© 1995 Jacques Dupont, Pekka Markus, Nigel Nunn, Chuck Van Sant, Kathleen Swadling
© 1995 International Urantia Association (IUA)
| Journal — September 1995 — Index | Revelation Entering the Age of Discretion — IUA 1995 Study Conference |
A QUARTERLY NEWS JOURNAL AND MAGAZINE OF THE IUA
Issue No 3/1995: IUA 1995 Study Conference (1) U.S. National Association of the IUA (2) Meditation (3) Reflections on the Concept of the Supreme (6) The Matter of Leptoquarks (8) Ultimatons (11) Teamwork (13)
¶ In This Issue
- Revelation Entering the Age of Discretion IUA 1995 Study Conference Nashville, 3-7 August
- U.S. National Association of the IUA
- Meditation — Jacques Dupont, France
- Reflections on the Concept of the Supreme — Pekka Markus, Finland
- The Matter of Leptoquarks, or The Management of Matter by the Supreme — Nigel Nunn, Australia
- Ultimatons — Chuck Van Sant, U.S.A.
- The Dynamics of Teamwork — Kathleen Swadling, Australia
¶ Revelation Entering the Age of Discretion IUA 1995 Study Conference Nashville, 3-7 August
The 1995 IUA Study Conference will remain an indelible experience in the memories of the some 200 participants. The spirit of kindredness, friendliness, and concerted effort was almost tangible. The local IUA Chapter, the Southern Kindred Spirits truly managed to make everybody sense that very spirit. The organisers deserve to be congratulated; and a thankful participant was just left wondering, how could any future conference be organised in a manner that would be par with the excellent arrangements at Nashville.
The general motto of the 1995 Study Conference was Revelation Entering the Age of Discretion. A new conference format was experimented and tested. The format is one which requires a great amount of advance planning, preparations and studies, but which also has better chances of making the conference truly a Study Conference, where the focus is on in-depth studies of The URANTIA Book, alongside with the customary socialising and visiting, the joy of renewing old friendships and establishing new ones.
Parallel to the grown-ups’ conference, there was an equally successful Kids’ Conference with a great deal of interesting things to do, to happen and to make happen.
¶ U.S. National Association of the IUA
On Friday night, 4 August 1995, during the Study Conference in Nashville, the representatives of the U.S. IUA Chapters had an organisational meeting. The meeting voted unanimously in favour of launching the necessary proceedings to have a national IUA Association formed. Such a national Association will enable the American Associations to participate on equal footing with other national Associations in the work of the International Service Group, a body which looks after the international activities of the entire International URANTIA Association, the foremost of which is this very publication, the IUA Journal.
Richard Brinkman from Florida was elected the pro-tem president of the group of some ten people who were assigned to carry out the preparatory work to have the U.S. Association formally and officially formed.
After the U.S. national Association has been formed, in six months time, there will be altogether three national IUA Associations in existence: Finland, Australia-New Zealand, and the United States. A project to form an Association for France, Belgium, and possibly the francophone Canada, is also underway.
¶ Meditation
By Jacques Dupont
Recloses, France
1. A Love Dream
What does Prince Charming represent to the young girl? What does the ideal fiancée represent to the young man?
- A sense of belonging
- A perfect understanding of each one’s personality in every phase of its expression; even the most secret.
- Total trust, complete faithfulness; being one.
- A constant availability.
- A sense of total security which brings peace of heart and a blooming of happiness and serenity and so on.
Where do these wonderful yearnings come from?
¶ Reflections on the Concept of the Supreme
By Pekka Markus
Oulu, Finland
The idea that evolution has a goal, even a supertime goal, is not novel with mankind. Among those who have elaborated this idea we may perhaps single out the French scientist and mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). In his view, evolution is a self-spiritizing process that concerns the entire cosmos. He viewed evolution as an axis whereon the “ascending flood of consciousness” comes into touch with and finally becomes embraced by the “descending flood of revelation.” In evolution, God becomes cosmic, and evolution itself turns personal.
