paper 92 - the later evolution of religion, parallel chart · 2016-11-28 · paper 92 — the later...

WORK-IN-PROGRESS (FEBRUARY 9, 2015) PARALLEL CHART FOR

Paper 92 — The Later Evolution of Religion

© 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 Matthew Block

This chart is a revision of the August 8, 2011 and August 11, 2014 versions.Most endnotes and Urantia Book cross-references have been deleted to enhance readability.

Sources for Paper 92, in the order in which they first appear

(1) Lewis Browne, This Believing World: A Simple Account of the Great Religions ofMankind (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1926)

(2) William Graham Sumner and Albert Galloway Keller, The Science of Society, Volume II (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927)

(3) E. Washburn Hopkins, Ph.D., LL.D., Origin and Evolution of Religion (New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1923)

(4) William Graham Sumner, Albert Galloway Keller, and Maurice Rea Davie, The Scienceof Society, Volume IV (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927)

(5) Robert Ernest Hume, Ph.D., The World’s Living Religions: An Historical Sketch (NewYork: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1924, revised edition)

(6) Henry Nelson Wieman and Regina Westcott-Wieman, Normative Psychology of Religion(New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1935)

Note: The chapter used in this paper was written by Regina Westcott-Wieman.

(7) Henry Nelson Wieman and Walter Marshall Horton, The Growth of Religion (Chicago:Willett, Clark & Company, 1938)

Note: The chapter used in this paper was written by Walter Marshall Horton.

1

Key

(a) Green indicates where a source author first appears, or where he/she reappears.

(b) Yellow highlights most parallelisms.

(c) Tan highlights parallelisms not occurring on the same row, or parallelisms separated byyellowed parallelisms.

(d) An underlined word or words indicates where the source and the UB writer pointedlydiffer from each other.

(e) Blue indicates original (or “revealed”) information, or UB-specific terminology andconcepts. (What to highlight in this regard is debatable; the highlights are tentative.)

(f) Light green indicates Bible passages or fragments thereof, which are not paralleled in thesource text.

Matthew Block9 February 2015

2

SOURCE OR PARALLEL URANTIA PAPER 92

Work-in-progress Version 20 mei 2010

© 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 Matthew Block

Revised 8 Aug. 2011. 12 Aug. 2014 and 9

Feb. 2015

PAPER 92 — THE

LATER EVOLUTION OF

RELIGION

92:0.1 Man possessed a religion ofnatural origin as a part of his evolutionaryexperience long before any systematicrevelations were made on Urantia. Butthis religion of natural origin was, initself, the product of man’s superanimalendowments. Evolutionary religion aroseslowly throughout the millenniums ofmankind’s experiential career through theministry of the following influencesoperating within, and impinging upon,savage, barbarian, and civilized man:

92:0.2 1. The adjutant of worship—theappearance in animal consciousness ofsuperanimal potentials for reality per-ception. This might be termed theprimordial human instinct for Deity.

92:0.3 2. The adjutant of wisdom—themanifestation in a worshipful mind of thetendency to direct its adoration in higherchannels of expression and towardever-expanding concepts of Deity reality.

92:0.4 3. The Holy Spirit—this is theinitial supermind bestowal, and it unfail-ingly appears in all bona fide humanpersonalities. This ministry to a worship-craving and wisdom-desiring mindcreates the capacity to self-realize thepostulate of human survival, both intheologic concept and as an actual andfactual personality experience.

3


92:0.5 The co-ordinate functioning ofthese three divine ministrations is quitesufficient to initiate and prosecute thegrowth of evolutionary religion. Theseinfluences are later augmented byThought Adjusters, seraphim, and theSpirit of Truth, all of which accelerate therate of religious development. Theseagencies have long functioned on Urantia,and they will continue here as long as thisplanet remains an inhabited sphere. Muchof the potential of these divine agencieshas never yet had opportunity forexpression; much will be revealed in theages to come as mortal religion ascends,level by level, toward the supernal heightsof morontia value and spirit truth.

1. THE EVOLUTIONARY

NATURE OF RELIGION

92:1.1 The evolution of religion hasbeen traced from early fear and ghostsdown through many successive stages ofdevelopment,

I, II: RELIGION (Browne 27)

1. The attempt to coerce the spirits gives way to theattempt to cajole them—but magic does notdisappear—sacrifices. (Browne 42)

including those efforts first to coerce andthen to cajole the spirits.

3. How the great gods were created. (Browne 49)

[contd] Finally we come to the creationof the great gods. Just as the tribalchieftain in time became a king, so thetribal fetish in time became a god (B 49). Tribal fetishes grew into totems and tribal

gods;

4


magic formulas became modern prayers.Circumcision, at first a sacrifice, becamea hygienic procedure.

92:1.2 Religion progressed from natureworship up through ghost worship tofetishism throughout the savagechildhood of the races. With the dawn ofcivilization the human race espoused themore mystic and symbolic beliefs, whilenow, with approaching maturity, mankindis ripening for the appreciation of realreligion, even a beginning of therevelation of truth itself.

XI: RELIGION IN GENERAL (Sumner& Keller 1421)

§324.* Conservatism of Religion. (Sumner &Keller 1430)

92:1.3 Religion arises as a biologicreaction of mind to spiritual beliefs andthe environment;

“The last thing to perish in a nation is itsfaith. The whole history of the worldproves that no anomalies are so glaring,no inconsistencies so paradoxical, as tosap the credit of a religious system whichhas once been firmly rooted in the habits,instincts, and traditions of a race: andwhat remains longest is often the leastrational portion...” (S&K 1430).

it is the last thing to perish or change in arace.

§323. Nature of Religion. (Sumner & Keller1426)

Religion is, in a word, society’s adjust-ment to that which is, in any age, beyondknowledge—to the aleatory element, aspersonalized, through the long ages ofhuman evolution, in the spirit-environ-ment.

Religion is society’s adjustment, in anyage, to that which is mysterious.

5


As an institution, it is a framework ofcustoms, rites, symbols, phrases,scriptures, apparatus, altars, temples,costumes, and various other details. Theinstitution holds the ideas together andperpetuates them (S&K 1430).

As a social institution it embraces rites,symbols, cults, scriptures, altars, shrines,and temples.


“Many of the details in the RomanCatholic worship may have been derivedfrom Buddhism; from this source comesthe rosary. . . . By an extraordinarycoincidence, each of these churches isconspicuous for its use of holy water,choirs, sacred pictures, tonsure, vest-ments, the bell in religious service, theorders of nuns, monks, and the vows ofthe monastic system...” (S&K 1435-36).

Holy water, relics, fetishes, charms, vest-ments, bells, drums, and priesthoods arecommon to all religions.

§323. The Nature of Religion. (Sumner &Keller 1426)

And it is impossible entirely to

Robertson Smith tries to distinguishreligion from magic and sorcery, asfollows: “From the earliest times,religion, as distinct from magic orsorcery, addresses itself to kindred andfriendly beings ...” If this distinction,which is parallel to that drawn byLehmann between white and black art, isaccepted, then plainly many peoples canhave no religion (S&K 1428).

divorce purely evolved religion fromeither magic or sorcery.

VIII: RELIGIOUS STIMULI (Hopkins88)

92:1.4 Mystery and power have alwaysstimulated religious feelings and fears,while emotion has ever functioned as apowerful conditioning factor in theirdevelopment. Fear has always been thebasic religious stimulus.

6


To turn now to the emotional factorsof religion, a very crude dictum ofignorant antiquity asserted that Fear firstfashions gods (H 93).

Fear fashions the gods of evolutionaryreligion

and motivates the religious ritual of theprimitive believers.

Even among the most primitive peoplesmay be found the same mixture of fearand attachment toward ghosts thatconditions human intercourse, while inthe higher religions hope, admiration, andsympathy unite with fear to make acomplex far removed from abjection (H95).

As civilization advances, fear becomesmodified by reverence, admiration,respect, and sympathy

and is then further conditioned by

Derived from fear, through regret thatone has offended against a spirit’sdesires, repentance is another emotionwhich belongs only to higher religionsand yet can be traced back to primitiveapprehension, though without under-standing the sinner’s position it is diffi-cult to distinguish mere regret fromrepentance (H 96).

remorse and repentance.

