© 1993 Ann Bendall, Robert L. Blackstock, Ron Cyr, Ken Glasziou
© 1993 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
2 Salisbury Crt, Glen Waverley, Victoria, AUSTRALIA, 3150.
¶ In This Issue…
SIX-0-SIX
PO BOX 616, Sunnybank, Queensland, AUSTRALLA 4109
Six-O-Six is a bi-monthly publication dedicated to the promotion of International goodwill and understanding among readers of The URANTIA Book.
- So They Say
- Letters to the Editor
- News Around the World
- Articles
- Question Time
- The Teaching Mission. “If Not Actual Personalities, Then What?”
- Spiritual Vision
- The Book — Study and Discussion
- Australian Conference
- The Forum
- Does the End Ever Justify Unworthy Means?
- Divine Antidotes
- Quotable Quotes
- Crosswords
- On Reflection
- The Great Literacy Debate
- When All is Said and Done
¶ Editor’s Notebook
What is the blend of a revelation with the ethos that is a nation? Is the mix likely to be favourable to long-term integration one with the other? Is there an embryonic harmony in any nation to truly herald this new revelation?
Reform’s lack of pace suits Australia admirably. Ideologies evaporate in a psyche that has difficulty in taking life too seriously. A healthy irreverence to religion will win out over attitudes of irrelevance. With such unconcern, how can we as a nation disintegrate from any fundamentalism.
However we do run the risk of indifference. For many, life is too good as is and there appears no need for seeking the kingdom.
Incredibly, this malady is not likely to be disturbed by our ethnic diversity. Hatreds, except for civil unrest within cultures, are inexplicably left in homelands.
When you’re local, you’re not so vocal.
We do not muse over territory and borders as do our ancestors in Europe. We have not the diametrically opposed particularism of a fading American dream to which we too once aspired. The gentler influence of a South East Asian environment is settling on our shores, the shores we cling to, sunbathe on, and don’t defend.
God is no respecter of nations, true enough. A receptivity, a propensity though, is something else.
While our understanding of religion is no more blessed than in other nations, it is blurred rather than fanatical divisions that cause rivalry. Isolated bushfires are not fueling an inferno.
We are a mixture of races and beliefs with a tolerance bred of ignorance rather than mistrust.
We find interest and adventure in cultural differences. Mighty Messengers, observers, planetary pilgrims they could all land here and we would want to know: “Ow yer goin’, orright?”
But challenge us without substance, ridicule us for mediocrity, foist a religion upon us, and you’ve got a problem.
What has shaped this character? Essentially our independence. For instance, we just voted against the political viewpoint of all the major press editorials.
And organizations such as The Institute of Public Affairs, The Centre for Independent Studies, The Tasman Institute, and the Evatt Foundation, all have a say on social, economic, environmental and immigration issues.
Who then, we must ask, controls the agenda on religion? Traditional values are lingering tenuously.
New religious ideas will take root. Not from within we still discredit our own as a national pastime — but from the infiltration of a global culture. We’ll just have to see if our conservatism recognises the value system and stability of revelatory teachings rather than seeing it as a philosophy of change.
Revelation cannot impose. But its moderate assimilation will not be hindered by a clutter of social and economic dislocations in this isolated land.
The very thought of this nation showing tolerance to a revelation is a bit of a joke really. In Australia, a big ideal is no big deal!
¶ So They Say
Edward William Cole (Creator Of Cole’s Book Arcade)
On reviewers of books: They are the channels through which the influence flows that makes the difference between the wise and, well — the otherwise.
Heinemann Editor
The enduring books endure because there is something that happens between the public and the author. Richard Neville (Social Commentator)
The great thing about Australia is its rich potential for happiness, but we feel defensive because we’re not crisis ridden. Our very affability that’s being attacked is a resource the world may need one day.
Lauchlan Chipman (Academic)
Contemporary Australian society is notable for its willingness to debate social and philosophical issues. If we were France, for example, we would be proud of taking a philosophical role and trying to turn philosophical issues into social concerns. But we are dogged by the influence of that northern English rhetoric which emphasises the practical and the useful over the philosophical and the intellectual. If you tell the average Australian you’re a philosopher, he’s likely to ask, what’s your day job?
Mary Kostakidis (Australian Newsreader)
The new generation is the generation of consequence. They are more realistic and understand the consequences of what we do. I have faith in young Australia because they have this sense. It is a concern that must lead to action. We didn’t realise that the world had a use-by date.
