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Greetings to all and welcome to consideration and study of Paper 102 – The Foundations of Religious Faith!
Here are links to the studies of Papers 100 & 101 previously begun and posted, both of which remain open for students’ comments, discussion, insights, questions, and continuation….
https://urantia-association.org/forums/topic/religion-in-human-experience-paper-100/
https://urantia-association.org/forums/topic/the-real-nature-of-religion-paper-101/
These middle Papers have remained central to my interest and study of the UB for decades now. I have found them to be informative and inspiring, introducing profound concepts and explaining much of my personal religious experience and progressive growth. The human being is created for the experience of spiritual transformation…the realization and expression of the spiritual nature with which we are naturally and inherently endowed. The Spirit of God lives within us each and all providing us with all that is needed to realize our full potential and destiny of eternal adventure…the perfecting of our unique being over time in a vast and friendly universe as a beloved member of the cosmic family!
Beginning with our mortal birth on this world in time and space, we are ministered to in multiple ways to seek knowledge, understanding, experience….and God within. We are driven to also formulate and articulate our personalized expression of that reality…the reality of being and becoming. Growth and progress and transformation and transcendence; these comprise the mortal adventure.
Even as infants and toddlers in this life we are fed and nurtured by innate feelings of belonging and being cared for and importance and survival. Such feelings are not natural to the bio/electro/chemical being or life form….but they are inherent to our mind and its connections to Deity. We are most loved and suckled and cuddled and tended to caringly and affectionately by God.
We are given a yearning and hunger and thirst for love, truth, beauty, goodness, and happiness (or the Spirit) that we will seek out to have and to express the fruits of the choosing and having a personal experience of such spiritization of our minds and our lives. We have a hunger for God and only God can satisfy that hunger. This is the natural state of our very being from our very beginning!
If only the material side of mortal life supported such a truth and perspective of reality!! Some day it will. Even today sometimes it does. But far more often, the material side of life and our dual nature interferes with and becomes an obstacle to that full embrace of our spiritual nature and development. But whether conscious or unconscious, the mortal mind has a religious experience during this life. It may be limited to hopes and fears or ideas and ideals or moments of insight and inspiration or expressions of tenderness, love, service or random acts of kindness or the devotion of parent to child or the affections of partner and spouse. Or it may be an intense and focused search for God and the expression of the fruits of the Spirit in the finding of God within. Or something in between those spectrum points of the religious experience. For the religious experience is very personal and unique to each individual life in its progress and expression.
It is truly a relationship experience…our relationship with God. God is the source of our hope and our yearning and our assurance and these are the foundations of personal religious faith. And it is our growing faith that liberates us from the limitations and fetters of material life and propels us into the spirit adventure and attaches our branch to the vine and delivers the fruits of the Spirit to our life! Faith transforms us and delivers our destiny to us! Faith is soul food. It nurtures and strengthens us and delivers courage and that sublime confidence in our source and destiny and helps us to feast and fatten on all uncertainties and challenges in the adventures of life!
Paper 102
The Foundations of Religious Faith
102:0.1 (1118.1) TO THE unbelieving materialist, man is simply an evolutionary accident. His hopes of survival are strung on a figment of mortal imagination; his fears, loves, longings, and beliefs are but the reaction of the incidental juxtaposition of certain lifeless atoms of matter. No display of energy nor expression of trust can carry him beyond the grave. The devotional labors and inspirational genius of the best of men are doomed to be extinguished by death, the long and lonely night of eternal oblivion and soul extinction. Nameless despair is man’s only reward for living and toiling under the temporal sun of mortal existence. Each day of life slowly and surely tightens the grasp of a pitiless doom which a hostile and relentless universe of matter has decreed shall be the crowning insult to everything in human desire which is beautiful, noble, lofty, and good.
102:0.2 (1118.2) But such is not man’s end and eternal destiny; such a vision is but the cry of despair uttered by some wandering soul who has become lost in spiritual darkness, and who bravely struggles on in the face of the mechanistic sophistries of a material philosophy, blinded by the confusion and distortion of a complex learning. And all this doom of darkness and all this destiny of despair are forever dispelled by one brave stretch of faith on the part of the most humble and unlearned of God’s children on earth.
102:0.3 (1118.3) This saving faith has its birth in the human heart when the moral consciousness of man realizes that human values may be translated in mortal experience from the material to the spiritual, from the human to the divine, from time to eternity.
1. Assurances of Faith102:1.1 (1118.4) The work of the Thought Adjuster constitutes the explanation of the translation of man’s primitive and evolutionary sense of duty into that higher and more certain faith in the eternal realities of revelation. There must be perfection hunger in man’s heart to insure capacity for comprehending the faith paths to supreme attainment. If any man chooses to do the divine will, he shall know the way of truth. It is literally true, “Human things must be known in order to be loved, but divine things must be loved in order to be known.” But honest doubts and sincere questionings are not sin; such attitudes merely spell delay in the progressive journey toward perfection attainment. Childlike trust secures man’s entrance into the kingdom of heavenly ascent, but progress is wholly dependent on the vigorous exercise of the robust and confident faith of the full-grown man.
