their revelation to come under the control of those preaching fundamentalism. Thus, they took steps to reduce the risks, among them, these declarations:
"It has appeared to be wise from time to time to provide instruction in cosmology. And always has this made trouble for the future. The laws of revelation hamper us greatly by their proscription of the impartation of unearned or premature knowledge. Any cosmology presented as a part of revealed religion is destined to be outgrown in a very short time. (1109)
"Mankind should understand that we who participate in the revelation of truth are very rigorously limited by the instructions of our superiors. We are not at liberty to anticipate the scientific discoveries of a thousand years. (1109)
"We full well know that, while the historic facts and religious truths of this series of revelatory presentations will stand on the records of the ages to come, within a few short years many of our statements regarding the physical sciences will stand in need of revision in consequence of additional scientific developments and new discoveries. These new developments we even now foresee, but we are forbidden to include such humanly undiscovered facts in the revelatory records. Let it be made clear that revelations are not necessarily inspired. The cosmology of these revelations is not inspired. (1109)
"Partial, incomplete, and evolving intellects would be helpless in the master universe, would be unable to form the first rational thought pattern, were it not for the innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a universe frame in which to think. If mind cannot fathom conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to true origins, then will such mind unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent origins that it may have a means of logical thought within the frame of these mind-created postulates. And while such universe frames for creature thought are indispensable to rational intellectual operations, they are, without exception, erroneous to a greater or lesser degree." (1260)
There is, of course, much more. However, a mind that is able to twist these statements to suit the individual's belief system, will also twist anything else that could be added.
One favored ploy is to cite occasions when science has been wrong in order to justify dismissing all the assertions of science. The fear of dedicated fundamentalists is that the discovery of even a single error in the Urantia Papers would throw doubt upon their authority, hence the need to find ways to cover up, ignore, overlook, or explain away apparent error.
Contrary to this attitude, the open-minded student of the revelation will not only accept what is stated in the above quotations but, with the passage of time, will henceforth expect to find an increasing error content in cosmological material, and also to discover similar error accumulating in what has been provided as a "universe frame in which to think."
For those who are troubled by occurrences in which science and The Urantia Book express contrary views, but who do not have that special expertise to enable them to make a rational judgment among the alternatives, the revelators have included sections in the Papers for which it is possible for virtually every reader to make their own decision on the veracity of the information supplied. And surely when the Papers are wrong, this error is nevertheless in accord with universe rules and purposes for revelation as outlined on pp. 1109 and 1260 of the Urantia Papers.
Ultimately however, these errors must operate to prevent the revelation being presented to the world as divinely authoritative or being used as a basis for fundamentalism.
And perhaps this is universe policy for all revelation everywhere?
(continued overleaf)
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