© 2016 Olga López
© 2016 Urantia Association of Spain
| Argumentative Fallacies and Examples Related to The Urantia Book | Luz y Vida — No. 45 — September 2016 — Index | The majesty of being able to choose: free will |
(Talk given in the virtual room of the Urantia Association of Brazil on April 10, 2016)
¶ Introduction
Paper 72 of The Urantia Book has always been one of my favorites. Of course, there are many other parts of the book that I like and find revealing and interesting, but I have always been fascinated by this document because it combines two topics that I have been passionate about since I was a child: alien beings and how to get a better world.
You could tell me that there are other documents that deal with exactly these two topics: for example, document 49 talks about inhabited worlds and the different human beings that can be found on them, and document 55 talks about what life is like on the worlds settled in light and life, which are utopia come true. But if I especially like Document 72, it is because it describes a society that, while not perfect, is in many ways closer to utopia than most advanced terrestrial societies. And not only that: it is a type of society that would be feasible on this planet right now, no matter how little will it would have to implement many of the ideas that these brothers from Satania have brought to life. Hence my great interest in this document and in the ideas that the revelators suggest to us when describing this extraterrestrial civilization.
Before beginning to describe the very interesting measures that have been carried out in this world, I would like to highlight the exceptional fact that a document like this was part of the revelation. Let us remember that we are isolated from the rest of the system by a quarantine that has been firmly in place for hundreds of thousands of years. The humans of a planet do not know what happens in other humanities of other worlds and we have no way of knowing it ourselves. The interplanetary distances are so enormous that any humanity that wants to bridge them has to be at a really high technological level, and still has to know where to go to find not only life, but intelligent life.
The revelators (with the permission of our System Sovereign, Lanaforge) have given us the great gift of explaining to us how another civilization lives, thus avoiding the great problem of distances.
¶ The neighboring world
First, we are told that this world is one of 37 worlds that are cut off due to the Lucifer rebellion. Your Planetary Prince, like Caligastia in our world, joined the cause of the rebellion. Their Adam and Eve also failed, so we have a lot in common with them. An important difference between them and us is that they have not been visited by any Paradise Son, and we had the great privilege of receiving the Creator Son in his seventh bestowal. The only world among 10 million. We won the lottery jackpot!
But let’s go back to that sister world, of which by the way we don’t even know which star it revolves around, nor what name it has for the celestial authorities. It never ceases to be curious to me. Why don’t they tell us the name of the star, if it is certain that we will never visit that world, no matter how “close” it is to us? But I suppose there must be a good reason for not giving that information. As the revealers say, too much disclosure stifles the imagination UB 30:0.2
In this document, the revelators focus on one of the peoples of this sister planet, a nation of 140 million living on a large island the size of Australia. To give us an idea, the population of Australia is 23,340,000 inhabitants [1], so the population density on the continent of our brothers from Satania is about six times greater than that of the country of kangaroos.
To put this data into perspective, the country on Earth that has a similar number of inhabitants is Russia, with 143,657,000 inhabitants. Of course, the surface of Russia (17,075,400 km2) is more than double that of Australia (7,692,024 km2).
As for the races that inhabit this country, they tell us that the blue and yellow races predominate, with a proportion of Adamic blood greater than that of the peoples of Earth. As these are primal races and have been largely raised by the violet race, they seem to have a very good genetic base for making great strides. Of course, they have not yet mixed enough to become indistinguishable.
The revelators tell us that there are great differences between this nation and the neighboring peoples. First of all, we are told that life expectancy is 15% higher in this nation than in the rest; the average duration of life in it is 90 years, slightly higher than the most advanced peoples of Urantia (in the world, the country with the longest life expectancy is Monaco, with a general life expectancy of 89.63 years; Spain is ranked 16th in the ranking, with 81.37 years)[2]. That is, in the towns surrounding this “alien” nation, life expectancy is 76.5 years, the approximate life expectancy that some Caribbean countries such as the Dutch Antilles (76.65) or the Caribbean Islands have right now. Marianas (76.71).
But, looking at the data of the countries of our planet, the distance between the number 1 in life expectancy and the last one is even greater: Swaziland has the chilling figure of 31.88 years of life expectancy. The life expectancy of the first country is almost 3 times (2.8) that of the last!
