2018 International Study Day

Nigel Nunn wrote:

Consider the repercussions among human groups, were individuals (or tribes) to fixate on certain adjutant-mediated urges, at the expense of others. For example, [Knowledge] at the expense of [Counsel/empathy], or [Worship/zeal], at the expense of [Understanding] and [Wisdom].

I have a hard time accepting the idea, first that a person can consciously choose to fixate on one single adjutant as the driving force for their character, and second that an entire race of people would evolve with a genetic preference for one single adjutant, particularly if its retrogressive.  Sitting here today, I would have no idea how to force my mind into automatically associating ideas, a function of the second adjutant, or how to voluntarily activate an involuntary reflex other than by banging my knee cap, a function of the first adjutant.

Also, saying that it does happen, why would an innate preference for moral stamina and spiritual bravery (third adjutant) have to be at the expense of curiosity and adventure (fourth adjutant)?  It seems to me that they go hand in hand.  In fact, it says right in the description of the fourth adjutant that it is a guide and faithful associate of the adjutants before and after it, which I think makes it indispensable to the others.

36:5.9 4. The spirit of knowledge – the curiosity-mother of adventure and discovery, the scientific spirit; the guide and faithful associate of the spirits of courage and counsel; the urge to direct the endowments of courage into useful and progressive paths of growth. 

Nigel Nunn wrote: Think how this might play out on a normal world, where the colored differentials appear sequentially, one by one, within an existing, robust, more-or-less stable population. Let’s say the original Red race, with their “full bestowal of the living energies” (51:4.2) represent a truly balanced foundation for later cultural developments. As we know, primitive and traditional cultures tend at best to stabilize and stagnate. At worst, they die out. So picture that robust, stable and stagnant Red-induced primitive culture. Now add some perturbation, a variation on the human theme, with equal “intellectual capacity”, but a less balanced, hence less stable response to those irrepressible adjutant urges rhythmically pulsating in those feisty, less balanced minds.

That sounds lovely except on normal planets the red race would be a herd of animals.  Do animals have culture?  Look at the animal groups on our own planet where the first five adjutants have successfully made contact.  Do you see any cultures developing among them?

Nigel Nunn wrote:How might these socially perturbing intruders — inferior in the capacity to balance their response to those powerful adjutant urges — affect their friends and neighbors?  Would they not represent the possibility to see common practices and assumption in a new light? How else to provoke cultural evolution in a robust but stagnant traditional culture?

See new light?  I think only humans can do that, not animals. Animals learn by trial and error. So, let’s get off  the idea of a « normal » world and transition to this planet where the colored races are all human and can entertain new ideas.  What might a race of people contacting an inferior race of people do? They’d eat them.

(979.1) 89:5.2 Early man was a cannibal; he enjoyed human flesh, and therefore he offered it as a food gift to the spirits and his primitive gods.

(979.2) 89:5.3 Cannibalism was once well-nigh universal among the evolving races. The Sangiks were all cannibalistic, but originally the Andonites were not, nor were the Nodites and Adamites; neither were the Andites until after they had become grossly admixed with the evolutionary races.

Nigel Nunn wrote:

My guess is that such a sequential perturbing of each level of cultural stability, which social evolution naturally achieves, is part of the normal technique for gently bumping along a budding culture, onwards and upwards.

I just spent a day reading every entry in TUB which concerns culture and civilization and I can’t see any support for this statement of yours. The « normal technique » for advancing culture is to introduce a superior culture.  It works the same way with truth.  You don’t tear down the old erroneous stuff but introduce the new and better idea which then crowds out the old falsehoods.  (132:04; 141:6.2)

In 50:6.4 we’re told that culture cannot be advanced unless mind and intellect is elevated because inferior minds will spurn a superior culture even if it is handed to them ready-made.  That’s because an inferior intellect is incapable of comprehending new superior ideas.  So it seems the purpose of adding variety to the genetic code is to provide the possibility for recombination and mutation which will produce a superior intellect capable of grasping a superior concept. Such an intellect would be capable of utilizing wisdom, the coordinator and articulator of all six of the adjutants who takes the best from all without favoring one or the other. Wisdom is indispensable to true culture (81:6.13). But even more than wisdom, spiritual insight is the imperative requisite for advancement of culture and civilization:

81.6.27  Ideals elevate the source of the social stream. And no stream will rise any higher than its source no matter what technique of pressure or directional control may be employed. The driving power of even the most material aspects of a cultural civilization is resident in the least material of society’s achievements. Intelligence may control the mechanism of civilization, wisdom may direct it, but spiritual idealism is the energy which really uplifts and advances human culture from one level of attainment to another.