In the West there has prevailed an overall tendency to keep terrestrial evolution separated from spiritual evolution, it was not so with Teilhard; his view was that the two are actually one. He passionately glorifies matter, while he sees it at every stage to be impregnated with spirit. The outward manifestation of the growth of consciousness, in the opinion of Teilhard, is matter which is in the process of becoming structurally organized and constantly more complex. The terminal point of evolution is what he calls the Omega point, which consequently is the point where evolution becomes a thing of the past. The Omega point is a centre exercising independent influence, and under this influence the personalization of the universe and the personalizations of its component parts reach their culmination. Being a Christian, Teilhard identifies the Omega point with Christ the Total.
It may be that Teilhard’s ideas have for some readers of The URANTIA Book served as a kind of propedeutic course to the ideas on the Supreme, the way these ideas are presented in the book. Teilhard’s approach to the Total is, in a way, up from below, The URANTIA Book’s approach is down from above instead. The first premise in putting these concepts and descriptions into test is faith, for through faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God; the visible emerged from the invisible. Heb. 11:3.
¶ The Matter of Leptoquarks, or The Management of Matter by the Supreme
By Nigel Nunn
Canberra, Australia
How can the finite unfold when the absonite is already there?
Why are the seven superuniverses kept separate from each other?
And it is persons, all the way down.
Let us consider the possibility that we already have at hand enough information and revelation to begin making sense of the data that the twentieth century has so far uncovered in our investigations in the nature of matter.
The story so far…
Theory and experiment have converged to the standard model, as concerns mankind’s investigations into the nature of matter. This presents matter as consisting of various arrangements of leptons and quarks; the members of the electron/neutrino families are all called leptons, while the hadrons (protons, neutrons, mesons, etc.) are considered to be triples and doubles of quarks.
So what have we seen? What have our accelerators revealed?
¶ Ultimatons
By Chuck Van Sant
Bertlesville, Oklahoma, U.S.A.
One of the most difficult sections of The URANTIA Book is Paper 42: Energy-Mind and Matter. But it is amazing how simple its basic message is, once the reader is thoroughly familiar with it, and thoroughly familiar with some of the literature of particle physics.
It is not the content that is difficult but the form, for it is not a scholarly discourse which proves itself through logic, but a mosaic designed to conceal as much as to demonstrate. (It seems that everything good, from the central universe down to Eden, has a wall around it.)
The first and perhaps the most instructive statement on subatomic structure in the paper is that energy (matter) is … fashioned after the similitude of the three Gods embraced in one, as they function at the headquarters of the universe of universes. UB 42:1.6. In other words, each subatomic particle, whether proton, neutron, or electron, is structured on the order of the three concentric circles.
The second rather astounding statement in the Paper is that the ultimaton is the one hundredth part of the electron. If the electron is composed of 100 ultimatons, organized on the order of the three concentric circles, in what way are they distributed? How many rings are there, and how many ultimatons are to be found in each ring?
¶ The Dynamics of Teamwork
“What I say, is the will of God, and you must be in collusion with Caligastia, one of Caligastia’s agents if you are against me.” This kind of argumentation is not uncommon among the readers of The URANTIA Book. But is it justified? This article endeavours to address this question.
On page 312 The URANTIA Book tells us that [o]ne of the most important lessons to be learned during your mortal career is teamwork. UB 28:5.14. So many of our activities on this world rely on the successful interaction with our fellows. So many decisions made by groups, committees, institutions, councils and governments etc. impact on the lives of individuals throughout the world.
How many of us have been thrown together with a group of people with whom we have had to work through a problem and come to a decision? It may be work-related, familyrelated, community-related, or URANTIA Book-related. Whatever the reason, the exercise will no doubt be one of value as we will be learning important lessons in teamwork.
How many teams break down? How many people fall out with one another because the individuals within the team have not been good team players? I would like to discuss the dynamics of teamwork in the hope of finding some answers that may help us to understand what it takes to interact with our fellows and remain amicable with one another during and after the process. I would like to attempt to find the key to the truth that it is the unity of spirit, not the uniformity of thought which is the essential ingredient for the Brotherhood of Mankind to become a living reality. How do we remain brothers and sisters in the spirit while we hold differing points of view over issues we feel strongly about?
International URANTIA Association Journal
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© 1995 International URANTIA Association
| Journal — September 1995 — Index | Revelation Entering the Age of Discretion — IUA 1995 Study Conference |