© 2000 Irwin Ginsburgh, Ph.D.
© 2000 The Urantia Book Fellowship
This paper discusses seven discoveries predicted by The Urantia Book, and eighteen more that are currently under development. This is quite miraculous, and beyond the capabilities of humans, especially since many of the discoveries are new and not extensions of known science.
The Urantia Book contains about 100 pages of scientific information that was revealed by the year 1935. Some of this information disagreed with science’s concepts at the time. Sixty years later, some of this originally conflicting information now agrees with science’s changed concepts, and other information still does not agree. Some new concepts were presented in The Urantia Book long before scientists knew about them… Theories about these subjects evolve slowly as science matures, and science develops needed new concepts. These changes have brought about the new agreement between science and The Urantia Book, and the now agreeing Urantia information can be considered to have been predictions.
The authors considered about twenty-five predictions that are in their areas of expertise or interest, but there are many others in the book. Our scientists still have not developed theories that correspond with some of the other information in the book. There is a possibility that in the future, more of this information could turn out to agree with science. If this happens, it may give the scientific part of The Urantia Book an authenticity that will enhance the believability of the rest of the book. The authors examine more than twenty-five scientific predictions in The Urantia Book, compare them with science’s versions, see how much agreement we can find, and how much more we can anticipate. There was risk for the compilers of The Urantia Book to make these predictions, because if they turned out to be wrong, it would reflect on the authenticity of the rest of the book. Those book predictions that now agree or partly agree with science can be considered remarkable. Other predictions have yet to agree, but this is to be expected of a book with a very long life. More prediction analysis is warranted in the future, as is more detailed study of individual predictions.
In all, seven predictions have come true, and more than a dozen more are being studied. This is a remarkable achievement and implies interesting things about the authenticity of The Urantia Book. How should we take advantage of these predictions? How should we use them to recruit more readers to The Urantia Book? The questions are pregnant with possibilities!
After studying The Urantia Book, one must deal with a personal question: Is the book completely correct, partially so, or wrong? Of course, one could take it all on faith and believe it completely. To help make this choice, we will examine some of the book’s scientific information. The scientific information in the book that we will consider was either unknown to earth science in 1955 or differed from information generally accepted by earth science in 1955 (year the book was published). Some of this information now agrees with science’s revised concepts, and can be considered predictions of what science would discover after 1955. We will examine these predictions and see how they now agree with science. These new agreements can enhance the believability of the rest of The Urantia Book because some of the compilers of the science papers have also compiled other papers. However, we must remember that presently, science only deals with the physical world, while the book deals with physical, spirit, mind and other matters.
Much of the scientific information in the book agreed with our science in 1955, but some differed. Where they differed, the subjects cover fundamental matters such as creation of the universe, creation of our world, creation of life, fundamentals of energy, etc. Many of these subjects cannot be tested in a laboratory. Science’s theories about such matters are designed to explain the available evidence. Historically, some theories change with time as science matures, and new data become available. Some historians of science claim [1] that new scientific truths triumph when their opponents die, and younger scientists are not personally involved with the existing theories. Those 1955 disagreements, which now agree with science’s changed theories, provide a unique way of testing the validity of the scientific part of The Urantia Book. The remaining conflicts may agree in the future, and these could provide additional confirmation of the scientific part of the book. The science part of the manuscript was available by 1935, but changes could have been made until 1955 [2]. We did use a date of 1955 for book predictions, and considered discoveries made after 1955, the year the book was published.
The Urantia Book warns of the limitation of the English language for transmitting some ideas, and these ideas may not have gotten through clearly or correctly. In addition, there are a number of compilers of the book, and some may be more skillful at revelation than others, especially in dealing with information that is unknown. In dealing with future events, the scientific names that will be used in the future may be different, and this may hinder identification. For example, the book discusses “continental drift” on the earth’s surface, while science now talks of “plate tectonics”; but there is no problem with identification in this case. The book clearly states there is a future time limitation to the information that can be revealed, and information can only be provided if we will soon discover it ourselves. We are not told how soon. This is an understandable restriction on revelation, because there are cases on earth where an advanced culture introduced advanced technology to a less developed culture; and this usually harmed or destroyed the less developed culture.