The existence of fear as a recognizedaspect of advanced religions need not beinsisted upon. The word “terror”expresses the attitude of the early Teutonstoward their gods. The Hindu says, “It isfear alone that makes men virtuous,” andalso, “God is a great fear” (H 97).

92:1.5 One Asiatic people taught that“God is a great fear”;

that is the outgrowth of purelyevolutionary religion.

Jesus, the revelation of the highest type ofreligious living, proclaimed that

[He that loveth not knoweth not God; for Godis love (1 John 4:8).]

“God is love.”

7


2. RELIGION AND THE

MORES


§326. Religion and the Mores. (Sumner &Keller 1449)

[Religion] is by nature less adjustablethan any other institution of society, for itis farthest from conclusive test andselection (S&K 1449).

92:2.1 Religion is the most rigid andunyielding of all human institutions,

Yet religion does adjust, tardily andalmost grudgingly, in the course of time(S&K 1449).

but it does tardily adjust to changingsociety.

Ultimately religion must reflect the moresin their alteration, as the next life and thespirit-world, on the principle ofprojectivism, repeat this life and thisworld (S&K 1449).

Eventually, evolutionary religion doesreflect the changing mores,

which, in turn, may have been affected byrevealed religion.

Slowly, surely, but grudgingly, doesreligion (worship) follow in the wake ofwisdom—knowledge directed by exper-iential reason and illuminated by divinerevelation.


One of the chief tenets of religion isthat the familiar and especially thearchaic are holy, while the novel andstrange are profane. This comes out of thefunction of religion as a sanction of themores (S&K 1431).

92:2.2 Religion clings to the mores;that which was is ancient and supposedlysacred.

8


For this reason and no other,

[Spencer] cites the persistence of cuttinginstruments of stone for sacrificial pur-poses “when implements of bronze, oreven of iron are used for all otherpurposes” (S&K 1431).

stone implements persisted long into theage of bronze and iron.

This statement is of record:

[And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone,thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou liftup thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it (Exod.

20:25).] [See S&K 1431-32.]

“And if you will make me an altar ofstone, you shall not build it of hewnstone, for, if you use your tools in makingit, you have polluted it.”

“Further the primitive method of obtain-ing fire by the friction of two pieces ofwood, survives in religious ceremoniesages after its abandonment in thehousehold; and even now, among theHindus, the flame for the altar is kindledby the ‘fire drill’” (S&K 1432).

Even today, the Hindus kindle their altarfires by using a primitive fire drill.

It is readily enough appreciated that theemployment of any novelty in connectionwith religion may easily be regarded assacrilegious (S&K 1432).

In the course of evolutionary religion,novelty has always been regarded assacrilege.

The sacrament must consist, not of newand manufactured food, but of the mostprimitive of viands:

[And they shall eat the flesh in that night,roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with

bitter herbs they shall eat it (Exod. 12:8).] [SeeS&K 1432, re unleavened bread, bitter herbs.]

“The flesh roasted with fire andunleavened bread served with bitterherbs.”

The retention of the old is not whollyconfined to religion; all solemn cere-monial is full of survivals. The court ofjustice, the wedding, or the academic pro-cession illustrates the same conservatism(S&K 1432).

All types of social usage and even legalprocedures cling to the old forms.

9



92:2.3 When modern man wonders atthe presentation of so much in the scrip-tures of different religions that may beregarded as obscene, he should pause toconsider that

When Princess Mary of England wasmarried, certain phrases that have becomeutterly offensive to a refined taste wereomitted from the service. They wouldhave gone long ago had it not been for amysterious sort of insulation thatsurrounds the traditionally holy, wherebyeven the obscene may be handled by theclean-minded without a shock—withoutrevulsion because without realization(S&K 1454-55).

passing generations have feared toeliminate what their ancestors deemed tobe holy and sacred.

A great deal that one generation mightlook upon as obscene, precedinggenerations have considered a part oftheir accepted mores, even as approvedreligious rituals.

§325.* Religion is Evolutionary. (Sumner &Keller 1441)

A considerable amount of religiouscontroversy has been occasioned by

Not seldom has theology warrantedFrazer’s characterization: “The history ofreligion is a long attempt to reconcile oldcustom with new reason;

the never-ending attempts to reconcileolden but reprehensible practices withnewly advanced reason,

to find a sound theory for an absurdpractice” (S&K 1449).

to find plausible theories in justificationof creedal perpetuation of ancient andoutworn customs.

10


92.2.4 But it is only foolish to attemptthe too sudden acceleration of religiousgrowth.

Says Oliveira Martins of Mohammedan-ism: “Out of that religion which uniteswith great refinements of intelligence asingular moral obscurity and a mater-ialism without charity, the Berber orTuareg, the negroid, and the negrocomprehend and so take over only thesecond part, which is compatible withtheir respective capacities. . . .

A race or nation can only assimilate fromany advanced religion that which isreasonably consistent and compatiblewith its current evolutionary status,

Whatever may be the moral value of areligion, the people that accepts it willderive from it that which is compatiblewith its genius and with the evolutionarystage of its civilization” (S&K 1446).

plus its genius for adaptation.

“It is a law which may be regarded aspractically universal, that the religiousconceptions of a people are expressed informs which are modelled, in largedegree, on those political and socialinstitutions which the economical condi-tions of their situation have produced ...”(S&K 1447).

Social, climatic, political, and economicconditions are all influential in deter-mining the course and progress ofreligious evolution.

It is believed by specialists that thearidity of the climate of northwesternArizona has had a profound effect on thereligious beliefs and practices of the Hopi(S&K 1446).

Seeck generalizes as follows: “We allfollow the teachings of our religionprecisely as far as they correspond to ourmoral impulses, that is, we are led bythese impulses, not by religion. . . .Morality is not determined by religion Social morality is not determined by

religion,

that is, by evolutionary religion;

11


but on the contrary religions have beenmodelled over and over again accordingto the changing conceptions of morals”(S&K 1448).

rather are the forms of religion dictatedby the racial morality.

It is a question to what extent prim-itive people may actually take on a moreevolved religion;

92:2.5 Races of men only superficiallyaccept a strange and new religion;

normally the old beliefs merely persistunder a new form (S&K IV 842).

they actually adjust it to their mores andold ways of believing.

This is well illustrated by the example ofa certain New Zealand tribe

In New Zealand, in 1862, there rose theHau Hau religion, the name of it beingderived from “Jehovah.” It was a mixtureof Christian, Mosaic, and Buddhistelements.... The priests whose priests, after nominally accepting

Christianity, 1

spread the tidings that they receiveddirect commands from Jehovah throughthe Angel Gabriel and that the Maoris hadbeen marked out to be a chosen people(S&K 1446).

professed to have received directrevelations from Gabriel to the effect thatthis selfsame tribe had become the chosenpeople of God

Adultery was allowed by the religion andconcubinage was reckoned a virtue.

and directing that they be permitted freelyto indulge in loose sex relations

and numerous other of their olden andreprehensible customs.

Those who had belonged to the Christianchurch went over by preference toHauism (S&K 1446).

And immediately all of the new-madeChristians went over to this new and lessexacting version of Christianity.

12


§327. Religion and Morals. (Sumner &Keller 1458)

Throughout this book religion isshown to have sanctioned a great varietyof conduct (S&K 1463).

92:2.6 Religion has at one time oranother sanctioned all sorts of contraryand inconsistent behavior,

It has prescribed game-laws, cannibalism,human sacrifice, the killing of the old,suicide, incest, polyandry, polygyny,slavery, and the levirate; has guaranteedall forms of property-holding, of inher-itance, and of government; has bothfavored and proscribed commerce and thetaking of interest; it has been forced tobend to new vices. It has therefore offeredno absolute standard of morality, for thereis none, but has sanctioned what lay inthe mores of the time and place—or,often, what lay in the mores of the placeat some previous time (S&K 1463).

has at some time approved of practicallyall that is now regarded as immoral orsinful.