This nation, surrounded by hostile peoples, has learned over the centuries to be self-sufficient and not need anything from neighboring countries. This has not been the case in virtually any country in our world, where no nation could live self-sufficiently today. Even countries hermetically closed to the outside like North Korea are not self-sufficient. In the case of this nation, this implies that trade has been restricted to the interior, and with this they have been deprived of the benefits of trade between towns, which the book also tells us about.
Regarding the evolution of its political regime, we could say that it follows more or less the stages that have been observed in the countries of our world: from the tribes they passed to powerful chiefs and kings. The figure of kings became increasingly symbolic, and currently and for 200 years the form of government has been a representative democratic republic.
¶ The political system
Let us now move on to consider more deeply the political system by which this nation is governed, for here we begin to see good ideas that could be applied in Urantian governments.
First, it tells us that this nation is actually a federation of independent states. On Earth we have some examples of countries organized in this way: the first that comes to mind would be the United States, but in Europe we have other examples, such as Germany and Switzerland (also called the Swiss Confederation), which are also made up of small states enjoying great autonomy. Of course, no country has a confederation as large as that of the alien nation, which has a hundred states. The United States is made up of 50 states; Germany has 16 länder, and Switzerland contains 26 cantons.
To get an idea of the size of each of these states, assuming that the nation is about the size of Australia, and assuming that the states are all about the same size, the average area of each state would be 76,920 km2; that is, halfway between Panama 75,420 Km2 and Serbia 77,474 Km2.
What are the advantages of federal republics? Being made up of smaller independent units, local governments are closer to citizens and their problems than overly centralized governments. And by having a certain degree of autonomy from the central government, they can react more quickly and correctly to the problems and situations that arise in their constituency, without having to wait for the central government, further away, to make the decision.
On the other hand, being part of a larger unit (the confederation) gives these small states a strength that they would not have separately, and it is possible to economize resources and save expenses that would otherwise be multiplied (for example, in defense, energy , etc.)
If the nation has one hundred states and 140 million inhabitants, let us suppose that each state has an average of 1,400,000 inhabitants (a number slightly higher than the population of Estonia, with 1,312,000 inhabitants; Panama, which has an area comparable to an average state , has 3,638,000 inhabitants, that is, two and a half times more population).
All the states seem to follow the same system of government and election of representatives. Its rulers and legislators have ten-year terms, and cannot be re-elected. This has the following main advantages:
- It is a period of time long enough to allow long-term actions to be carried out.
- The rulers do not carry out their management with the sole objective of getting elected again, so that their decisions do not have purely electoral purposes.
- It is a short enough period to prevent rulers from clinging to power and making politics their modus vivendi at all costs.
There is a characteristic of this nation that seems especially interesting to me, and that is that in no case is a city allowed to exceed one million inhabitants. To give us an idea, Barcelona (the city where I was born), with its 1.6 million inhabitants, would exceed the maximum allowed. Valencia, with some 792,000 inhabitants, would be within the permitted size.
It is easy to imagine the advantages that a city of that size has compared to the problems that the large cities of our world have: excess population, crime, unbridled growth, promotion of social inequalities, pollution, excessive consumption of energy and other resources, etc The bigger a city is, the more difficult it is to govern. With the industrial revolution, the big cities did have a reason for being, since people had to live close to where the industries were installed. But currently, in the age of the Internet, communications and globalization, the place where a person is physically located begins to lose importance; The greater weight of the service sector in advanced economies is a fact, and much of the work offered by service companies could be done perfectly through the Internet and from anywhere.
In addition, we must take into account that oil is increasingly difficult and expensive to extract, and that it is urgent to find an alternative energy source. If we finally find ourselves with mobility problems due to the excessive price of hydrocarbons, living in small and more or less self-sufficient communities could be the solution to energy supply problems. Such a situation would mean that we would have to look for other models of exchange of goods and urban structures.
