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Paper 5 is such an important read in the study of mortal soul!
(68.7) 5:5.4 Moral conduct is always an antecedent of evolved religion and a part of even revealed religion, but never the whole of religious experience. Social service is the result of moral thinking and religious living. Morality does not biologically lead to the higher spiritual levels of religious experience. The adoration of the abstract beautiful is not the worship of God; neither is exaltation of nature nor the reverence of unity the worship of God.
(68.8) 5:5.5 Evolutionary religion is the mother of the science, art, and philosophy which elevated man to the level of receptivity to revealed religion, including the bestowal of Adjusters and the coming of the Spirit of Truth. The evolutionary picture of human existence begins and ends with religion, albeit very different qualities of religion, one evolutional and biological, the other revelational and periodical. And so, while religion is normal and natural to man, it is also optional. Man does not have to be religious against his will.
(69.1) 5:5.6 Religious experience, being essentially spiritual, can never be fully understood by the material mind; hence the function of theology, the psychology of religion. The essential doctrine of the human realization of God creates a paradox in finite comprehension. It is well-nigh impossible for human logic and finite reason to harmonize the concept of divine immanence, God within and a part of every individual, with the idea of God’s transcendence, the divine domination of the universe of universes. These two essential concepts of Deity must be unified in the faith-grasp of the concept of the transcendence of a personal God and in the realization of the indwelling presence of a fragment of that God in order to justify intelligent worship and validate the hope of personality survival. The difficulties and paradoxes of religion are inherent in the fact that the realities of religion are utterly beyond the mortal capacity for intellectual comprehension.
(69.2) 5:5.7 Mortal man secures three great satisfactions from religious experience, even in the days of his temporal sojourn on earth:
(69.3) 5:5.8 1. Intellectually he acquires the satisfactions of a more unified human consciousness.
(69.4) 5:5.9 2. Philosophically he enjoys the substantiation of his ideals of moral values.
(69.5) 5:5.10 3. Spiritually he thrives in the experience of divine companionship, in the spiritual satisfactions of true worship.
(69.6) 5:5.11 God-consciousness, as it is experienced by an evolving mortal of the realms, must consist of three varying factors, three differential levels of reality realization. There is first the mind consciousness — the comprehension of the idea of God. Then follows the soul consciousness — the realization of the ideal of God. Last, dawns the spirit consciousness — the realization of the spirit reality of God. By the unification of these factors of the divine realization, no matter how incomplete, the mortal personality at all times overspreads all conscious levels with a realization of the personality of God. In those mortals who have attained the Corps of the Finality all this will in time lead to the realization of the supremacy of God and may subsequently eventuate in the realization of the ultimacy of God, some phase of the absonite superconsciousness of the Paradise Father.
(69.7) 5:5.12 The experience of God-consciousness remains the same from generation to generation, but with each advancing epoch in human knowledge the philosophic concept and the theologic definitions of God must change. God-knowingness, religious consciousness, is a universe reality, but no matter how valid (real) religious experience is, it must be willing to subject itself to intelligent criticism and reasonable philosophic interpretation; it must not seek to be a thing apart in the totality of human experience.
(69.8) 5:5.13 Eternal survival of personality is wholly dependent on the choosing of the mortal mind, whose decisions determine the survival potential of the immortal soul. When the mind believes God and the soul knows God, and when, with the fostering Adjuster, they all desire God, then is survival assured. Limitations of intellect, curtailment of education, deprivation of culture, impoverishment of social status, even inferiority of the human standards of morality resulting from the unfortunate lack of educational, cultural, and social advantages, cannot invalidate the presence of the divine spirit in such unfortunate and humanly handicapped but believing individuals. The indwelling of the Mystery Monitor constitutes the inception and insures the possibility of the potential of growth and survival of the immortal soul.
Me here: Soul is born by a moral decision. Soul grows by each and every subsequent moral choice, self forgetting act of service, righteous motives, pure intent, and every expression of love, truth, beauty, and goodness. The inner awareness of God and the personal, evolutionary faith/religious experience is as natural as breathing. It is reflexive and responsive. We are designed for and wired for the personal connection to God, the birth of soul, and fusion with the Thought Adjuster and the eternal adventure which is our destiny.
No other being whether mortal or celestial can ever prevent this functional connection. No sin or rebellion or default or any other act or choice by any other being can interfere with that connection or prevent any mortal’s ascendant adventure.
Mark posted this on the topic of Personality Survival:
111:1.5 “Mortal mind is a temporary intellect system loaned to human beings for use during a material lifetime, and as they use this mind, they are either accepting or rejecting the potential of eternal existence. Mind is about all you have of universe reality that is subject to your will, and the soul — the morontia self — will faithfully portray the harvest of the temporal decisions which the mortal self is making. Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above. Of neither of these two systems is the human being ever completely conscious in his mortal life; therefore must he work in mind, of which he is conscious. And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification. It is not so much that man is conscious of God as that man yearns for God that results in universe ascension. What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity.”
