© 2014 Carmelo Martínez
© 2014 Urantia Association of Spain
Hello! I’m greeting you on the other side of the camera, perhaps wondering what The Urantia Book is, what I’m going to talk about.
After reading and studying the contents of The Urantia Book for more than ten years, after being impacted by the revelation of its teachings, after discovering a new world, a new reality, the question I ask myself is precisely the complementary one: how can I transmit to others what I have discovered? And the answer is that there is no way to do it; there is no way to transmit to anyone the sensations, the clarifications, the understanding of reality, the meaning of life that one obtains from reading this book. Some things can only be grasped by discovering them for oneself, and that is what happens in this case. So the only thing left for me to do is to invite you to discover for yourself what those of us who have already read it have discovered.
This, then, is an invitation. Perhaps by reading The Urantia Book, you will find and discover priceless ideas, concepts, and realities. And perhaps this discovery will completely change your life. It’s already happened to me.
I’ve thought a lot about how to begin this presentation-invitation and what to say to give you an idea of what I want to say, which thread to start pulling on to unravel this formidable skein. And I’ve decided to start at the end.
And the ending is precisely the effect that The Urantia Book has on people, or at least some people. Because The Urantia Book has the capacity to transform people; in fact, that is its main objective.
When a person discovers and grasps what the book says, they begin to live with a different vision of things and become a strong person, free from fear, courageous in the face of life’s challenges, and joyful. It makes them celebrate the opportunity to live, feast on life’s uncertainties, thrive on its disappointments, and thrive on defeat (which is always apparent); it makes them energized in the face of difficulties, display indomitable courage in the face of the immensity of problems, and display unconquerable faith in facing their challenges.
He has found the meaning of life; he knows what life means and what it’s all about, and he believes that life is a unique opportunity given to him, one that he must take full advantage of. He has learned that life can be hard, but it’s not meaningless; that strong and noble characters are forged between the anvils of necessity and the hammers of anguish. And he has also learned that the greatest affliction in the universe is never to have been afflicted.
It’s clear that when a person has lived several decades of life, they know more than they did as a child, adolescent, or young adult. They have experience that gives them the ability to see and understand events better, and to do things they didn’t know how to do when they were young. Normally, life has made them more tolerant and wiser. And the question is, isn’t that precisely the purpose of life, this act of learning and advancing with experience? The answer is yes, of course.
Understanding this fact and discovering what it means, in all its scope, in all its implications for our relationships with others, and in all its meaning for our future, is what, in my opinion, gives The Urantia Book its transformative power. And this is what I want to talk to you about.
And how does the book do all this? Well, by opening the reader’s eyes, discovering what Reality is really like. In life, we are immersed in the daily problems of living. The Urantia Book invites us to stop looking for a moment at the trees of our daily problems and chores and focus our gaze on the forest of reality as a whole. It tells us that this planet is not alone in the universe; that there are many other inhabited planets. And, more importantly, it tells us that all of this has a purpose, that it is planned. It invites us to look outward, toward the universe, not to escape the perhaps painful realities of daily living, but rather to immerse ourselves in them with a different perspective, with the bigger picture in our minds. Living life, immersing ourselves in daily problems, in the flow of events, with a certain cosmic vision, provides us with a way of understanding life that fills it with meaning and charges us with strength and courage.
But don’t think that The Urantia Book tells you about extraterrestrials, UFOs, or galactic federations, at least not in the usual sense of these words. Don’t think either that I’m trying to convince you to join any more or less occult organization or to become part of some group of supposedly advanced humans who contact “their older brothers.” No. I have nothing to do with such matters. All I’m going to do is introduce you to The Urantia Book and invite you to read it. But what you ultimately do is up to you and yours alone.
I’m not trying to sell you anything, nor am I seeking to make money or obtain any other material benefit from this. The text of the book is available online and is free. You can download it freely. What I do hope for is that what happened to me and so many others when they read The Urantia Book and put its teachings into practice will happen to others. That is my sole purpose: for others to benefit from teachings that are truly life-changing.
Don’t think this transformation has spectacular results, at least on the outside and as things are judged in this world. The person remains the same, but has a different vision. It’s like wandering aimlessly through the world versus traveling with the best navigator available. It’s precisely this new vision that changes the way they act and gives them all the energy they need to live fully. And it also gives them hope and inner peace they may not have had before.