102:1.2 (1119.1) The reason of science is based on the observable facts of time; the faith of religion argues from the spirit program of eternity. What knowledge and reason cannot do for us, true wisdom admonishes us to allow faith to accomplish through religious insight and spiritual transformation.
I wonder how few of us are truly “unbelieving materialists” based on the teachings in Papers 100 & 101? For those who can silence the ministers of truth within every normal mind of almost all children and fully embrace the lonely despair of accidental and random mechanism, only then does….”Each day of life slowly and surely tightens the grasp of a pitiless doom which a hostile and relentless universe of matter has decreed…” Such an outcome is abnormal truly. For we must be deprived of the natural order and the reality of the universe to learn to be so blind and lost and enveloped in doom.
Otherwise, we are all given the gift of faith and the assurance of faith in our personal safety and survival. Do children and youth feel immortal? Indeed. Even though they see mortality of plant, animal, and human…death is not a secret if it is mysterious. Children know the embrace of love…they must, as they so freely give love to others and share and giggle and laugh with others; and we know that love has but one source and cannot be held for oneself but only is felt truly in its giving to others…babies, infants, toddlers, and children know and share this Divine Love. The circuitry of love is early established and is an auto reflex for us….until we ‘learn’ self importance and are denied love by others.
But what is normal? I mean truly normal…in a family where love, loyalty, and duty rule that dynamic and relationship? In such an environment, love is not taught or discovered….it is allowed to blossom and flourish instead. It is given light and water and fertilized and it grows and grows naturally. Love and faith must be unnaturally denied and destroyed to be forsaken. The human being and mortal mind are designed for our spiritual circuitry and a personal response to those spiritual ‘impulses’ of ministry and energy and force of spiritization!
All of us, especially those in the earlier mortal epochs, must struggle…”… in the face of the mechanistic sophistries of a material philosophy, blinded by the confusion and distortion of a complex learning.” We must also learn to cope with confusion, uncertainty, disappointment, and failure! And yet, who has not witnessed the infant and toddler endlessly face and overcome these endless challenges? Even when victory and achievement comes by the striving, still do we face new and more confusions, uncertainties, disappointments, and failures!! Which child quits?! Which child fails to stand, walk, run, jump, and embrace challenge?! And confusion, uncertainty, disappointment, and defeat?! No….we learn to quit. It is not natural, it is unnatural.
And the victories we experience, despite the barriers to those….”…may be translated in mortal experience from the material to the spiritual, from the human to the divine, from time to eternity.” The thrill of conquest and achievement is NOT material or learned and is a treasure that is pursued and aggregated and integrated and cherished… for gaining insight, truth, wisdom, and faith. It is the reward of effort and the overcoming of barriers and obstacles. It is learning, experiencing, achieving, growing, and it is ADVENTURE! We are designed and born for such adventure!
Such a normal and natural beginning early leads to the realization and embrace of belonging and being and becoming and by such religious experience comes the birth of soul. This experience is the very foundation of our religious faith! We are born with trust and assurance ministry, the seed of faith and soul, which will sprout, branch, bloom, and bear fruit if not robbed of the soil, water, and food required to sustain it! This cycle of transformation is far more natural than we might perceive.
103:2.3 [Part III]
The evolutionary soil in the mind of man in which the seed of revealed religion germinates is the moral nature that so early gives origin to a social consciousness. The first promptings of a child’s moral nature have not to do with sex, guilt, or personal pride, but rather with impulses of justice, fairness, and urges to kindness — helpful ministry to one’s fellows. And when such early moral awakenings are nurtured, there occurs a gradual development of the religious life which is comparatively free from conflicts, upheavals, and crises.Me here: Next comes the Adjuster!!
102:1.2 (1119.1) The reason of science is based on the observable facts of time; the faith of religion argues from the spirit program of eternity. What knowledge and reason cannot do for us, true wisdom admonishes us to allow faith to accomplish through religious insight and spiritual transformation.
102:1.3 (1119.2) Owing to the isolation of rebellion, the revelation of truth on Urantia has all too often been mixed up with the statements of partial and transient cosmologies. Truth remains unchanged from generation to generation, but the associated teachings about the physical world vary from day to day and from year to year. Eternal truth should not be slighted because it chances to be found in company with obsolete ideas regarding the material world. The more of science you know, the less sure you can be; the more of religion you have, the more certain you are.
102:1.4 (1119.3) The certainties of science proceed entirely from the intellect; the certitudes of religion spring from the very foundations of the entire personality. Science appeals to the understanding of the mind; religion appeals to the loyalty and devotion of the body, mind, and spirit, even to the whole personality.
102:1.5 (1119.4) God is so all real and absolute that no material sign of proof or no demonstration of so-called miracle may be offered in testimony of his reality. Always will we know him because we trust him, and our belief in him is wholly based on our personal participation in the divine manifestations of his infinite reality.
