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martine wrote: It’s probably a combination of all those things he listed and then some.. . . culminating in the present-day situation. “The civilization which is now evolving on Urantia grew out of, and is predicated on, the following factors:” (81:6:2) We can perceive in general our strengths and weaknesses by way of studying these factors, several of which have been previously mentioned.1. Natural circumstances. (81:6:3)2. Capital goods. (81:6:6)
3. Scientific knowledge.(81:6:8)4. Human resources. (81:6:11)
5. Effectiveness of material resources. (81:6:14)
6. Effectiveness of language. (81:6:16)
7. Effectiveness of mechanical devices. (81:6:20)8. Character of torchbearers. (81:6:23)9. The racial ideals. (81:6:26)10. Co-ordination of specialists. (81:6:29)
11. Place-finding devices. (81:6:31)
12. The willingness to co-operate (81:6:34)
13. Effective and wise leadership. (81:6:37)
14. Social changes. (81:6:39)
15. The prevention of transitional breakdown. (81:6:41)
And it was by these rungs on the evolutionary ladder that civilization climbed to that place where those mighty influences could be initiated which have culminated in the rapidly expanding culture of the twentieth century. And only by adherence to these essentials can man hope to maintain his present-day civilizations while providing for their continued development and certain survival. (81:6:43)“But now human society is plunging forward under the force of the accumulated momentum of all the ages through which civilization has struggled.” (81:6:44)These factors are the essentials we have to adhere to and develop, going forward into the next era, when “. . . men will be willing to seek truth and righteousness. When the chaos of the present confusion has passed, it will be more readily possible to formulate the cosmos of a new and improved era of human relationships. And it is for this better order of affairs on earth that the book has been made ready.” ( The Publication Mandate)The good news is you and I have the book and it’s available to anyone for the finding. I’m of the opinion that each one of us has something special to contribute to the better order of affairs on earth (besides contributing to the growth of the Supreme).Our race does seem to leap forward more during times of crisis than contentment…as do individuals.
I don’t know if I agree with that statement. Crises may reveal problems which need to be addressed, and I do think that crises tend to reveal the true character of a person and a people, but I’m not sure crises do much for progress. In fact, I think it’s potentially the opposite.
Consider this quote:
50:5.7 The quest for knowledge and wisdom. Food, security, pleasure, and leisure provide the foundation for the development of culture and the spread of knowledge. The effort to execute knowledge results in wisdom, and when a culture has learned how to profit and improve by experience, civilization has really arrived. Food, security, and material comfort still dominate society, but many forward-looking individuals are hungering for knowledge and thirsting for wisdom. Every child is provided an opportunity to learn by doing; education is the watchword of these ages.
Security and leisure provide the foundation for progress. The authors also inform us that security, self-preservation, results from the leisure granted by achieving self-maintenance. Once civilization has enough food and material goods for self-maintenance, it can spend time on the security of self-preservation. And once everyone feels secure, they have the luxury of leisure to quest for the knowledge and wisdom which augments culture and civilization. Only when crises are under control do people truly move ahead.
81:2.14 Civilization can never flourish, much less be established, until man has leisure to think, to plan, to imagine new and better ways of doing things.
81:6.6 Capital goods. Culture is never developed under conditions of poverty; leisure is essential to the progress of civilization. Individual character of moral and spiritual value may be acquired in the absence of material wealth, but a cultural civilization is only derived from those conditions of material prosperity which foster leisure combined with ambition.
The mythical creation of crises in order to spur people into changing behavior (global warming, for example), can never work. Creating hysteria does not create the calm luxury of leisure which allows the creative imagination to seek the wisdom necessary for finding a better way of doing things. And I do believe that wisdom is the one thing modern civilization really, really needs right now. Eventually this planet will suffer from overpopulation and only wisdom will help us through that problem. Best to seek it now through the leisure gained from industrialism and capitalism.
