© 2020 Olga López
© 2020 Urantia Association of Spain
One of the terms that needs to be redefined more than ever in these times is religion, understood as a personal experience with God. Religion as described in The Urantia Book contains a new definition of religion that is meant to be lived, as it seeks to experience our relationship with God in a personal and non-transferable way. This new concept of religion makes a huge difference and challenges us to experience a new way of progressing and becoming better than we are.
In my presentation, I will draw on four documents that I consider essential to better understand this new concept of religion:
What fosters religious growth in people? The answer to this question is well summarized in this paragraph from Document 100:
The fundamental ground for religious growth presupposes a progressive life of self-realization, the coordination of natural tendencies, the exercise of curiosity and the pleasure of reasonable adventures, the experience of feelings of satisfaction, the functioning of fear to stimulate attention and conscience, the attraction of the marvelous, and a normal consciousness of one’s own smallness, humility. Growth is also based on the discovery of self, accompanied by self-criticism—of conscience—for conscience is really the criticism of oneself by one’s own scale of values, one’s personal ideals. UB 100:1.5
Then we have that all this encourages the development of personal religion in us:
Religion (as understood in The Urantia Book) is a personal experience with God that “cannot be given, received, borrowed, learned, or lost” (UB 100:1.7). If you notice, all these verbs imply an action involving a second person, but there is nothing out there to make us religious unless there is something within us compelling us to be so. Even the Father, the object of our worship, resides within us as a Thought Adjuster.
For those “skeptics” of religion, for whom it arises from the need to believe in something and the feelings that need generates, the revelators tell us that it is our thoughts, not feelings, that lead us to God. These thoughts are operated upon by the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth in order to spiritualize us more and more through faith and insight.
We are told that religion cannot be learned, but on the other hand, they claim that we can “develop religious predispositions to react favorably to spiritual stimuli, a kind of conditioned spiritual reflex.” We can somehow create conditioned responses to spiritual stimuli.
And what are the habits that foster religious growth? They are expressed very clearly here:
… Habits which favor religious growth embrace cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of religious living in others, reflective meditation on cosmic meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing one’s spiritual life with one’s fellows, avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living as in the presence of God. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious. (UB 100:1.8)
The spiritual development discussed in The Urantia Book is not only about maintaining a living spiritual connection with true spiritual forces, but also about making that connection useful to our fellow human beings.
… The evidence of true spiritual development consists in the exhibition of a human personality motivated by love, activated by unselfish ministry, and dominated by the wholehearted worship of the perfection ideals of divinity. And this entire experience constitutes the reality of religion as contrasted with mere theological beliefs. (UB 100:2.2)
Here we see a fundamental difference between the “evolutionary” idea of religion and the “revealed” idea: religion is many things, but it is not belief, and service to others is an integral part of it.
In this new concept of religion, spirituality plays a fundamental role:
Spirituality becomes at once the indicator of one’s nearness to God and the measure of one’s usefulness to fellow beings. Spirituality enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover goodness in values… UB 100:2.4
It’s curious how this demand for spirituality has come through channels far removed from institutionalized religions, which are perhaps too focused on dogmatic rigidity and the mediating role of the clergy to foster authentic personal religious experiences.
Knowing God is our safe passage to the security of knowing that “the only realities worth fighting for are divine, spiritual, and eternal” (UB 100:2.6). Paper 100 quotes words of Jesus that we should all remember from time to time when we see the injustice and suffering of the world: “To a believer in the kingdom who knows God, what does it matter if all earthly things fall away?” (UB 100:2.7). Material things are destined to perish, so we cannot trust our security to material things. On the other hand, the spirit is indestructible if we entrust our soul to the Adjuster, the indwelling spirit of the eternal God.
Once we manage to live according to the security of one who knows God, no adversity, selfishness, cruelty, hatred, or evil can shake our inner strength. It is precisely then that we can say we have been born of the Spirit.
The revelators insist on linking religion and service. Let’s look at this quote:
Religion is not a technique for attaining a static and blissful peace of mind; it is an impulse for organizing the soul for dynamic service… (UB 100:3.1)
There’s no point in achieving peace of mind if this state doesn’t inspire us to serve. In the worlds of time and space, service is an intrinsic part of spiritual progress. He who keeps his light to himself sooner or later ends up ceasing to shine.
It’s important to highlight the difference between growth and progress here. Although they may seem the same to us, the researchers take pains to establish the conceptual differences between the two:
The association of actuals and potentials equals growth, the experiential realization of values. But growth is not mere progress. Progress is always meaningful, but it is relatively valueless without growth. The supreme value of human life consists in growth of values, progress in meanings, and realization of the cosmic interrelatedness of both of these experiences. And such an experience is the equivalent of God-consciousness. Such a mortal, while not supernatural, is truly becoming superhuman; an immortal soul is evolving. (UB 100:3.6)
We could say, then, that growth is necessary for progress to have value. Values must grow, meanings must progress, and the two must be interrelated.