102:1.6 (1119.5) The indwelling Thought Adjuster unfailingly arouses in man’s soul a true and searching hunger for perfection together with a far-reaching curiosity which can be adequately satisfied only by communion with God, the divine source of that Adjuster. The hungry soul of man refuses to be satisfied with anything less than the personal realization of the living God. Whatever more God may be than a high and perfect moral personality, he cannot, in our hungry and finite concept, be anything less.
102:1.3 The more of science you know, the less sure you can be . . .
Well that tells you something, doesn’t it?
102:1.2 (1119.1) The reason of science is based on the observable facts of time; the faith of religion argues from the spirit program of eternity. What knowledge and reason cannot do for us, true wisdom admonishes us to allow faith to accomplish through religious insight and spiritual transformation.
What do you think true wisdom is? There are plenty of quotes which explain the difference between evolutionary religion and true religion, but not so much when it comes to evolutionary wisdom and true wisdom. Maybe there is no difference, I don’t know, but I do know there are such things as morontia wisdom and divine wisdom. Are they true wisdom?
At least four times in TUB we’re told of the importance of praying for wisdom (91:4.3; 91:9.7; 145:5.1; 146:2.14) Why so?
102:1.2 (1119.1) The reason of science is based on the observable facts of time; the faith of religion argues from the spirit program of eternity. What knowledge and reason cannot do for us, true wisdom admonishes us to allow faith to accomplish through religious insight and spiritual transformation.
What do you think true wisdom is? There are plenty of quotes which explain the difference between evolutionary religion and true religion, but not so much when it comes to evolutionary wisdom and true wisdom. Maybe there is no difference, I don’t know, but I do know there are such things as morontia wisdom and divine wisdom. Are they true wisdom?
As you say, wisdom comes in many ways and in many forms:
4:3.4 [Part I]
God repents of nothing he has ever done, now does, or ever will do. He is all-wise as well as all-powerful. Man’s wisdom grows out of the trials and errors of human experience; God’s wisdom consists in the unqualified perfection of his infinite universe insight, and this divine foreknowledge effectively directs the creative free will.But there are many forms of wisdom between human and God! There are over 500 UB quotes for “wise OR wiser”:
Again…a concept worthy of its own topic and discussion! But as wisdom is so inherently linked to our religious experience (including by the ministry of the adjutants AND the TA) and the spiritualization of mind and transfer of our identity, it is an important element of our discussion here.
What is wisdom? What are its elements? Discernment, understanding, perspective, perception, experience, outcome probability reasoning regarding cause and effect….wisdom I think contains at least these elements. Others?
wis·dom
[ˈwizdəm]NOUN
the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.
synonyms: sagacity · sageness · intelligence · understanding · insight · perception · perceptiveness · percipience · penetration · perspicuity · acuity · discernment · sense · good sense · common sense · shrewdness · astuteness · acumen · smartness · judiciousness · judgment · foresight · clear-sightedness · prudence · circumspection · logic · rationale · rationality · soundness · saneness · advisability · sharpness · savvy · smarts · sapience · argutenessthe soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of experience, knowledge, and good judgment.
“some questioned the wisdom of building the dam so close to an active volcano”
synonyms: sagacity · sageness · intelligence · understanding · insight · perception · perceptiveness · percipience · penetration · perspicuity · acuity · discernment · sense · good sense · common sense · shrewdness · astuteness · acumen · smartness · judiciousness · judgment · foresight · clear-sightedness · prudence · circumspection · logic · rationale · rationality · soundness · saneness · advisability · sharpness · savvy · smarts · sapience · argutenesssa·pi·ent
[ˈsāpēənt]ADJECTIVE
formal
wise, or attempting to appear wise.
synonyms: wise · sensible · prudent · politic · shrewd · astute · canny · sagacious · common-sense · commonsensical · sound · well advised · well judged · well thought out · considered · thoughtful · perceptive · discerning · clear-sighted · insightful · far-sighted · percipient · discriminating · informed · intelligent · clever · enlightened · logical · rational · discreet · careful · cautious · circumspect · diplomatic · strategic · expedient · practical · advisable · in one’s (best) interests · smart · savvy · pawky · heads-up · long-headed · argute · sapientThere’s a list of ascending levels of mortal wisdom (71:7.5-13). Just like everything else, I think wisdom evolves. It begins with knowledge of things, which are facts and ideas, then culminates in God-consciousness. But it’s an odd thing, this God-consciousness, because we’re told that it is superideational, meaning above and beyond the forming of mere concepts and ideas about God. God-consciousness is relational and therefore even a seventh circler, a child, can attain it (110:6.16). But surely they don’t mean a seventh circler has the same level of wisdom a first circler has? Do they? Perhaps there are also ascending levels of God-consciousness?
71:7.5-13 Education is the business of living; it must continue throughout a lifetime so that mankind may gradually experience the ascending levels of mortal wisdom, which are:
1. The knowledge of things.
2. The realization of meanings.
3. The appreciation of values.
4. The nobility of work–duty.
5. The motivation of goals–morality.
6. The love of service–character.
7. Cosmic insight–spiritual discernment.
And then, by means of these achievements, many will ascend to the mortal ultimate of mind attainment, God-consciousness.