Related quotes: 52:4.5; 68:5.7; 68:6.2; 71:3.7; 72:5.12; 78:2.4; 81:2.13; 81:6.17; 81:6.22; 92:3.9
Then there is this: “Necessity is the mother of invention is an English proverb meaning that difficult or impossible scenarios prompt inventions aimed at reducing the difficulty.”
With various variations of meaning:
In Oxford Dictionary the proverb has been defined as– when the need for something becomes imperative, you are forced to find ways of getting or achieving it.
According to Cambridge Dictionary, this is “an expression that means that if you really need to do something, you will think of a way of doing it.”
Longman dictionary has defined the proverb as– “if someone really needs to do something, they will find a way of doing it.”
First thought to have been used in “The Republic, Book II, 369c, Plato”
…let us begin and create in idea a State; and yet a true creator is necessity, which is the mother of our invention.
Necessity (problems) can be created to force invention (solutions) to problems which would otherwise become complacent.
50:5.7 The quest for knowledge and wisdom. Food, security, pleasure, and leisure provide the foundation for the development of culture and the spread of knowledge. The effort to execute knowledge results in wisdom, and when a culture has learned how to profit and improve by experience, civilization has really arrived. Food, security, and material comfort still dominate society, but many forward-looking individuals are hungering for knowledge and thirsting for wisdom. Every child is provided an opportunity to learn by doing; education is the watchword of these ages.
From the UB quote above, I found the last sentence most, to the point.
Security and leisure provide the foundation for progress. The authors also inform us that security, self-preservation, results from the leisure granted by achieving self-maintenance. Once civilization has enough food and material goods for self-maintenance, it can spend time on the security of self-preservation. And once everyone feels secure, they have the luxury of leisure to quest for the knowledge and wisdom which augments culture and civilization. Only when crises are under control do people truly move ahead.
I acknowledge and agree with this. The problem is the wisdom factor and the ambition factor must also be integrated with the leisure time created. There is also a risk of prosperity decadence where pleasure, escape, and distractions and amusements become the focus of leisure time. But we are pretty new to all of this time opportunity. It was not so long ago, and is still true for much of the world, where it takes all day and every day just for basic sustenance for a very large percentage of our population. Perhaps, those who lead the globe into such prosperity opportunity will grow in wisdom. Found this quote:
(765.2) 68:2.5 History is but the record of man’s agelong food struggle. Primitive man only thought when he was hungry; food saving was his first self-denial, self-discipline. With the growth of society, food hunger ceased to be the only incentive for mutual association. Numerous other sorts of hunger, the realization of various needs, all led to the closer association of mankind. But today society is top-heavy with the overgrowth of supposed human needs. Occidental civilization of the twentieth century groans wearily under the tremendous overload of luxury and the inordinate multiplication of human desires and longings. Modern society is enduring the strain of one of its most dangerous phases of far-flung interassociation and highly complicated interdependence.
I don’t think though that this is the “ideological struggle” we discuss here; but it is a contributing factor no doubt.
As to global warming (and climate change is not a hysterical or mass delusion – it happens all the time in cycles from the beginning of formation; its cause is normal equilibrium adjustment to natural causes in cycles and probably slowly stabilizes away from earlier extremes – but ice ages and the following warming cycles are, by definition, climate change): changing weather patterns will and have always also change agricultural capabilities where grasslands become deserts, etc. Climate change may lead to a more urgent and even greater need for collective and cooperative responses and all other natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, etc.) are also proving to bring greater and faster and borderless cooperative responses.
Such times of “crisis” are not man made nor heaven delivered; they are but the natural and material opportunities provided for collectivism and cooperation by ever larger numbers of people. In that way they are ultimately a good thing but only based on the response given to the events – and only collectively, certainly not for the individual victims affected. My opinion is that our unseen friends prevent or moderated man made disasters and never create such events for evolutionary progress on-planet. But stuff happens. All the time. Humanity must learn how to respond to such events and circumstances to demonstrate our collective experience, wisdom, and our increasing caring for all others. I am reminded of the non-breather worlds and how quickly they must learn cooperative-response to deadly material risks to their mortality.