Six-O-Six is published sir times a year, and editorial contributions are welcomed. Subscription rates: Australia - $ 10 per year. Other countries - US $15 per year The material contained in this publication is of general comment only, and not advice on any particular matter. The publisher, authors and editors expressly disclaim all liability in respect of this information and of the consequences of any actions resulting therefrom. Interpretations and opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent those of Six-O-Sir or Urantia Foundation. The Editor reserves the right to edit all material to conform to style guidelines and available space. All quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are front The URANTIA Book © 1955 and used by permission. This publication is copyright with the exception of fair dealings under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without and permission from the publisher.
¶ Letters To The Editor
¶ The Urantia Book In Four Parts?
A. Dalton, USA
Conjure up in your mind Michelangelo’s magnificent sculpture ‘David’. One person’s favorite part may be the face with its strong, youthful, masculine features. Another person’s favorite part may be the muscular, rotated torso. Still another person’s favorite part may be the strong but gentle hands. But who would want to detach their favorite part from the splendid, extraordinary whole, which needs all of the parts in order to achieve a certain effect? And this effect might be interpreted as the superb capturing in marble of youthfulness, virility, grace, innocence, beauty, and strength.
Now imagine that The URANTIA Book is an exquisitely beautiful piece of sculpture, the whole of which is greater than the sum of its parts. Although its parts can be enjoyed and appreciated apart from the whole, they are enhanced manyfold by their being seen as part of a magnificent whole.
Each paper of The URANTIA Book can be seen as one candle. And when you put all of those candles together, you get not just 197 candles. You get something much, much more. You get a beacon.
Break up the book? … no, I don’t think so.
This letter was received in response to Keith Bacon’s suggestion to print The URANTIA Book in four parts.
¶ Food For Thought
Ed Roache, Watertown, New York, USA
Modern scholars estimate it took Mary and Joseph 6 days to travel from Nazareth to Jerusalem. The URANTIA Book states this journey took two and a half days Joseph walking, and 9 months pregnant Mary on a horse, walking behind. The distance is about 90 miles. Travelling at 3 miles per hour for 12 hours per day would make this possible. This is extraordinary by today’s standards, but not impossible to my mind. What do other readers think?
¶ “Variety — The Dice Of Life?” Revisited
Allan Lane, Mirrabooka, Western Australia
In the previous issue’s article of the above title, the intended question mark was omitted. I would like to alert readers that I used the word ‘code’ and its derivatives unclearly in certain cases. The substitution of words such as ‘instructions’, ‘information’, and ‘message’ will in many cases better explain my intention. Apologies for any mental breakdowns that may have been triggered.
¶ News Around The World
¶ Ordination Of Women — Heresy!
The Presbyterian Church of New South Wales has charged Dr Peter Cameron with heresy for saying that St Paul’s letter to Timothy (2:13) was wrong. He challenged arguments against the ordination of women.
Dr Cameron, Principal of the University of Sydney’s St Andrew’s College has the support of the University Council which has good standing with the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
There is a political agenda behind the trial. The Uniting Church (formed by liberals with the Methodists in 1986) and Continuing Presbyterians are fighting over property, especially schools. Court action and high legal fees have resulted.
More scholars are recognizing the Bible as a first century document reflecting that time and its set of social circumstances. They see fundamentalists treating it as a legal document which gives a set of precedents for all sorts of later actions.
With all the clamour of academic dignity, use and misuse of scripture, theological emphasis and freedom of speech, Dr Cameron is seen as both a sinner and a martyr.
People in a secular society no doubt see this as another example of irresponsible intolerance.
The church’s diminishing ranks must again address the authority of the bible, and somewhere in it, strive to find the teachings of Jesus.
¶ Book Tax
The Australian book industry, a billion dollar a year business, faced an annual $150 million consumption tax if a Liberal government had been elected.
There are currently no tariffs, sales tax, or other direct imposts within the manufacturing, importing, or distribution process.
We could have expected a significant drop in book sales, in line with the reports from Canada and New Zealand where consumption taxes have been recently introduced.
In Britain, books are exempt from their value added tax (VAT).
¶ The Urantia Book — Price Rise
For information and ordering of URANTIA Book related items contact the URANTIA Foundation’s Australian office on phone/fax (02) 9706200 during normal office hours.
The suggested retail price of the English edition of The URANTIA Book is now $A78.
¶ Resource Guide For Secondary Works
The Fellowship Bulletin reports a revised edition of the Resource Guide for Secondary Works of The URANTIA Book is now being prepared.
Secondary works can include study aids, introductory material, slides and tapes, computer programs, and publications.
For further details contact:
The Fellowship
529 Wrightward Avenue,
Chicago, IL, USA, 60614.
¶ Women Would Make The World A Better Place
A report of the UN International Labour Organisation says six of only 179 membership nations of the UN have a woman as head of State. Women occupy only 3.5 percent of cabinet posts. The ILO says an increase in the number of women at the top would make a huge difference in the quality of decision-making in the world.