Science may have a need for a new theory or improvements to an existing theory, usually because the existing theory disagrees with some new measurement. The new theory starts out as an idea in someone’s mind. We do not know where the idea came from! The idea is changed, expanded, modified, etc., until it appears to fill the necessary data requirements. When the theory is completed and tested, it is published in science journals; scientists in the field learn about it, and the publication date is usually considered as the discovery date. Then it has to pass the acid test of experimental verification and re-verification by other scientists in the field who compare the old and the new theories and informally decide which best explains the most data. There may be several years between conception and verification. Even before publication, the idea may be discussed with other experts in the field, and the new information is known to this small group of experts. We will use the publication date as the discovery date, even though the concept may have been known by a small group before this. Members of this group might have been unconscious sources of information for The Urantia Book’s compilers. We will also present major criticism of some predictions, since it exists in the real world and makes for a more balanced presentation. Science allows for improvements and additions to its theories, and these changes have given rise to many of the scientific predictions in The Urantia Book.
Much of our material is science that has been developed after 1955. There are three major categories for the predictions - (I) those that disagreed with science in 1955, (II) those that were unknown to science in 1955 and (III) those now being developed. Most of the material in the three categories involves science that has been developed within the authors’ lifetimes.
The I and II categories cover a wide range of subjects. The seven predictions of categories I and II can be considered remarkable. These predictions disagreed with or were unknown to science in 1955, Since then, science has improved or found new theories and created the agreement. Critics will say that some concepts were known by 1955 by a few experts in each field; But the information was not generally known at that time and was unproven; and there was no assurance that the work would succeed. There was a risk in revealing new information if it wasn’t true. This would affect the believability of the rest of the information in The Urantia Book. Category II is even more remarkable, since these items were unknown to science in 1955. There is another category of interest, a list of predictions that have not yet come true - category III but some are in development. It will be interesting to see how many of these come true in the future.
The predictions will be listed in the three categories, and there will be a brief discussion of each prediction.
There is much material in The Urantia Book which agrees with our science. These cannot be used as predictions. However, there are other subjects which did not agree with our science in 1955, and some of these can be used as predictions. (Parentheses show the field of science and The Urantia Book page number). Historic scientific information is available in any good modern encyclopedia.
End of Cretaceous period and death of the dinosaurs. (Geology, UB 60:3) The Urantia Book claims that the Cretaceous period ended with one of the greatest volcanic magma flows of all time; it covered several continents. Science originally agreed with this; but late in the twentieth century, science found a tantalizing new solution to the problem. The cretaceous period supposedly ended when a ten mile diameter meteorite plunged into the Gulf of Mexico, raised a long lived dust and vapor cloud that obscured the sun, wiped out much plant life in the food chain, and led to the death of many animal species including the dinosaurs. The crucial clue was a thin layer of the metallic element iridium at the top of the cretaceous layer. Iridium has been found in a few meteorites; there is little at the earth’s surface but there are substantial amounts in deep magmas in the earth which could come to the surface during massive magma flows. The meteorite theory was the kind of story that popularizers of science could discuss in magazines and newspapers (Sunday supplement science). It became very popular, but in recent years the meteorite theory is having problems (1) and the magma theory is coming back even though a large meteoric crater has been found in the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. The question is which disaster did the most damage to the food chain?
Plate Tectonics or Continental Drift (Geology, UB 57:8.23, UB 58:4.3). The book says that the continents drift slowly over the surface of the earth (several inches per year.) This was proposed in the early years of the twentieth century and had not been proved by 1955. However, a look at the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa readily shows the ancient fit of the two continents. But science requires proof, and proof came in 1969 by matching subsurface earth layers on the two separated continents and finding a very long sectioned north-south crack in the ocean floor between the continents. Another prediction essentially came true even if science calls this plate tectonics.