The concept of social crisis response is not contradictory to the truth that collective effort comes from evolutionary progress of civilization – indeed, it is my opinion the two go hand in hand – or a cause and effect feedback loop. When society is faced with a collective problem for resolution, cooperation and teamwork requires that barriers be broken down often to achieve the best outcome for the greatest number. Food, water, housing and other basic needs for a growing population will offer such opportunities for our world to gain wisdom from experience – collective experience.
We might think of global challenges, whether delivered by crisis or slower development, and regardless of cause or source, as tests to assess social progress and cooperative problem solving rather than some divine requirement. We are taught that neither the angels nor the TAs have any interest whatsoever in an easy and problem free life for any individual – we are here to learn and progressively so – how is the planet managed in its progression any differently? How do we respond to what happens – personally or collectively? That is the issue. Neither cause nor effect is important compared to the response to both. Or so I think.
And once everyone feels secure, they have the luxury of leisure to quest for the knowledge and wisdom which augments culture and civilization. Only when crises are under control do people truly move ahead.
Are you saying that “once everyone feels secure,” rather than being “secure,” that then will “culture and civilization” be able to acquire “knowledge and wisdom”? Has there ever been a time in history where this “utopia” was even close to being possible? How, will those who live with life defeating illnesses be helped by those who have the knowledge, education and money, to bring these individuals out from under the plagues of inequality be able to do anything while they are enjoying the laps of “luxury” and “leisure”
Creating hysteria does not create the calm luxury of leisure which allows the creative imagination to seek the wisdom necessary for finding a better way of doing things.
I’m not sure that “hysteria” is created through the lack of having the “luxury of leisure”, where having “luxury” and “leisure” would only crave more “luxury” and “leisure”, in that “creative imagination” is less likely to appear when one is reminiscing as to what was before acquiring the “luxury” of having the time for “leisure”, while others struggle to make ends meet, to survive daily living.
And who will bring crisis under control, if everyone is attempting to manage crisis in their own lives?
If everyone thinks that there are no problems to fix in this world, or crisis either here and, or in the making, then they have stuck their head in the sands of their own “luxury” and “leisure”.
And, maybe if these people tasted some of what others experience every day, they might get off their lounge chair and do something. Most of those who suffer, don’t want charity, just a chance to get out of the hole. At least through them a rope or give them a ladder. Something that they can hold onto, instead that “pie in the sky.”
Climate change may lead to a more urgent and even greater need for collective and cooperative responses and all other natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, etc.) are also proving to bring greater and faster and borderless cooperative responses.
Granted Bradly, but we still, after being flooded out by the Spring floods of the Mississippi river, rebuild on the rivers shores, hoping that next year the flood won’t cause the same problem.
We know from science that there is an Island off the west coast of Africa, which has shown the possibility for half of the island to slide off into the Atlantic, thereby causing a “tsunami” which would travel across the Atlantic, ever more gaining speed and velocity, which would cause massive destruction to the east coast of America, yet we still, in America build our homes and businesses on the coastland, where if or when this occurs, would devastate the American coast land well within, over a hundred miles. We don’t act until something happens, and then only in responsive mode, rather then in preventive modes. Can we prevent something if we know or have some inclination as to the possibility of future probabilities?
The problem is the wisdom factor and the ambition factor must also be integrated with the leisure time created.
I”m presuming that by “ambition” you mean selfish ambition. Ambition is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it’s properly socialized. So, I would say that socialization of the personality is paramount to success when it comes to utilizing one’s leisure wisely. And by socialization of the personality I do not mean socialism. Extreme socialism actually destroys ambition, and that is not wise.
I”m presuming that by “ambition” you mean selfish ambition.
No, not at all. Ambition is a very good thing generally. Greed is not but most who are ambitious are not greedy and most who are greedy are not ambitious either. I said that both wisdom and ambition (initiative and determination) are important factors for the greatest potential of leisure time to be realized by the individual and society. My experience in my profession and life in general had ambition as a driving factor….I always want to know more and do more and do it better than before – it motivates behavior in positive ways. Unbridled and immature ambition may lead to self serving it is true…but that is not a function of ambition itself.