So, I have to reject your thesis that the adjutants are responsible for the advancement of cultural civilization.  Wisdom is the only adjutant involved, but its involvement is to provide direction toward the inspired spiritual level of visionary reasoning.  It’s spirit which advances human culture, and that spirit is provided by the Adjuster to the soul, not by the adjutants to the material mind.

Nigel Nunn wrote: Sorry that diagram is still not clear. What it tries to depict is that a womb — within which our personality can fertilize an Adjuster — . . . .

For the life of me I cannot understand how you arrived at such a notion that the personality fertilizes the Adjuster.  What on earth can that possibly mean??

The word fertilize doesn’t even show up in TUB, nor do any of its derivatives except the word fertile which is used in reference to soil and women’s reproductive ability.  Either way you use the word, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the Adjuster.

Why would a personality need to fertilize an Adjuster, or add something to him?  A fertilizer is something added to promote growth.  The Adjuster doesn’t grow.  He doesn’t change.  The Adjuster is changeless.  Nor does the Adjuster need to have something combined with it, like the sperm fertilizes the egg.  The Adjuster already contains all the potentials that can possibly exist for all eternity and he needs nothing except to share them.  I’ll say it again, the Adjuster needs nothing.  He doesn’t even need the personality, to be frank.  But God is Love and he shares as part of his nature.  The Adjuster is God sharing himself.

Moreover, just like the Adjuster, the personality never changes either, so the notion that it is part of a fertilization process which morphs it into something else, or causes the Adjuster to morph into something else, makes absolutely no sense to me.  In fact, if you have to think of fertilization at all, it’s the Adjuster who metaphorically fertilizes the personality by influencing it to express itself to its full potential.  I think you’re conception of this is completely backwards and upside down.  Sorry to be so blunt. (To be clear, I’m not saying you are backwards, just this particular idea you’ve engaged.)

112:0.15  13. Personality may survive mortal death with identity in the surviving soul. The Adjuster and the personality are changeless; the relationship between them (in the soul) is nothing but change, continuing evolution; and if this change (growth) ceased, the soul would cease.

109:4.3 The type of Adjuster has much to do with the potential for expression of the human personality.

Hi Bonita,

Regarding intellectual capacity, my speculation begins with here:

(1286.5, 117:5.7) « [ . . . ]. In the mortal experience the human intellect resides in the rhythmic pulsations of the adjutant mind-spirits and effects its decisions within the arena produced by encircuitment within this ministry. »

The issue here is that « the human intellect resides in » something distinct from neuro-biochemistry. In the case of the Sangik siblings, my speculation is that the advertised variation in « intellectual capacity » was something superimposed onto an otherwise (apparently) identical biological genetic endowment. In other words, some not-yet-understood epigenetic activation of their shared human genome.

So when I wrote about exposing the colored differential (whatever that is) within a family of siblings with identical « intellectual capacity », I had in mind « identical genetic foundations ». If you can, please allow for this adjustment.

Bonita wrote:

The « colored differential » you mention seems to me to be related to differing physical capacities for intellectual potential, which is meant to provide an ideal amalgamate for the purpose of mind evolution toward spirit dominance. So, I’m inclined to believe that what you assert concerning « identical intellectual capacity » cannot be true, unless I missed something, which is entirely possible.

Given my adjustments above, I hope you can see that the issue becomes not « differing physical capacities for intellectual potential », but variation in those « rhythmic pulsations of the adjutant mind-spirits ». In other words, this hypothetical « colored differential » becomes a statistical variation (« Bell curve ») in the innate tendencies of each colored sub-group for tuning their orchestration.

Thus I propose that the stated superiority of the Red group relates not to something that can be identified in test tubes or IQ tests, but in the innate tendency for balance in their personal adjutant orchestration. Likewise, any implied « inferiority » points to an innate tendency for imbalance in adjutant response.

Another part of this speculation is that if this « colored differential » fosters predictable variation in adjutant orchestration, this would allow for expression of particular combinations of adjutant urges to become dominant, with a subsequent characteristic « coloring » of the associated culture. Think of « the brass » section drowning out « the strings »  

I also speculated that on normal worlds, the later-appearing and less balanced colored groups might be designed to irritate the culture in which they appear, like grains of sand in an oyster. Picture some idealist surfing the surging urge of the Spirit of Worship, to the detriment of their response to the other six. Such shamans are — almost by definition — unbalanced. So here we have our Holy Man, fired up with unlovely Zeal, injecting fear and trembling into a stable but stagnant tribe.

