© 2022 James Perry
© 2022 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Dr. James Perry
About the author:
Dr. James Perry is a retired physician. He has been a book student since 1977 and continues to lead a bimonthly study group in his home since 1982. Dr. Perry was the first Vice President of UAUS. He has held several positions in the local UAUS Virginia-Carolina Readers Association, including President and Vice President. He continues to serve as Membership Chair of the Virginia-Carolina Readers Association (VCR).
He has given over 45 presentations, including plenary presentations, at local and international conferences. Dr. Perry has published articles in various Urantia journals and newsletters. He resides in Raleigh, NC, with his wife of 55 years, Marion Perry, who is also a longtime student of Revelation.
Why would a loving God, a spiritual Father who loves each of His children equally, create races unequal in intellectual and spiritual potential?
When attempting to understand a human or divine problem—for example, why the human races on Urantia were created unequally—the factors of origin, current status, and destiny must be considered to arrive at a correct and accurate assessment. One-dimensional thinking involves reacting emotionally to a problem, while two-dimensional thinking involves correlating past and present or present and future aspects of the problem to understand it. Both approaches ignore the inertial drag of the past and the unintended future consequences of these problems that are not always helpful. True problem solving requires three-dimensional thinking for understanding based on truth—the correlation between past, present, and future.
Now that we have laid the foundation for an analysis of the race problem, there are a few other questions to consider. The first concerns whether The Urantia Book is a true revelation. It claims to have been written by a group of divine bringers whose authority is derived from the highest rulers of the superuniverse—the Ancients of Days. If one decides that the book is not a divine revelation, the question of race becomes moot. Conversely, if one believes that the revelation is truly divine, one can begin to understand the wisdom of creating genetically different races.
¶ Origin
We are informed that the creation of colored races allows for the expression of positive potentials which otherwise could not be expressed, provided these races can be “upgraded” by the higher Adamic life plasma.
As the progeny of Adam and Eve continue to increase and this higher plasma is infused into the evolutionary human races that have been purged of their animal stock, there gradually occurs a blending and uplifting of the evolutionary races until eventually there is only one race, a race that incorporates the best of the evolutionary races combined with the higher plasma of Adam and Eve. The world languages gradually merge into one language and religions eventually merge into one faith. A world government arises and war becomes a relic of the past. This is the era of light and life that the wisdom of God has manifested. This was/is the divine plan for evolution on the material worlds.
But Urantia is an experimental planet. On every 10th planet in the planetary series, the Life Carriers are granted greater discretion in the life implantation process. Their efforts have had many positive effects, including the appearance of six evolutionary races in one family (red, yellow, blue, orange, green, and indigo). These colored evolutionary races were vastly superior to the Andonic race from which they came. There were spiritual and intellectual variations among the six evolutionary races, with the red man being able to function most efficiently, the indigo man least.
A planetary ruler, Caligastia, was assigned to the planet to guide and oversee the growth and development of the human race; however, something went terribly wrong. Caligastia joined Lucifer’s rebellion and plunged the nascent human society into turmoil and chaos. This brought the progression of primitive society’s development to a halt, meaning that the degenerate strains of all races were not eliminated, as was originally intended.
Nevertheless, the primitive races continued to evolve and eventually reached the pinnacle of biological development, which marked the arrival of Adam and Eve. Among the many functions of this Material Son and Daughter, one of the most important is to biologically uplift all the indigenous races of a planet over a given period of time.
African-American readers are often dismayed to read that their race is the least progressive of all races. This has led many novice readers to immediately dismiss The Urantia Book as racist.
In due time Adam and Eve produced a continuous stream of offspring on Urantia who were eventually to mate with the evolutionary human races. But before the required number of offspring could be produced, Adam and Eve failed in their duty by prematurely mixing their superior genetic material with the evolutionary races. This act violated the divine plan and immediately rendered the once supermortal pair mortal. Thus ended the continuous supply of the pair’s superior genetic plasm.
The children of Adam and Eve who were old enough to do so were given the choice to remain on the planet or leave. Many chose to leave, while minor children were removed from the planet and became wards of the Most Highs.
The racial problems of Urantia today stem directly from the failure of the divine plan by Adam and Eve. The degenerate strains were not eliminated from the human races, and the inadequate amount of higher plasma left by Adam and Eve led to an uneven and inadequate distribution of the higher Adamic genetic material to all races, resulting in the varying spiritual and intellectual potentials seen among all races today.
¶ Here
We are taught that no race in the world today is pure. The advanced colored races have only two early and representative races remaining.
There remains the “black man” and the “yellow man”. And yet, these two races are not pure either: they are mixed with peoples of color who have now disappeared.
We can now consider a past-present analysis and a present-future analysis of current racial problems, particularly with regard to the indigo race.
¶ Analysis of the past and present
We are taught that the Indigo race received the least amount of Adamic inheritance due to their geographical location on the planet, but they did receive some trace amounts. This small amount of genetic uplift, combined with inheritance factors from the Green and Orange races, races that annihilated each other long ago, made up the bulk of the supermortal genetics that the Indigo race received up until the age of slavery.
In the United States, slavery was abolished as part of a political strategy to win the Civil War. During this sad chapter in American history, countless acts of injustice were perpetrated against African Americans. Among these, we can cite the sexual abuse of women which resulted in the transmission of some diluted Adamic heritage, but not enough to change racial identification.