103:1.6 The realization of the recognition of spiritual values is an experience which is superideational. There is no word in any human language which can be employed to designate this “sense,” “feeling,” “intuition,” or “experience” which we have elected to call God-consciousness.
p1211:1 110:6.16 Perhaps these psychic circles of mortal progression would be better denominated cosmic levels—actual meaning grasps and value realizations of progressive approach to the morontia consciousness of initial relationship of the evolutionary soul with the emerging Supreme Being. And it is this very relationship that makes it forever impossible fully to explain the significance of the cosmic circles to the material mind. These circle attainments are only relatively related to God-consciousness. A seventh or sixth circler can be almost as truly God-knowing—sonship conscious—as a second or first circler, but such lower circle beings are far less conscious of experiential relation to the Supreme Being, universe citizenship. The attainment of these cosmic circles will become a part of the ascenders’ experience on the mansion worlds if they fail of such achievement before natural death.
Bonita asked: “What do you think true wisdom is?“
“[…]. What knowledge and reason cannot do for us, true wisdom admonishes us to allow faith to accomplish through religious insight and spiritual transformation.” (1119.1, 102:1.2)
In this context, might “true wisdom” be that “wisdom of spirit realities” we just met in paper 101? Since “the realization of the recognition of spiritual values is an experience which is superideational” (1130.5, 103:1.6), maybe this is why this “endowment of the Spirit of Truth” “admonishes us to allow faith” to do what only faith can do?
“[…] Spiritual philosophy, the wisdom of spirit realities, is the endowment of the Spirit of Truth, the combined gift of the bestowal Sons to the children of men. […]” (1108.1, 101:3.2)
PS: can’t help but notice how neatly those “ascending levels of mortal wisdom” overlay the adjutant urges… ?
Nigel
Thanks so much Nigel for your thoughts. I have to agree that true wisdom, at least in context with quote 102:1.2, is probably referring to spiritual philosophy experienced through a relationship with the Spirit of Truth within the soul. Human wisdom, no doubt, is the domain of the spirit of wisdom, the 6th adjutant, which utilizes knowledge and reason of the material mind. But how does faith accomplish this? How does faith lead to spiritual insight?
Incidentally, I cannot see the relationship between the ascending levels of mortal wisdom in 71:7.5 and the adjutants. Would you mind elaborating?
Thanks Nigel for pointing out a clue as to the meaning of “true wisdom”….which is obviously ‘true’ for a human differently than for a celestial and even more so for a creator and again for Deity….different definitions depending on the level of faith vs. truth realization:
102:1.2 (1119.1) The reason of science is based on the observable facts of time; the faith of religion argues from the spirit program of eternity. What knowledge and reason cannot do for us, true wisdom admonishes us to allow faith to accomplish through religious insight and spiritual transformation.
It is an expression of GREAT wisdom to have sufficient FAITH to overcome all doubts, fears, ignorance, confusion, uncertainty, and conflict with science, society, prejudice, etc. and to still act on that faith and the faith assurance given us by the Spirit within. Mortals may have no greater wisdom I do not think. It is that totally committed response to Spirit that grows soul and our relationship with God within. The evidence of such faith and wisdom are the fruits of the Spirit. Are we wise enough and faithful enough to show “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.”
When confused or anxious, are we wise enough to go to the Lord in prayer and move forward with certainty in destiny?
149:5.4 (1674.6) “Seek not, then, for false peace and transient joy but rather for the assurance of faith and the sureties of divine sonship which yield composure, contentment, and supreme joy in the spirit.”
19:5.12 [Part I]
And from all this, you mortals, just now taking your first step on the eternal journey, can well see that you must advance a long way before you will progress by “sight” and “material” assurance. You will long use faith and be dependent on revelation if you hope to progress quickly and safely.Again…I think we are taught that even human wisdom itself in our own limited sphere of being and becoming has multiple forms for consideration….but that the wisdom to embrace the Spirit is the key to our progress. That embrace is a function of faith. We will progress in our materially-moronitial form to come by “sight and material assurance” – we will see and know and be surrounded by material delights and celestials and a reality of existence beyond our imaginations today. We will have examples and guides and teachers and those ascending mortals and finaliters and Material Sons and Daughters and unimaginable Beings of glory and wonder and endless examples of Divinity….but not here and not yet. Here, we must “use faith and be dependent on revelation if (we) hope to progress quickly and safely.”
In the first quote above, the Master teaches us about the result of faith is the assurance (confirmation?) of our faith which delivers an uncanny and unexplainable, even inexplicable “composure, contentment, and supreme joy in the spirit.” This is the fruit of our religious faith. This is the example of religious living given our universe by its Creator as a human walking upon our world as The Son of Man.
