© 2022 Gard Jameson
© 2022 The Urantia Book Fellowship
by Gard Jameson
(TUB) “Mardus was the acknowledged leader of the Cynics of Rome, and he became a great friend of the scribe of Damascus. Day after day he conversed with Jesus, and night upon night he listened to his supernal teaching. Among the more important discussions with Mardus was the one designed to answer this sincere Cynic’s questions about good and evil. In substance, and in twentieth-century phraseology, Jesus said:” [The Urantia Book UB 132:2.1]
“My brother, good and evil are merely words symbolizing relative levels of human comprehension of the observable universe. If you are ethically lazy and socially indifferent, you can take as your standard of good the current social usages. If you are spiritually indolent and morally unprogressive, you take as your standards of good the religious practices and traditions of your contemporaries. But the soul that survives time and emerges into eternity must make a living personal choice between good and evil as they are determined by the true values of the spiritual standards established by the divine spirit which the Father in heaven has sent to dwell within the heart of man. This indwelling spirit is the standard of personality survival.” [UB 132:2.2]
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(HS) “The concept of the relativity of goodness has been a fertile source of ethical skepticism since the beginning. Of course, there are plain advantages in having our ‘good’ distinguished for us. If we accept the good as laid down by the social environment we are saved from the discomfort that arises from social conflict. ‘Everybody’s doing it,’ is the easy password of ethical laziness.
If we accept the standards of goodness laid down by a religious institution we have the safeguard of the longer history and of proved general aims, and we are safe from the discomfort of applying ethical questions to the acts of life.” [Creative Personality (CP) 231]
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© The problem of good and evil is one of the greatest issues in life. As Epicurus famously declared (e.g., regarding saving a child who has a brain tumor): “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.” How do we reconcile an all-powerful and good Deity with the fact of so much evil: genocide, racism, war-mongering, horrible diseases, great natural devastation? These are the questions that capture the imagination of thoughtful people. As Flewelling suggests, unthinking, lazy people fall back upon social norms and ideological tropes, like Job’s “friends,” that provide minimal understanding of evil. As The**Urantia Book states, values are known only in the context of lived personal experience. “Truth cannot be defined with words, only by living.” [UB 132:3.2] Values exist in real time, and are expressed by the character of the person. It is through the sorrows and joys of life that we are given the capacity to discern the light of truth, beauty, and goodness, very much as a result of the contrast of untruth, ugliness, and evil.
The Urantia Book makes the startling claim that ethics are not a function of some external standard. “He taught religion [personal religious experience] as a cause and ethics as a result.” [UB 170:3.8] Ethics are a function of a “living and personal choice between good and evil as they are determined by the true values of the spiritual standards established by the divine spirit which the Father in heaven has sent to dwell within the heart of man.” [UB 132:2.2]
This statement clearly establishes that: there are true and absolute values which govern the universe; values are not subjective (“Everybody’s doing it,” is the easy password of ethical laziness). Such an ethical claim runs counter to much of the ethical theory that is current in modern philosophy and within the halls of jurisprudence, which tend to gravitate toward a utilitarian calculus of value, without any reference to their real existence, discoverable within the subjectivity of the person who is attempting to live in accordance with the divine spirit indwelling them.
The Urantia Book reverses the direction of ethical guidance, not to be found out there in formulas, codes, and creeds, but within the heart of the person. “I will put my law within them, and will write it on their hearts… all of them shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.” Jer. 31:33-34 If we look within we shall discover a moral compass and spiritual yearning of immeasurable value!
In understanding the relativity of goodness in relation to its absolute ground, it is perhaps worthwhile to share a story. There was once a Rabbi who had two very bright students. They were all discussing the nature of truth when one of the students, Isaac, looked at the Rabbi and asked: “Truth is relative, yes?” The great Rabbi responded: “True!” Upon hearing this the other student, Jacob, asked: “But Rabbi, if God is eternal, infinite, and universal, truth must therefore be absolute, yes?” Once again, the great Rabbi responded emphatically: “True!” The Rabbi’s assistant exclaimed: “This is going to be a public relations and theological nightmare; it will not sit well with the congregation.” The Rabbi turned toward his assistant with a smile and said: “True!”