Conscience, untaught by experience andunaided by reason, never has been, andnever can be, a safe and unerring guide tohuman conduct. Conscience is not adivine voice speaking to the human soul.It is merely the sum total of the moral andethical content of the mores of anycurrent stage of existence; it simplyrepresents the humanly conceived ideal ofreaction in any given set of circum-stances.

13


3 . T H E N A T U R E O F

EVOLUTIONARY RELIGION


Throughout this book occur cases ofsurvivals illustrative of the conservativecharacter of religion. So pronounced isthis trait that the study of the cult is notunlike the exploration of fossil-bearingstrata (S&K 1436).

92:3.1 The study of human religion isthe examination of the fossil-bearingsocial strata of past ages.

The reason for the cruder morals of thegods is the same as for the obsoletecharacter of their food:

The mores of the anthropomorphic gods

they were the morals of an antecedentstate before the rise of mores ofrestriction (S&K 1439).

are a truthful reflection of the morals ofthe men who first conceived such deities.

Ancient religions and mythologyfaithfully portray the beliefs andtraditions of peoples long since lost inobscurity.

When this stage passes and new culturalforms appear, the once-developed cult-forms do not, however, at once fall away.They persist alongside the new economicand other structures and becomeinconsistent with the latter (S&K 1440).

These olden cult practices persist along-side newer economic customs and socialevolutions and, of course, appear grosslyinconsistent.

The cult presents a “picture of the past”(S&K 1440).

The remnants of the cult present a truepicture of the racial religions of the past.

§329. Disservices of Religion. (Sumner &Keller 1467)

Always remember,

A church, sect, party, or associationhas a program. It is formed to dosomething. Such a union does not exist inorder to find out the truth.

the cults are formed, not to discover truth,

14


It assumes some dogma to be true ... Thatdogma is made the postulate of its actionand the purpose of the union is to bringthose together who have a commonconviction and to organize them foraction which will propagate their faith orrealize its application to life (S&K 1474).

but rather to promulgate their creeds.

§327. Religion and Morals. (Sumner &Keller 1458)

Religion in history, from the earliestto very recent days, has not been a matterof morality at all but of rites, ritual,observance, and ceremony; it hasexpressed political traditions and ties orsustained political power or nourishedsanitary and hygienic practices believedfrom experience to conduce to societalwelfare (S&K 1464).

92:3.2 Religion has always beenlargely a matter of rites, rituals,observances, ceremonies, and dogmas.

It has usually become tainted with thatpersistently mischief-making error, thechosen-people delusion.


The ideas of incarnation, inspiration,revelation, propitiation, contrition,

The cardinal religious ideas ofincantation, inspiration, revelation,propitiation,

repentance, atonement, intercession,vicarious sacrifice, expiation,

repentance, atonement, intercession,sacrifice,

prayer, confession, worship, another life,ritual sacrifice, sacrament,

prayer, confession, worship, survival afterdeath, sacrament, ritual,

ransom, salvation, redemption, covenant,uncleanness, purification, prophecy,men’s duties, sin, original sin,

ransom, salvation, redemption, covenant,uncleanness, purification, prophecy,original sin—

15


and all the rest go back to the limit of ourknowledge of man on earth. They were allimplicit in the primordial ghost-fear andhave all been evolved so gradually andsteadily that beginnings cannot be foundfor them (S&K 1442).

they all go back to the early times ofprimordial ghost fear.

§328. The Power of Religion. (Sumner &Keller 1465)

[contd] For countless generations, saysLippert, religion was nothing else than astruggle for existence projected beyondthe grave, for the domain beyond deathwas introduced, as it were, into the rangeof the struggle in this world (S&K 1465).

92:3.3 Primitive religion is nothingmore nor less than the struggle formaterial existence extended to embraceexistence beyond the grave.

Religion for the primitive man was notspeculation but worship; and worship wasnothing but the extension of the self-maintenance struggle into a spirit-worldof which all primitive men, withremarkable unanimity, cherish the samechildish conception (S&K 1465).

The observances of such a creedrepresented the extension of the self-maintenance struggle into the domain ofan imagined ghost-spirit world.


[E]ach and every type of theory isexplicable in the setting of its time and inthe state of knowledge of its votaries.There is therefore no moral judgment tobe passed upon primitive beliefs, such aswe are accustomed to deliver when wecall them superstitious.

But when tempted to criticizeevolutionary religion,

be careful.

Things went that way, and that is all thereis to it (S&K 1467).

Remember, that is what happened; it is ahistorical fact.

16


§328. The Power of Religion. (Sumner &Keller 1465)

And further recall that

One of Lippert’s significant passages maybe quoted yet again: “History shows usthat the creative force exerted by a notionon the development of civilization doesnot depend upon its relation to reality.The power of an idea lies, not in itscertainty but in its vividness and in thenumber of people who believe in it...”(S&K 1465).

the power of any idea lies, not in itscertainty or truth, but rather in thevividness of its human appeal.


92:3.4 Evolutionary religion makes noprovision for change or revision;

Religion does not, like science, lookto its own correction and readjustment(S&K 1440).

unlike science, it does not provide for itsown progressive correction.


In its nature, no religion ever changes, forevery religion is absolute and eternaltruth.... It would stultify itself if it shouldsay: I am temporarily or contingentlytrue, and I shall give way to somethingtrue. I am a working hypothesis only(S&K 1450).

Evolved religion commands respectbecause its followers believe it is TheTruth;

“The faith once delivered to the saints”must claim to be perfect, and the formulaitself means that the faith is changeless(S&K 1450).

“the faith once delivered to the saints”must, in theory, be both final andinfallible.

17



“It sounds paradoxical to say that allcivilization had its cradle in daimonism,yet that daimonism and civilization areinversely proportional”; that developmentdissolves the cult, though the cult resistsdevelopment;

The cult resists development because realprogress is certain to modify or destroythe cult itself;

therefore must revision always be forcedupon it.

92:3.5 Only two influences can modifyand uplift the dogmas of natural religion:the pressure of the slowly advancingmores and the periodic illumination ofepochal revelation.2

[Indeed, in the days of barbarism it was

dangerous to know very much; there was

always the chance of being executed as a black

artist (88:6.6).]

And it is not strange that progress wasslow; in ancient days, to be progressive orinventive meant to be killed as a sorcerer.

The cult advances slowly in generationepochs and agelong cycles. But it doesmove forward.

Evolutionary belief in ghosts laid thefoundation for

that the world-philosophy that corrodesdaimonism is rooted in daimonism (S&K1441).

a philosophy of revealed religion whichwill eventually destroy the superstition ofits origin.

18


I, II: RELIGION (Browne 42)

5. Idolatry—the beginning of sacrifice—ofprayer—of the church. (Browne 54)

[contd] But though religion may haveexacted a high price for its saving ofmorality, still—it did save it. That issomething many people are inclined toforget. They are accustomed to dwell onlyon the evils, on the thwartings andfrustrations, which certain forms ofreligion in later days brought uponcivilization.

92:3.6 Religion has handicapped socialdevelopment in many ways,

But it is well to remember that, had it notbeen for religion and its underlying faiththat the universe and its fell “powers”could be controlled, there would not havebeen any civilization to frustrate (B 54-55).

but without religion there would havebeen no enduring morality nor ethics, noworth-while civilization.

All that grace and color which transmutesmere existence into Life—in a word, allArt—may truly be said to have arisen outof religion. Religion enmothered much nonreligious

culture:

Sculpture had its origin in idol-making,architecture in temple-building,

Sculpture originated in idol making,architecture in temple building,

poetry in prayer-writing, music in psalm-singing, drama in legend-telling,

poetry in incantations, music in worshipchants, drama in the acting for spiritguidance,

and dancing in the seasonal worship ofthe gods. . . (B 56).

and dancing in the seasonal worshipfestivals.

19




92:3.7 But while calling attention to thefact that religion was essential to thedevelopment and preservation of civil-ization, it should be recorded that naturalreligion has also done much to crippleand handicap the very civilization whichit otherwise fostered and maintained.

Religion has hampered the industrialorganization by cult-exactions in food andmaterials in general, in labor, time andthought.