Obvious question: what has this got to do with the Life Carriers’ technique of fostering « colored races »? Surely such « specialists » will, given time, appear naturally? And this is the point. Let’s say one person in a thousand of that original robust Red culture might be moved to stand up and serve as a specialist for exposing the potentials of the Spirit of Worship. They live and die and their disturbance is forgotten. Life goes on, as it has always done. Think of the Andonic tribes, unchanging or retrogressing… for 500,000 years!

Talk about « stable and stagnant ».

But what if a colored sub-group were tuned to be slightly more responsive, say, to the urge of Worship? What if 1 in 10 were prone to get lost in the satisfactions of worship, easily led to make worship their calling, neglecting social responsibilities and other, more practical things? A tribe or culture of such individuals would likely be enslaved, or simply wither and fade (« inferior tribe »). But when injected into a stable but stagnant culture, they can serve as the ferment cultural progress requires.

Regarding how we might map the colored groups to adjutant affinity, and why 3/6 colored races but 7 adjutants, see pages 6 and 11 of that paper ( link: Quivering on the Brink ). And of course, as indicated in that paper, the Adamic uplifters are by design, ideal responders to the full spectrum of adjutant urge.

Regarding what happens when the colored groups get biologically commingled, from page 10 :

« This predictable separation meant that our world became simultaneously host to six slightly different — but complementary — versions of humanity. Such fertile circumstance may have been one of the factors in the experiment the Life Carriers intended for Urantia. In such a plan, the later arriving Adamic administrative group would have integrated the fruits of each of these vibrant, contrasting cultures.

Vast planetary art, indeed! But as The Urantia Book reveals, the Life Carriers were denied their exquisite result by the Default. »

Regarding the space and time awareness of Adjusters, and « fertilization », see next message.

Nigel

Nigel Nunn wrote: So when I wrote about exposing the colored differential (whatever that is) within a family of siblings with identical “intellectual capacity”, I had in mind “identical genetic foundations”. If you can, please allow for this adjustment.

Other than identical twins, triplets, etc., there are no two individuals with identical genetic foundations. I don’t think it’s possible, and it is not mentioned in TUB that any of the Sangik siblings were identical twins, or that the mother gave birth to all 19 at the same time from the same egg/sperm.  So they can’t be genetically identical in any way, which means I still don’t understand what you’re talking about, and I can’t really allow for the adjustment until I understand it.  The only identical thing they shared, I think, is their life force.  And perhaps their Adjusters – not sure.

Nigel Nunn wrote:

Given my adjustments above, I hope you can see that the issue becomes not “differing physical capacities for intellectual potential”, but variation in those “rhythmic pulsations of the adjutant mind-spirits”.

Perhaps, but those rhythmic pulsations are entirely dependent upon the underlying physical capacity.  No capacity, no reception.

Nigel Nunn wrote:

In other words, this hypothetical “colored differential” becomes a statistical variation (“Bell curve”) in the innate tendencies of each colored sub-group for tuning their orchestration.

Perhaps, but the responsibility for tuning the orchestra, if the so-called orchestra is adjutant in nature, belongs to the spirit of wisdom.  So, the « colored differential » would be variations in the ability of the spirit of wisdom to function as a director and « tuner » of its orchestra, along with the ability to recognize the difference between inferior and superior, the divinity response of the spirit of worship.  The purpose of producing the « colored differential » is to improve genetic endowment such that superior qualities of a social, philosophical and spiritual nature can evolve.  Obviously, when the « colored differential » is introduced in pre-human animals, evolution toward the philosophical and spiritual nature is paramount, since animals have neither.  In bona fide human beings, however, the philosophical and spiritual nature is already present; physical evolution has already provided for this end-product.  Therefore, the purpose of the « colored differential » in bona fide humans would be to further evolve the philosophical and spiritual nature, a nature which only involves the higher adjutants, one being weaned off lower adjutant influence.

