© 1992 Neil Francey
© 1992 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
by Neil Francey
Even God cannot alter the past. For that purpose,> we have historians. And movies. And mythologies. And Walt Disney. History becomes national autobiography, and we know that of all literary forms, autobiography is the least reliable, the most inclined to flattery.
Phillip Adams (columnist)
How accurately are we charting the emergence of the fifth epochal revelation? Is it a stand alone document with nothing further to record?
The book places so much recognition on the individual, along with information to design the perfect self-development course that the group effort of our forebears and the expected public perception of the book’s content, need not disturb the erstwhile student. The fact that the recordings of such activity may be erroneous lends further support to the idea that extraneous reports are irrelevant. Of historical interest only. Merely a diversion. For what can be authenticated?
True, it behoves us to know our origins. But which of the interpretations shall we accept? For indeed we are told all original documentation has been destroyed. The URANTIA Foundation is likely to be in possession of many other significant and sensitive records, but these are unlikely to be entrusted to any historian.
The point being that we can all live without this information. We are not bound to assumed or actual content, we are not deprived.
However, we would be deprived if the original text of the book was deleted from, added to, or altered, prior to publication. Who, if anyone, could know of this?
With the lapse of time it doesn’t seem to matter whether ‘history’ is true or not. The public has lost interest, ‘national security’ is no longer threatened. Kennedy’s assassination was a conspiracy, the Great Train Robbery netted three times the amount admitted by authorities, Scott of the Antarctic was not a hero but an incompetent explorer, Japan is only now begrudgingly admitting to war crimes. War! Now there’s an embarrassment to all. Churchill’s exaggerations of triumphs, Stalin’s rewriting of events, the storming of the Bastille, the reasons for Vietnam. The list equates to the number of wars.
As Voltaire put it: “History is about fables that have been agreed upon”.
Moving closer to home, we should consider the metamorphosis that has taken place about the receipt of
The URANTIA Book text, the early Forum, 1955, Christy, the Foundation/Brotherhood split.
Will powerful myths, if they do exist, prevent us from having the record set straight? When the past becomes diorama, it is beyond the scrutiny of both scholarship and critic.
Thus it is only good sense to concentrate our efforts on The URANTIA Book as the means to assist in the development of techniques to aid communication with our indwelling spirit.
There must be, however, a distinction between various classes of irrelevancy. We are not to be like
Christian fundamentalists who are undisturbed by the revelations of biblical scholarship. By way of example, an excellent and recent book called ‘Jesus, a New Vision’ by Marcus J. Borg reveals a Jesus previously little known outside of URANTIA Book readers. But will the mainstream accept it?
Which all leads to our current court room battle and the fact that, with varied accounts, it too shall pass into history. But it shall leave in its wake an enduring legacy of divisiveness, with the emergence of two opposing factions like never before.
Each shall be able to substantiate their position by reverting to the ‘facts’ of history.
We scoff with dismay at the Irish folly, we observe military forces fighting rebels in so many Third World countries, we despair at the Holy Wars that consume the Middle East. But do we now stop to think we are heading down the same well worn path of religious intolerance to be stripped of the power to drive a major revelation?
Then again, maybe such fragmentation is in accordance with the envisaged destiny of this planet. Again we return to the fact that the individual is supreme. Individuals can, and do, run this revelation. Not an organization.
As an individual, I’d like to believe that although the ideologies of The URANTIA Book are sacrosanct, should ever other matters related thereto come between me and a friend, I shall lay them to one side as having no real cosmic relevance, and embrace my friend.