Dark matter in the universe. The visible matter that we see in the sky is now thought to be a minor fraction (less than 5%) of the mass (stuff) in the universe. The rest of the mass is not visible, and is referred to as dark matter. It is needed for its gravitational attraction to keep rotating galaxies from tearing themselves apart. The first clue came in the thirties, but it was ignored by astronomers for decades. Recent measurements made on a large number of stars in the large Magellanic Cloud showed that some stars would disappear for a short time; this clearly implied that some dark matter moved in front of the missing star. The nature of the dark matter is not precisely known. The Urantia Book calls this subject the dark islands of space, and says that they are mostly dead suns. Science has to explain why there are so many dead suns.
Large scale structure of the universe. In the thirties, the astronomy books said that galaxies are uniformly distributed throughout space. This was based on the relatively short distances that telescopes were able to see. Modern long-range telescopes can peer at matter that is thought to be billions of light years (distance light travels in one year, about 6 trillion miles) away. Studies of relative motions of distant galaxies beyond the Virgo constellation show what seems to be a massive gravity center (Virgo Cluster) that is about 50 million light years away and attracts hundreds of galaxies. This structure tends to be somewhat flattened. The Milky Way is remote from the center of this structure; the entire structure is called the Virgo supercluster. This sounds like a major sector discussed in The Urantia Book. Astronomers have even found a larger structure (the Great Attractor) which could be the center of our superuniverse. This is a subject that science only recently discovered. The Urantia Book was clearly years ahead of its time. (See Fellowship Herald, Vol. 2, #1, 1999 -2000 for detailed information.)
DNA for future development of the human race (Genetics UB 65:3) The Urantia Book says the human race has developed slowly by evolution, and by some crossbreeding with a pair of racial uplifters, Adam and Eve. The book also says that future human development will come from technical developments, rather than evolution. Since we are starting to understand the molecular structure of human DNA, it is highly likely that this will be the technology used.
Origin of DNA on Urantia (Biochemistry, P. UB 36:1) Science claims to have found that simple, single cell life may have started here more than 3 billion years ago: but there was little evolution for almost 3 billion years. Nothing much changed until DNA showed up in living cells about 550 million years ago. This is when evolution started! The question is “Where did the DNA come from?” Scientists have found no trace of it here before 550 million years ago, have been unable to make it from scratch rather than copy it in the laboratory, and are seriously exploring the possibility that it may have accidentally arrived here from outer space perhaps on a meteor. The Urantia Book also says that it came here about 550 million years ago from outer space; but DNA life was deliberately implanted in three salt water locations on Urantia by spirit beings called life carriers. Two implantations were successful and developed into all the life forms on our planet, Urantia.
Large scale structure of the universe is planar. (UB 11:6) Recent measurements of the ancient infrared radiation field are very uniform; this is indicative of a planar structure. Any curved structure would introduce non-uniformities. The Urantia Book says that the planar structure thickens at the outer edge. It is difficult to justify a flat universe coming from a Big Bang which expands in all directions.
Creation of the Sun and planets (Cosmology, Stellar Physics, UB 57:1). Science says that the sun was created when an enormous cloud of hydrogen gas contracted by gravity and heated itself by gas compression until it was hot enough to become a solar furnace (ten million degrees C). The book says the same thing except that there were more than one hundred thousand other suns that were also created from the same enormous Andronover nebula. Their creation took about two billion years, and they were ejected from the nebula after formation. The aftereffects of this energy disturbance are being studied and used by science to justify the Big Bang theory. Science does not know about the other hundred thousand suns or the nebula or the ejection of suns from the nebula.
But the sun was a solitary body, no planets. However another nebula passed “nearby” and pulled enough matter out of the sun to form all the planets and more. This took about half a million years. Much of the matter was recaptured by the sun, but the remnant formed the planets of the solar system. The large planets formed first, then the smaller ones. This concept explains why the plane of the planets is tilted seven degrees from being perpendicular to the axis of the sun. Science talks of a similar event, but the disk of matter that formed the planets was formed at the same time as the sun. In this case, the plane of the planets should be perpendicular to the sun’s axis and it is not.
