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I have been reading these papers for about twenty years, have an appalling memory for poetry, literature, quotations, etc., yet still find that some of the book's "peculiar" words and phrases have become my own. Many other readers have had the same experience. While the possibility of a degree of editing cannot be excluded, this statistical evidence rules out extensive authorship of the Papers by Dr Sadler.
Could a single human mind be the main source for the Urantia Papers?
The statistical evidence refutes this assumption and shows that any proposal nominating a source for the Urantia Papers must take multiple authorship into account. Matthew Block's investigations that uncovered some of the human sources used by the authors of the Papers indicate that this quoted material sometimes retains traces of its origin that are then incorporated into the text of the Urantia Book. However the extent of quotation of this material appears to be insufficient to have any marked effect upon the conclusions drawn from the statistical analysis work herein reported.
Martin Gardner's proposal that the subconscious mind of a sleeping human subject was the original source of the textual material of the Urantia Papers cannot be reconciled with the statistical evidence presented. This evidence demonstrates that many different authors were heavily involved in the writing of the Urantia Papers, probably far more than the minimum of about nine suggested by the investigation. Some editing by Dr Sadler and others cannot be ruled out but no extensive incorporation of Sadler's work showed up in the papers that were tested.
This work does not rule out the involvement of a substantial committee of well qualified and erudite people as the real authors. But if there were such a committee, it becomes necessary to account for the truly remarkable consistency of this 2000 page work--a work that was written long before powerful computers became available to aid detection of inconsistencies.
Extensive investigations by Gardner and others have also failed to uncover the slightest hint of such involvement. Nor have they offered any explanation on how total secrecy could have been maintained for so long.
The principal conclusion drawn from this analysis is that many unidentified authors were responsible for the writing of the Urantia Papers. Statistical analysis can do nothing to confirm or deny a revelatory origin. Personally I believe I have the aid of the spirit forces so often mentioned in the papers--the indwelling spirit of the Father and the Spirit of Truth--to help me in my decision making. But regardless of the degree of authority we ascribe to the Papers, the fact remains that these Urantia Papers are a truly remarkable contribution to our religious literature. Again stating a personal view, their value far surpasses anything else available to mankind.
One of the most profound statements in the Urantia Papers is: "Jesus lived a life which is a revelation of man submitted to the Father's will."
(2061)
Those who comprehend the full significance of these words need nothing more.
References.
Anthony Kenny (1982), The Computation of Style (Pergamon Press Ltd)
Mosteller, F. and D.L. Wallace (1984), Applied Bayesian and Classical Inference. The Case of the Federalist Papers (Springer Verlag, N.Y.)
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