Returning to our sister planet and its most advanced nation, they also have separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers. The chief executive is elected by universal suffrage for a period of six years and cannot be reelected except in special cases. Once again, we find ourselves with a strict limitation on the mandate of the rulers. But there is still something else, which seems to me to be an enormously positive feature of his government: the federal chief is advised by a cabinet made up of all the previous chiefs. In this way, he always has the experience and wisdom of those who have preceded him in office.
Regarding the legislative branch, this nation has three chambers, whose representatives are not voted for universally but are organized according to professions, social, political and philosophical groups:
- Upper house: elected by workers in industry, liberal professions, farmers and other trades.
- Lower house: elected by other organizations of society.
- Third chamber: of a consultative nature, it is made up of one hundred representatives who are veterans of the civic service and persons appointed by the different heads of government bodies. A member of this house is a member in perpetuity, and has great influence over public opinion and all branches of government.
Very different from the legislative bodies that we have here, right? His professional and almost union orientation is striking.
Between the hundred states and the federal state, there seems to be an intermediate organization consisting of ten states, which would form a sub-federation or region. The federal chief appoints the ten chiefs of these regions for a term exactly equal to his own (six years). Nor can they be reelected; Also in this case, the outgoing executive becomes an adviser to his successor.
Regarding the judiciary, this nation has two main court systems:
- Courts of justice: they work at the following 3 levels:
- a. Minors: local and municipal.
- b. State Supremes: deals with matters that do not affect the federal government or the rights of citizens.
- c. Supreme Federal: high court that judges national controversies and appeals from the aforementioned courts.
- Socio-economic courts: they work in the following 3 divisions:
- a. Parental courts (family and social system)
- b. Teaching courts.
- c. Industry courts.
Both systems go separately and do not judge each other’s cases, unless it is decided by a majority of in the third legislative chamber.
Let’s see, to compare, what is the organization of the judiciary in Spain. Here we have four large areas:
- Civil: rights over real estate, consumption, etc., related to people or goods that are in Spanish territory.
- Criminal: crimes and offenses committed in Spanish territory.
- Contentious-administrative: for all matters related to the different public administrations.
- Social: it is the responsibility of employment contracts, collective agreements and matters related to Social Security.
It is clear that the division of fields has little to do with the organization of the nation of the neighboring planet. And the same happens with the types of courts.
¶ Family life
In this section, we can see that the civilization of the neighboring planet has very different social customs from ours. First of all, we are told that two families are not allowed to live under the same roof, which leads to each family having their own house. But not only that: there is a minimum plot size for the house, which is 4,600 square meters. That’s a good size parcel! To get an idea, a possible configuration would be 100 meters wide by 46 meters long. And let’s remember that this would be the minimum size!
From the looks of it, single life is heavily penalized after a certain age (30 years). If you are not married, and since you cannot live with your parents, you have to move to collective housing with other singles.
Families have an average of five children (then they are numerous by our standards). In this society, responsible parenthood is defended to the point that both fathers and mothers must attend childcare schools. Once again, the difference with even the most advanced of our societies is very great.
Another of the notable differences is that in this society there are no orphanages, but rather the orphans are placed in the care of another family, which must pass an exam to demonstrate that it is worthy of deserving the honor that having the guardianship of an orphan entails for them. . In Urantia societies, it is not just the adoption mechanisms that are very different. The vast majority would never consider adopting an orphan, unless it was someone from their own family.
The people of the neighboring planet consider the home as the fundamental institution where children are educated and their character is formed, and both fathers and mothers are involved in this formation. Here we could also learn a lot from them, since in general the education of children falls much more on mothers than on fathers.
Continuing with the education that is taught at home, here are other positive points that we could take good note of to apply here: sexual education and religious education is the responsibility of the parents. Although it is also true that, in the latter, there are no Churches like on our planet. The closest thing there is in that alien nation is the so-called Spiritual Progress Foundation, totally separate from the State. In our world, unfortunately, the Churches are still too close to political power, and this has caused them to largely neglect their original mission.
Another idea that would be good to implement is education in civic values, which makes young people assume new responsibilities towards the State. Let’s remember that, in that alien nation, the minimum age to vote is 20 years, the age to marry without parental consent is 25 years and, as we have mentioned before, no one over 30 years of age can continue living in the house of His parents. As you can see, the difference with our planet is very notable in this regard. From this it can be deduced that in this society great importance is given to the maturity that age gives when it comes to participating in society.