This form of wisdom is strengthened and enlarged by experience over time. And yet, I do think there is another form of wisdom, experiential wisdom that is more than faith….the be as wise as a serpent teaching I think means to be deliberate and thoughtful and to act with fore-thought of outcome or cause and effect. It means there is a methodology to understand when responding to evil, sin, and iniquity whereby we offer a positive response with an effect of softening, turning, or eradicating such error and iniquity – a ministry of positive act and not a passive or reactive response. The second mile, the giving of one’s coat, the willingness to suffer abuse to protect another from it, the attempted ministry to another to soothe and redirect passions and fears. This is another form of wisdom, an experiential wisdom that even the tadpole might achieve on this world and in this life.
But, I think, that wisdom form cannot be known or expressed without or prior to the first form….the wisdom of faith itself. The composure of that wisdom must assuredly predate and preface and attend the latter form of wisdom or it will never materialize or find expression I do not think.
I believe that this second form of wisdom is also often spontaneous and even unconscious in its expression. Like the artist is a conduit of inspirational expressionisms, the wise mortal is most often so “in the moment” I think. I recall how the blind man became an articulate orator without the skills or experience or temperament to so express himself. If we are wise enough in our faith assurance and we are composed enough in our joy, then might we become agents and agencies of the Divine Spirit and the voice of that Divinity within? Might we express the spirit’s creativity and wisdom in the moment of need and opportunity? Might we become the tool of God in the grip of personal humility in the moment? That is, if we can indeed be humble in such a time and be self forgetting!!!
Such a mind must indeed be wise…to be faith assured, poised and confident, pure in heart, self forgetting, driven by compassion and hope to help another, humble in our faith, and open to God’s will in-the-moment, and confident in ultimate outcomes, and fearless in our own in-the-moment….in such a state of being….wisdom is expressed. Is it our own? I don’t think so, no. It is indeed wisdom. A higher wisdom than human wisdom. But only available to, by, and through the faith-wisdom of the believers mind. Such beings are only formed by the religious experience we study here together.
Thanks for attending…and especially to those who post and share their insights and inspirations !!
2. Religion and Reality
102:2.1 (1119.6) Observing minds and discriminating souls know religion when they find it in the lives of their fellows. Religion requires no definition; we all know its social, intellectual, moral, and spiritual fruits. And this all grows out of the fact that religion is the property of the human race; it is not a child of culture. True, one’s perception of religion is still human and therefore subject to the bondage of ignorance, the slavery of superstition, the deceptions of sophistication, and the delusions of false philosophy.
102:2.2 (1119.7) One of the characteristic peculiarities of genuine religious assurance is that, notwithstanding the absoluteness of its affirmations and the stanchness of its attitude, the spirit of its expression is so poised and tempered that it never conveys the slightest impression of self-assertion or egoistic exaltation. The wisdom of religious experience is something of a paradox in that it is both humanly original and Adjuster derivative. Religious force is not the product of the individual’s personal prerogatives but rather the outworking of that sublime partnership of man and the everlasting source of all wisdom. Thus do the words and acts of true and undefiled religion become compellingly authoritative for all enlightened mortals.
102:2.3 (1119.8) It is difficult to identify and analyze the factors of a religious experience, but it is not difficult to observe that such religious practitioners live and carry on as if already in the presence of the Eternal. Believers react to this temporal life as if immortality already were within their grasp. In the lives of such mortals there is a valid originality and a spontaneity of expression that forever segregate them from those of their fellows who have imbibed only the wisdom of the world. Religionists seem to live in effective emancipation from harrying haste and the painful stress of the vicissitudes inherent in the temporal currents of time; they exhibit a stabilization of personality and a tranquillity of character not explained by the laws of physiology, psychology, and sociology.
I’m pretty sure that faith and wisdom are different levels of reality which need to be coordinated and integrated by personality Wisdom is part of philosophy and faith is part of religion. Philosophy, or wisdom, is supposed to be that middle ground between material facts and spiritual insight explained so well in paper 16. A person can have faith without wisdom and wisdom without faith. Right? They do say that wisdom can never rise higher than one’s faith. I think faith (which has its origins in the soul, being a gift from Deity) guides and pulls wisdom (adjutant 7) as far as wisdom can go, then there finally develops a relationship with the spirit of philosophy and wisdom in the soul, the Spirit of Truth, who introduces the personality, not only to truth, but also to morontia wisdom (mota/personal revelation).
101:5.2 Remember that science is the domain of knowledge, philosophy the realm of wisdom, and religion the sphere of the faith experience.
103:9.6 In the higher philosophy of the universe, wisdom, like reason, becomes allied to faith. Reason, wisdom, and faith are man’s highest human attainments. Reason introduces man to the world of facts, to things; wisdom introduces him to a world of truth, to relationships; faith initiates him into a world of divinity, spiritual experience.
103.9.7 Faith most willingly carries reason along as far as reason can go and then goes on with wisdom to the full philosophic limit; and then it dares to launch out upon the limitless and never-ending universe journey in the sole company of TRUTH.
132:3.5 But truth can never become man’s possession without the exercise of faith. This is true because man’s thoughts, wisdom, ethics, and ideals will never rise higher than his faith, his sublime hope.
