For a long time there has been a group of Urantia Book readers who have pondered on the problem of why the book has been written in such a strange manner.

   One example is that it names itself the Fifth Epochal Revelation thereby raising the expectancies of the beginning reader. But then it presents a lot of out-of-date science material as if it were revelation, leaving it until page 1109 before informing us that the "laws of revelation hamper us greatly by their proscription of the impartation of unearned knowledge"--which signifies that its science content is pre-mid 1930's.

   Another curiosity is its inclusion of materials that appear to approach the impossible or at least the highly improbable. One of these is the properties ascribed to passenger birds that supposedly can carry two adult passengers a non-stop distance of 500 miles. Taking wing loadings and energy requirements into consideration, are we confronted with the impossible? It appears to be so. A further example is the incredible origins of the secondary midwayers.

   The inclusion of these materials certainly did nothing to support the book's claim to revelatory authenticity. Curiously, they could have been omitted whether true or not, and the book would have lost nothing of importance. However the sheer intellectual brilliance demonstrated by the revelators in so many other parts of the book lead many of us to conclude that the "funny stuff" has been included for a good reason. What could that reason be?

   Ann Bendall's article on intolerance contains some observations that may be relevant. Ann reminds us that the book affirms: "Only with revealed religion did autocratic and intolerant theologic egotism appear." (1012) Ann also comments that one of the risks with a revealed religion is that it has the tendency to diminish the need for living faith as well as to foster the "chosen few" phenomenon.

   Possibly Ann's observations may throw light on just why The Urantia Book has been written in such a strange manner. The expectations for the Fourth Epochal Revelation were not fulfilled as hoped for. This was largely because of the distortions that occurred to the concept of the kingdom of heaven as taught by Jesus during the early years of Christendom.

   Jesus taught that the cardinal features of the gospel of the kingdom were:

1.   The pre-eminence of the individual.
2.   The will as the determining factor in man's experience.
3.   Spiritual fellowship with God, the Father
4.   The supreme satisfactions of the loving service of man.
5.   The transcendence of the spiritual over the material in human personality. (1863)

   None of these features appear in the text of the Nicene Creed to which virtually all Christians subscribe as the encoding of their basic beliefs.

    The major break with Jesus' teaching came when Paul adapted what he knew of them to the needs of interested Jews and later to the gentiles. First Jesus became the expected Messiah then Christ the Redeemer.
  In this transition Jesus' death as signifying salvation from sin became a principal teaching somewhat like a "strange attractor" of chaos theory. Additionally, both Jesus and God became located 'out-there-somewhere' and contactable only via the mediation of priest or long-dead saint, rather than being personally-available and indwelling, spirit forces .

   In the light of what we humans did to the Fourth Epochal Revelation, is it not logical and natural that the revelators should take precautions to avoid a disaster to the Fifth?

   It may be that they considered fundamentalism to be a major threat for it is the very hallmark of fundamentalism that, "autocratic and intolerant theologic egotism appear." (1012)

   It appears to be that fundamentalism invariably transforms its sources into sacred objects--the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, The Urantia Book, etc,--with their content eventually becoming divine proclamations. One possible way to defeat such a fate for a new revelation could be to include unbelievable material that would permit critics, opponents, and skeptics to ridicule or vilify it.

   Could this be a reason why the revelators for the Urantia Papers gave us so much outdated science and similar material as apparent revelation well before explaining the limitations imposed by the laws governing revelation?

   It is interesting that The Urantia Book has a readership that includes a very significant proportion of people with either a science or professional background, or with other intellectual interests that permit them to recognize its outdated science and 'funny stuff'--yet they have not rejected the book on account of it!
   On the contrary most of these people are among its staunchest supporters. Apparently the sheer quality of the remainder of the book's content provides overriding evidence that the book must be taken seriously.