The text speaks well of ambition:
(785.14) 70:2.9 ……During past ages war was a social ferment which pushed civilization forward; this result is now better attained by ambition and invention. Ancient warfare supported the concept of a God of battles, but modern man has been told that God is love. War has served many valuable purposes in the past, it has been an indispensable scaffolding in the building of civilization, but it is rapidly becoming culturally bankrupt — incapable of producing dividends of social gain in any way commensurate with the terrible losses attendant upon its invocation.
(1739.2) 156:5.7 Forceful ambition, intelligent judgment, and seasoned wisdom are the essentials of material success. Leadership is dependent on natural ability, discretion, will power, and determination. Spiritual destiny is dependent on faith, love, and devotion to truth — hunger and thirst for righteousness — the wholehearted desire to find God and to be like him.
(907.3) 81:6.6 2. Capital goods. Culture is never developed under conditions of poverty; leisure is essential to the progress of civilization. Individual character of moral and spiritual value may be acquired in the absence of material wealth, but a cultural civilization is only derived from those conditions of material prosperity which foster leisure combined with ambition.
We are also warned about selfishness, including selfish ambition – again, not a function of ambition itself. Peace.
Bradly wrote: We are also warned about selfishness, including selfish ambition – again, not a function of ambition itself. Peace.Yes, and here are some quotes that warn against selfish ambition:
48:7.19 Ambition is dangerous until it is fully socialized. You have not truly acquired any virtue until your acts make you worthy of it.
69:8.10 Today, men are not social slaves, but thousands allow ambition to enslave them to debt. Involuntary slavery has given way to a new and improved form of modified industrial servitude.
177:4.10 And how dangerous ambition can become when it is once wholly wedded to self-seeking and supremely motivated by sullen and long-suppressed vengeance!
`<blockquote class=”d4pbbc-quote”>
<div class=”d4p-bbp-quote-title”><a href=”http://urantia-association.org/forums/topic/the-book-belongs-to-the-era-immediately-to-follow/page/14/#post-14633″>Bradly wrote:</a></div>
<div class=”d4p-bbp-quote-title”><a href=”http://urantia-association.org/forums/topic/the-book-belongs-to-the-era-immediately-to-follow/page/14/#post-14631″ rel=”nofollow”>Mara wrote:</a></div>
In my research I discovered Urantia is one full dispensation behind in that we are in the post Adamic dispensation. Indeed, some parts of the world are far more backward in epochal progress than others. There are still cannibals!! And witch doctors and paganism!! And women are still property in much of the world – both as daughters and wives – and do not yet enjoy basic human rights! We are quite a kettle of stew. Must drive the angels of progress a little crazy. Thanks for the text Mara. <img class=”wpml_ico” src=”http://urantia-association.org/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_good.gif” alt=”:good:” width=”26″ height=”23″ /></blockquote>
<blockquote class=”d4pbbc-quote”>Of one thing I am certain</blockquote>Well, Bradly, to continue along with the logic with your constant trotting out of the one-liner that “to never be afflicted is the greatest affliction”, would not the human potential for SPIRITUAL progress frog leap forward out of the kettle the quickest among the cannibals? So how come it didn’t? Why does cannibalism have such staying power as a feature of human leadership? Is not for-profit health care the modern version of cannibalism?
The incessant “mechanization” of solutions for retrogressive spiritual progress brought about by iniquitous leadership – “what is torture when greed is good?” – ended up in USA launching a pre-emptive strike against another sovereign nation WITHOUT THE PERSMISSION of the global community – the United Nations.
Quite the kettle of stew indeed….