The Urantia Book tells us, for example, the history of this planet. And it is a surprising story, to say the least. The origins of many of the world’s famous traditions and legends can be found in it. For example, the origin of the tradition of the first parents, Adam and Eve, or the dark legends of beings of great strength and power who were sons of the gods; or that famous myth of the sons of God who descended from heaven to mingle with the daughters of men.
In it, we find a very interesting description of the evolution of species, from the first unicellular beings to the most complex vertebrates and to humankind itself. Because Adam and Eve were not the first humans, created directly by God, according to The Urantia Book; their function was different. We will also find an explanation of the origin of life, on this planet and on all inhabited planets.
We’ll read how our human societies evolved, from the earliest clans to modern nations. We’ll learn how culture—knowledge, the arts, science, and religion—developed. And we’ll find a striking and impactful definition of religion.
We will discover that the goal of all human societies is world unity: a single nation, a single government, and a single race. We are condemned to achieve a world society perfectly organized; humans of all ages can delay or hasten this destiny with their actions, but sooner or later, inexorably, the forces of history lead humanity to its destiny of perfection; to a society with virtually no government because it won’t be necessary; humans will be sufficiently evolved to learn to self-control without the need for laws or impositions; to a society with disease controlled and nature dominated, with virtually no crime, and with rulers truly dedicated to the common good. Utopia, you might say; true, utopia. The Urantia Book tells us that humanity’s destiny is a social utopia. Don’t you believe it? Well, reading The Urantia Book, you’ll understand that this is the most logical evolution.
And all inhabited planets have the same destiny: to pass through multiple stages of social organization, through periods of struggle and injustice, of disorder and perhaps chaos, of discoveries and advances, to all ultimately reach the destiny of social perfection.
And all inhabited planets are governed by the same principles and are part of the same organization, a multifaceted organization, but unique in its functioning and its purpose.
The Urantia Book also tells us in great detail what this organization, which we might call celestial, is like. It tells us that we knew about it on this planet in very remote antiquity, but that all that knowledge remains to us are a few vague traditions and some obscure legends because we are an isolated, quarantined world. And this is another prodigious story the book tells. It tells us that we were visited and taught by certain beings who are part of this organization, but that in the end, due to the events that led to our isolation, some had to leave, and others lost their status and became mortals like us.
It also tells us what death means and what happens to us after it, the lives we can live after this one, our first life. And we will read that these are not lives lived on this planet, but on many others that fill space; and that these are not lives without memories, but rather we fully remember everything of interest we did and learned in this first life and in all the ones we live.
That’s why what we learn in this life, what we progress through life, that experience that life gives, is never lost. It’s, in fact, the only thing we take with us from here. We’ll pick up in our next life exactly where we left off in this one.
And what is the ultimate goal of all this living? Well, perfection. Just as human societies are inexorably destined to reach perfection, humans are destined for perfection, but unlike societies, we can individually choose whether or not to take that path; we are totally free in this regard. In fact, all creation, all worlds, all galaxies, are destined to reach perfection, and we can take part in that work or not; it is our choice.
If we choose to do so, we will live hundreds, thousands of lives in which we will progress and perfect ourselves as people, while also making progress and perfecting those parts of creation where we are at each moment, in each life (starting with this planet, at this moment, in this life). And as we progress, we will have more capable minds and greater capacities for action in the worlds; we will be increasingly perfect beings and, thanks to that perfection, increasingly powerful.
Perhaps you’re wondering if there’s a goal, if there’s an end to the road? And there is. At the end is the Universal Father, the First Source and Center of all things; the origin and destiny of all things and all beings.
The figure of this Universal Father, whom on this planet we somewhat imprecisely call God, has been and is described by all the world’s religions. But all these descriptions are partial and have human origins, at least in part. The description of the Universal Father in The Urantia Book is also partial, because it is not possible to contain the infinite in the finite, but his origin is not human; it comes from none other than beings who have been in the Father’s presence many times. And it is a detailed and precise description.
Don’t think that the book proves the existence of God, because this is something unprovable. Nor do you think that the book intends to define a new religious institution, a new Church, that claims to be better than the existing ones; no. The Urantia Book is intended for and directed toward people, toward you and me, toward everyone. The Urantia Book tells us that all humans have a divine spark within them, and invites us to discover it. It doesn’t ask us to submit to any religious discipline, it doesn’t tell us we must agree with one belief or another; it simply invites us to discover the Universal Father within us.