In reality the so-called « orchestra » is actually the universe, and the goal of evolution is the ability of the mind to attune to Spirit –  the evolution of dominance.  It would be a serious retrogression to force the mind to tune itself to the lower adjutants.  The two higher adjutants are meant to catapult the mind to a new and higher level, but one does not tune to them, one utilizes their ministry as a gateway to the soul – more like a well lit pathway upward.  The « colored differential » likely varies the ability to see that light, find that gate and walk the pathway as a means of overcoming inherited character tendencies. When it comes right down to it, genetic racial differences result in racial mental outlooks or viewpoints. The goal is to add in-sight to out-look and thereby broaden the viewpoint.

Nigel Nunn wrote:

Thus I propose that the stated superiority of the Red group relates not to something that can be identified in test tubes or IQ tests, but in the innate tendency for balance in their personal adjutant orchestration. Likewise, any implied “inferiority” points to an innate tendency for imbalance in adjutant response.

I disagree.  The superiority of the red race had to do with the inherited character of the people and how they socialized it.  The root of all character, be it individual or racial, is hereditary.  Genetic inheritance is not alterable except by gradual evolution.  Character, however is immediately alterable, but only by learning new reactions to the emotions stirred up by either the internal or external environment.  The emotional character of each race is a legacy of its animal heritage, but the ability to learn new reactions to those innate emotions is dependent upon intelligence and intelligence is dependent upon the capacity provided by DNA. Although culture and civilization are not inherited, the character underlying the culture/civilization is inherited.  If the character of the race, along with its culture, is to change, so must its learning capacity change by introducing new sources of DNA. Hybrids generally produce superior DNA strains; superior DNA strains produce superior character;  superior character produces superior culture. Likewise, superior DNA strains produces superior intellect; superior intellect is capable of learning new, superior ideas; and new, superior ideas provide the impetus for evolving a superior character and culture.  It all boils down to DNA.

The problem with the colored races is that they all inherited a tendency to isolate themselves socially.  Undoubtedly each race felt they were the most superior, until they weren’t. The blended races turn out to be the most superior, if evolution proceeds as planned.  So, the « colored differential » of all the races actually involves their proclivities for social preference.  Would a certain race remain isolated and unblended, or would it be willing to produce hybrids by overcoming distrust and distaste for what it considers inferior?   The motivation would be the ability and willingness to entertain a superior option, a function of wisdom.  I cannot accept the idea that « imbalances » caused by the inability to harmonize individual adjutants are responsible for different social tendencies of the colored races.  But, I can accept that the ability to utilize the spirit of wisdom, the coordinator, director and unifier of all six of the other adjutants plays an integral role in the manner by which the personality chooses to socialize itself.  The spirit of wisdom is the balance-wheel of all the other adjutants and its purpose is to upstep the mind to the next level of consciousness.

The ultimate objective of evolution, of course, is to produce a race of people capable of achieving the goal of spirit dominance of the personality.  Heredity plays a definite role, it can jeopardize the speed and ease of achieving that goal, or it can enhance it.  The purpose of the Adamic upstep is to provide DNA which would enhance it.  The Adamic upstep of DNA is normally provided once all the original DNA options provided by the Life Carriers have been fully exercised to produce the best physical substrate for mental and spiritual evolution possible within the material realm. Adamic DNA introduces the next level up, a bridge for material evolution to march toward the morontia level of evolution.

RELATED QUOTES:

48:6.22 2. Racial Interpreters. All races of mortal beings are not alike. True, there is a planetary pattern running through the physical, mental, and spiritual natures and tendencies of the various races of a given world; but there are also distinct racial types, and very definite social tendencies characterize the offspring of these different basic types of human beings. On the worlds of time the seraphic racial interpreters further the efforts of the race commissioners to harmonize the varied viewpoints of the races, and they continue to function on the mansion worlds, where these same differences tend to persist in a measure. On a confused planet, such as Urantia, these brilliant beings have hardly had a fair opportunity to function, but they are the skillful sociologists and the wise ethnic advisers of the first heaven.

49:4.7 Human beings are all gregarious, both tribal and racial. These group segregations are inherent in their origin and constitution. Such tendencies can be modified only by advancing civilization and by gradual spiritualization. The social, economic, and governmental problems of the inhabited worlds vary in accordance with the age of the planets and the degree to which they have been influenced by the successive sojourns of the divine Sons.

51:5.6 When this strain of the Material Sons is added to the evolving races of the worlds, a new and greater era of evolutionary progress is initiated. Following this procreative outpouring of imported ability and superevolutionary traits there ensues a succession of rapid strides in civilization and racial development; in one hundred thousand years more progress is made than in a million years of former struggle. In your world, even in the face of the miscarriage of the ordained plans, great progress has been made since the gift to your peoples of Adam’s life plasm.