As for marriage, the bride and groom must take courses in parents’ schools: the one who gets married knows what awaits him and what is expected of him, something that does not always happen here. I also find it interesting that, in the case of divorce, a margin of one year is given to resolve each case. It seems that this measure is intended to give the couple the opportunity to reconsider before the separation is final. And it seems that they are not doing badly, since the divorce rate is one tenth that of the most advanced societies on our planet.
¶ The education system
Education is a fundamental part of the development of the human being, and it is an aspect that on our planet does not stand out enough. It seems that the really important thing is to compete, crush your neighbor, earn a lot of money, rather than receive proper training. Whenever I have reflected on how to achieve a better society, I have ended up coming to the conclusion that education is the first condition to train new people, who in turn would transform society to make it more just. Already in ancient Greece, philosophers like Plato, first in “The Republic” and later in “The Laws”, emphasized education as the basic pillar to create a just and balanced society. It is an idea that has permeated deeply throughout the history of thought, but now seems to have lost influence.
In this alien nation, education is one of the fundamental pillars of their society. In the first place, they tell us that it is compulsory from 5 to 18 years of age, a longer period than the one occupied by compulsory education in Urantian societies (in Spain, for example, it is from 6 to 16). The educational method is completely different from the one followed on our planet. Let’s see here the most outstanding characteristics of this method:
- There are no classrooms: lately among the most advanced pedagogical currents on our planet, the concept of closed classrooms, where children are like prisoners, has been criticized a lot.
- Only one subject is studied at a time: this way one goes much deeper into each one of the subjects.
- Three years after receiving their training in a subject, students become assistant teachers. What better than learning by teaching? They begin in their first world what is then the general trend of the ascension career.
- Not only theoretical knowledge is taught, but also practical: furniture, mechanical devices are made, agriculture and horticulture are learned, etc.
- A quarter of school time is devoted to games, competitions, contests, and other similar tests of ability.
But not only does basic schooling exist, but there are also other types of special schools, which would be very necessary on Urantia. Among the five types of special schools I want to highlight the following (UB 72:8.2-7):
- Schools for statesmen, where those who will have positions of responsibility in the different governments of the nation are trained, as well as the judges of different courts.
- Schools of philosophy, which on the planet is closely linked to religion.
- Scientific institutions, closely linked to the industry and less to the educational system, which encourages practical applications that may arise.
Another element that seems interesting to me in this society is the great importance they give to leisure time, which they also use to acquire education: vacation time is one tenth of their year (one month out of ten). Paid vacations that are not paid for by companies but by a special State fund, similar to the one established for retirement pensions.
What is, ultimately, the main objective of education in the neighboring world? “…make each student an economically independent citizen” UB 72:4.5
¶ Industrial organization and the economy
In this section, I really see that many ideas are offered aimed at channeling the industrial organization on our planet. Although the Revelators acknowledge that the situation on the neighboring planet is far from idyllic and that they still have their conflicts, they also say that they have taken determined steps in the right direction. If there is an idea that seems to me to be key in the approach of this alien nation, it is this: to get workers to become more involved in the companies in which they work. In our world there has always been a huge gap between employers and employees; apart from the fact that both seek their own benefit, before the common benefit.
In this alien nation, little by little they are ceasing to see work as alienating; in fact they consider public service as the goal to which they should direct their efforts, rather than personal gain. In addition, since the workers have a small part of the ownership of their company, they see it as their own and are more involved in its management and proper functioning. If there are conflicts, they are resolved in special courts, and there are also industrial legislative bodies that control wages, benefits, and other economic matters. The workers’ income has a fixed part and a variable part, which depends on the company’s profits and increases or decreases depending on whether the company has increased or decreased its profits.
The economy in this nation is more controlled by the government than in the capitalist nations of Urantia. For example, on the neighboring planet, it is the federal rulers who stipulate the number of daily hours of paid work. Out of a five-day week, they work four days and six hours a day, so they get one day off. Of the ten months that his year has, one of the months is on vacation, which they usually spend traveling.
