© 2022 Neil Francey
And a reasonable, though secondary, question it is. However it can never be the sole criteria of the Book’s worth. Neither can the Book be judged solely on its content, unique as it is. It needs to be lived, and lived over a long time.
People are particularly influenced by sources and authority when evaluating publications, especially religious literature. Many Book readers have been asked this question and it is important to offer some explanation. However, readers are seen as giving a personal opinion that is substantiated only by their faith. Many would prefer to hear from so called authorities.
A search on ‘who wrote The Urantia Book’ shows good results. There are the few detractors as one might expect, and their propositions lack substance.
There are sites offering firsthand accounts by those who were present when the writings were making their first appearance. They all basically relate the same details. Collusion perhaps, but a through reading indicates independence of thought and style.
In the publication From Science, Anthropology and Archaeology in The Urantia Book, Ken Glasziou did an analysis of the writing styles of various Papers under these headings:
The author concludes that we do not have a sensible, rational proposal about human authorship of the Papers. But any conclusion claiming other-thanhuman authorship is not provable. As the Papers themselves tell us — our personal decision must be an act of faith. Does the spiritual content of the Urantia Papers make them self-authenticating?
Dr. Sadler led a discussion on this topic. At the time, he was perhaps the leading investigator of mind and the paranormal, and wrote the seminal work entitled The Mind at Mischief. These comments are relative:
Several members of this group who participated in the preliminary ‘contacts’ which led up to the appearance of the Urantia Papers had considerable experience in the investigation of psychic phenomena. This group early arrived at the conclusion that the phenomena connected with the personality who was later associated with the Urantia Papers, was in no way similar to any other well-known type of psychic performance — such as hypnotism, automatic writing, clairvoyance, trances, spirit mediumship, telepathy, or double personality.
It should be made clear that the antecedents of the Urantia Papers were in no way associated with so-called spiritualism — with its séances and supposed communication with the spirits of departed human beings.
But it should be made clear that the midway creatures are not involved in the sordid performances taking place under the general designation of ‘spiritualism’. The midwayers at present on Urantia, all of whom are of honorable standing, are not connected with the phenomena of so-called “mediumship” … (UB 77:8.13)
Some have said much of the revelation has been plagiarized. While that term is hardly correct, the claim that other people’s work has been included is absolutely correct. It is admitted by the revelators. It was part of their challenge to produce the best compilation of available information for comprehension by the human mind.
As certain concepts had been thought and recorded at the human level, it was preferable to use those concepts rather than introduce versions formulated from nonhuman experience.
Rather than making the Book easier to compile it was made more difficult. The blending of existing knowledge with revelatory concepts required amazing expertise. We are the beneficiaries.
Yet it has limited appeal at this time. Few are seeking such information. And those who discover it find that few of their friends and relatives find it of even passing interest.
It has not been written as an instant best seller. It makes no money. It brings no kudos to any one individual. The motive for its compilation and availability has been wrought from the service motive and not the profit motive.
A massive number of source documents have also been identified and are listed at the web site called urantiabooksources.com/
This project is the work of Matthew Block who writes:
This website has been created to share my parallel charts, which identify the sources for particular Urantia papers (or sections) and trace how they were used. These charts, and others to come, will be used in a series of works which analyze how The Urantia Book was written.
Having read The Urantia Book’s two nebulous acknowledgments, which refer to the use of ‘more than one thousand human concepts … assembled from the God-knowing mortals of the past and the present’ in the writing of Part I (UB 0:12.12), and the use of the thoughts and expressions of ‘more than two thousand human beings who have lived on earth from the days of Jesus down to the time of the inditing of these revelations’ in the writing of Part IV (UB 121:8.13), I was prepared to find sources.
At the time of this writing, I have identified about 125 books, which were used in the writing of some 150 Urantia papers. The source texts were all published in English and the source authors were, with few exceptions, Americans or Britons born in the 19th or 20th centuries.
An article on this topic is available at: Selections from Writings thought to be Urantia Book ‘Sources’. It also shows ways in which human resources have been used in the construction of the text.
These sources, instead of distracting from the authenticity of the Book, confirm that they were compiled in accordance with the revelators’ stated mandate and limitations.
Yes, the Papers of The Urantia Book were assigned, written, and compiled by a committee of various celestial authors. The title, or perhaps description of function, of each of these celestial personalities, is indicated in the Table of Contents and at the conclusion of each Paper.
Let’s consider the possibility of a group of mortals being appointed, interacting, collaborating, co-authoring, and accepting the verdicts of an overarching authority. No payment, no recognition, no direct thanks. Only realization of self worth, and perhaps the doing of the will of God.
Committees have operated in order to produce literature. This varies from historical accounts, religious texts, movie scripts, and company reports.
There are also prolific human writers to be considered. Over the years many claim to have authored many hundreds of books. In certain cases authorship was taken over by others using the same characters, themes, and style, to basically make money.
But once again, such a format for human output bears no comparison to The Urantia Book.
Many readers have studied this topic over the decades.
The unique aspect is that the entire content is consistent in details, and repetitive in only those instances where it was necessary to make each Paper an understandable composition. And when collated into a single document, it demonstrates a flow of information that is unprecedented. Not only is it new in relation to pieces of revelation, it has a new thought process for learning. It is a document created by master educators. It leads from one point to another as it sets up a question in the reader’s mind, only to answer it seemingly immediately. It proceeds from the complex viewpoint to the simplified.
Nothing is presented as an isolated fact. Our reading journey builds a momentum. There is a positive nature to it all. We gain belief. Truly, we can acknowledge that our awareness of self and of creation expands.
Imagine the challenge: Write a brief Paper on the nature and personality of God that can be understood by the current level of the average human intellect. To do this would require a firsthand knowledge of the person of God. Someone who could truly say: ‘I know whereof I speak.’
The story goes that the mortal receivers of the revelation felt an introduction to the Papers was necessary to give an outline of the content. Their meager effort fell so far short of the quality commensurate with the Papers themselves that the revelators prepared the section now known as the Foreword. This is an illustration that the paucity of even educated minds exposed to the revelation cannot produce writings anywhere near the equivalent of those presented by the revelators. Entire papers and studies have been done in relation to the comprehension of this Foreword. So apart from not being capable of its authorship, human minds are still grappling with understanding its challenging pronouncements.
The scientific content has been criticized as being quite basic, and even wrong in parts. The so-called erroneous data was apparently not wrong at the time of its writing. That is, it was the prevailing knowledge based on current scientific research. The requirement to work within the scope of existing scientific knowledge was part of the mandate of revelation. However references to continental drift for example, do seem revelatory.
Professionals in all disciplines continue to expand on concepts based on the ‘clues’ contained in the Papers. We can now function from a higher level.
Then there is the precision used in word selection. For clarity of understanding, even exactness of meaning, words have been carefully and intentionally chosen. There is virtually no room for misinterpretation. This is important, as the human mind is disposed to bend meanings of great scriptures to suit an ulterior motive, usually related to power and authority.
But there can be no such rewriting or interpreting with a revelation.