Is it possible to see both sides of this coin? From the vantage point of God, truth is absolute. From the vantage point of an individual person, truth is experienced as relative.
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(TUB) “Goodness, like truth, is always relative and unfailingly evil- contrasted. It is the perception of these qualities of goodness and truth that enables the evolving souls of men to make those personal decisions of choice which are essential to eternal survival.” [UB 132:2.3]
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(HS) “Now the fact that in actual human definition and achievement goodness is relative rather than absolute has been a stumbling block to many minds. It has been argued that if the good cannot be absolutely defined once for all, if it is to be a continuous reapplication of principles to changing conditions, such ethical uncertainty is too great for the guidance of the individual. It is declared by some that under such circumstances the good becomes impossible for the individual. From this it is an easy descent to all sorts of skepticisms and sophisms, wherein the good is held to be whatever is most useful for the time or the occasion, or most profitable to the individual. Such skepticism has extended to the denial of the existence of any moral norms.” [CP 232]
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© A very important understanding of goodness is made in this passage, the relativity of goodness. Though goodness has a foundation that is absolute; our perception of that value shall for a long time be relative in nature, always approximate. The fact that God’s indwelling presence creates an absolute standard for goodness does not mitigate the limited, narrow, and conditioned perspective of any of us. As the Apostle Paul suggested, “now we see through a glass darkly.” (1 Cor. 13:12) This point is illustrated by how mariners would use the North Star to navigate the seas. Though the mariner may be lost on the high seas he knows with certainty, based upon the report of other mariners, that the North Star provides guidance to safety, a sure port of call, an absolute standard by which to navigate the shifting seas of life.
Goodness is known in its relation to both the possibility and actuality of evil. Profoundly we learn that evil is a transgression of divine law. We live in a lawful universe, with both physical and spiritual laws prevailing. Evil often stems from attitudes of pride, arrogance, impatience, meanness, and insincerity, and goodness arises from attitudes of humility, curiosity, patience, kindness, and sincerity. Evil moves the individual away from all things Divine; goodness draws us closer to the Divine.
In the spiritual realm, humanity has free will. We can actually “make a gift to God— dedication of the free will to the doing of the will of God.” [UB 112:0.10] Life has many choices. We each choose the values by which we live. Those choices are predicated upon our basic assumptions about existence, as well as upon our basic attitudes toward life.
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(TUB) “The spiritually blind individual who logically follows scientific dictation, social usage, and religious dogma stands in grave danger of sacrificing his moral freedom and losing his spiritual liberty. Such a soul is destined to become an intellectual parrot, a social automaton, and a slave to religious authority.” [UB 132:2.4]
“Goodness is always growing toward new levels of the increasing liberty of moral self-realization and spiritual personality attainment—the discovery of, and identification with, the indwelling Adjuster. An experience is good when it heightens the appreciation of beauty, augments the moral will, enhances the discernment of truth, enlarges the capacity to love and serve one’s fellows, exalts the spiritual ideals, and unifies the supreme human motives of time with the eternal plans of the indwelling Adjuster, all of which lead directly to an increased desire to do the Father’s will, thereby fostering the divine passion to find God and to be more like him.” [UB 132:2.5]
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(HS) “We do whatever the institution declares to be good and we refrain from acts it declares evil, but we pay the price by loss of moral freedom, which is the supreme element in ethical action. We do something similar when we pin our definition slavishly to any written authority; for there is constant need for reinterpretation of the written in terms of life, in which new circumstances call for the application of living principles.