It is clear that human beings must be given some stimulus or gratification in order to make an effort; It is part of the human condition. It is not even necessary that the stimulus be material. But, if the mentality of the people who make up society does not change and we continue to maintain the profit motive as our main motivation, little or nothing of the industrial organization will change. It is true that human beings have a deep-rooted instinct to compete, but this can be perfectly channeled into areas other than economics. On the neighboring planet, for example, they have channeled competition into the field of sport, culture and science. They do not want to have more wealth, but to give a greater service to society and be more loyal to their government.
Unlike our societies, among them both idleness and undeserved wealth are frowned upon and, since they are beginning to enjoy economic freedom and political freedom, they are dedicating their leisure time to their personal fulfillment. Another good idea that would advance, and a lot, the Urantian societies. Currently, too many people dedicate their leisure time (increasingly scarce, by the way) to activities that do not help them to fulfill themselves as people and that tend to be, in general, a waste of time. Today we have no excuse not to use leisure to cultivate our mind and soul. Reading, meditating, contemplating beauty wherever you are are not expensive activities.
But there is still more to say about the economic system. I’m going to briefly discuss the pension system of the alien nation. There, all those who have worked enjoy a decent pension when they reach 65 years of age, or up to 70 if they have a special permit (civil servants and philosophers have no age limit). Both the government and even private fortunes contribute to the pension fund.
Another interesting element of the economy of the neighboring planet is that natural resources are owned by the government; just half of the benefits provided by these resources go to the pension fund. And best of all, fraud doesn’t exist! In that society, fraud and disloyalty to the public are considered the worst of crimes. When will we learn here that public resources belong to everyone and that therefore they should be not only sacred for public officials, but also well managed by them following the criteria of the common good?
And regarding the always thorny issue of taxes, the neighboring planet does not exactly do badly. First, local governments cannot incur debt; the State has very demanding conditions to be able to ask for a loan (I cannot help but think about the terrible debt crisis that the Urantia countries are currently experiencing). But if we take into account that taxes are managed wisely on the neighboring planet and corruption does not exist, it is logical that it is not necessary to ask for more money to make public services work.
The Revealers tell us that the governments of the neighboring planet have five main sources of income (UB 72:7.8-13):
- Import duties: impose tariffs on imports.
- Copyrights: they have a part of the benefits of patents.
- Inheritance taxes.
- The benefits of leasing military and naval equipment.
- Natural resources.
In general, we could say that, economically and socially, the alien nation presents an interesting combination of public control and the promotion of individuality. The tensions between these two elements have not yet been satisfactorily resolved in any Urantian society.
¶ The universal suffrage
At this point, we are going to find big differences in the way in which the citizens of the neighboring planet choose their rulers. Instead of the Urantia “one person, one vote” system (and we have to keep in mind that there are still countries in our world where women do not have that right), those people “who have done great service to society” can have of additional votes, with a maximum of ten. Additional votes are also available to those who have contributed the most to the public treasury. In the same way that additional votes are given, the right to vote is suppressed in different cases. For example, in the case of public officials and for abnormal and criminals, although for different reasons for the two groups.
Regarding the number of weighted votes, I would like to recall something that is said in paper 45, which deals with the administration of the local system, since on Jerusem universal suffrage also contemplates weighted votes:
Suffrage is universal on Jerusem among these three groups of citizenship, but the vote is differentially cast in accordance with the recognized and duly registered personal possession of mota—morontia wisdom. The vote cast at a Jerusem election by any one personality has a value ranging from one up to one thousand. Jerusem citizens are thus classified in accordance with their mota achievement. (UB 45:7.6)
It certainly seems like a good idea to assign “weights” to the votes, a weight that takes into account each person’s wisdom and achievements. According to this system, the vote of the most competent will positively influence the final result.
As in the courts, voters are not linked to territorial constituencies but to professionals: citizens vote according to the industrial, social or professional group to which they belong. There is only one exception to this system, and it is when electing the head of the executive, in which there is a national vote and each citizen has only one vote (UB 72:9.6)
This distribution has undoubted benefits, since it makes each profession and each area of society are reinforced without this implying a detriment to the rest. Each component is like a well-oiled gear that makes the machine of which they are a part work optimally.