Creation of matter and energy. (Cosmology, Physics, UB 3:4.2, UB 4:1, UB 42:1) The book says that energy is continuously being created in one central place, is downgraded and transferred by energy circuits throughout the universe; and that matter is being created from energy in many places especially beyond the seven superuniverses . Science has a discredited theory about continuous creation, but the accepted theory today is that all the energy in our universe was created ten to fifteen billion years ago in 'an instant and in one place. Nothing is said about the source of the energy, even though the conservation of energy is a major principle of physics. This event is explained by the Big Bang theory. This energy has been cooling and spreading out ever since, and has created the entire universe. Interestingly, some of the newer experimental results are raising questions about the Big Bang. The Urantia Book does speak of an enormous energy disturbance in our part of the universe six to eight billion years ago, which could have been a local big bang; whose aftereffects could be assumed to be remnants from a Big Bang. The Urantia Book does not talk about a Big Bang.
Energy circuits of space. (UB 15:9) If there was no Big Bang, what is the source of the energy to operate the universe? The Urantia Book talks of a central energy source and energy circuits to distribute the energy throughout the universe. The energy circuits go from the central Source to the major mass centers, superuniverses, and then down to smaller mass structures to finally arrive at the individual stars. The energy circuits also downgrade the energy so that the energy from our sun is the physical energy our life system is able to use.
Breakup of the fifth planet from the sun. (Astronomy, Cosmology, UB 57:6.5). The book says that the fifth planet from the sun was slowly attracted by the gravity of the giant sixth planet, Jupiter. When it was close enough, Jupiter’s gravity pulled the fifth planet apart to create the band of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. Science now says there never was a fifth planet, and that the asteroids are pieces of space matter (planetesimals) that never formed a planet. The Earth Chronicles [3] claim that a planetary collision shattered the fifth planet and created the asteroids.
| Number of Inhabited | Urantia Book Name | Scientific Name Worlds |
|---|---|---|
| I world, ours | Urantia | Earth |
| 1,000 or less | system | visible constellation |
| 100,000 | constellation | local neighborhood |
| 10 Million | local universe | |
| 1 Billion | minor sector | Milky Way, galaxy |
| 100 Billion | major sector | cluster of galaxies |
| 1 Trillion | superuniverse | supercluster |
| 7 Trillion | grand universe | Universe |
Organization of matter into superuniverses. (Astronomy, UB 15:2). The book describes the organization of matter in a superuniverse. Science knows about some of this information, but does not know it all. In fact, science does not yet know about superuniverses. The book says that science will discover some of this information soon. The above table compares the equivalent information between science and The Urantia Book. The first column lists the book criteria for the number of inhabited worlds in various parts of a superuniverse. The other columns are self-explanatory, although the scientific name may not match The Urantia Book name. There is a question as to whether the Milky Way galaxy is a local universe or a minor sector of a superuniverse, but we think that The Urantia Book seems to imply it is a minor sector.
The Urantia Book implies that most stars do not have planets, and that is why the number of inhabited worlds is much less than the number of suns. Our guess is that there is one inhabited world for 100 stars of all types. (See Fellowship Herald, Vol. 2, #1, 1999 -2000)
Location of seven superuniverses in the grand universe. (Astronomy, UB 15:1, UB 15:2) The book describes the seven superuniverses circling around a central universe in a planar elliptic ring that thickens at the outer edges. It also says that science has almost found superuniverse number seven and will find the rest soon. In 1935, science thought that galaxies were uniformly distributed throughout space instead of in a thick “pancake”. The existence of large voids between some galaxies and the gravity clustering of galaxies have only recently been discovered. This also has a chance of coming true.
Punctuated evolution. Fossil evidence is showing that some species appear almost “instantly” instead of evolving slowly. But fossil evidence does not tell how short a time “instantly” represents. This is becoming accepted among evolutionists with the understanding that instantly can be many generations. The Urantia Book discusses several of these rapid appearances in the section on evolution of life. The book talks of the appearance of a major human modification in one generation. This concept may become more accepted as time passes, and this prediction could be starting to come true.
The origin of the sunspot cycle. (Astronomy, UB 41:3.8, UB 57:5.2), The book says that our eleven-year sunspot cycle is a very slow remnant of the short-term (3.5 day) Cepheid variable phase of the sun. (The Cepheid phase of a star is a cyclic variation of the brightness of a star, and the frequency of the variation and the brightness are related.) Although science does not make the above claim, it is plausible. A study would require accurate brightness measurements of very long-term low brightness Cepheid variable stars and precise, space based, long-term measurements of the variations in the sun’s brightness. Since the eleven-year sunspot cycle shows a variation in the number of dark sunspots, these dark sunspots might reduce the sun’s light emission.