You might want to take out the “pole” in your eye because a cannibal has mere motes compared to the “devious strivings of a vainglorious generation”…
But maybe I just do not understand your attachment to that quote!! Maybe you are asking to be as “afflicted” as are the modern day slaves being processed on the block today in the “democratic” nation in the Middle East?? I can be of service there – sending you the same kind of “affliction” as has molded me into the cool being I am today
Yes, I would have to agree. There is only the thinest facade of ‘civilization’ on the planet. There is technological progress, but no human progress, no spiritual progress. The same forces of dominance an oppression, and cannibalism, have only changed in form over the course of human history, not substance. Until deep, systemic changes occur within human social and political systems where oligarchy masquerades as democracy; where the same wealthy elites employ the same thugs/’police’ as enforcers, where we are ruled by, as Bruce Cockburn said, “slavers in drag as champions of freedom” – the current ideological struggle will not even begin to fade away. And if you want to talk about a whole nation walking around with a ‘pole in its eye’, here’s an article: http://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-why-america-gravest-threat-world-peace?akid=13399.248734.o-6BK4&rd=1&src=newsletter1041204&t=4
What qualifies these people? Why do they do all this from the shadows? Why do they first get rid of their biggest threat – “normal”?
Mix the races when the races have not purified themselves of their “markedly unfit”?!
Nihilism, Hedonism and Anarchy…
Quick aside about searching TUB for a definitive answer to the MECHANISTIC question – “When does human life begin?”
The reason that answer is not in there is because “when does human life begin?” belongs to God, not Caesar.
Human life began with Andon and Fonta.
PERSONALITY is bestowed to an INDIVIDUAL whenever GOD chooses to do this. Unlike the depersonalization of the woman from her uterus that drives the debate (the mechanistic question), God respects the DECISION the woman makes and does NOT “breathe” a Personality for that “potential” at that time. God is not that stupid. God knows that there could be a better “potential” down the road for the female soul with a better gene contribution from a man who does not haphazardly or forcefully need to inset his gene pool into a uterus.
God might even be the one helping the decision since she has many more eggs and years in which to have a better experience with making a baby than rape, incest or some “ism” driven eugenic scheme.
Wrong question – no answer to be forced out of TUB text. Must not be God’s will to play that game with mechanists discussing who owns the uterus….
You might want to take out the “pole” in your eye because a cannibal has mere motes compared to the “devious strivings of a vainglorious generation”… But maybe I just do not understand your attachment to that quote!! Maybe you are asking to be as “afflicted” as are the modern day slaves being processed on the block today in the “democratic” nation in the Middle East?? I can be of service there – sending you the same kind of “affliction” as has molded me into the cool being I am today!
Me here: Despite my blinding obstacles to clear vision, I am certain of humanity’s progress in many ways when compared to our past and have great confidence in those charged with the ministry of progress still to come. Light and life is an inevitability and this Shrine of Nebadon will make that journey no matter how ugly or invisible that effort may be to those of us such a brief time and so blinded by what’s in our face to everything else happening on our world that serves truth, beauty, and goodness. Mortals are in partnership, or at least kingdom believers and the spiritual brotherhood serve as ably as they can to live in love and shine the light of love. I am certain of love’s victory over fear. It is not our world that requires our immediate concern so much as our own souls and our own light and progress in the spirit….the world? Saving it and propelling it is above my pay grade and will take far longer than my life….we do what we can while we can. Don’t see how teeth gnashing and hand wringing and whining and blaming help anything at all. But hey, that’s just me.
No doubt failures still attend us today and dangers are all around and no civilization is spared which does not conform to the patterns and requirements of progress. But we have had a long journey to be where we are and we will make the rest of the transformative process work in the end as we align priorities with those of our unseen friends and leadership. My priority is to become my own potential and minister in my daily walk as led by the spirit. Our world is in good hands….whether we see it or believe it or trust it is of little consequence to those who serve our world and lead it forward through time into its own potential. Fear not.
77:9.10 (867.1) Midwayers are the skillful ministers who compensate that gap between the material and spiritual affairs of Urantia which appeared upon the death of Adam and Eve. They are likewise your elder brethren, comrades in the long struggle to attain a settled status of light and life on Urantia. The United Midwayers are a rebellion-tested corps, and they will faithfully enact their part in planetary evolution until this world attains the goal of the ages, until that distant day when in fact peace does reign on earth and in truth is there good will in the hearts of men.