Precisely when dealing with this subject, the Revelators transmit to us part of the wisdom of this alien nation in some reflections that should give us food for thought about what is happening in Urantian societies:
“. . . These people recognize that, when fifty per cent of a nation is inferior or defective and possesses the ballot, such a nation is doomed. They believe the dominance of mediocrity spells the downfall of any nation. . . .” (UB 72:9.8)
¶ The treatment of crime
Here is a thorny issue, which can give opinions for all tastes. I mean your policy regarding criminals and feeble-minded. Let’s see how it shows a couple of examples:
The feeble-minded are trained only in agriculture and animal husbandry, and are committed for life to special custodial colonies where they are segregated by sex to prevent parenthood, which is denied all subnormals. . . . (UB 72:4.2)
The methods of this people in dealing with crime, insanity, and degeneracy, while in some ways pleasing, will, no doubt, in others prove shocking to most Urantians. Ordinary criminals and the defectives are placed, by sexes, in different agricultural colonies and are more than self-supporting. The more serious habitual criminals and the incurably insane are sentenced to death in the lethal gas chambers by the courts. Numerous crimes aside from murder, including betrayal of governmental trust, also carry the death penalty, and the visitation of justice is sure and swift. (UB 72:10.1)
It doesn’t seem like a bad idea to dedicate convicts and weak-minded to agriculture. Of course it is better than confining them in jails so that they do absolutely nothing, as happens here. As for the death penalty as a punishment for the “irrecoverable” and “high traitors”, that is another topic, and certainly very controversial and difficult to deal with the necessary serenity and objectivity.
There is an interesting comment about the treatment of crime, and in my opinion it seems to go a bit far: they are coming to sentence those who are considered potential murderers.
These people are passing out of the negative into the positive era of law. Recently they have gone so far as to attempt the prevention of crime by sentencing those who are believed to be potential murderers and major criminals to life service in the detention colonies. If such convicts subsequently demonstrate that they have become more normal, they may be either paroled or pardoned. (UB 72:10.2)
This is called “putting on the bandage before the wound.” Of course, it seems that the method works for them, because as it says at the end of the paragraph, “the homicide rate on this continent only represents one percent of that of other nations”. In addition to the treatment of crime that they carry out, they perform some kind of eugenics:
Efforts to prevent the breeding of criminals and defectives were begun over one hundred years ago and have already yielded gratifying results. There are no prisons or hospitals for the insane. For one reason, there are only about ten per cent as many of these groups as are found on Urantia. (UB 72:10.3)
This paragraph seems to imply some revelator approval of the method employed by this government, as well as hinting that on Urantia we have an excess of insane and criminal morons (I’m sure we all agree on that).
¶ The military organization
Another of the points that I would highlight as positive is related to the military preparation and organization of their armies. Not only is military training carried out, but its officers are also instructed in another trade or profession. This avoids the problems of having an idle army in peacetime, and thus “inventing” new wars. According to the document, in the last 100 years they have only used their war resources as a defensive weapon.
When at peace with the world, all mobile defense mechanisms are quite fully employed in trade, commerce, and recreation. When war is declared, the entire nation is mobilized. . . . (UB 72:11.5)
I make a brief parenthesis to highlight a detail that I find very interesting and enlightening, in order to apply it to our society. I refer to what is mentioned about instructing someone in more than one job, and which reminds me of a paragraph from another document in Part III, document 81, “The development of modern civilization”:
It is not enough to train men for work; in a complex society there must also be provided efficient methods of place finding. Before training citizens in the highly specialized techniques of earning a living, they should be trained in one or more methods of commonplace labor, trades or callings which could be utilized when they were transiently unemployed in their specialized work. No civilization can survive the long-time harboring of large classes of unemployed. In time, even the best of citizens will become distorted and demoralized by accepting support from the public treasury. Even private charity becomes pernicious when long extended to able-bodied citizens. (UB 81:6.32)
As proposed in this paragraph, the key would be not to learn a trade or specialize in a single job, but to diversify our skills, in order to adapt to the labor needs of society, which are never static but rather change. This idea has been adopted in this “sister” civilization, and it would not be bad for us to do the same.