After freeing African Americans from slavery, no political solution was ever put in place to resolve the inevitable conflicts resulting from two distinct cultures (one very progressive and the other decidedly backward) that suddenly had to learn to coexist fairly and equitably. These racial differences have, in the aggregate, resulted in the systemic discrimination of the African American race and other peoples of color.
The African American race is considered by many whites to be an inferior race, according to their intellectual and cultural standards. And some white supremacist groups are said to use the so-called “race papers” of the Urantia Revelation as evidence to support systemic racism. Other mainstream groups view the African American race as simply disadvantaged, a status that can be improved through education.
Prevention of unfair discrimination and progressive equality of opportunity will go a long way toward ending labels of inferiority. To some extent, these measures are now instituted by society at large for all minority groups in the United States. Political remedies such as voting rights laws and anti-discrimination laws have been instituted (although they are continually contested by many in the dominant culture), and there is growing awareness and calls to vigorously demonstrate against and protest discriminatory practices.
¶ Present-future analysis
Let us now consider the present-future aspect of the race problem. The Urantia revelation has continued to spread across the planet since its initial publication. More and more people are becoming acquainted with it, particularly a small segment of African-American readers.
African-American readers are often dismayed to read that their race is the least progressive of all races. This has led many curious readers to immediately dismiss The Urantia Book as racist. And this rejection occurs even though the book clearly states that God loves all of His children individually and equally. This creates an emotional and intellectual crisis in the minds of these readers—should the revelation be accepted or rejected? How is this dichotomy to be resolved in the minds of these and other readers?
First, The Urantia Book is not intended for the present age but for the one that follows it. It has been made available now to those who have the intellectual and spiritual qualifications and the financial means to guide it through this present dispensation.
Focusing on racial inequalities can only lead to continued conflict and despair; focusing on the potential spiritual values embedded in unequal races can lead to the manifestation of altruistic values and an increased production of spiritual fruit.
Second, Revelation is a cosmic manual designed to educate truth seekers who can become cosmic-minded citizens and teachers. These forward-looking individuals should serve as the yeast for the flower of cosmic-minded individuals to blossom into cosmic citizens. Rather than cherry-picking which aspects of Revelation to ignore or minimize, Revelators believe it is wise to study the entire Revelation from beginning to end. Only in this way can we appreciate the wisdom gained from past, present, and future assessments of the ascension plan. A study of Revelation from beginning to end yields many insights that would otherwise remain undiscovered if certain topics were ignored, minimized, or selected.
It takes spiritual insight to understand how God can love all His children equally and yet create—during the first rung of life on the material worlds—evolutionary races unequal in intellectual and spiritual potential.
God is law and God is love. God is a spiritual Father to the individual, and this Father-child relationship is characterized by personal qualities such as love, grace, and mercy. His spiritual evolution begins when he develops a soul, and he continues to evolve until he reaches spiritual perfection, becoming perfect in his sphere as the heavenly Father is perfect in His. (This is vertical evolution).
As a member of the group, the individual is subject to the laws of God. God’s evolutionary law is characterized by the survival of the fittest, at least until the members of the group become more spiritualized. (This is horizontal evolution).
The individual receives God’s love; but as a member of the group, he is subject to God’s laws. With God’s love enshrined in his soul and God’s law in his mind, he is ready to render to God the things of God and to Caesar the things of Caesar.
Without this enlightenment, African Americans as a group may continue to struggle against The Urantia Book as divine revelation.
¶ Destiny.
The present-future analysis of a problem by itself does not adequately address the essential curvature of truth—the elliptical nature of reality, which never unfolds in a straight line. The future analysis of a problem is even more short-sighted because it ignores the curvature of reality; it assumes that events will unfold in a linear fashion.
By correlating the three phases of reality, actual and potential, we can arrive at a satisfactory assessment of the problem. Having unified the love of God with the law of God, taking into account past, present and future perspectives, we arrive at the following analysis: The disaffection of Caligastia and the Adamic failure have seriously delayed the divine plan of creating a race.
Evil, sin and iniquity have delayed the divine plan but will not prevent its completion. In Paradise, where time does not exist, the divine plan is already complete and perfect. All races are designed to contribute to the whole. The unified parts can never represent the whole, and the whole is that which exists in eternity.
It may take many thousands of years before the parts unify, but it will happen. The superior genes scattered among the races existing today will eventually express themselves in a magnificent demonstration of the evolutionary counterpart of the Havona native. What revelation fails to accomplish, evolution will.
So, African American sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father: be hopeful and gather courage! You will not always be the anvil for the evolutionary hammer of progress. There are compensations for the deprivation of temporal equality, both actual and potential, among which is the increased acquisition of spiritual and moral values in seeking the Kingdom of Heaven due to temporal injustice. Being able to stand for the Father’s justice in the face of injustice certainly qualifies minority races for even greater and more sublime opportunities and responsibilities.
Focusing on racial inequalities can only lead to continued conflict and despair; focusing on the potential spiritual values embedded in unequal races can lead to the manifestation of altruistic values and greater production of spiritual fruit.
And through all these deprivations, we may well discover a great truth: the spirit sons and daughters of the heavenly Father exist for no other purpose than to bear spiritual fruit—to love one another as Jesus loves each of us. No force in heaven or on earth can prevent us from bearing this fruit except our own unwillingness to do so.
While this explanation may not satisfy the desire for a more factual answer to the question of race, we can remember that truth is not linear—it is elliptical in its full expression, and this is especially true for the imperfect evolutionary mind.
All things work together for good to those who love the Father and desire to do his will.