And I posted this one in reply:
39:4.13 (435.6) To the inhabited worlds the quickeners of morality portray mortal life as an unbroken chain of many links. Your short sojourn on Urantia, on this sphere of mortal infancy, is only a single link, the very first in the long chain that is to stretch across universes and through the eternal ages. It is not so much what you learn in this first life; it is the experience of living this life that is important. Even the work of this world, paramount though it is, is not nearly so important as the way in which you do this work. There is no material reward for righteous living, but there is profound satisfaction—consciousness of achievement—and this transcends any conceivable material reward.
And then today, 2.7 below came by email as my Thought of The Day from the Foundation:
132:2.5 (1458.2) Goodness is always growing toward new levels of the increasing liberty of moral self-realization and spiritual personality attainment—the discovery of, and identification with, the indwelling Adjuster. An experience is good when it heightens the appreciation of beauty, augments the moral will, enhances the discernment of truth, enlarges the capacity to love and serve one’s fellows, exalts the spiritual ideals, and unifies the supreme human motives of time with the eternal plans of the indwelling Adjuster, all of which lead directly to an increased desire to do the Father’s will, thereby fostering the divine passion to find God and to be more like him.
132:2.6 (1458.3) As you ascend the universe scale of creature development, you will find increasing goodness and diminishing evil in perfect accordance with your capacity for goodness-experience and truth-discernment. The ability to entertain error or experience evil will not be fully lost until the ascending human soul achieves final spirit levels.
132:2.7 (1458.4) Goodness is living, relative, always progressing, invariably a personal experience, and everlastingly correlated with the discernment of truth and beauty. Goodness is found in the recognition of the positive truth-values of the spiritual level, which must, in human experience, be contrasted with the negative counterpart—the shadows of potential evil.
132:2.8 (1458.5) Until you attain Paradise levels, goodness will always be more of a quest than a possession, more of a goal than an experience of attainment. But even as you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you experience increasing satisfaction in the partial attainment of goodness. The presence of goodness and evil in the world is in itself positive proof of the existence and reality of man’s moral will, the personality, which thus identifies these values and is also able to choose between them.
Me here: Personal religious experience, we are told, cannot really and fully be understood by mortal mind. That means it cannot be defined. Our definitions we place on it are merely inaccurate limits of our understanding and limited experience and wisdom. We are taught that hope and ideals and morals are all elements of religious experience. The response to the inner awareness of the Holy Spirit and God Fragment, if even a flicker, are religious experience. The yearn for happiness and fulfillment and completion is religious experience too. The giving of love to another is religious experience.
As Mark posted earlier…everything and every experience that is value or has value is religious experience. For that which has value is associated with truth, beauty, and goodness…or there is no value attached. I hope you have taken the time to review the research and the text provided by Mark…what a great study and contribution to the topic!!
There are many creeds and dogmas which demand and require certain and very specific beliefs and acts and demonstrations of belief to be considered religious experience. But such limits and definitions are hollow and meaningless in reality. The group cannot define or impose a definition of religious experience and expression upon the personality having that experience!! No soul can be measured by theology. Faith is not defined by creed or dogma or ceremony or beliefs.
Soul is born by the mortal moral will and grows in partnership with the Divine God Fragment within to join into an eternal union of adventure and experience and expression of that adventure of growth and discovery. The soul has a mind of its own and a life that is fed by the material mind and experience but is far more than and greater than that material mind and life of its origin. We are the parent of soul…but the soul is not its parent(s)…it is a new being with eternal potential in partnership with God.
The soul is the integrated and harmonized and spiritized aggregation of every good choice and every experience and expression of truth, beauty, and goodness of the material mind and human being that is you. The soul receives and forever holds the essence and value of our experience in this life and in the life to come upon the soul’s survival of material death. Or so I understand the Papers to teach!
Brad,
I am thinking substantially more about personality value lately. It seems like a major “bingo” moment lasting many weeks! The UB authors use the word value so many times one would think they know something about Cosmic value about all living beings!!!! Value undergirds all other of God’s teachings throughout the Universe of Universes! Perhaps??? Just think of the synchrony within the UB.
Thinking about how each one of us is valuable, I see now more clearly why Jesus instructed the Apostles, now us, to love people as he loved them! Why would you value a person you do not love?!!!!!!!! So, now more clearly, love emerges strong as the most powerful force in all creation! Valued persons are the great foundation on which the Father, the Trinity, et al are involved, are providing, are planning for more and are teaching more! If we love one another AS Jesus loves, we place more value on others for all of life activities. How much better would we relate while driving, working, playing, and thinking with others?
Jesus could smile on anyone because he knew of their value, of the Father’s value and of each person’s potential for even greater value with cooperation and spiritual growth! His Urantia experience was not a vale of tears with valueless people! He was happy inside knowing his human value and he modeled valued-people relationships! His life was not a negative, combative, argument with others! He valued potential peace for any believer! His peace he gives to all who value the Father’s ways! ……… More could be said.
Golly whiz! What a nice addition to one’s personal doctrine!!!!
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