102:2.4 (1120.1) Time is an invariable element in the attainment of knowledge; religion makes its endowments immediately available, albeit there is the important factor of growth in grace, definite advancement in all phases of religious experience. Knowledge is an eternal quest; always are you learning, but never are you able to arrive at the full knowledge of absolute truth. In knowledge alone there can never be absolute certainty, only increasing probability of approximation; but the religious soul of spiritual illumination knows, and knows now. And yet this profound and positive certitude does not lead such a sound-minded religionist to take any less interest in the ups and downs of the progress of human wisdom, which is bound up on its material end with the developments of slow-moving science.
102:2.5 (1120.2) Even the discoveries of science are not truly real in the consciousness of human experience until they are unraveled and correlated, until their relevant facts actually become meaning through encircuitment in the thought streams of mind. Mortal man views even his physical environment from the mind level, from the perspective of its psychological registry. It is not, therefore, strange that man should place a highly unified interpretation upon the universe and then seek to identify this energy unity of his science with the spirit unity of his religious experience. Mind is unity; mortal consciousness lives on the mind level and perceives the universal realities through the eyes of the mind endowment. The mind perspective will not yield the existential unity of the source of reality, the First Source and Center, but it can and sometime will portray to man the experiential synthesis of energy, mind, and spirit in and as the Supreme Being. But mind can never succeed in this unification of the diversity of reality unless such mind is firmly aware of material things, intellectual meanings, and spiritual values; only in the harmony of the triunity of functional reality is there unity, and only in unity is there the personality satisfaction of the realization of cosmic constancy and consistency.
102:2.6 (1120.3) Unity is best found in human experience through philosophy. And while the body of philosophic thought must ever be founded on material facts, the soul and energy of true philosophic dynamics is mortal spiritual insight.
What an important knot of divergent threads woven together here….”the increasing probability of approximation” – “relevant facts actually become meaning” – “unraveled and correlated” – “experiential synthesis” – “unification of the diversity of reality” – “harmony of the triunity of functional reality”.
Frankly, I could use some help here unraveling and correlating!!! This appears to be where the rubber is meeting the road! There is the roadway for travel and the tire which interfaces the roadway with the spinning axle which is driven by the internal engine with plenty of differential drivers along the transfer of power from the cylinder to the roadway for the progressive propulsion of the vehicle known as “me”!! Lots of moving parts in this machinery of self…not a mechanism, no….but a system of interrelated and interdependent functionalities that is uniquely and highly personalized in its actual ‘performance’ as an experience of progress…requiring significant and continuous tinkering and tuning to improve performance….but in potential, every person has the ingredients to be high performance road warrior and powerful form of conveyance – a customized hot rod of incredible coordination and output!
A weak analogy but helpful to me in seeing the many moving parts that seek unification and harmonization and coordination and the potential that resides in this humble beginning I know as “me”. This will take time……
102:2.6 (1120.3) Unity is best found in human experience through philosophy. And while the body of philosophic thought must ever be founded on material facts, the soul and energy of true philosophic dynamics is mortal spiritual insight.
102:2.7 (1120.4) Evolutionary man does not naturally relish hard work. To keep pace in his life experience with the impelling demands and the compelling urges of a growing religious experience means incessant activity in spiritual growth, intellectual expansion, factual enlargement, and social service. There is no real religion apart from a highly active personality. Therefore do the more indolent of men often seek to escape the rigors of truly religious activities by a species of ingenious self-deception through resorting to a retreat to the false shelter of stereotyped religious doctrines and dogmas. But true religion is alive. Intellectual crystallization of religious concepts is the equivalent of spiritual death. You cannot conceive of religion without ideas, but when religion once becomes reduced only to an idea, it is no longer religion; it has become merely a species of human philosophy.
102:2.8 (1121.1) Again, there are other types of unstable and poorly disciplined souls who would use the sentimental ideas of religion as an avenue of escape from the irritating demands of living. When certain vacillating and timid mortals attempt to escape from the incessant pressure of evolutionary life, religion, as they conceive it, seems to present the nearest refuge, the best avenue of escape. But it is the mission of religion to prepare man for bravely, even heroically, facing the vicissitudes of life. Religion is evolutionary man’s supreme endowment, the one thing which enables him to carry on and “endure as seeing Him who is invisible.” Mysticism, however, is often something of a retreat from life which is embraced by those humans who do not relish the more robust activities of living a religious life in the open arenas of human society and commerce. True religion must act. Conduct will be the result of religion when man actually has it, or rather when religion is permitted truly to possess the man. Never will religion be content with mere thinking or unacting feeling.
102:2.9 (1121.2) We are not blind to the fact that religion often acts unwisely, even irreligiously, but it acts. Aberrations of religious conviction have led to bloody persecutions, but always and ever religion does something; it is dynamic!
