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continued until about 1.7 billion years ago when the sea water was clear of the excess.
The 3.5 and 3.8 billion year old deposits in Australia and Greenland outcrop at the surface. By The Urantia Book's account, they would be covered to a depth of more than 1000 miles by materials accreting in the last 1.5 billion years.
Thus, prior to the start of continental drift and the initial formation of the more advanced life forms, there are considerable divergences between modern scientific discoveries and this section of the Earth and the Earth-Moon story as related in The Urantia Book. It is in the book's section on continental drift that follows this section where its story becomes so remarkably prophetic.
The reason for such divergences is consistent with statements in the book that proscribe the impartation of unearned knowledge, but allow the provision of key information. (1109) Almost nothing factual was known about the evolution of the Earth-Moon system until recently, and close to nothing was known about the early history of the Earth and its oceans. Note that continental drift had been proposed and, though rejected by most scientists, was in print.
It appears that the revelators were required to provide a framework of knowledge about Paradise, the Central Universe, the heavenly hierarchy, the universes, our own solar system, and the development of intelligent life and human society on our own planet, all so that we could better understand our place in the overall scheme of things. (1260) But they were not allowed to tell us what we did not know pre-1934.
Working under this restriction placed the revelators in an extraordinarily difficult position. They could not complete their task satisfactorily--except they used "fill" material that would serve the purpose, even though not correct. We now know that they obtained this "fill" from the speculations of contemporary scientists--among them Moulton, Jeans, Chamberlin and Geoffreys.
A comparison of what they gave us with that from modern science tells us that, despite the inconsistencies, the value of their account as a "universe frame" (1260) for understanding our universe careers remains quite undiminished.
But it does add a new dimension. It will prevent any realistic, long term use of the revelation as a fundamentalist icon of infallibility. And it may yet prove to be the catalyst that unlocks the fossilization process in so many moribund minds among the Urantia movement's bureaucracy.
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