“Women tend to speak with a different voice, which as a rule lays stress on the social ethos of development, that is to say education, health, children, environment, dialogue and peace; men tend to concentrate on the economic aspects such as production, trade profitability, finance, technology and national defence,” it says.
“If we really aspire to any development of the human lot involving both economic growth and social equity, the best way to achieve this will be by having men and women sharing in decision-taking.”
Based on trends, the report forecast it would take five centuries for women to gain the same access as men to management positions, and a further 475 years to get equal representation in the “higher echelons of political and economic power.”
Women hold more than 40 per cent of management jobs in Australia, the United States and Canada. Both Japan and South Korea have 8.3 per cent and 4 percent of management posts occupied by women.
¶ Articles
¶ Question Time
Ann Bendall, Nambour, Qld
Excuse me, but at the risk of appearing inquisitive, may I ask you:
- Are you more resourceful in revealing goodness to humanity today than you were yesterday?
- Are you a better righteousness recommender this year than you were last year?
- Are your ideals sufficiently high to ensure your eternal salvation while your ideas are so practical as to render you a useful citizen to function on Urantia in association with your mortal fellows?
- As you grow older in and more experienced in the affairs of the kingdom, are you becoming more tactful in dealing with troublesome mortals and more tolerant in living with stubborn associates?
Alright, I will come clean. Jesus at Tyre (1737-1741) suggested to his apostles that they ask themselves these questions (among others), and to my mind this really presupposes that we really consciously appraise what we think, feel and do. Jesus wants us to take note of where we are and how we are progressing.
¶ The Teaching Mission. “If Not Actual Personalities, Then What?”
Robert L. Blackstock, Concord, California, USA
The channelling activity in the Urantia movement, called the ‘Teaching Mission’ by its supporters, poses an interesting question for those who cannot accept the activity for what it purports to be. Of course, the activity purports to be the opening of the circuits of communication between mortals here on Urantia and the unseen spiritual and morontial personalities involved in the guidance of Urantia. The interesting question is: If not actual personalities, then what? What plausible explanation is there for these manifestations, other than they are what they purport to be? To merely give the activity a label explains little. Statements such as ‘it is all in the mind’, ‘split personality’, ‘alter ego’, etc., without the underlying argument and details, leaves a thinking person cold, or even disposes him or her to consider the contrary position more seriously.
What I am doing in this brief article, is referring the person who is asking the above question to an essay by psychologist Carl Jung, entitled ‘On the Nature of the Psyche’ (1954), which is published in The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 8, pages 159-234. (The Collected Works consists of about twenty volumes and each is now available in paperback.) The essay, which deals with the structure, and dynamics of what we know, as students of The URANTIA Book, to be the material mind, goes a long way in providing a model for understanding how channelled material manifests in the material mind. Such an understanding is important whether the manifestation is spiritual in nature or ‘merely’ psychological. It should be kept in mind that everything we experience is, in the most fundamental sense, psychological, whether inner experience or external stimulus.
¶ Spiritual Vision
Ron Cyr, Blaine, USA
Having been a reader of The URANTIA Book for twenty years, and a conference ‘groupie’ for the last ten years, I have been aware, as are a lot of other readers, that the Fifth Epochal Revelation has not shown much progress since its infancy on Urantia almost forty years ago. A lot of blame has been put on the Grimsley affair, the split with the Foundation, the apathy of the readers, the restriction of the sale of the book or whatever. If I may, I would like to bring another point of view of why some of us, or should I say most of us, are groping in the dark for directions, never being certain if the decisions being taken are the right ones.
The common denominator in the five revelations is that each one has a spiritual origin. There is also a common denominator for the first three revelations in that spiritual vision came with the personalities charged with bringing them. For the fourth revelation, although the origin was spiritual, spiritual vision did not come ready-made with Jesus. In time, it was attained by the way he lived his life on Urantia.
The Fifth Revelation is unique. Though also of spiritual origin, no personality endowed with spiritual vision has come with it. The spiritual vision will have to be provided by those human beings who have searched the revelation and aspired to that vision.
¶ The Book Study And Discussion
¶ The Australian Conference 1993
It is with great pleasure that we announce the 1993 Australian Conference for readers of The URANTIA Book
The Venue
The world famous Sea World Nara Resort set in lush tropical gardens on the Queensland Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane. Only hundreds of secluded acres of bushland and sand dunes separate the resort from the sparkling waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The Theme
WELCOME TO THE SHORES OF PARADISE.
“You may be certain of being warmly welcomed when you experience the resurrection into eternity on the everlasting shores of Paradise.” (283)
¶ The Forum
¶ Does The End Ever Justify Unworthy Means?
