© 1997 François Le Rohellec, Agnès Coulon, François Dupont, Jean Royer, Dominique Ronfet, Jean-Claude Romeuf
© 1997 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| Le Lien Urantien — Issue 5 — Autumn 1997 | International Conference of the I.U.A. in Helsinki from August 7 to 10, 1998 |
Journal of the association L'A.F.L.L.U. French-speaking Association of Readers of the URANTIA Book
Member of the I.U.A.
Head office:
8, Passage of the Good Seed
75011 PARIS—France
¶ A word from the President
Dear friends and readers, the first meeting organized in the name of the young A.F.L.L.U. association took place last September in the suburbs of Paris. An obvious pleasure but also one of the rare ways for a certain number of us to be able to fraternize with other readers of The Urantia Book. Also, a next French meeting is planned for the first half of next year, thus establishing the rhythm of at least two per year envisaged at the last general assembly. On a much larger scale and a fortiori not to be missed, an international meeting next summer in Helsinki…
Still to develop and promote contacts among a readership that is still very dispersed, a more “rational” management of it (France and neighboring French-speaking countries), just launched last July, is beginning to bear some fruit through the individual connections that it allows to be initiated progressively and freely within the readership of the same region (see Link No. 2). Finally, still for the same objective; a list of existing study groups is being set up and, kept up to date, will be regularly distributed…
Francois Le Rohellec
President of the A.F.L.L.U.
¶ Summary
¶ Helsinki International Conference 2
- Meeting of September 21, 1997
- Metaphysical thought of an agnostic
- Coherences or principle of evanescence.
- The spirit of truth, unifying pole of religions?
- Personality, identity, divinity
- Chromosomes, did you say chromosomes? (answer)
- The Gazette
❧ 1955 URANTIA Foundation. All rights reserved. These materials from the URANTIA Book are used with permission. Any artistic representation(s), interpretation(s), opinion(s) or conclusion(s) implied or stated are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of URANTIA Foundation or its affiliates.
¶ I.U.A. International Conference in Helsinki from 7 to 10 August 1998.
The next international conference of the I.U.A. (International Urantia Association) will take place in Helsinki, Finland, the first to take place outside of the United States. It is therefore organized by the Finnish Urantia Association, which wants to do everything possible to ensure that each participant, regardless of their nationality, can enjoy such a meeting bringing together so many different readers of The Urantia Book.
The overall theme of the conference is “Facts, Meanings and Values”.
But from this general theme, a large number of subsequent subjects will be studied within the framework of oral interventions, and within the study groups which will be formed on site.
¶ Meeting of September 21, 1997 in Villebon-Sur-Yvette
About twenty readers of The Urantia Book met as planned at the Château de Villebon-sur-Yvette in the suburbs of Paris.
After the discussions related to the pleasure of meeting up or getting to know each other, we discussed the theme of “The Fruits of the Spirit” (fruits which can only ripen after our 2nd birth, which is the goal of our earthly life).
We noticed that in everyday life we “try” to produce these fruits, but that often there are conflicts between our desire to love our neighbor (self-forgetfulness) and our selfishness-pride which is part of our first birth (taking advantage of others and putting ourselves forward).
Agnes Coulon
¶ Metaphysical Thoughts of an Agnostic
Sources:
- “Malraux, the absolute agnostic” by Tannery Claude, Gallimard 1985
- “Signed Malraux”, by Jean François Lyotard, Grasset 1996
- “André Malraux: the hidden quote”, by François Périn, Professor Emeritus at the University of Liège in VIF/L’EXPRESS of April 18, 1997.
Personal research on the famous quote, with a very hard life, attributed to Malraux:
“The next century will be religious or it will not be.”
Francois Dupont
¶ Coherence, or principle of evanescence?
Our Australian friends who publish the excellent journal “Interface International” have a section that should interest many French speakers, it is called “consistency” and examines The Urantia Book from its logical or non-contradictional aspects. At first glance, one of the things that seems to have most impressed a certain number of readers is the logic of the book, but is it as solid as we want to believe? Are there not contradictions, real or apparent in these 2097 pages? The electronic version allows us to verify what would otherwise be almost impossible or at least very random. For me, it is a test, provided that we remember two things:
- As Emerson said, “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” and
- that The Urantia Book was given to us in the 20th century because the first steps toward a non-Aristotelian logic had been taken by people like Korzybski, allowing us, for the first time, to envisage at the same time an infinite static God and an evolutionary God in the finite.
Jean Royer
¶ The Spirit of Truth: Unifying Pole of Religions?
The quest for truth, the search for one’s own awakening, can only take place in stages.
The successive experiences of our life allow us to discover ourselves (the Personality) and to better understand this Spirit (the Adjuster) who seeks to guide us. In this way we do not lack support. Let us take the one who, as his name indicates, can interest us particularly: the Spirit of Truth.
We can read that the Spirit of Truth, the new teacher, was given as a support to the soul of every sincere seeker since the departure of Jesus so that we could free ourselves from the old constraints
Dominique Ronfet
dominique.ronfet@hol.fr
¶ Personality, Identity, Divinity
Those who feel an irresistible attraction to mystery can be enthusiastic about the permanent, daily miracle of the gift of personality.