52:2.5 But the Planetary Prince is not “the Prince of Peace.” Racial struggles and tribal wars continue over into this dispensation but with diminishing frequency and severity. This is the great age of racial dispersion, and it culminates in a period of intense nationalism. Color is the basis of tribal and national groupings, and the different races often develop separate languages. Each expanding group of mortals tends to seek isolation. This segregation is favored by the existence of many languages. Before the unification of the several races their relentless warfare sometimes results in the obliteration of whole peoples; the orange and green men are particularly subject to such extinction.

55:6.3  . . . The continued improvement of such a magnificent race throughout the era of light and life is largely a matter of the selective reproduction of those racial strains which exhibit superior qualities of a social, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual nature.

64:6.34 4. Differences in status of the races and of groups within each race are essential to the development of human tolerance and altruism.

65:0.1 BASIC evolutionary material life — premind life — is the formulation of the Master Physical Controllers and the life-impartation ministry of the Seven Master Spirits in conjunction with the active ministration of the ordained Life Carriers. As a result of the co-ordinate function of this threefold creativity there develops organismal physical capacity for mind — material mechanisms for intelligent reaction to external environmental stimuli and, later on, to internal stimuli, influences taking origin in the organismal mind itself.

68:0.2 Civilization is a racial acquirement; it is not biologically inherent; hence must all children be reared in an environment of culture, while each succeeding generation of youth must receive anew its education. The superior qualities of civilization — scientific, philosophic, and religious — are not transmitted from one generation to another by direct inheritance. These cultural achievements are preserved only by the enlightened conservation of social inheritance.

76:2.6 The observation of Abel’s conduct establishes the value of environment and education as factors in character development. Abel had an ideal inheritance, and heredity lies at the bottom of all character; but the influence of an inferior environment virtually neutralized this magnificent inheritance. Abel, especially during his younger years, was greatly influenced by his unfavorable surroundings. He would have become an entirely different person had he lived to be twenty-five or thirty; his superb inheritance would then have shown itself. While a good environment cannot contribute much toward really overcoming the character handicaps handicaps of a base heredity, a bad environment can very effectively spoil an excellent inheritance, at least during the younger years of life. Good social environment and proper education are indispensable soil and atmosphere for getting the most out of a good inheritance.

109:5.5 While the hereditary legacy of cerebral endowment and that of electrochemical overcontrol both operate to delimit the sphere of efficient Adjuster activity, no hereditary handicap (in normal minds) ever prevents eventual spiritual achievement. Heredity may interfere with the rate of personality conquest, but it does not prevent eventual consummation of the ascendant adventure.

140:4.7 “By their fruits you shall know them.” Personality is basically changeless; that which changes — grows — is the moral character.

140:4.8 An effective philosophy of living is formed by a combination of cosmic insight and the total of one’s emotional reactions to the social and economic environment. Remember: While inherited urges cannot be fundamentally modified, emotional responses to such urges can be changed; therefore the moral nature can be modified, character can be improved. In the strong character emotional responses are integrated and co-ordinated, and thus is produced a unified personality. Deficient unification weakens the moral nature and engenders unhappiness.

 

Nigel Nunn wrote:

I also speculated that on normal worlds, the later-appearing and less balanced colored groups might be designed to irritate the culture in which they appear, like grains of sand in an oyster. Picture some idealist surfing the surging urge of the Spirit of Worship, to the detriment of their response to the other six. Such shamans are — almost by definition — unbalanced. So here we have our Holy Man, fired up with unlovely Zeal, injecting fear and trembling into a stable but stagnant tribe.

As I understand it, those folks who have an overdeveloped, idealistic religious zeal do so by distorting the balance between the three cosmic mind reality responses. (16:6.10) Without the perception of the threefold elliptical symmetry of all reality, they become unbalanced. (103:6.14) But I’m not certain it has anything directly to do with the adjutants except to indicate that they’re actually functioning in a bona fide personality.  To become a true Holy Man means the spirit of wisdom (reflex #2) is doing its job coordinating all the observable facts (reflex #1) and providing a pathway to spiritual insight (reflex #3).  But an overzealous personality is one who can fall prey to the temptation to preferentially distorted the balance of these three reflexes.  It’s all about the personality and its power to choose its own identity which makes this happen. The adjutants are merely the substructure for such an event.