Religion has hampered industrialactivities and economic development;

It has prevented the accumulation ofcapital, by disallowing and divertinginheritance, and otherwise. Much of whatit has exacted has been wasted, in aneconomic sense, in funeral-ceremonies,sacrifices, and tomb-building.

it has been wasteful of labor and hassquandered capital;

It has tampered with family-organizationto the detriment of the latter,

it has not always been helpful to thefamily;

and in group-relations it has caused wars,prevented the spread of peace, andotherwise kept peoples apart.

it has not adequately fostered peace andgood will;

It has been the enemy of advancingknowledge and has retarded education(S&K 1468).

it has sometimes neglected education andretarded science;

The cathedrals and the monasteries, withtreasures, lands, and serfs, by the side ofthe huts of the poor, like the grandtemples and pyramids by the side of themud hovels, show how the struggle wasdiverted from this world to the next, andhow “Life has played the miser for theenrichment of Death” (S&K 1469).

it has unduly impoverished life for thepretended enrichment of death.

20


Evolutionary religion, human religion,has indeed been guilty of all these andmany more mistakes, errors, andblunders; nevertheless, it did maintaincultural ethics, civilized morality, andsocial coherence, and made it possible forlater revealed religion to compensate forthese many evolutionary shortcomings.

§330. The Survival-Value of Religion.(Sumner & Keller 1474)

Exceedingly expensive, it has also beenincomparably effective (S&K 1475).

92:3.8 Evolutionary religion has beenman’s most expensive but incomparablyeffective institution.

Only the evolutionist can “justify” reli-gion (S&K 1476).

Human religion can be justified only inthe light of evolutionary civilization.

If man were not the ascendant product ofanimal evolution, then would such acourse of religious development standwithout justification.

Religion caused labor to beperformed—as slavery did—which wouldotherwise not have been done.... Itdestroyed much capital, but also causedits accumulation (S&K 1476).

92:3.9 Religion facilitated theaccumulation of capital; it fostered workof certain kinds;

[The priest] experimented to findmedicines, he worked up devices andtricks, which sometimes became arts, likethat of writing, all to further his specialpurposes. He had the leisure to do thissort of thing, which involved at least therudiments of intellectual exercise, and,later, to found libraries and undertakeliterary labors, just because he wassupported by others.

the leisure of the priests promoted art andknowledge;

21


Without this “injustice” to them, he couldnot have laid the foundations of a higherculture; what to them was a loss was forthe race a gain (S&K 1477). the race, in the end, gained much as a

result of all these early errors in ethicaltechnique.

In the long view, then, even the shamans,whether tricksters or self-deceived, wereworth to society what they cost (S&K1477).

The shamans, honest and dishonest, wereterribly expensive, but they were worthall they cost.

We must not forget that sorcery andmagic provided that basis of observationand experimentation upon which, bycorrection, science was erected. Thedevelopment of most of the learnedprofessions is referable, at least in highdegree, to the priesthood (S&K 1477).

The learned professions and science itselfemerged from the parasitical priesthoods.

Religion fostered civilization andprovided societal continuity; it has beenthe moral police force of all time.

Not to prolong a discussion ofrelatively minor matters, much less to tryto combat the detailed complaints aboutreligion and the priesthood, let us con-sider what is, after all, the first and lastservice of religion to society, namely, thediscipline it exercises. Religion provided that human discipline

and self-control

Not without justice has it been writtenthat fear is the beginning of knowledge. Itis certainly the beginning of thatdiscipline through which alone wisdomarrives (S&K 1479).

which made wisdom possible.

It is beneath this unearthly whip ofscorpions that humanity has cringed forlong ages and there is no doubt that itsdisciplinary value has superseded allother compulsions to which mankind hasever been subject (S&K 1479).

Religion is the efficient scourge ofevolution which ruthlessly drives indolentand suffering humanity

22


from its natural state of intellectual inertiaforward and upward to the higher levelsof reason and wisdom.

92:3.10 And this sacred heritage ofanimal ascent, evolutionary religion, mustever continue to be refined and ennobledby the continuous censorship of revealedreligion

No other agency has purged religiousconceptions of their gross elements as hasscience.... If the conferring of refinementis a friendly function, even though itinvolves faithful wounds, then science isthe best friend religion has ever had(S&K 1481).

and by the fiery furnace of genuinescience.

4. THE GIFT OF REVELATION

92:4.1 Revelation is evolutionary butalways progressive. Down through theages of a world’s history, the revelationsof religion are ever-expanding andsuccessively more enlightening. It is themission of revelation to sort and censorthe successive religions of evolution. Butif revelation is to exalt and upstep thereligions of evolution, then must suchdivine visitations portray teachings whichare not too far removed from the thoughtand reactions of the age in which they arepresented. Thus must and does revelationalways keep in touch with evolution.Always must the religion of revelation belimited by man’s capacity of receptivity.


92:4.2 But regardless of apparentconnection or derivation, the religions ofrevelation are always

23


It is futile to say that if religion ischaracterized as reverence for higherpowers

characterized by a belief in some Deity offinal value

and belief in a future life, and in some concept of the survival ofpersonality identity after death.

that formulation excludes nothing and sodefines nothing; and it is equally absurdto assert that civilized religion isdegraded by such a definition (S&K1429).


“ ... Religions from the first are not theproduct of logical reflection or exper-iment, but of sentiment and aspiration.They come into being as pure intuitions,and afterwards invade the province of thereason and assimilate the thought ofcenturies in their own synthesis” (S&K1430).

92:4.3 Evolutionary religion issentimental, not logical.


Mason comes through with the simpledefinition that, “in a general sense,religion is the sum of what is thought orbelieved about a spirit world and what isdone in consequence of such thinking”(S&K 1427).

It is man’s reaction to belief in ahypothetical ghost-spirit world—

Gumplowicz regards religion as “theconception of those ideas which rise inthe human spirit concerning all thosethings which it is not in a position toapprehend through its senses but to knowwhich it is driven by an unconquerableneed of its nature.... All religion is merelya spirit-reflex,” called into being by theunknowable (S&K 1427).

the human belief-reflex, excited by therealization and fear of the unknown.

24


Revelatory religion is propounded by thereal spiritual world; it is the response ofthe superintellectual cosmos to the mortalhunger to believe in, and depend upon,the universal Deities.

Evolutionary religion pictures the circuit-ous gropings of humanity in quest oftruth; revelatory religion is that verytruth.

92:4.4 There have been many events ofreligious revelation but only five ofepochal significance. These were asfollows:

92:4.5 1. The Dalamatian teachings.The true concept of the First Source andCenter was first promulgated on Urantiaby the one hundred corporeal members ofPrince Caligastia’s staff. This expandingrevelation of Deity went on for more thanthree hundred thousand years until it wassuddenly terminated by the planetarysecession and the disruption of theteaching regime. Except for the work ofVan, the influence of the Dalamatianrevelation was practically lost to thewhole world. Even the Nodites hadforgotten this truth by the time of Adam’sarrival. Of all who received the teachingsof the one hundred, the red men heldthem longest,

25


XXVII: DAIMONISM (Sumner & Keller931)

§245.* Deities. (Sumner & Keller 970)

Dorsey, who is a reliable ethnographer,cites the assertion that the religion of theMandans, Hidatsa, and Dakotas “consistsin the belief in one Great Spirit,” andcomments as follows: “But suchassertions are closely followed byadmissions which explain the mistake ofthe writer: ‘Great Spirit’ is synonymouswith ‘Great Medicine,’ a name applied toeverything which they do not compre-hend...” (S&K 976-77).

but the idea of the Great Spirit was but ahazy concept in Amerindian religion

“The historical evidence that the GreatSpirit belongs not to the untutored but tothe tutored mind of the savage ispreserved for us in the records of thetutors themselves, the Jesuit missionariesin Canada” (S&K 977).

when contact with Christianity greatlyclarified and strengthened it.