We live in the light of growing truth and life is a constant readjustment to that growing truth… Whatever other test we apply to goodness, this is perhaps the most essential: Is it good in all the relations of life, and in the largest relation of life? That is, is it good as viewed from “the highest and completest end and goal of man?” [CP 232]
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© The Urantia Book goes on to share that following the criterion of traditional formulas, beliefs, and creeds is the basis of the loss of moral freedom. For freedom is a function of personal value-oriented choices, and not some external authority, however praiseworthy. Indeed, such blind loyalty to external authorities is a form of enslavement, imprisonment which creates the conditions of suffering for ourselves and those around us.
In these passages we discover the evolutionary nature of the experience of values, “always growing.” Above, The Urantia Book articulates the criteria of such growth, the test by which to assess the goodness of experience: 1) heightens the appreciation of beauty, 2) augments the moral will, 3) enhances the discernment of truth, 4) enlarges the capacity to love and serve one’s fellows, 5) exalts the spiritual ideals, and 6) unifies the supreme human motives of time with the eternal plans of the indwelling Adjuster . . . fostering the divine passion to find God and to be more like him. In the words of Flewelling, these would represent “the highest and completest end and goal of man!”
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(TUB) “As you ascend the universe scale of creature development, you will find increasing goodness and diminishing evil in perfect accordance with your capacity for goodness- experience and truth-discernment. The ability to entertain error or experience evil will not be fully lost until the ascending human soul achieves final spirit levels.” [UB 132:2.6]
“Goodness is living, relative, always progressing, invariably a personal experience, and everlastingly correlated with the discernment of truth and beauty. Goodness is found in the recognition of the positive truth-values of the spiritual level, which must, in human experience, be contrasted with the negative counterpart—the shadows of potential evil.” [UB 132:2.7]
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(HS) “Now the fact that in actual human definition and achievement goodness is relative rather than absolute has been a stumbling block to many minds. As with Spinoza, the bad has come to be looked upon as not so bad, but as only a necessary shadow of evil.” [CP 232]
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© These passages are helpful with an appreciation of the nature of values, and goodness specifically. Goodness is living, relative, always progressing, and everlastingly correlated with the discernment of truth and beauty. Truth and beauty function in similar fashion. The important point is that although these values are relative, they do not exist in a vacuum; they exist in relation to an absolute standard, God who dwells within each of us, a reality that is only relatively appreciated and comprehended by any particular human being. Without some standard there is nothing to argue that the behavior of a malignant narcissist is any better or worse than the behavior of a moral giant, such as Albert Schweitzer or Mahatma Gandhi. Without an appreciation that there exists an ideal standard, then civilization begins to crumble under its own weight.
This was the position of Socrates as he debated Thrasymachus’ view that “might makes right.” The fact that we experience the relative nature of values does not in any way diminish their existential nature, as absolute. As Socrates says in Plato’s dialogue Protagoras: “If Protagoras is right, and the truth is that things are as they appear to anyone, how can some of us be wise and some of us foolish?”
Is the love of truth and the willingness to go wherever it leads desirable?
Then must humanity grow up in a world where error is present and falsehood possible. [Cf. UB 3:5.10 ]
Is the joy of beauty desirable?
Then must we ever be aware of the presence of ugliness in our lives.
Is a life of goodness and the contentment it brings desirable?
Then must we be ever present to the possibility of evil.
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(TUB) “Until you attain Paradise levels, goodness will always be more of a quest than a possession, more of a goal than an experience of attainment. But even as you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you experience increasing satisfaction in the partial attainment of goodness. The presence of goodness and evil in the world is in itself positive proof of the existence and reality of man’s moral will, the personality, which thus identifies these values and is also able to choose between them.” [UB 132:2.8]
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(HS) “Like truth again, goodness is not so much a possession as it is a quest. We speak both of evil and good as if they had separate and abstract existence apart from moral will. We need to ask ourselves what would become of all the good or evil influences in the world apart from the good or evil acts of moral beings. We find them utterly unsubstantial and illusory.” [CP 236]
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© For the materially-minded individual who thinks of knowledge as a possession, it is natural to consider values, such as truth, beauty, and goodness, in the same way. When one realizes that such values are a quest, not so much a possession, humility is the only natural response. The extent to which such values lie beyond our experience is infinitely more than that which lies within the parameters of our experience, the partial attainment of goodness. The Urantia Book suggests that an essential component of our human experience of faith is the hunger and thirst for righteousness. In that hunger and thirst lies increasing satisfaction, blessedness, and assurance.