Twelve planets in our solar system. (Astronomy, UB 57:5.7). While science knows of nine planets and the remnants or pre-planetesimals of a tenth, the book says there are twelve planets in the sun’s family, with five beyond Saturn. Astronomers are presently looking for other outer planets by watching for very small changes in motions of the known outer planets, which could be caused by the gravity of two faraway planets. The two space probes that are traveling beyond Pluto, Pioneer 10 and 11, are also being watched for small changes that might be caused by the gravity of another planet or two. However if the two planets were in parts of their orbits far away from the space probes, they would have little effect.
Two unknown types of energy. (Physics, UB 42:4.2, UB 42:8.1). The book discusses all the types of electromagnetic radiation known to science. It also discusses two other types of high-energy radiation that science does not know. One is called infraultimatonic rays and is involved in the first stage of created energy. The other is called ultimatonic rays and involves the conversion of energy to ultimaton particles (see sixteenth prediction of this section). Some of the experimental work with high-energy machines may lead to discovery of these rays.
Cause of wave action of light. (Physics, UB 41:5.7). The book and science say that light consists of particles; but The Urantia Book says another energy, unknown on earth, acting on the light, causes the particles to bunch together in a wavelike fashion. Science knows that light has wave and particle properties, but does not know why the wave properties exist.
Speed greater than the speed of light. (Physics, Theology, UB 23:3.2). Science maintains that a physical body cannot move faster than the speed of light. The book discusses speeds faster than the speed of light, but it may be talking about spirit matter rather than physical. It might be considering matter that is unaffected by linear (conventional) gravity.
Two kinds of gravity. (Physics, UB 11:8). Science is familiar with the gravitational attraction between two physical bodies, but it does not understand the cause. The book calls this linear gravity. It also talks about radial gravity, which apparently works between the central universe and certain other bodies, such as free ultimatons, (item 16) and between the central universe and energy. Does this mean that ultimatons are involved in generating a linear gravity field? Science has conducted very difficult experiments to see if linear gravity affects light energy. It does, but there may be enough of a discrepancy to account for another type of gravity.
Anti-gravity. (Physics, UB 9:3). The book discusses antigravity and some particles that are affected by it. Science speculates that anti-gravity may exist, but has few ideas about it.
The major energy of space. (Physics, UB 42:1). The book says that light and electricity are not the major energies of space. Apparently neither is gravity. The book said that science did not know about it in 1955. This energy apparently flows through space in circuits. Moreover, science still does not know about energy circuits.
The ultimaton particle. (Physics, UB 41:9, UB 42:1.2, UB 42:3, UB 42:4, UB 42:6). The book discusses the fundamental particle, the ultimaton. This is the first mass particle that is created from energy. One hundred slowed down ultimatons make up an electron, but they do not use orbits of motion as electrons do; ultimatons cluster. Perhaps some kind of shell structure is involved. Science has no idea that electrons are made up of smaller particles. Ultimaton speeds might exceed the speed of light because ultimatons are not affected by linear gravity.
Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon transition. (Anthropology, UB 80:1). Science is aware that there was a relatively rapid change from Neanderthal type of humans to Cro-Magnon or modern man about 35,000 years ago. Science does not know why this happened so quickly, since slow evolution will not account for such a quick transition The book says that the descendants of superior extraterrestrials, namely Adam and Eve, crossbred with indigenous stone age earth people to create some modern men, who wiped out the Neanderthals. The Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnon had existed along side each other for thousands of years. Something happened to cause this change.
Life of an ordinary star. (Stellar Physics, UB 15:6, UB 41:9). The book says that an ordinary star, like the sun, can shine for billions of years. Science also calculates that stars can generate enough energy to shine for billions of years. But the book says stars that are in the mainstream of a space energy circuit can acquire more energy and shine indefinitely. On UB 15:6.9, the book claims such star life of trillions of years. The existence of a special space energy flow is unknown to science, as is the existence of flow channels for this energy.
