© 1986 Ken Glasziou
© 1986 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
A train whistle from a train speeding towards us grows higher in pitch as the train approaches, and the pitch gets lower as the train moves away. Because of the train’s motion the sound waves are compressed, hence higher in pitch (frequency) as the train approaches, and decompressed (lower frequency) as the train moves away. This is called the Doppler effect. The same effect is used to account for the spectral shift of light coming from far away stars. Spectral bands are usually shifted towards longer wave lengths, that is towards the red. The so-called red shift is the basis of estimates of the age of the universe, currently said to be between 10 and 20 billion years, and also gives rise to the Big Bang theory of its origin. The Urantia Book states this is quite wrong, that the effect is due to other causes, and of course, gives a very much greater age to the grand universe.
A clue to the possible cause of the red shift is found on UB 58:2.8 where it is stated: “the power of sunspots to alter light frequencies shows that these solar storm centres function as enormous magnets”. If I interpret correctly, light passing through an electromagnetic field should show a shift in wave length, and perhaps this effect is at least partially responsible for the red shift of far away stars. Andromeda: — On UB 15:4.7 of the Urantia Book we are told that if we observe Andromeda we are looking at light that left that nebula almost one million years ago. At the time of writing of the Urantia Book, Andromeda was thought to be about one million light years away. Current estimates are about 2.2 million light years, and are probably close to correct. This may mean that the author of that particular paper in the Urantia Book has goofed, or else has interpreted the limitations on revelation very literally.
The Urantia Book states categorically that all land on earth was originally a single continent which subsequently broke up to give the continents, which then drifted away from one another over a long period of time.
The idea of continental drift was mooted in the 19th century and first put forward as a comprehensive theory by Wegener in 1912. It was not well. accepted, becoming and remaining discredited amongst geologists well into the 1960’s before support began to accumulate, and becoming generally accepted during the 1970-1980 period.
The Urantia Book was published in 1955 when the theory of continental drift received very poor support. The writers of the Urantia Book are obviously exceedingly knowledgeable and very intelligent, and could not have been unaware of the very tenuous nature of the theory of continental drift. If they are not what they claim to be (messengers for a revelation), then they would have to be very foolish indeed to give such prominence to continental drift in their account of the early history of Urantia, for unless it is correct, they discredit the whole of the book. It would have been quite easy to write such a history, avoiding this and many other similar traps that would throw doubt on their claims of revelation.
The Urantia Book is at variance with present day geology in respect to dating of geological time, for instance for the Carboniferous and Devonian periods where the discrepancy is about 100,000,000 years. I am not able to comment on the accuracy of the methods of dating used by geologists except to note that I have read that accuracy is poor beyond one hundred million years. My experience as a professional scientist was such as to make me aware that few scientists are error conscious when it comes to sampling and analytical measurements. Pew realise that a good analytical method is likely to have a 5% error margin, that many commonly used methods have a 10% margin and lots are far worse. Nor is it realized that errors are additive, that is, if a sampling error is 10%, and the error of an analytical method is also 10%, the final figure quoted has a 20% error margin. This is not the place to write a treatise on error, but to make us aware that science is by no means infallible, hear the following. The 1984 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica’s Science and Technology Vol7, p. 844-5 presents a series of maps depicting the progress of continental drift for the period 10 to 150 million years ago. The same progression is depicted in an article in the April issue of Scientific American (1985), using a different method to arrive at conclusions. There is a difference of at least 100,000,000 years in depicting many aspects of this progression, and that surely is a very large error indeed. A further example of vast differences in dating geological events is for the commencement of continental drift. In Richard Leaky’s book “The Making of Mankind”, published in 1981 on p. 32 we read: “Two hundred million years ago all the continents were in contact, forming a single supercontinent known as Pangaea.” In the Encyclopedia Britannica’s Science and Technology Illustrated vol. 7 p.844 this date is extended to more than 225 million years. In an article in Scientific American 250(2) p.41, 1984 we read “A conspicuous rise in the diversity of large, spheroidal cyst forming acritarchous eukaryotes in late Ripherian times — between 900 and 700 million years ago — can be seen. This trend coincides with a period in which the major preexisting continents broke “up”.Presumably this latter dating of the commencement of continental drift to 700-900 million years ago reflects a recent major revision in the thinking of some geologists. It is of interest that the Urantia Book written so many years back states (UB 57:8.23) that the first break in the continental land mass began 750 million years ago. The Urantia Book UB 59:6.5 places the disappearance of the land bridges between the Americas and Europe and Africa in the era between 160 and 170 million years ago. An article in Scientific American, June 1979 places it at 165 million years. However land bridges connected the continents indirectly at later times via Greenland, Iceland, and the Bering Straits, and also connected South America through to Australia via Antartica (Urantia Book UB 61:1.12, and Scientific American January 1983, p.60).
The Urantia Book UB 60:2.2 states the remains of the monster dinosaurs are buried in N.America, Europe, Africa and India, but not in Australia. Up to the present no monster dinosaur fossils have been found in Australia.
The fossil evidence leaves it uncertain whether marsupials originated in Australia and radiated via Antartica to South America and subsequently to Europe, or the reverse. The Urantia Book tells us that the ancestors of the kangaroo lived in Australia 45 million years ago and that there was a land bridge to South America via Antartica 35 million years ago (UB 61:2.3). Recently, marsupial fossils were discovered on Sejmour Island in Antartica (see Scientific American, January 1983) which is consistent with the radiation of the marsupials via an Antartica land bridge, and probably means that marsupials originated in Australia.
The American Indian: — The Urantia Book UB 64:6.5 tells us that the red man crossed from Asia to America 85,000 years ago. Until recently it was believed that the Americas had been inhabited for no more than 12,000 years. This has now been extended to greater than 30-40,000 years (see Scientific American, 249,6, 1985)
Ken Glasziou, Clifton, Qld.