The reality of goodness and evil in the world is entirely dependent upon the moral choices of persons. If there were no personalities upon the planet, as there were prior to the advent of creatures exercising moral choice, evil would not exist.
Our moral will is indissolubly linked to the idea of being a person; it provides the only real positive proof of the personality. Choices are made every day by individuals; it is our moral choices that distinguish us as human beings from all other species. With those moral choices we commence our spiritual journey in early childhood; and should we persist in making such choices, that journey shall extend to the shores of Paradise and beyond.
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(TUB) “By the time of the attainment of Paradise the ascending mortal’s capacity for identifying the self with true spirit values has become so enlarged as to result in the attainment of the perfection of the possession of the light of life. Such a perfected spirit personality becomes so wholly, divinely, and spiritually unified with the positive and supreme qualities of goodness, beauty, and truth that there remains no possibility that such a righteous spirit would cast any negative shadow of potential evil when exposed to the searching luminosity of the divine light of the infinite Rulers of Paradise. In all such spirit personalities, goodness is no longer partial, contrastive, and comparative; it has become divinely complete and spiritually replete; it approaches the purity and perfection of the Supreme.” [UB 132:2.9 ]
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(HS) “In the life of Christ we have
the full light of God.” [CP 236]
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© This paragraph from the discourse provides a glimpse of the attainment of Paradise, and the recognition that when the full light of God is shining there remains no possibility that such a righteous spirit would cast any negative shadow of potential evil when exposed to the searching luminosity of the divine light of the Infinite Rulers of Paradise. In other words, absolute perfection represents the sublime goal of mortal existence, beyond mortal imagination, a level of spiritual attainment in which the relative has merged with the absolute light of divine existence, in which our divinity outshines even the possibility of evil.
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(TUB) “The possibility of evil is necessary to moral choosing, but not the actuality thereof. A shadow is only relatively real. Actual evil is not necessary as a personal experience. Potential evil acts equally well as a decision stimulus in the realms of moral progress on the lower levels of spiritual development. Evil becomes a reality of personal experience only when a moral mind makes evil its choice.” [UB 132:2.10]
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(HS) “The possibility of evil may very well be demanded as to moral choice and the existence of moral character, but the possibility of evil cannot be safely held as implying the necessity or the existence of evil, as is so often assumed. Evil may be possible but not chosen, and so long as it is not chosen it does not exist, . . . ” [CP, 237]
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© The final passage of the discourse on “[Good and Evil”] again casts important light on the nature of evil, that it does not exist independent of the possible choice for evil. Evil becomes a reality of personal experience only when a moral mind makes evil its choice. So many mortals dwell in a deep confusion about the nature of evil, thinking that it exists independent of any “moral choosing” in some real manner. The idea of an eternal being of evil, the Devil, as well as an eternal place of damnation for evil doers, Hell, has only contributed to this confusion. Even within traditional religious perspectives the very idea of an eternal Devil or a place of eternal damnation is actually antithetical to the very notion of God’s absolute and eternal goodness and love.
The Urantia Book totally disabuses the illusion of such evil. The face of evil looms so large in the human imagination due to historical events on this planet of a monumental nature, little known to historians, the epochal defaults of trust that have transpired peculiarly on Urantia. The compounding effect of those defaults has given rise to the appearance of evil as literal fact, independent of moral choosing, even an eternal literal fact, such as Hell!
“Any philosophy is to be tested by its definition of reality.”
- Ralph Tyler Flewelling