And the presence in us humans, who are animals of flesh and blood, of that divine spark is the secret that most amazes all beings, high and low, of creation, because it is we, of all of them, who begin at the lowest part of the scale of beings—in animals—and reach through our own effort the highest part—divinity.
And this ascent of perfection of beings, and also of worlds and galaxies, is the plan of creation, the plan of the Universal Father. In some religions, this idea is expressed with the expression “the will of God”; the book tells us that following the Father’s plan is doing His will. And we are totally free to choose to do it or not. The universes and the beings that have inhabited them, inhabit them, and will inhabit them have been, are, and will be created imperfect, and their destiny is perfection achieved through their own effort, through their own continued choice to do the Father’s will in every circumstance of each of their lives; that is the Father’s plan.
The guide for this ongoing choice is never external; there is no law of God dictated by Himself or by His supposed representatives and generally applicable to all people. The law of God, the will of the Father, is internal and personal; it is that divine spark that we all have. And each spark is individualized, and its guidance is applicable only to each of us. We have to learn to listen to that spark (the Father), and the way to do this is to speak to it within ourselves in all of life’s circumstances (that is, to speak to the Father within us). That is true prayer, not the habitual repetition of preexisting formulas. Prayer is an internal and personal dialogue with the Universal Father, a dialogue in which we convey to Him, in our own words (not those of others), everything we think, feel, or seek.
And that is also true religion: the personal, intimate, and inner relationship of each person with the Universal Father. Not adherence to these or those creeds, or the observance of these or those rites. It is simply the discovery of the Father within us and the ongoing dialogue with him to choose our path in all of life’s circumstances.
It is a religion of freethinkers, certainly, and not a religion of submission to any dogma or belief.
For each reader, The Urantia Book reveals different things (although they are all fundamentally different sides of the same coin). For me, this is the most transformative idea I’ve found in the book. It all depends on each person’s personality. I’ve already told you that the book is for individuals, not for groups or society, and I’ve also told you that the book promotes individual religious freedom and free thought.
There is one more consequence of the above. With the discovery of the Father, you discover his most transcendent facet and the key to relationships with him and with all people: love.
We can have many definitions of love, but The Urantia Book offers what I consider the best: “Love is the desire to do good to others.” The path to perfection, to personal progress, is based on this principle. The Father wants us to be perfect, just as he is perfect, and he has determined that this be achieved by choosing and acting in every circumstance according to the guidance of love understood in this way. The work of perfecting creation, of perfecting ourselves, and of perfecting others is a work of love understood according to the previous definition.
And The Urantia Book gives us an example of this way of functioning and acting, an example of the perfection of a human being based on the choices of love. The book devotes no less than a third of its length to the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. From before his birth to after his death; from his life as a human to his teachings as a divine being. It’s a story I’m sure will move you, because it portrays a Jesus who doesn’t resemble the serious, tormented, and suffering image of Jesus Christ that we’ve been taught. He is a real, human Jesus, almost always cheerful, sometimes funny, and always dedicated to living his life, a Jesus in whom we recognize the feelings and difficulties, the successes and failures that all humans face.
It’s a story told firsthand by people who witnessed everything Jesus experienced. I assure you it’s worth it.
You may be wondering who that man-God really was, but that’s something you’ll have to find out for yourself.
Before I say goodbye, I want to make a recommendation. The Urantia Book contains information that aims to expand our concepts of Reality and advance our minds. If you ultimately accept my invitation and decide to read it, I recommend that you do a quick, cursory first reading, starting on the first page and finishing on the last; skim through it and even skip over any parts you find difficult to assimilate on first reading or that interest you less; I did. The first pages are incomprehensible at first; it’s happened to all of us. If you find yourself interested in what you’ve read, you can always do a second, third, or even a thousandth detailed reading of whatever you prefer. I’ve already told you that the book is for people; use it as a tool for personal advancement in whatever way best suits you.
And that’s it. Thank you so much for being there and for listening to me.
You don’t have to change if you don’t want to. I don’t want to change you; you yourself must want to; otherwise, there’s no point in trying. The book’s transformative power lies precisely in telling you why you should change, what you don’t have, even if you don’t know it, and what you should have, where you are and where you’re destined to go. If you’re happy with yourself, there’s no reason to try to change. If you don’t feel the urge to change, don’t change.
Not everyone finds it believable. And even for those of us who find it believable, it’s for different reasons. Each reader of the book will give you a different answer.