92:4.6 2. The Edenic teachings. Adamand Eve again portrayed the concept ofthe Father of all to the evolutionarypeoples. The disruption of the first Edenhalted the course of the Adamicrevelation before it had ever fully started.But the aborted teachings of Adam werecarried on by the Sethite priests, andsome of these truths have never beenentirely lost to the world. The entire trendof Levantine religious evolution wasmodified by the teachings of the Sethites.But by 2500 B.C. mankind had largely lostsight of the revelation sponsored in thedays of Eden.

92:4.7 3. Melchizedek of Salem. Thisemergency Son of Nebadon inauguratedthe third revelation of truth on Urantia.The cardinal precepts of his teachingswere trust and faith.

26


He taught trust in the omnipotentbeneficence of God and proclaimed thatfaith was the act by which men earnedGod’s favor. His teachings graduallycommingled with the beliefs and practicesof various evolutionary religions andfinally developed into those theologicsystems present on Urantia at the openingof the first millennium after Christ.

92:4.8 4. Jesus of Nazareth. ChristMichael presented for the fourth time toUrantia the concept of God as theUniversal Father, and this teaching hasgenerally persisted ever since. Theessence of his teaching was love andservice, the loving worship which acreature son voluntarily gives inrecognition of, and response to, the lovingministry of God his Father; the freewillservice which such creature sons bestowupon their brethren in the joyousrealization that in this service they arelikewise serving God the Father.

92:4.9 5. The Urantia Papers. Thepapers, of which this is one, constitute themost recent presentation of truth to themortals of Urantia. These papers differfrom all previous revelations, for they arenot the work of a single universepersonality but a composite presentationby many beings. But no revelation shortof the attainment of the Universal Fathercan ever be complete. All other celestialministrations are no more than partial,transient, and practically adapted to localconditions in time and space. While suchadmissions as this may possibly detractfrom the immediate force and authority ofall revelations, the time has arrived onUrantia when it is advisable to make suchfrank statements,

27


even at the risk of weakening the futureinfluence and authority of this, the mostrecent of the revelations of truth to themortal races of Urantia.

5. THE GREAT RELIGIOUS

LEADERS

92:5.1 In evolutionary religion, thegods are conceived to exist in the likenessof man’s image; in revelatory religion,men are taught that they are God’ssons—even fashioned in the finite imageof divinity; in the synthesized beliefscompounded from the teachings ofrevelation and the products of evolution,the God concept is a blend of:

1. The pre-existent ideas of theevolutionary cults.

2. The sublime ideals of revealedreligion.

3. The personal viewpoints of thegreat religious leaders, the prophets andteachers of mankind.

92:5.2 Most great religious epochshave been inaugurated by the life andteachings of some outstandingpersonality; leadership has originated amajority of the worth-while moralmovements of history. And men havealways tended to venerate the leader, evenat the expense of his teachings; to reverehis personality, even though losing sightof the truths which he proclaimed. Andthis is not without reason; there is aninstinctive longing in the heart ofevolutionary man for help from above andbeyond.

28


This craving is designed to anticipate theappearance on earth of the PlanetaryPrince and the later Material Sons. OnUrantia man has been deprived of thesesuperhuman leaders and rulers, andtherefore does he constantly seek to makegood this loss by enshrouding his humanleaders with legends pertaining tosupernatural origins and miraculouscareers.

§240.* Hero-Worship. (Sumner & Keller946)

Alignable with the conception of thehero and hero-worship is that of the god-man, son of god, son of man, or messiah;the culture-hero is deified and his returnas a ruler, under a new dispensationwhich he shall usher in, is expected....Prodigies surround his incarnation, suchas virgin birth and other miraculoushappenings (S&K 949).

92:5.3 Many races have conceived oftheir leaders as being born of virgins;their careers are liberally sprinkled withmiraculous episodes,

and their return is always expected bytheir respective groups.

[contd] Messianic hopes have beenharbored in Mongolia and a former herohas been expected to reappear; insouthern Mongolia the people look for thereturn of Genghis Khan who shall leadthem back again to the northwestward(S&K 949).

In central Asia the tribesmen still look forthe return of Genghis Khan;

in Tibet, China, and India it is Buddha;

29


The various mahdis of theMohammedan world are well known; thelast of them to make a considerable stir inthe world was the one subjugated by LordKitchener in southern Egypt. “At alltimes the Moslems have believed thattoward the end of the world a man of thefamily of the Prophet . . . must appear torevive religion and complete the triumphof righteousness” (S&K 951).

in Islam it is Mohammed;

“The doctrines of the Hindu avatar, theHebrew Messiah, the Christian millen-nium, and the Hesunanin of the IndianGhost dance are essentially the same, andhave their origin in a hope and longingcommon to all humanity . . . The belief inthe coming of a Messiah who shouldrestore them to their original happycondition was well nigh universal amongthe American tribes” (S&K 949).

among the Amerinds it was HesunaninOnamonalonton;

The Messiah-doctrine of the Hebrewsis well known. The Psalms announce thecoming of a personal messiah.... Theredevelops later the conception of a non-earthly being, not the Messiah of David’shouse, born on earth, but the “Son ofMan.” “This is an angel-like being, whosedwelling is in heaven”; he is pre-existentand is the destined judge of the world(S&K 951).

with the Hebrews it was, in general,Adam’s return as a material ruler.

In Babylonia the notion of a son ofGod and a mother of God was current.Marduk is the intercessor between menand his father, Ea; he takes theircomplaints to him and brings hisrevelations to them (S&K 950).

In Babylon the god Marduk was aperpetuation of the Adam legend, theson-of-God idea,

The idea of a mediator between god andman is that “he stands upon the border-line between god and men” (S&K 950).

the connecting link between man andGod.

30


Following the appearance of Adam onearth, so-called sons of God werecommon among the world races.

92:5.4 But regardless of the super-stitious awe in which they were oftenheld, it remains a fact that these teacherswere the temporal personality fulcrumson which the levers of revealed truthdepended for the advancement of themorality, philosophy, and religion ofmankind.

92:5.5 There have been hundreds uponhundreds of religious leaders in themillion-year human history of Urantiafrom Onagar to Guru Nanak. During thistime there have been many ebbs andflows of the tide of religious truth andspiritual faith, and each renaissance ofUrantian religion has, in the past, beenidentified with the life and teachings ofsome religious leader. In considering theteachers of recent times, it may provehelpful to group them into the sevenmajor religious epochs of post-AdamicUrantia:

92:5.6 1. The Sethite period. TheSethite priests, as regenerated under theleadership of Amosad, became the greatpost-Adamic teachers. They functionedthroughout the lands of the Andites, andtheir influence persisted longest amongthe Greeks, Sumerians, and Hindus.Among the latter they have continued tothe present time as the Brahmans of theHindu faith. The Sethites and theirfollowers never entirely lost the Trinityconcept revealed by Adam.

31


92:5.7 2. Era of the Melchizedekmissionaries. Urantia religion was in nosmall measure regenerated by the effortsof those teachers who were commissionedby Machiventa Melchizedek when helived and taught at Salem almost twothousand years before Christ. Thesemissionaries proclaimed faith as the priceof favor with God, and their teachings,though unproductive of any immediatelyappearing religions, nevertheless formedthe foundations on which later teachers oftruth were to build the religions ofUrantia.

92:5.8 3. The post-Melchizedek era.Though Amenemope and Ikhnaton bothtaught in this period, the outstandingreligious genius of the post-Melchizedekera was the leader of a group of LevantineBedouins and the founder of the Hebrewreligion—Moses. Moses taught mono-theism.

[Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is oneLORD: (Deut. 6:4).]

Said he: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord ourGod is one God.”

[Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightestknow that the LORD he is God; there is none elsebeside him (Deut. 4:35).]

“The Lord he is God. There is nonebeside him.”

[Compare: Lev. 20:6, Deut. 18:10-12.] He persistently sought to uproot theremnants of the ghost cult among hispeople, even prescribing the death penaltyfor its practitioners.

The monotheism of Moses wasadulterated by his successors, but in latertimes they did return to many of histeachings. The greatness of Moses lies inhis wisdom and sagacity. Other men havehad greater concepts of God, but no oneman was ever so successful in inducinglarge numbers of people to adopt suchadvanced beliefs.