This gift of the Father is in itself incomprehensible, but it is possible to observe its effects and foresee its goals. One may not understand magnetism but know its applications.
At the outset, our first observation is that personality makes the one to whom it is conferred the only son of the Universal Father. In the whole immense universe which surrounds us, we have the right to say: “There are no two beings like me.”
Jean-Claude Romeuf
¶ Chromosomes, did you say chromosomes?
Response to Jean Royer’s article (See Link No. 4)
On page 18 of Urantia Link No. 4 Jean Royer quotes a passage from the Urantia Book (UB 36:2.11) relating to the sexual cells of human reproduction.
The author of the article attempts to make a connection between the number of archetypal control units (48) contained in germ cells and that of the chromosomes of humans (46) or great apes (48).
Now, the particularity of these cells is to have inside the nucleus only half of the chromosomes contained in the other cells of the body. This implies that human sex cells have only 23 chromosomes, which is far from the number mentioned.
- a) In the male of the human species there are two kinds of reproductive cells:
- the first with 22 autosomes + 1chr X
- the second with 22 autosomes +1 chr Y
- b) In the female of the human species the two gametes are identical and have 22 autosomes +1 chr X.
Fertilization between a male gamete and a female gamete will result in a boy (44 auto +1 X+1 Y) or a girl (44 auto + 2 X).
The essential characteristic of each chromosome is its ability to be able to cut its DNA molecule into two longitudinal parts and to be able to reconstitute it very quickly in an identical manner (it is a sort of mechanism for manufacturing cellular clones within the cell itself). This ability allows the infinite multiplication of twin cells and at the same time the growth and healing of body tissues (protein synthesis).
This can make us consider each half-chromosome as a unit in its own right. In this case, inside the cells of reproduction, we will find:
- 22 autosomes = 44 half-chromosomes
- 1 X chromosome=2 half-chromosomes
- 1 Y chromosome=2 half-chromosomes.
The total is 48 half-chromosomes. This number is the same as that of the archetypal control units or characteristic determiners cited on page 397 of The Urantia Book.
Jean-Claude Romeuf
¶ Gazette section
¶ Minor updates to the French edition of The Urantia Book
A census of the various “typos” and other translation errors in the French version of The Urantia Book is underway. Address your requests and suggestions to Jean Royer, without forgetting to specify the page, paragraph, sentence or word.
Jean Royer
Campredon
84250 Le Thor
¶ Information about study groups
Below is a non-exhaustive list of study groups currently brought to our attention. Its sole purpose is to facilitate the dissemination of information to readers. If you wish, please let us know about the existence of your study group so that we can add it to this list, which will be published regularly.
Contacts:
- A.F.L.L.U. — 8, passage de la bonne Graine — 75011 Paris
- François Le Rohellec — 8, rue des Lilas — 34430 St Jean de Védas
¶ Belgium
Schaerbeek Group:
- Location: Schaerbeek (Brussels)
- Frequency: once a month on Monday morning (after agreement)
- Contact: François Dupont, 23 rue Désiré Desmet, 1030 Brussels Tel.: 022.157.598
Forest Group:
- Location: Forest (Brussels — 1190)
- Frequency: once a month, on Sunday afternoon (after consultation)
- Contact: François Dupont
Braine Group:
- Location: Braine-L’Alleud (near Brussels)
- Frequency: once a month, Sunday afternoon (seasonally alternating with the Forest group)
- Contact: François Dupont
Walhain Group:
- Location: Walhain- St Paul (near Gembloux, approximately 20 km from Namur)
- Frequency: once a month, Saturday afternoon (to be determined each month)
- Contact: Robert Dolif, 2 rue Saint Donat, 4260 Braives Tel.: 019.698.926
Jurbise Group:
- Location: Soignies-Jurbise (near Mons)
- Frequency: once a month, on Tuesday afternoon (in principle, the 3rd Tuesday of the month)
- Contact: François Dupont
¶ France
Rhone Valley Group — South East:
- Location: Successively at each other’s places (Ales, Arles, Avignon, Le Thor, etc.)
- Frequency: once a month, on a Saturday afternoon from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
- Contact: Jean-Claude Romeuf, chemin de St Hilaire, 30340 St Privat les Vieux — Tel.: 04.66.86.74.61
Paris Group:
- Location: 8, passage de la bonne Graine, 75011 Paris (Entrance on the right in the courtyard, 3rd floor)
- Frequency: 2 times a month, the 1st and 3rd Saturdays at 2:00 p.m.
- Contact: Séverin Desbuisson, 6, rue Lyon, 75012 Paris Tel.: 01.44.87.90.44
Address your articles, comments and suggestions to:
A.F.L.L.U. — 8, Passage de la Bonne Graine 75011 — PARIS — FRANCE
¶ References
| Le Lien Urantien — Issue 5 — Autumn 1997 | International Conference of the I.U.A. in Helsinki from August 7 to 10, 1998 |