In the history of the development of social/evolutionary religion, we are provided many examples of the dynamic nature of religion and religious thinking and living. On few worlds does society/civilization have to blindly grope its own way forward into such progression. On most worlds, there are multiple capitals and centers of celestial knowledge, example, schools, technology development, commerce, ethics, morality, city building, negotiation, arbitration, peace making, and truth, beauty, and goodness. Certainly it takes millennia for an entire world to become so socialized….still, quicker perhaps on more normal worlds? And with less error and vestiges of primitivism perhaps? Maybe.
But I sometimes wonder. Have the agents and ministers of religion and personal spirit endowment somehow managed here on Urantia to nurture and evolve civilization in ways which have compensated for earlier losses and missteps? Personally, I find it rather incredible that our world has progressed so far without the normal patterns of example and leadership and development. The reason for that I believe is the topic we discuss here…the inherent nature of religion and the faith experience delivered within mind that does not rely exclusively or depend necessarily upon external examples or sources of knowledge!! I think that the “I AM” and “I AM LOVED” and “I AM SAFE” experience which delivers the personal religious experience and insights and faith and faith assurance are sufficient to transform a world, generation after generation, especially once the Son’s Spirit and the flood of TA’s is unleashed upon a world!
But even before then and that, the Adjutants and Holy Spirit move a world forward into a progressive realization of potential – suggested reading is Papers 85-92 – remember that only as goes the parts so goes the whole – even with a successful Prince and Garden, etc. And the Mortal Epochs take tens and hundreds of thousands of years even with those examples and leadership. The Most Highs appear to have their Plan B’s well in hand….indeed, one might surmise that our world proves how well things can progress despite the failures defaults, and even iniquitous rebellion of our on-planet lradership – a built-in failsafe as it were.
(956.1) 86:6.5 Each passing generation smiles at the foolish superstitions of its ancestors while it goes on entertaining those fallacies of thought and worship which will give cause for further smiling on the part of enlightened posterity.
(956.2) 86:6.6 But at last the mind of primitive man was occupied with thoughts which transcended all of his inherent biologic urges; at last man was about to evolve an art of living based on something more than response to material stimuli. The beginnings of a primitive philosophic life policy were emerging. A supernatural standard of living was about to appear, for, if the spirit ghost in anger visits ill luck and in pleasure good fortune, then must human conduct be regulated accordingly. The concept of right and wrong had at last evolved; and all of this long before the times of any revelation on earth.
(956.3) 86:6.7 With the emergence of these concepts, there was initiated the long and wasteful struggle to appease the ever-displeased spirits, the slavish bondage to evolutionary religious fear, that long waste of human effort upon tombs, temples, sacrifices, and priesthoods. It was a terrible and frightful price to pay, but it was worth all it cost, for man therein achieved a natural consciousness of relative right and wrong; human ethics was born!
7. The Function of Primitive Religion
(956.4) 86:7.1 The savage felt the need of insurance, and he therefore willingly paid his burdensome premiums of fear, superstition, dread, and priest gifts toward his policy of magic insurance against ill luck. Primitive religion was simply the payment of premiums on insurance against the perils of the forests; civilized man pays material premiums against the accidents of industry and the exigencies of modern modes of living.
(956.5) 86:7.2 Modern society is removing the business of insurance from the realm of priests and religion, placing it in the domain of economics. Religion is concerning itself increasingly with the insurance of life beyond the grave. Modern men, at least those who think, no longer pay wasteful premiums to control luck. Religion is slowly ascending to higher philosophic levels in contrast with its former function as a scheme of insurance against bad luck.
(956.6) 86:7.3 But these ancient ideas of religion prevented men from becoming fatalistic and hopelessly pessimistic; they believed they could at least do something to influence fate. The religion of ghost fear impressed upon men that they must regulate their conduct, that there was a supermaterial world which was in control of human destiny.
Rodan had much to say about the art of living:
160:1.2 (1772.3) Human life consists in three great drives—urges, desires, and lures. Strong character, commanding personality, is only acquired by converting the natural urge of life into the social art of living, by transforming present desires into those higher longings which are capable of lasting attainment, while the commonplace lure of existence must be transferred from one’s conventional and established ideas to the higher realms of unexplored ideas and undiscovered ideals.
160:1.3 (1772.4) The more complex civilization becomes, the more difficult will become the art of living. The more rapid the changes in social usage, the more complicated will become the task of character development. Every ten generations mankind must learn anew the art of living if progress is to continue. And if man becomes so ingenious that he more rapidly adds to the complexities of society, the art of living will need to be remastered in less time, perhaps every single generation. If the evolution of the art of living fails to keep pace with the technique of existence, humanity will quickly revert to the simple urge of living—the attainment of the satisfaction of present desires. Thus will humanity remain immature; society will fail in growing up to full maturity.
3. Knowledge, Wisdom, and Insight
102:3.1 (1121.3) Intellectual deficiency or educational poverty unavoidably handicaps higher religious attainment because such an impoverished environment of the spiritual nature robs religion of its chief channel of philosophic contact with the world of scientific knowledge. The intellectual factors of religion are important, but their overdevelopment is likewise sometimes very handicapping and embarrassing. Religion must continually labor under a paradoxical necessity: the necessity of making effective use of thought while at the same time discounting the spiritual serviceableness of all thinking.