32


[It is interesting to note that about the sixthcentury before Christ there was a period of unusualreligious creativeness, when six of the world’sliving religions originated (Hume 13).]

92:5.9 4. The sixth century beforeChrist. Many men arose to proclaim truthin this, one of the greatest centuries ofreligious awakening ever witnessed onUrantia. Among these should be recordedGautama, Confucius, Lao-tse, Zoroaster,and the Jainist teachers.

The teachings of Gautama have becomewidespread in Asia, and he is revered asthe Buddha by millions. Confucius was toChinese morality what Plato was to Greekphilosophy, and while there werereligious repercussions to the teachings ofboth, strictly speaking, neither was areligious teacher; Lao-tse envisionedmore of God in Tao than did Confucius inhumanity or Plato in idealism.

[See 95:6.5, 170:1.6.] Zoroaster, while much affected by theprevalent concept of dual spiritism, thegood and the bad, at the same timedefinitely exalted the idea of one eternalDeity and of the ultimate victory of lightover darkness.

92:5.10 5. The first century after Christ.

XL: RELIGION IN GENERAL (Sumner& Keller 1421)


As a religious teacher,

John the Baptist and his disciples wereascetic in their practice and used baptism;Jesus, who had been circumcized in theorthodox manner, prepared for his workby entering John’s association and byasceticism.

Jesus of Nazareth started out with the cultwhich had been established by John theBaptist

33


Later he repudiated certain fixed forms,such as the fast and the sabbath. Theprocess was one of elimination fromwithin rather than new invention or awholesale clearing of the board (S&K1442).

and progressed as far as he could awayfrom fasts and forms.

[See 5:4.10.] Aside from Jesus, Paul of Tarsus andPhilo of Alexandria were the greatestteachers of this era. Their concepts ofreligion have played a dominant part inthe evolution of that faith which bears thename of Christ.

92:5.11 6. The sixth century afterChrist. Mohammed founded a religionwhich was superior to many of the creedsof his time.

[... Mohammedanism provides deliverance

from the rigorous moral standards of Judaism

and Christianity (5:4.1).]

His was a protest against the socialdemands of the faiths of foreigners

and against the incoherence of thereligious life of his own people.

92:5.12 7. The fifteenth century afterChrist. This period witnessed tworeligious movements: the disruption ofthe unity of Christianity in the Occidentand the synthesis of a new religion in theOrient. In Europe institutionalized Chris-tianity had attained that degree ofinelasticity which rendered further growthincompatible with unity. In the Orient thecombined teachings of Islam, Hinduism,and Buddhism were synthesized byNanak and his followers into Sikhism,one of the most advanced religions ofAsia.

34


92:5.13 The future of Urantia willdoubtless be characterized by the appear-ance of teachers of religious truth—theFatherhood of God and the fraternity ofall creatures. But it is to be hoped that theardent and sincere efforts of these futureprophets will be directed less toward thestrengthening of interreligious barriersand more toward the augmentation of thereligious brotherhood of spiritual worshipamong the many followers of thediffering intellectual theologies which socharacterize Urantia of Satania.

6 . T H E C O M P O S I T E

RELIGIONS

92:6.1 Twentieth-century Urantiareligions present an interesting study ofthe social evolution of man’s worshipimpulse. Many faiths have progressedvery little since the days of the ghost cult.

§322.* Alleged Absence of Religion.(Sumner & Keller 1421)

A beginning may be made with theAfrican Pygmies who are in manyrespects the most backward of peoples.Of them it is reported that no religion, sofar as could be discovered, had ever beenin use; they do not know the totem andhave no fetish-rites whatsoever (S&K1422).

The Pygmies of Africa have no religiousreactions as a class,

“Some of the tribes have neither religionnor superstition, nor do they practice anyoccult or fetish rites. Others have a vividbelief in the unseen world, in a god, andin the spirits of the departed, and so arehigher in the scale of civilization thantheir more agnostic neighbors” (S&K1422).

although some of them believe slightly ina spirit environment.

35


They are today just where primitive manwas when the evolution of religion began.

The basic belief of primitive religion wassurvival after death. The idea of worship-ing a personal God indicates advancedevolutionary development, even the firststage of revelation.

Of certain Dyaks it is reported: “ ...Were I asked what is the religion of theLand Dyaks, I should say none worthy ofthe name, but their religious observancesmay be classed as follows”—a listincluding killing and eating fowls andpigs, with a portion set aside for the deity;propitiation of demons and ghosts; thetaboo; obedience to and belief in priest-esses; dancing; the use of omens from thenotes of birds (S&K 1423).

The Dyaks have evolved only the mostprimitive religious practices.

Among the Eskimo, “there is noknowledge and no idea of a SupremeBeing or of a future state, so far as I coulddiscover. One whom I questioned said:‘Husky die. No more Husky.’” The greatmajority of the Indians did not rise to anyidea of a single god (S&K 1424).

The comparatively recent Eskimos andAmerinds had very meager concepts ofGod;

The abstract notions reach no farther thansoul or ghost, or perhaps shadow, or theirwords mean only “wonderful” (S&K1424).

they believed in ghosts

and had an indefinite idea of survival ofsome sort after death.

36


There does exist a general belief [amongthe Australian aborigines] in ghosts, inthe spirits of the deceased who have notreceived the right order of burial or whohave been bewitched by sorcerers....Their fear of ghosts showed itself par-ticularly in their unwillingness to leavethe surroundings of the fireplace at nightand in the fact that they strictly refrainfrom nocturnal hunting (S&K IV 831).

Present-day native Australians have onlya ghost fear, dread of the dark,

The fact is that the Australians exhibit acrude variety of ancestor-worship (S&KIV 831).

and a crude ancestor veneration.

“ ... Whether the Mavenda sacrifice toappease the spirits in case of illness ordomestic calamity, as is the invariablecase with Zulu, I did not ascertain ...”(S&K IV 833).

The Zulus are just evolving a religion ofghost fear and sacrifice.

Holub noticed no signs of religionamong certain South African peoples, butfound in one case esteem for a certainsnake, in another “a kind of free-masonry,” and in a third a belief infetishes (S&K IV 833).

Many African tribes, except throughmissionary work of Christians and Mo-hammedans, are not yet beyond the fetishstage of religious evolution.

[“Previous to the introduction of Christianity, theBechuana appear to have had only very vaguereligious ideas, and their attention was chieflyoccupied by the detection of wizards andwitches...” (S&K IV 833).]



But some groups have long held to theidea of monotheism,

Herodotus writes of a Thracian tribe, whobelieve mankind immortal, that they hadonly one god (S&K 977).

like the onetime Thracians, who alsobelieved in immortality.

37


92:6.2 On Urantia, evolutionary andrevelatory religion are progressing side byside while they blend and coalesce intothe diversified theologic systems found inthe world in the times of the inditement ofthese papers.

[Compare ‘A Conspectus of the Eleven LivingReligions of the World’, Hume x.]

These religions, the religions oftwentieth-century Urantia, may beenumerated as follows:

1. Hinduism—the most ancient.

2. The Hebrew religion.

3. Buddhism.

4. The Confucian teachings.

5. The Taoist beliefs.

6. Zoroastrianism.

7. Shinto.

8. Jainism.

9. Christianity.

10. Islam.

11. Sikhism—the most recent.

92:6.3 The most advanced religions ofancient times were Judaism andHinduism, and each respectively hasgreatly influenced the course of religiousdevelopment in Orient and Occident.

38


I: THEORIES OF RELIGIOUS ORIGINS(Hopkins 1)

Orthodoxy maintained in ancient Indiathat there was one inspired religion

Both Hindus and Hebrews believed thattheir religions were inspired and revealed,

and all other religions were decadentforms of it, while in the sixth centuryB.C. heterodox Hindus said that allreligions were invented by the priests fortheir own profit. The same theoriessprang up independently centuries later inEurope (H 2).

and they believed all others to bedecadent forms of the one true faith.

92:6.4 India is divided among Hindu,Sikh, Mohammedan, and Jain, eachpicturing God, man, and the universe asthese are variously conceived. Chinafollows the Taoist and the Confucianteachings; Shinto is revered in Japan.