For me, it seemed credible at first because of its astonishing coherence. In its 2,097 pages, which cover such diverse topics, there is complete coherence, a unified vision of reality.
But later, as I lived according to that vision, I discovered for myself personal experiences described in the book, which, for me, validate it even more strongly. Those who describe these experiences have necessarily lived them, and if they have, they can’t be deceiving me.
That’s the main key to believing in the book. All of its content is person-oriented, and it’s only valid if it resonates with you—at first, enough to interest you, then enough to live by what the book reveals, and finally because you discover within yourself the most important reality, the one that validates all of its content.
3-. We may be a coincidence in the universe. Why do you claim that life has meaning?
Have you ever thought about the size of the universe? Do you know how big a million light-years is? Or hundreds of millions? Imagine you’re on a spaceship leaving Earth, passing through the entire solar system, and heading into empty space. To reach the edge of the solar system, it will have taken you tens of years… and you will have traveled a distance of about 7 light-hours! Now try to imagine how much empty space is in just a thousand light-years.
Our galaxy has, according to the latest estimates, some 400 billion stars, and there are thousands, perhaps millions of galaxies. How many planets can there be in the universe? We’re talking at least trillions of planets, millions of millions. The laws of physics don’t necessarily have to be the same throughout creation. So has evolution produced intelligent life on only one planet out of billions? Even for a skeptical scientist, this seems difficult to accept.
It therefore seems unlikely that we are a coincidence, an exception among billions of planets. The meaning of all this existence is another matter, although that is no longer a matter for science.
In my presentation, I explained the meaning that The Urantia Book gives to life and to all creation, as I understand it. Believing it or not is not a matter of logic or reasoning, it is a matter of life experiences. When you seek and find and live according to what you have found, you have personal experiences that may lead you to understand the meaning of all creation. I invite you once again on an adventure of seeking and discovering in The Urantia Book, and then on the unparalleled adventure of living according to what you find. Then perhaps you will understand the meaning of life for yourself and not because anyone explains it to you. The meaning of life, as I have understood it, has to do with the Universal Father, and it can be grasped by discovering this Father within us. Do you dare?
4-. You speak of a divine spark within us. If I understand you correctly, you’re saying that God himself is within us. Please explain this a little more.
The mind is the mechanism that allows us to understand reality. It is the instrument within us that helps us grasp what is happening, reason, reach conclusions, and, above all, make decisions. It is there, in the mind, where that divine spark is present. And that spark, a fraction of God’s spirit, is in fact a little piece of the Father, our little piece, the one that corresponds to our personality. In a way, it is the part of the Father that we are.
Although we don’t usually realize it, this spark tries to communicate with us and tell us what the Father would do in every circumstance of our lives, what decision He would make given each alternative presented to us. It doesn’t oblige us to anything; our free will is sacred; it simply guides us in making decisions. But we can heed it or not; that is our prerogative.
And in that decision-making, we jointly build something called a soul, which is the seed of the body we will have when we are resurrected after death.
5-. Is there such a thing as a soul? What is it? Is it important from the perspective of those thousands of lives of progression you speak of?
The answer is yes, the soul exists. But once again, we humans are somewhat confused about its nature. The soul is one thing, and the divine spark we have in our minds is quite another. The soul is not spirit, but the spark is. The spark is a gift from the Universal Father; we create and form the soul with our efforts, our experiences, and, above all, with our decisions. The divine spark, as I said, is spirit in its nature; the nature of the soul is not flesh and blood, but neither is it spirit; it is somewhere in between. It has left its carnal nature and is on the way to becoming spirit, but it is not yet.
The soul of every person has not been eternal in the past; it has had a beginning. Although it may be eternal in the future, it may not have an end. It is born from us while we live our first life of flesh and blood. Its mother is our mind, and its father is the divine spirit that dwells within that mind, and together they shape it, nourish it, and make it grow. With every decision we make, we create or destroy our soul; if the decision is in accordance with our interpretation of the Father’s will, the soul will grow; if not, the soul will be destroyed somewhat.
And the soul is the seed of the body we will have when we awaken after death in the flesh. According to our personal progress and perfection, which will be reflected in the structure of our soul, so will be the body we will have. It will be a body of the same nature as the soul, intermediate between the flesh and the spirit, and will be formed according to the constitution we have managed to give the soul in this first life in the flesh.