102:3.2 (1121.4) Religious speculation is inevitable but always detrimental; speculation invariably falsifies its object. Speculation tends to translate religion into something material or humanistic, and thus, while directly interfering with the clarity of logical thought, it indirectly causes religion to appear as a function of the temporal world, the very world with which it should everlastingly stand in contrast. Therefore will religion always be characterized by paradoxes, the paradoxes resulting from the absence of the experiential connection between the material and the spiritual levels of the universe—morontia mota, the superphilosophic sensitivity for truth discernment and unity perception.
102:3.3 (1121.5) Material feelings, human emotions, lead directly to material actions, selfish acts. Religious insights, spiritual motivations, lead directly to religious actions, unselfish acts of social service and altruistic benevolence.
102:3.4 (1121.6) Religious desire is the hunger quest for divine reality. Religious experience is the realization of the consciousness of having found God. And when a human being does find God, there is experienced within the soul of that being such an indescribable restlessness of triumph in discovery that he is impelled to seek loving service-contact with his less illuminated fellows, not to disclose that he has found God, but rather to allow the overflow of the welling-up of eternal goodness within his own soul to refresh and ennoble his fellows. Real religion leads to increased social service.
102:3.5 (1122.1) Science, knowledge, leads to fact consciousness; religion, experience, leads to value consciousness; philosophy, wisdom, leads to co-ordinate consciousness; revelation (the substitute for morontia mota) leads to the consciousness of true reality; while the co-ordination of the consciousness of fact, value, and true reality constitutes awareness of personality reality, maximum of being, together with the belief in the possibility of the survival of that very personality. *
Me here: Have you also noticed the utilization of paradox and conundrum to challenge our reason and logic when approaching religious truths and realities? Jesus often made use of this teaching method too (as do the Zen masters). We may not simply reason our way to religious experience, faith, faith assurance, trust, truth, beauty, or goodness. We cannot rationally explain spiritual reality nor prove God’s existence and our personal source or destiny. And yet facts, observation, rationality, and the application of intellect are integral to the experience of all such truth.
For it is the coordination, integration, and harmonization of our total experience on every level of our being that truly delivers the religious experience and religious faith. Too much intellect or too little both offer certain obstacles to the potential experience. Our sense of self and our material brain combine as partners and participants as our personalized experience with the Spirit within and as the giver of our personality, free will, mind, spirit, and the guiding voice and light to our source, origin, and destiny.
There is a full orchestra of instrumentation within but our conductor (me) begins as an inexperienced, immature, blind, deaf, and dumb director of the music. Each player and instrument and part requires coordination, integration, harmonization….the direction of the conductor!
The more material minded is the conductor, the more that the exquisite performance within sounds more like a cacophony of chaos and noise, despite the beautiful and amazing refrains performed by any one instrument…or by them all. It is only as we have the religious experience and transfer the seat of our own identity and grow in experiential wisdom and bear the fruits of the spirit…it is only then we become less blind and less deaf and more in tune and able to hear the instruments of the Spirit in ways which CAN be harmonized and coordinated and integrated into a personalized and powerful symphony of our own religious growth and experience. The miracle of the ‘human condition’ lies within this coordinate duality of our inherent nature and condition. (Please forgive another of my crude analogies….the players in the orchestra are quite skilled and coordinated themselves of course…it truly is the conductor of personal free will and self determination who has the ‘tin ear’ and prevents the exquisite symphony of reality from the desired and available orchestration of our personal religious experience.)
This miracle is a blessing….but many feel cursed by the duality until it is coordinated and becomes harmonized and truly expresses our experiences the faith assurance and truth assurance of the spirit ministers within….as trust and hope grows in mind and as soul grows by the embrace of faith in God and our eternal nature and as the fruits come to the branch so attached to the vine, THEN are we gladdened by the living bread and waters of our Divine nature, all of which makes the ‘human condition’ a glorious experience of discovery and adventure and child-like trust in a wondrous and friendly universe! The “hunger quest for Divine reality” leads us to the “indescribable restlessness of triumph in discovery” of that Divine reality!!
One thing I am learning in these studies of our personal religious experience is how we begin so attached and attuned as children to the Spirit within and how we so often ‘rationalize’ our way into material distractions and priorities which then require re-focalization and more intentional and volitional effort to hear and listen and respond, again, to the inner voice and light. It is the intentional embrace of our spiritual natures that delivers ever greater faith and truth assurance and the integration and coordination of our dual natures into a meaningful experience of spiritization.
Much can and does happen I think regarding our spiritualization and growth of soul by an innate intuitive and unconscious response that even children and primitives can experience, prior to and without our cognitive awareness. But only by cognitive and conscious intentionalism of our free will can the conductor truly engage the orchestra by actually hearing the symphonic harmonies and melodies so exquisitely performed by those who create us, care for us, comfort us, and guide us into the eternal adventure of perfecting! The music is playing….do we hear it?
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