92:6.5 The great international, inter-racial faiths are the Hebraic, Buddhist,Christian, and Islamic. Buddhismstretches from Ceylon and Burma throughTibet and China to Japan. It has shown anadaptability to the mores of many peoplesthat has been equaled only byChristianity.



That even in the pre-prophetic period “wecan speak at most of henotheism . . . butnot of absolute monotheism, would besufficiently proved by the constant inclin-ation of the people to Baal worship.” Andthis despite assertions that Jahweh is thetrue and only god. There was need of atransitional stage before monotheismcould be reached; “it is impossible to getfrom animism to monotheism without atransition” (S&K 977).

92:6.6 The Hebrew religion encom-passes the philosophic transition frompolytheism to monotheism;

39


it is an evolutionary link between thereligions of evolution and the religions ofrevelation.

The Hebrews were the only westernpeople to follow their early evolutionarygods straight through to the God ofrevelation. But this truth never becamewidely accepted until the days of Isaiah,who once again taught the blended idea ofa racial deity combined with a UniversalCreator:

[O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellestbetween the cherubims, thou art the God, even thoualone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hastmade heaven and earth (Isa. 37:16).]

“O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, you areGod, even you alone; you have madeheaven and earth.”

At one time the hope of the survival ofOccidental civilization lay in the sublimeHebraic concepts of goodness and theadvanced Hellenic concepts of beauty.

92:6.7 The Christian religion is thereligion about the life and teachings ofChrist based upon the theology ofJudaism, modified further through theassimilation of certain Zoroastrianteachings and Greek philosophy, andformulated primarily by three individuals:Philo, Peter, and Paul. It has passedthrough many phases of evolution sincethe time of Paul and has become sothoroughly Occidentalized that

40




“ ... Most readily do [the ‘savages’]believe everything that [the missionary]tells them out of his revelation; only itdoes not take hold on them and does notinfluence their lives in the desired way.They distinguish it—in this very manyaccounts agree—always as the revelationof a stranger-god to a stranger-man; it isnot their revelation. It may be excellent,they often say in support of their declin-ation, but for the stranger-men, not forthem” (S&K 1442).

many non-European peoples verynaturally look upon Christianity as astrange revelation of a strange God andfor strangers.

92:6.8 Islam is the religio-culturalconnective of North Africa, the Levant,and southeastern Asia.



The Jewish religion had a strong influ-ence upon Islam (S&K 977).

It was Jewish theology in connection withthe later Christian teachings that madeIslam monotheistic.

The Moslems came to reproach theChristians with the worship, in theTrinity, of three gods.

The followers of Mohammed stumbled atthe advanced teachings of the Trinity;

That three can be one, and one three, hasbeen the basis of innumerable disputes,reconciliations, and interpretations (S&K977).

they could not comprehend the doctrineof three divine personalities and oneDeity.

It is always difficult to induceevolutionary minds suddenly to acceptadvanced revealed truth. Man is anevolutionary creature and in the mainmust get his religion by evolutionarytechniques.

41


§239.* Ancestor-Worship. (Sumner & Keller941)

In general, ancestor-worship belongsto a plane of civilization somewhat higherthan that of the ghost-cult.

92:6.9 Ancestor worship onetimeconstituted a decided advance in religiousevolution,

but it is both amazing and regrettable that

In some cases, as in India, China, andJapan, it has remained amidst a relativelyadvanced civilization,

this primitive concept persists in China,Japan, and India amidst so much that isrelatively more advanced,

such as Buddhism and Hinduism.

although with development of culture it ismore likely, as in Egypt, Greece, andRome, to yield to a set of deities of ahigher order and become no more than apopular survival (S&K 941).

In the Occident, ancestor worshipdeveloped into the veneration of nationalgods

and respect for racial heroes.

RELIGIOUS TOPOGRAPHY (Wieman& Horton 0)

IV. RADICAL SECULARISM (Wieman & Horton 0)

In the twentieth century this hero-venerating nationalistic religion makes itsappearance in

[contd] Marxism in Soviet Russia andMexico; nationalism in Turkey, Germany,Italy;

the various radical and nationalisticsecularisms which characterize manyraces and nations of the Occident.

Much of this same attitude is also foundin

religious indifference in universities andindustrial centers in many nominallyreligious countries (W&H 0).

the great universities and the largerindustrial communities of the English-speaking peoples.

42


I: PRIMITIVE RELIGION (Wieman &Horton 7)

I. THE PROBLEM OF THE ORIGIN OFRELIGION (Wieman & Horton 7)

Not very different from these concepts isthe idea that

Especially in the University of Chicago,where the influence of John Dewey’sphilosophy is deeply felt, a group ofreligious psychologists and historians hasarisen who stress the practical and socialnature of religion in its beginnings and inits contemporary developments. Religion,from their “pragmatic” point of view, ... isessentially not a theory at all, but apractical social activity, “a shared questof the good life” (W&H 16-17).

religion is but “a shared quest of the goodlife.”

The “national religions” are nothing morethan a reversion to the early Romanemperor worship

Certain types of religion lendthemselves admirably to this social andpragmatic interpretation: the publicreligion of ancient Athens and other city-states, whose supreme deity (“Athene”)was the city itself; the official Shintô ritesof modern Japan, which are essentially aworship of the state personified in theimperial family; and, some would add,Italian and German fascism, which seemto be growing conscious of themselves asreligious and not merely patrioticmovements (W&H 17).

and to Shinto—worship of the state in theimperial family.

43


7. THE FURTHER EVOLU-

TION OF RELIGION


§323. Nature of Religion. (Sumner & Keller1426)

As an illustration of what should notbe included under the name religion,though it is not by any means regularlyruled out, is the so-called “scientificreligion.” ... A scientific religion is anabsolute contradiction in terms. It is aphilosophy which contains two differentand irreconcilable conceptions ofcausation (S&K 1429).

92:7.1 Religion can never become ascientific fact.

Philosophy may, indeed, rest on ascientific basis, but religion will everremain either evolutionary or revelatory,or a possible combination of both, as it isin the world today.


“The impossibility of inventing a newreligion is generally acknowledged. Onemight as well try to build a tree” (S&K1442).

92:7.2 New religions cannot beinvented;

they are either evolved, or else they aresuddenly revealed.

Any new religion has to take up thefeatures of the old and assume its place inthe unbroken series.

All new evolutionary religions are merelyadvancing expressions of the old beliefs,new adaptations and adjustments.

So too the old does not pass away butmerges into the later (S&K 1442).

The old does not cease to exist; it ismerged with the new,

44


even as Sikhism budded and blossomedout of the soil and forms of Hinduism,Buddhism, Islam, and other contemporarycults.

Primitive religion was very democratic;

Further, religions borrow and lend; in thesavage particularly there is no feeling thathis own religion is the only one for allmen (S&K 1442).

the savage was quick to borrow or lend.

Only with revealed religion did autocraticand intolerant theologic egotism appear.

92:7.3 The many religions of Urantiaare all good to the extent that they bringman to God and bring the realization ofthe Father to man. It is a fallacy for anygroup of religionists to conceive of theircreed as The Truth; such attitudesbespeak more of theological arrogancethan of certainty of faith. There is not aUrantia religion that could not profitablystudy and assimilate the best of the truthscontained in every other faith,

“I wish,” writes Müller, “we couldexplore together . . . the ancient religionsof mankind, for I feel convinced that themore we know of them the more we shallsee that there is not one which is entirelyfalse; nay, that in one sense every religionwas a true religion, being the onlyreligion which was possible at thattime...” (S&K 1447).

for all contain truth.

Religionists would do better to borrowthe best in their neighbors’ living spiritualfaith rather than to denounce the worst intheir lingering superstitions and outwornrituals.

45


92:7.4 All these religions have arisenas a result of man’s variable intellectualresponse to his identical spiritual leading.They can never hope to attain auniformity of creeds, dogmas, andrituals—these are intellectual; but theycan, and some day will, realize a unity intrue worship of the Father of all, for thisis spiritual, and it is forever true, in thespirit all men are equal.