Later, in successive lives, we will perfect ourselves and our bodies until the moment arrives when our perfection will allow us to exchange this body of intermediate nature for one of spiritual nature. And with this new body of spirit, we will continue to advance and progress, life after life, until we reach perfection and find the Father, who is the spirit par excellence.
In short, in this first life in the flesh, we earned the right to survive, with our decisions, because we thus built the vehicle of that survival, which is the soul.
6-. You talk about achieving perfection. What does this mean, achieving perfection? Why do we have to achieve perfection?
To talk about achieving perfection, we must first define what perfection is. I could say that perfection is happiness, but that would be a very incomplete answer. I could also say that perfection is the total knowledge of all reality. I could say—why not?—that perfection is the ability to always do things well, without mistakes, to always do the best for oneself and for others, near and far. And I could say that perfection is harmony: harmony between people and harmony with the environment. And all of this would be true, but to fully define perfection, I believe it is necessary to refer to the pattern of perfection: the First Source and Center. To be perfect is to be like the First Source and Center, which, in its manifestation as a person, is known as the Universal Father. Perfection is the ultimate harmony of all creation: of things, of people, and of the relationships between people, between things, and between things and people.
Achieving perfection is therefore becoming that way, and making things and relationships that way. And I’ve said it several times: according to The Urantia Book, the destiny of all creation is to achieve perfection. And for that, time was created, to have a reference, a ladder by which to ascend from imperfection to perfection, to the ultimate joy and satisfaction of feeling equal to the Father and of being able to stand in His presence and treat Him as one. And for that, we live life after life, in one world after another, in one universe after another, to go through all possible situations and learn from them all, until we know everything, until we are capable of everything. Until we have learned what love truly is, the motive and main impulse of all creation; the main characteristic of God.
We begin with a body of flesh and blood and build a soul, which is the seed of the body we will have in our next life. And so, life after life, we learn and become perfect, just as the Father is perfect.
Have you noticed within you the yearning for perfection, the drive to be better in every way? It’s the divine spark in your mind that repeats to you what the Father asks of each and every one of us: “Be perfect, just as I am perfect.”
(And he doesn’t ask for it on a whim, but out of love. He wants us to reach the ultimate happiness.) That is our destiny.
7-. If God is so good, why does he allow so much evil and injustice in the world? Can you tell me why evil exists?
We humans have minds that can only understand things through contrast; we cannot conceive of white without black, cold without heat, beauty without ugliness, perfection without imperfection, and good without evil. We say something is good because it is the opposite of what we think is evil.
Evil is therefore a necessity for conceiving good in our imperfect minds; but, be careful, what is necessary is potential evil, the possibility of evil. To know what good is, the idea of evil, the possibility of evil, is enough as a contrast, not necessarily the fact of evil. The Urantia Book calls the possibility of evil potential evil, and the fact of evil, the act of evil, actual evil (evil of act, evil of fact). The possibility of feeling pain, for example, is potential evil; but actually feeling it is evil of act, actual evil.
Potential evil is part of creation; it is a characteristic of imperfect worlds like ours, of imperfect beings like us, of imperfection in short (where contrast is necessary to grasp reality and advance toward perfection). But it is not actual evil. Actual evil is a product of the will of imperfect beings.
Because our personal evolution is the fruit of our choices, of our will. In all circumstances, we can choose between good and evil (as we understand them at that moment). And for this purpose, we have been endowed with free will. And free will is sacred; no one in the entire universe can force our will when it comes to choosing between good and evil; that is how the Father intended it. (And that free will is the only thing that is truly ours, and it is the only thing we can offer to our Universal Father. Everything else, all the rest of creation, is for us, but it is not ours.)
Free will is necessary for choice and therefore necessary for evolution. And in this necessity lies the origin of actual evil. Potential evil is necessary for understanding good, and actual evil is the result of the free will choices of creatures. When creatures choose and do evil, we are converting a possibility into an act, potential evil into actual evil.
And God allows it because if He didn’t, He would have to annul free will, which would annul the possibility of perfecting ourselves and reaching Him.
However, imperfect worlds and beings are conceived in such a way that they can achieve perfection without ever choosing evil in their decisions; therefore, actual evil is not a matter of God, but of his creatures. For imperfection to become perfect, potential evil must exist, but it is not necessary for it to become actual evil, actual evil.
From the perspective of human life, this may seem like a divine injustice, but the Father has the perspective of eternity, and from that point of view, He treats us all exactly the same. Humanity is like a family; it’s logical that the evil caused by some affects others, but it’s also logical that the father of the family compensates for that suffering, as the Universal Father does from His perspective of eternity.
