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Page 690 "75,000,000 years ago marks the end of continental drift.
Comment: Error returns. Drift continues. Satellite pictures show that, taking Africa as a fixed point, the Australian plate moves north at 8.4 cm/yr (4000 miles/75 million yrs); the South American plate west at 3.2 cm/yr; the Arabian plate north at 2.6 cm/yr; the Pacific plate north east at 10.6 cm/yr., etc. Plate movement is expected to continue far into the future.10
There are statements outside of the geological and paleontological history of our planet that will be seen as simple error by new readers. For example, the human chromosome number is given as 48 instead of 46; the distance to Andromeda is given as less than I million light years instead of 2.2 million; elements with more than 100 orbital electrons are said to decay "instantaneously," whereas the man made element 101, mendelevium 258 has a half-life of 54 days. Most such errors merely reiterate beliefs current in the mid 1930's.
New errors now emerging are the migration of the red man to the Americas that is given in the Papers as occurring as a single incident 85,000 years ago (723), which contrasts with recent work indicating that at least five separate migrations occurred between 47,650 to 13,000 years ago.8 It also appears that the "Out of Africa" hypothesis for the origin of modern man, a story that would be impossible to fit with that in the Urantia Papers, is almost certainly correct.9
Obviously this extraordinary contrast between error and amazingly prophetic statement in these same Urantia Papers constitutes a mystery--one that has yet to be solved. Surely though, we must seriously consider the possibility that what is now obviously erroneous material was put there, waiting to be discovered, because it serves some hidden purpose of the revelators.
Reference list
1. Le Grand, H.E. Drifting Continents and Shifting Theories. (Cambridge University Press, 1988)
2. Dalziel, I.W.D. Scientific American 272 (1) 38, 1995
3. Encyclopedia Britannica CDRom editions 1999-2001
4. Delsemme, A.H. An Argument for the Cometry Origin of the Biosphere. American Scientist 89:432-442, 2001; E.B. 2001
5. Bain, R., Glasziou, K., Neibaur, M., and Wright, F. (1991) The Science Content of The Urantia Book. (BOML, Mason City, Iowa)
6. Glasziou, K.(1997) Science, Anthropology, and Archaeology in The Urantia Book. (BOML, Iowa)
7. Glasziou, K. An Update of Science, Anthropology, and Archaeology in The Urantia Book. Innerface International Vol.5, No. 7. (1998)
8. Schurr, T.G. Mitochondrial DNA and the Peopling of the New World. American Scientist 88, (3) 246 (2000)
9. Shermer, M. I was wrong. Scientific American 285 (4) 25 (2001)
10. Rothery, D. (1997) Geology (Hodder & Stoughton, London)
[Note: Those wishing to confirm data cited herein can, for much of it, do so by using keywords and the Encyclopedia Britannica CDRom.]
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