II: RELIGION EMERGING INTO SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS (Westcott-Wieman22)

DEFINING RELIGION AS A FUNCTIONINGPROCESS (Westcott-Wieman 26)

In the beginnings, when the prompt-ings to action were more directly con-nected with the physical appetites, thevalues sought were more material, moredefinitely the supplies necessary forexistence (W-W 28).

92:7.5 Primitive religion was largely amaterial-value consciousness,

As the ways and means of livingbecame more civilized and moresocialized, the ways of religious livingchanged also (W-W 28).

but civilization elevates religious values,

Religion, at its highest and best, is the

devotion of the total self, through search,

service and adoration, to the highest

cause of which one is now conscious,

providing that cause is deemed worthy of

the devotion of all men, and is symbolic

of ever higher unexplored values.

Religion, then, is a process oforganizing the self around and toward thehighest values (W-W 29).

for true religion is the devotion of the selfto the service of meaningful and supremevalues.

46


DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN RELIGION ANDCERTAIN RELATED FOCI OF HUMANINTEREST (Westcott-Wieman 32)

As religion evolves,

Since religion is a way of living, anorganizing of the self and all its interests,it has much to do with conduct.... Ethicsbeing the philosophy of morals, only thetwo terms, religion and morals, needclarifying (W-W 33).

ethics becomes the philosophy of morals,

Moral “goodness” means conscientiousgoodness springing from observance ofduty. Moral conduct is respect-full con-duct. It is discipline of the self bystandards (W-W 34).

and morality becomes the discipline ofself by the standards

of highest meanings and supremevalues—divine and spiritual ideals.

Religious “goodness” means a spontane-ous goodness

And thus religion becomes a spontaneousand exquisite devotion,

springing from undivided loyalty as overagainst the conscientious goodness ofobservance of duty. Religious conduct isconsecrated conduct. It is liberation ofthe self by loving devotion, as overagainst discipline of the self by standards(W-W 34).

the living experience of the loyalty oflove.

NORMS TO BE USED IN FUNCTIONALAPPROACH (Westcott-Wieman 38)

Thus there emerges out of theanalysis of the function of religion sixspecific norms by which to evaluatereligion, either in one’s own living or in atotal culture, either for the individual orfor the group. In summary, these normsmay be stated as follows:

92:7.6 The quality of a religion isindicated by:

47


1. The degree to which the objectiveof devotion is supremely worthful for allhuman living.

WORTHFULNESS of the objective(W-W 39).

1. Level [of] values—loyalties.

2. Depth of meanings—

4. The degree to which the devoteeacts with his utmost power of sensing anddiscriminating values in concretesituations.

SENSITIVITY of the loyalty (W-W40).

the sensitization of the individual to theidealistic appreciation of these highestvalues.

3. Consecration intensity—

2. The degree to which the total selfis devoted to the objective.

COMPLETENESS of the loyalty (W-W 39).

the degree of devotion to these divinevalues.

5. The degree to which the devotionof the individual progresses through hispresent highest objective in an emergingsequence of objectives of ever greatervalue.

PROGRESSION of loyalties (W-W40).

4. The unfettered progress of thepersonality

in this cosmic path of idealistic spiritualliving, realization of sonship with Godand never-ending progressive citizenshipin the universe.

48


92:7.7 Religious meanings progress inself-consciousness when the child trans-fers his ideas of omnipotence from hisparents to God. And the entire religiousexperience of such a child is largelydependent on whether fear or love hasdominated the parent-child relationship.Slaves have always experienced greatdifficulty in transferring their master-fearinto concepts of God-love. Civilization,science, and advanced religions mustdeliver mankind from those fears born ofthe dread of natural phenomena. And soshould greater enlightenment delivereducated mortals from all dependence onintermediaries in communion with Deity.

92:7.8 These intermediate stages ofidolatrous hesitation in the transfer ofveneration from the human and thevisible to the divine and invisible areinevitable, but they should be shortenedby the consciousness of the facilitatingministry of the indwelling divine spirit.Nevertheless, man has been profoundlyinfluenced, not only by his concepts ofDeity, but also by the character of theheroes whom he has chosen to honor. It ismost unfortunate that those who havecome to venerate the divine and risenChrist should have overlooked theman—the valiant and courageous hero—Joshua ben Joseph.

FACTORS FORCING RELIGION TO SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS (Westcott-Wieman 22)

92:7.9 Modern man is adequatelyself-conscious of religion, but hisworshipful customs are confused anddiscredited by his accelerated socialmetamorphosis and unprecedentedscientific developments.

49


But now the young world is askingfor definition of religion. It is forcing avigorous and rather general focusing ofobjective attention upon religion in thehope that the truth in it may become morearticulate and comprehensive.

Thinking men and women want religionredefined,

Consequently, religion is being made con-scious of itself and being forced to re-evaluate itself and its organization of themeanings of life (W-W 23).

and this demand will compel religion tore-evaluate itself.

[Religion] does not and cannotmanufacture values. But through it, as aliving process, man can discover, organ-ize and serve values. Then as manchanges, and makes new discoveries andorganizations of value, or sees fallacies inhis former organization, he must changethe particular form and content which hehas built up in religion. Usually this hasbeen done through such a slow, gradualprocess that he is not aware of thereligious re-forming. Today this hasbecome for many, many persons aconscious undertaking, though not alwaysan intelligent one (W-W 23-24).

92:7.10 Modern man is confronted withthe task of making more readjustments ofhuman values in one generation than havebeen made in two thousand years.

DEFINING OF RELIGION AS A FUNCTIONINGPROCESS (Westcott-Wieman 26)

And this all influences the social attitudetoward religion,

If [religion] were an object or a unitprocess, or a single type of experience, ora set system of concepts, a universallyacceptable definition might be approx-imated. But, for one thing, religion is away of living, and a way not preciselyidentical for any two persons. Secondly,religion is the body of concepts whichconstantly generates the particular modesof responsiveness which give character tothis way of life (W-W 26).

for religion is a way of living as well as atechnique of thinking.

50


92:7.11 True religion must ever be, atone and the same time, the eternalfoundation and the guiding star of allenduring civilizations.3

92:7.12 [Presented by a Melchizedek ofNebadon.]

51


1. Of the Araucanians it is reported that Christianity “has made little headway among them, probably because they

cannot even conceive of, much less understand, the principal dogmas and tenets of a highly developed religion.... At

most they can be only nominally Christians, accepting certain moral ideas and outward forms, such as baptism,

crosses in their burial grounds, etc., and all that appeals to the senses, but in the real bases of their ideas they are as

pagan as they were three centuries ago...”

2. Compare: If the statements of the writers quoted at the outset of the last caption were strictly true, then

religion could show no adjustment. There could be no variation in this range and no selection except by the utter

destruction of the adherents of some ill-starred faith; there could be nothing except unvaried transmission. Such a

view would be absurd on the face of it; otherwise a special revelation must needs be assumed to have taken place in

the case of every minute peculiarity of every religion. If, instead of attempting to play the treacherous and futile

logical game, the candid searcher goes to the facts, he finds that religion, like every other societal product, is in and

of the mores and, like them, shows adjustment to life-conditions in the usual way. Its conservative quality renders its

adjustments slower and more painful than those in, say, the industrial organization; but the time-element is not

important in cosmic processes where there are no anxious, short-lived observers and actors to become impatient and

dismayed (S&K 1441).

3. Grave moral problems of vice and its regulation and control on the one hand, and the present and future status of

the church as a source of spiritual inspiration and teaching on the other, challenge all that is best in the American

people to arise and make a powerful twentieth-century re-statement of religious truth—so to illuminate current

Christianity as to turn religion into a great practical and spiritual searchlight that will become at once our guiding

star of national destiny and at the same time unfailingly attractive to that great body of honest, earnest, and truth-

loving people who constitute the present backbone and the future hope of the American Republic (William S. Sadler,

M.D., Race Decadence [1922], pp. 5-6).

52

paper 92 - the later evolution of religion, parallel chart · 2016-11-28 · paper 92 — the later...

Documents