8-. In a society where happiness is preached as the absence of problems and afflictions, what appeal could there be in a book that tells you the greatest affliction is never having been afflicted? Can you explain this statement?
It depends on what you’re aiming for. If your goal is to be happy in this life and you don’t look beyond it, that statement makes no sense; for you, affliction is nothing but pain and sorrow. A cow is happy grazing in a green meadow on a sunny spring day. For it, there is nothing else. But restlessness and curiosity have been instilled in humans, and we tend not to settle for a guaranteed good pasture and a permanently beautiful day. We want to know who we are, why we are here, and what the meaning of our life is.
The Urantia Book answers these questions. Our destiny is perfection achieved through our own efforts, and on that path, each life is a step on this ladder toward perfection and happiness. In this personal ascension, afflictions and problems are the driving force that propels us upward. Mortal creatures grow personally only by experiencing tribulations. The absence of problems does not present us with the challenges we need to overcome to perfect ourselves.
It’s true that in this society, happiness is preached as the absence of problems and afflictions, but is it ever achieved? Is an easy life a guarantee of happiness? However, in a life of problems and difficulties, knowing what they are for, where they lead us if we know how to take advantage of them, brings happiness. And it brings calm and inner peace.
9-. You say that true religion is personal religion. Does that mean the world’s religions are useless? What does the book say about religion?
Throughout history and in the present, all the world’s religions have played and continue to play a role. But all are like the walkers that young children use to learn to walk. But once they learn to walk, they are no longer necessary. Religious institutions are like walkers for those who are spiritual children; spiritual adults do not need institutions to relate to the Father, nor dogmas, interpretations, or practices imposed on them by others. They do not need intermediaries; they have learned to relate directly to him. They know how to walk alone and find the Father alone, in their own style and according to their personality. Human beings are tiles in the great divine mosaic that is divinity, and each one has their place and reflects a different facet of the Father. No two tiles are the same, nor are there rules for relating to that Father that can be applied generally.
The book says much about the role that world religions have played throughout history, but this is neither the place nor the time to go into those details.
10-. I see an inconsistency in what you’ve said. You say the book doesn’t prove the existence of God because it’s unprovable. However, the book speaks of a creation, of inhabited planets, of a plan of perfection whose purpose is to reach the Universal Father. In short, a book that speaks of God and doesn’t prove his existence. How do you interpret this?
The Universal Father, or God as many people call Him, is not personally present in this world or in the other worlds in the making. The idea that God is everywhere is not entirely accurate. He is, however, in the mind of each person in the form of a divine spark, and in that sense, He is always present for each person. He accompanies each of us personally and knows our longings, problems, doubts, and so on; but His presence in one person is different from His presence in another. Therefore, it cannot be said that there is a global presence of God or that there is a general law of God. The Father dictates His will to each of us personally, and that will is in accordance with our way of being and is, therefore, different for each person. Creation is composed, as I have already said, of an almost infinite mosaic of different people, and each tile of that mosaic reflects a different aspect of God’s personality. Each person is a different facet of the Father and is the representative, the delegate for other beings and for all things, of that different facet. This is why it is impossible for one person, who is one facet of divinity, to demonstrate the existence of God to another person, who is another facet of that same divinity. Each person’s capacity to perceive and understand divinity is different, personal, and nontransferable. And this is why it also makes no sense to speak of a law of God; there are as many laws of God as there are people. Each of us has the duty to interpret the Father’s will, sincerely and honestly, without deceiving ourselves, and to act accordingly. What one person interprets, according to their personality and way of being, may be different from what another person interprets.
And yet, one can attain the conviction of God’s existence; but only in each of our inner contact with our divine spark, in the ongoing dialogue with that spark, in the inner contemplation of the Father’s greatness through our personal vision of people and things and the Father’s place in them. And this conviction, this demonstration, is personal, as I said, and therefore non-transferable. One can speak with others about our inner experience, one can try to share our search, but the demonstration, the conviction, can only come from within oneself.
11- Why can’t one progress personally by living multiple lives on this planet? Isn’t it better to go through multiple experiences on this planet? What does the book say about reincarnation?
Personal progress is a ladder; each step to the next higher level builds upon the previous one. The Urantia Book explains that we live multiple lives, but in each one we begin exactly where we left off in the previous one; we fully remember everything of value from our previous lives and progress by building on what we have achieved in these lives, on all our previous experience.