Our type of life. (UB 58:2) Our type of life requires very special conditions on the earth [2:1]. Things such as temperature, an atmosphere with appropriate chemistry and pressure, eyes with sensitivity matched to the light emitted by the sun, make life possible for creatures such as us. The book talks of fifty thousand of these conditions. The probability for accidental origin of life is extremely small.
Summary: The two dozen discussed predictions involve subjects that science developed or discovered after 1955, Most of these predictions come from the following Urantia papers: 12, The Universe of Universes; 15, The Seven Superuniverses; 41, Physical Aspects of the Local Universe; 42, Energy - Mind and Matter; 57, Origin of Urantia; 58, Life Establishment on Urantia. A tabulation of results follows:
The predictions that have been analyzed in this chapter are the easiest for the authors to judge. They cover the subjects of physics, cosmology, energy, etc. There are more analyses that can be done by experts in other fields, and in later years when more predictions may have come true. Category I can be considered remarkable for 1955. This information disagreed with science in 1955, but 45 years later there is agreement because of changes in the theories of science.
However, since the book was published in 1955, we are looking for subjects which changed after that date. These predictions are obviously in accord with The Urantia Book requirement that revelation be limited to information we will discover in the near future. This shows that some of the advanced technical information in The Urantia Book is correct. The compilers had access to information that was unknown to the human mind in 1955. This is further shown by category II which are predictions that science did not know in 1955. In addition, the information comes from a number of compilers and covers a number of fields of science. The remarkable predictions of this category make it easier to believe some of the other material in the book. The compilers of some of the science papers also compiled other papers. Category III has predictions that are still unknown to science, but many of these are fundamental subjects, and scientific data are often quite sparse. This does not mean that category III predictions are wrong. We will have to wait and see which predictions come true.
The book says that personal knowledge of God comes through the spirit, and science now cannot help with that. Science allows one to peek over God’s shoulder and see how part of His universe works, but one does not find a personal God in science. What is the significance of these predictions? Why go to all the trouble? Especially since error would risk the believability of the rest of the book. This appears to be a deliberate effort to teach us some advanced science. Perhaps it was in answer to questions from the Forum members. Scientists will not believe The Urantia Book because they must find the truth for themselves and prove it! But there may be some interesting clues about where to look.
Some of the information is about very fundamental science. We know very little about fundamental science such as electric charge, gravity, fundamental particles and the source of energy in the universe. The Urantia Book does discuss some of these matters. There are other subjects that are discussed in the book that may be amenable to prediction analysis. These include material such as spirit, mind, the Mystery Monitor, social science, etc. These should be combed to try to find objective material that could be new or predictive. Most likely, such information will be subjective, and this kind of material is very difficult to substantiate. Nevertheless, the results could be of great interest to other readers. However, even if such predictions are found, they would just make part of the book easier to believe. They would not necessarily prove the correctness of other parts of the book.
Revelation may not be absolute truth but is matched to the needs and understanding of those who receive it. It may not completely cover a subject, and could even omit major parts of a subject. It will not provide information that will become useful far in the future. Analysis of the predictions has presented an interesting view of the revealed science. This could be helpful to all readers, since it adds the factor of revelatory truth to some of the scientific material in the book, and implies that the rest of the book is more believable. One final piece of advice. Some help in understanding The Urantia Book are repetition, thinking, and not reading the book sequentially. Start and read what you can understand; then go back and study the other parts.
Irwin Ginsburgh is a Ph.D. physicist. His book, First Man! The Adam, was published by Simon and Schuster. Among the letters he received from readers, there were several that suggested he read The Urantia Book. This is how, he says, the book “found” him. He has been a reader for twenty years, and writes commentary on science and The Urantia Book.
Root and Bernstein.(1989). Discovering. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. ↩︎
Ross, H, Cosmos and the Creator (1995) Navpress, Colorado Springs, Co. ↩︎ ↩︎
Sirchin, Zecharia. The Earth Chronicles, 5 vols, Avon Books. New York, N.Y. This is a new interpretation of ancient sumerian texts with some clues from twentieth century science. ↩︎