I’m curious about your notion that culture is advanced by the irritating influence of unbalanced personalities.  If that’s true then the USA is currently soaring head-on into a vibrantly brilliant new culture.  On the contrary, from my vantage point, which may or may not be valid, I see our culture in a state of stunning retrogressive decay.  Haven’t we been told that cultures are meant to evolve slowly over time, that sudden perturbations are generally detrimental? (81:6.40) Haven’t we been told that improvements to culture come from superior idealistic sources? (81:6.27) Haven’t we been told that cultural evolution has its roots in physical evolution?(81:5.1) Haven’t we also been told that stability of cultural ideals is necessary during the transition from one level of civilization to another? (81:6.40; 99:1.3) I think you’re suggesting that irritatingly unbalanced, unstable, and therefore inferior, physical and mental sources are the real stimulus for societal evolution and I just don’t see that.

RELATED QUOTES

16:6.10 In the local universe mind bestowals, these three insights of the cosmic mind constitute the a priori assumptions which make it possible for man to function as a rational and self-conscious personality in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion. Stated otherwise, the recognition of the reality of these three manifestations of the Infinite is by a cosmic technique of self-revelation. Matter-energy is recognized by the mathematical logic of the senses; mind-reason intuitively knows its moral duty; spirit-faith (worship) is the religion of the reality of spiritual experience. These three basic factors in reflective thinking may be unified and co-ordinated in personality development, or they may become disproportionate and virtually unrelated in their respective functions. But when they become unified, they produce a strong character consisting in the correlation of a factual science, a moral philosophy, and a genuine religious experience. And it is these three cosmic intuitions that give objective validity, reality, to man’s experience in and with things, meanings, and values. 

81:5.1 Biologic evolution and cultural civilization are not necessarily correlated; organic evolution in any age may proceed unhindered in the very midst of cultural decadence. But when lengthy periods of human history are surveyed, it will be observed that eventually evolution and culture become related as cause and effect. Evolution may advance in the absence of culture, but cultural civilization does not flourish without an adequate background of antecedent racial progression. Adam and Eve introduced no art of civilization foreign to the progress of human society, but the Adamic blood did augment the inherent ability of the races and did accelerate the pace of economic development and industrial progression. Adam’s bestowal improved the brain power of the races, thereby greatly hastening the processes of natural evolution.

81:6.27 Ideals elevate the source of the social stream. And no stream will rise any higher than its source no matter what technique of pressure or directional control may be employed. The driving power of even the most material aspects of a cultural civilization is resident in the least material of society’s achievements. Intelligence may control the mechanism of civilization, wisdom may direct it, but spiritual idealism is the energy which really uplifts and advances human culture from one level of attainment to another.

81:6.40   Man should be unafraid to experiment with the mechanisms of society. But always should these adventures in cultural adjustment be controlled by those who are fully conversant with the history of social evolution; and always should these innovators be counseled by the wisdom of those who have had practical experience in the domains of contemplated social or economic experiment. No great social or economic change should be attempted suddenly. Time is essential to all types of human adjustment — physical, social, or economic. Only moral and spiritual adjustments can be made on the spur of the moment, and even these require the passing of time for the full outworking of their material and social repercussions. The ideals of the race are the chief support and assurance during the critical times when civilization is in transit from one level to another.

99:1.3 Urantia society can never hope to settle down as in past ages. The social ship has steamed out of the sheltered bays of established tradition and has begun its cruise upon the high seas of evolutionary destiny; and the soul of man, as never before in the world’s history, needs carefully to scrutinize its charts of morality and painstakingly to observe the compass of religious guidance. The paramount mission of religion as a social influence is to stabilize the ideals of mankind during these dangerous times of transition from one phase of civilization to another, from one level of culture to another.

103:6.14 When the philosophy of man leans heavily toward the world of matter, it becomes rationalistic or naturalistic. When philosophy inclines particularly toward the spiritual level, it becomes idealistic or even mystical. When philosophy is so unfortunate as to lean upon metaphysics, it unfailingly becomes skeptical, confused. In past ages, most of man’s knowledge and intellectual evaluations have fallen into one of these three distortions of perception. Philosophy dare not project its interpretations of reality in the linear fashion of logic; it must never fail to reckon with the elliptic symmetry of reality and with the essential curvature of all relation concepts.