Ken Glasziou, Maleny, Queensland
According to The URANTIA Book, the Adamic default was more disastrous for us than the Lucifer rebellion. The reason — we missed out on having our genes upgraded, we have a gross deficiency of the violet race genes. These would have made us taller and increased the duration of our lives, but neither attribute has any obvious deleterious repercussions. The big loss seems to have been our potential for spiritual growth (382:4).
The book tells us that this loss can be at least partially negated:
“Jesus showed mankind the new way of mortal living whereby human beings may very largely escape the dire consequences of the Caligastia rebellion and most effectively compensate for the deprivations resulting from the Adamic default.” (UB 34:7.6)
The ‘way’ that Jesus showed us was, of course, his life and the way he lived. The book tells us:
Help! Help!
Our computers were stolen along with all of our back-up records for our Good Cheer Press mail list. If you would like to be on our new list please. send your name and address to: Jesusonian Foundation PO Box. 18764.
Boulder CO 80308 USA.
¶ Divine Antidotes
Entry in ABC Radio competition to find the worst example of gobbledygook.
The Lord’s prayer as written by a public servant.
O parent, at present deemed to be domiciled in the stratosphere, may your name be established and maintained on the highest level of sacrosanctity. May you be allotted and obtain an area of control with appropriate powers of administration.
May your policy be executed on a geographical basis as well as in the stratospherical sphere of influence. We should be obliged for your organising contribution that our daily intake of cereal filler be not in short supply.
Further, we would be grateful if all sentences recorded against us for misdemeanors and malfeasances be kept under constant review with the possibility of subsequent cancellation. It would be fair to remember that we are adopting an analogous policy with regard to those who have inflicted injury upon ourselves.
Avert from us all redundant opportunities for delinquency and ethical deviation and initiate protective measures to safeguard us against any anti-social activities or tendencies to recidivism.
First reader (proudly): I’ve been reading The URANTIA Book for 30 years!
Second reader: Wow! you must be exhausted.
What happens if you don’t pay your exorcist?
You get repossessed.
He who loses his dreaming is lost.
Australian aborigine
¶ Crosswords
by Audrey Morris, Tewantin, Queensland
Across
1. Mount up 8. Superuniverse 9. Separated 10. Perfected guide 11. Decipher 12. Spirit 13. Special Apostle 16. Comforted 19. Jewish tavern keeper 21. Yeast 22. Bag 22A. A minor sector 13. Self relationship of infinity 24. Born 24A. To find God 25. Ablest Apostle
Down
2. Ultimate 3. Wrap with love 4. Evades the issue 5. Sympathize 6. Low horizontal sheet of cloud 7. Enrolled 13. Baneful thoughts 14. Jesus the Great 15. Deliver 17. Unhappy Greek worker 18. Hermit 20. Fossil-bearing stone country
Solution To Previous Crossword
Across: 3. Coral 8. Cedar 10. Gulls 12. Slain 13. Falcon 15. Game 18. Ora 19A. Seal 21. Dolphin 22. Lion 23. Core 24. Nebadon 26. Tremor 31. His 32. Average 34. Eerie 35. Ado 36. Thorn 37. Adage 38. Asset
Down: 1. Feral 2. Raccoon 4. Owls 6. Lungs 7. Llama 12. Snapper 14. Orl 16. Aenon 17. Elder 19. Bivalve 20. Sloth 21. Doves 23. Comrade 24. Nomens 25. Doe 27. Right 30. Agog 32. Aide 33. Ada 34. Era
¶ On Reflection
¶ From The Great Literacy Debate
Edited By David Myers, Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Some years ago, Bernard Shaw observed that England and America were two countries separated by the same language. The same socio-linguistic observation might well be made of America and Australia today.
It is clear that in Australia, as in the western world generally, there is an inevitable division between high and low culture. The functional literacy required for survival in the world of low culture is pretty basic. Being able to barrack for your favourite football team with meat pie and sauce in one corner of your mouth and beer in the other is, of course, a gift not to be sneezed at. Each culture requires different skills.
Literacy for high culture is inextricably bound up with serious literature. It is sad that serious literature has an unenviable reputation among the general public and certainly among the commercial media for being simply too intellectual, too abstruse, too inaccessible for ordinary people to enjoy. This was not always so in Australia. In the literary golden age of the 1890s the literature of Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson and Steele Rudd was eminently accessible to ordinary people and formed a great part of our national consciousness and identity. It is a mark of the lack of spiritual depth in western society today that commercial publishers promote, and people buy in huge editions, works like Colleen McCullough’s ‘The Thorn Birds’ and Stephen King’s ghoulish horror entertainments and, further, that works such as these find their way almost automatically onto the mass electronic media as serials or feature films, for this is the nature of low-culture literacy.
¶ When all is said and done…
“…the Father idea is still the highest human concept of God.” (UB 196:3.35)