77:9.11 (867.2) Because of the valuable work performed by these midwayers, we have concluded that they are a truly essential part of the spirit economy of the realms. And where rebellion has not marred a planet’s affairs, they are of still greater assistance to the seraphim.
77:9.12 (867.3) The entire organization of high spirits, angelic hosts, and midway fellows is enthusiastically devoted to the furtherance of the Paradise plan for the progressive ascension and perfection attainment of evolutionary mortals, one of the supernal businesses of the universe — the superb survival plan of bringing God down to man and then, by a sublime sort of partnership, carrying man up to God and on to eternity of service and divinity of attainment — alike for mortal and midwayer.
81:2.14 (902.4) The savage is a slave to nature, but scientific civilization is slowly conferring increasing liberty on mankind. Through animals, fire, wind, water, electricity, and other undiscovered sources of energy, man has liberated, and will continue to liberate, himself from the necessity for unremitting toil. Regardless of the transient trouble produced by the prolific invention of machinery, the ultimate benefits to be derived from such mechanical inventions are inestimable. Civilization can never flourish, much less be established, until man has leisure to think, to plan, to imagine new and better ways of doing things.
81:6.6 (907.3) 2. Capital goods. Culture is never developed under conditions of poverty; leisure is essential to the progress of civilization. Individual character of moral and spiritual value may be acquired in the absence of material wealth, but a cultural civilization is only derived from those conditions of material prosperity which foster leisure combined with ambition.
81:6.9 (907.6) Knowledge is power. Invention always precedes the acceleration of cultural development on a world-wide scale. Science and invention benefited most of all from the printing press, and the interaction of all these cultural and inventive activities has enormously accelerated the rate of cultural advancement.
81:6.10 (907.7) Science teaches man to speak the new language of mathematics and trains his thoughts along lines of exacting precision. And science also stabilizes philosophy through the elimination of error, while it purifies religion by the destruction of superstition.
81:6.19 (908.8) While very little progress has been made on Urantia toward developing an international language, much has been accomplished by the establishment of international commercial exchange. And all these international relations should be fostered, whether they involve language, trade, art, science, competitive play, or religion.
81:6.20 (909.1) 7. Effectiveness of mechanical devices. The progress of civilization is directly related to the development and possession of tools, machines, and channels of distribution. Improved tools, ingenious and efficient machines, determine the survival of contending groups in the arena of advancing civilization.
81:6.30 (910.3) Social, artistic, technical, and industrial specialists will continue to multiply and increase in skill and dexterity. And this diversification of ability and dissimilarity of employment will eventually weaken and disintegrate human society if effective means of co-ordination and co-operation are not developed. But the intelligence which is capable of such inventiveness and such specialization should be wholly competent to devise adequate methods of control and adjustment for all problems resulting from the rapid growth of invention and the accelerated pace of cultural expansion.
81:6.43 (911.8) And it was by these rungs on the evolutionary ladder that civilization climbed to that place where those mighty influences could be initiated which have culminated in the rapidly expanding culture of the twentieth century. And only by adherence to these essentials can man hope to maintain his present-day civilizations while providing for their continued development and certain survival.
81:6.44 (912.1) This is the gist of the long, long struggle of the peoples of earth to establish civilization since the age of Adam. Present-day culture is the net result of this strenuous evolution. Before the discovery of printing, progress was relatively slow since one generation could not so rapidly benefit from the achievements of its predecessors. But now human society is plunging forward under the force of the accumulated momentum of all the ages through which civilization has struggled.
Me here: It would appear the authors are not so discouraged nor have such great despair as some here. Progress can only be discerned by the proper perspective – the view of time, from the first of us to those to come in the far future, we can but witness a brief moment. Those blinded by the “now” are quite confused, frightened, and often despair by their “view” of “reality” which is very narrow and biased by lack of experience in time….not to mention the effect of “local” bias transferred to a whole world and personal bias and prejudice which is very blinding indeed. Unfortunate. And the compelling purpose for epochal revelation. Thank God we have better information than human opinion to guide us forward.
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