What progress can there be in living again without remembering anything from our previous lives? Why start over again? What’s the point of experience if not as a foundation for continuing to move forward?
The Urantia Book categorically states that this is our first life and that we can live others, but not on this planet and not in bodies of flesh and blood. As we progress personally, we acquire bodies, minds, and capacities for action that are commensurate with our degree of progress, and which are progressively better and more capable. We remember everything we have experienced and retain all our progress.
12-. It is said that this book is a revelation for humanity, but if it insists on the divine character of Jesus of Nazareth, isn’t it rather a book for Christians?
Some consider the book to be Christian because it speaks of Jesus of Nazareth, and that, in some way, its readers are Christians, even that we form a Christian sect.
I flatly deny it. The book may be Jesusian, but it is not Christian, at least not in my opinion. It is not a good idea to confuse the religion of Jesus with the religion about Jesus. Christianity is the religion that Paul of Tarsus founded with Simon Peter based on the memories that some apostles had of their life with Jesus of Nazareth, especially the emotional shock that the fact of his resurrection produced in them. To these memories, Paul of Tarsus added some of his own ideas and beliefs, such as the idea of the need for atonement for sins, of their redemption through the death of Christ (which is what they ended up calling Jesus of Nazareth), and other ideas that ended up constituting the doctrinal body of Christianity.
That is the religion about Jesus, Christianity. The religion of Jesus is that of the personal, intimate, and ongoing relationship of every human being with the Universal Father, and that of the fraternal community of all his children, which, for lack of a better way of making himself understood, Jesus called the kingdom of heaven.
The Urantia Book has little to do with the religion about Jesus. Rather, it is a continuation and expansion of the true teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, which most of his apostles did not understand. And it is a book for all humanity, because this idea of the religion of Jesus can reach the hearts of all humans and is not identified with any people, any culture, or any religion, or more properly, with any religious institution; rather, it is identified with the very nature of the human being, with its very essence.
13-. Is The Urantia Book a prophetic book?
I’m not sure what the question is referring to. If we’re talking about statements like those of Nostradamus or the Old Testament prophecies, I have to say no, The Urantia Book is not prophetic. It doesn’t predict specific future events. But it does assert that the destiny of all creation is perfection, that it will take more or less time, but that all people will become perfect (or disappear if they don’t want it) and that all things will eventually be organized and exist according to the rules of perfection. It also details the epochs through which every human civilization typically passes to evolve from primitive barbarism to final perfection, although not all planets progress exactly according to these stages.
As I said, they are not exactly prophecies (previews of specific future events), but rather general rules of how evolution works, in its various aspects, that allow us to predict how things will turn out.
14-. Can you tell us something more about this celestial organization that the book talks about in detail?
Without going into too much detail, I’ll say that at the center of everything is Paradise and the central universe. Paradise (not to be confused with heaven) is the residence of the Gods (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit). The central universe was created perfect, and surrounding it is the creation created imperfectly, whose destiny is to evolve toward perfection; that is, created perfection versus perfection achieved through evolution.
We live on one of the many planets (several billion) of the imperfect but perfecting creation, and our destiny is to travel and learn about this imperfect creation and work to perfect it while perfecting ourselves. Our destiny is also to reach the perfectly created central universe and know it in its entirety, and then reach Paradise, encounter the Gods, and receive the embrace of the Universal Father.
But that’s not all, although that’s another story.
15-. In your presentation, you talk about humanity’s ultimate utopia: a perfect society, a single government, a single language, and everyone happy. But all of you who talk about utopias have the same problem. Utopias on paper are perfect and wonderful. Does that book talk about how to achieve that utopian state to which, as you say, humanity is destined? How would you try to convince me that this is true?
I wouldn’t try to convince you. My conviction doesn’t come from someone or something providing me with proof of that. My conviction stems from a global framework of thought, a global vision of history and life in general, from a profound reflection on the meaning of social evolution. And your conviction would have to follow similar steps. You can explain or try to convince, but real, deep conviction can only come from within, from the coherence of that idea with all our other ideas and conceptions of reality.
The Urantia Book doesn’t provide recipes for achieving utopia, but it does explain the social and personal forces that lead to it. It also explains the different stages human society on each inhabited planet goes through until reaching that final utopia. It also explains what society achieves at each stage and the effects it has on people and their coexistence.