¶ External relationships
Regarding their relationship with the rest of the nations on the planet, it seems that they are trying not only to maintain diplomatic relations with them, but also to send missionaries that in some way impose their superior culture. On our planet we have abundant examples of how this effort can be highly destructive for the supposedly inferior civilization. In this document, the developers tell us:
. . . What a wonderful thing could be done on this world if this continental nation of advanced culture would only go out and bring to itself the best of the neighboring peoples and then, after educating them, send them back as emissaries of culture to their benighted brethren! (UB 72:12.2)
If you remember, this was exactly what was done in Dalamatia before the outbreak of the rebellion, and in the first Garden of Eden, before the absence of Adam and Eve. Then it seems that this would be the appropriate method.
Reading this, I am reminded of all the “discoveries” and colonizations that have been carried out by Western peoples, and whose effects are felt today, mainly in the tremendous economic, cultural and social abyss that separates the “North” from the “South”, or the first world from the third world. Wouldn’t it be a good strategy to allow the most capable people from the most backward countries to be trained in the most advanced countries, so that they themselves could be the architects of their own development, and not feel humiliated again for being helped? “from outside”?
¶ Conclusion
Why did the revelators include information about another humanity in the book? At the beginning of the document they tell us:
The similarity of the two spheres undoubtedly explains why permission to make this extraordinary presentation was granted, . . . (UB 72:0.2)
But they did not give us this document simply because in our system there is a world very similar to ours. Near the end of the document appears the main reason:
This recital of the affairs of a neighboring planet is made by special permission with the intent of advancing civilization and augmenting governmental evolution on Urantia. . . . (UB 72:12.3)
So this document was not included in the fifth disclosure simply to satisfy our curiosity about what an alien civilization might look like that happened to have a lot in common with us; If they told us about this civilization, it was because they considered that we were perfectly capable of emulating their achievements in the time frame in which revelation must germinate and trigger the great spiritual awakening of humanity.
The developers left nothing to chance and have never given any extra information. Nothing they tell us is superfluous; everything is capable of being used for our own growth. Therefore, let us carefully study this document and find out what we can take advantage of from the experience of that other world to get the Urantian societies forward and the stage of light and life a little closer.
Let’s not forget that we had a great advantage over the neighboring planet, and that is that we had the visit of our Creator Son (ours and theirs). Apart from the fact that on our planet religion has had a greater development than on the neighboring planet, even with all the defects that evolutionary religions still have. Here is what the Revelators say in the last two paragraphs of the document:
Urantians should, however, take note that their sister sphere in the Satania family has benefited by neither magisterial nor bestowal missions of the Paradise Sons. Neither are the various peoples of Urantia set off from each other by such disparity of culture as separates the continental nation from its planetary fellows. (UB 72:12.4)
. . . Urantia is therefore far better prepared for the more immediate realization of a planetary government with its laws, mechanisms, symbols, conventions, and language—all of which could contribute so mightily to the establishment of world-wide peace under law and could lead to the sometime dawning of a real age of spiritual striving; and such an age is the planetary threshold to the utopian ages of light and life. (UB 72:12.5)
Some of the cultural standardization we are already experiencing now, with the development of the Internet. Despite the fact that there is still so much cultural disparity between the peoples of the Earth, we can say that there is a common cultural background, supranational organizations, a language with prospects of becoming lingua franca, such as English… a globalization, in In short, which, although considered only as economic globalization is negative, approached from all aspects (social, cultural, etc.) would undoubtedly be much more positive and would lead us to the goal of “one government, one language, one religion” that the developers advise.
Utopia, the age of light and life, is a distant horizon, but it is also a promise “doomed” to come true. The “when” is up to us and how successful we are in propagating the teachings of The Urantia Book to succeeding generations.
¶ References
- Light and Life Magazine (all old issues): https://aue.urantia-association.org/numeros-antiguos-del-lyv/
| Argumentative Fallacies and Examples Related to The Urantia Book | Luz y Vida — No. 45 — September 2016 — Index | The majesty of being able to choose: free will |