In the paragraph that follows, the developers offer us another revealing quote about growth:
Man cannot cause growth, but he can supply favorable conditions. Growth is always unconscious, be it physical, intellectual, or spiritual. Love thus grows; it cannot be created, manufactured, or purchased; it must grow. Evolution is a cosmic technique of growth. Social growth cannot be secured by legislation, and moral growth is not had by improved administration… Man’s sole contribution to growth is the mobilization of the total powers of his personality—living faith. (UB 100:3.7)
Growth is always accompanied by tension, a disturbance, however slight: “There can be no growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation… Loyalty to what is great, good, true, and noble is not exercised without struggle” (UB 100:4.2). The animal pulls us strongly, and laziness is an animal trait that keeps us in our comfort zone. But we must step out of it and strive to solve the problems of existence if we want to grow spiritually. Moreover, such effort is accompanied by a sublime reward:
… Spiritual growth produces lasting joy, a peace that surpasses all understanding. (UB 100:4.3)
In Christianity (and probably in other evolutionary religions as well) they talk about loving our fellow human beings, but how do we come to love our neighbor? The book is very clear when it says that we cannot love them with a simple act of will (100:4), and if we stop to think about it for a moment, we see that they are right. To love someone, the first thing we must do is know them. I recall this quote from Paper 102: “It is literally true that ‘one must know human things in order to love them, but one must love divine things in order to know them.’” (UB 102:1.1)
This quote gives us the key to loving our fellow human beings consciously and meaningfully:
… If you love your fellow men, you must have discovered their values. Jesus loved men so much because he placed such a high value upon them. You can best discover values in your associates by discovering their motivation. If someone irritates you, causes feelings of resentment, you should sympathetically seek to discern his viewpoint, his reasons for such objectionable conduct. If once you understand your neighbor, you will become tolerant, and this tolerance will grow into friendship and ripen into love. (UB 100:4.4)
This other quote is also key to understanding the process of loving all human beings and how powerful love is. A process not self-imposed as an obligation, but as something joyful:
…It is not so important to love all men today as it is that each day you learn to love one more human being. If each day or each week you achieve an understanding of one more of your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability, then you are certainly socializing and truly spiritualizing your personality. Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man. (UB 100:4.6)
In this way, we internalize in all its full meaning the expression that summarizes the gospel of the kingdom that our Creator Son brought to our world when he was in it as a mortal: the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
Spiritual awakening can be the result of a long and more or less tortuous process, or it can be the result of a sudden event. One way isn’t necessarily better than the other, and it depends on the person experiencing this awakening to transcendent realities. However, we must be very careful with our mind, for it can play tricks on us and make us believe that certain mystical experiences are divine communications. Our Adjuster doesn’t communicate with us through trances, fasting, or extreme isolation. All of these things lead to a connection with the subconscious, not the superconscious, which is where our Adjuster resides. That is, we go from one extreme of the mind to the other. Not even the Master resorted to ascetic methods to communicate with the Father. Why would they work for us?
Religion is more than just another part of our life as human beings: it is a way of life. Religious people live according to supreme ideals, transcendent values that transcend their purely material existence, toward the immortality of their being.
Does this mean we should live in social isolation? Absolutely not! The true religious life is one lived in society with our fellow human beings, for service is an essential component that ultimately brings rewards far more gratifying than material wealth.
Jesus of Nazareth is undoubtedly a model of a religious person, for he embodied the pinnacle of religious life like no one else. Document 100 offers us an exquisite description of the balanced and authentic way in which he lived his life. To summarize, here are some of the characteristics highlighted by the Melchizedek revealed in this document:
There is much confusion in this world about what religion is, and The Urantia Book came to clarify this confusion and recover the religion of Jesus. Let’s now see what religion is and is not, according to what the Revelators say. We will also compare evolutionary religion with revealed religion to discover what we need to have a religious experience, and we will discover the fundamental role that faith and our Thought Adjuster play in our eternal destiny.
Today, the word “religion” is greatly discredited. It has partly lost its original meaning of religare, of connecting us with the Source of all, of beings and the universe they inhabit, and has come to be identified with the practices of evolutionary, man-made religions, in which a concept of God and the divine has been constructed in the image and likeness of human beings.
In The Urantia Book religion is spoken of numerous times in its original and authentic sense of connection with God and the divine, and it gives us a wonderful definition that could reconcile even the most bitter enemy of religions with religion, if he has sufficient openness of mind and is a sincere seeker of Truth.
According to The Urantia Book, this is NOT religion:
And this IS religion:
Religion gives new meanings to facts already known to humanity, and consists of feeling the reality of that personal experience that is believing in God.
Does this mean that religion has nothing to do with logic and reason? Absolutely not! For those who believe, there is nothing more logical or reasonable than considering the existence of a Creator and Father of all beings. Of course, such reasons cannot be transmitted as irrefutable proof to others, for it is faith that provides us with these certainties.
To be able to live religion more fully, evolutionary religion, the attainment of human wisdom, is not enough: it requires revelation, which offers us that spiritual vision, those points of view that human beings alone could never achieve, no matter how much time passes.
The revelation:
Since The Urantia Book is the fifth epochal revelation, it clearly has a very specific purpose, which is to spiritually elevate humanity. And to achieve this, it is essential to recover that primordial sense of religion as a personal and direct connection with God and the divine. We need to connect intimately and deeply with our divine spark to nourish our faith and progress spiritually. Human religions have placed too much emphasis on the external—doctrine, rituals, social aspects—and it is necessary to turn inward, for that is where that fragment of God within us resides. That fragment, if we let it, will help us become a spiritualized soul that will live eternally.
The revelators mention 12 signs that show that our soul has the potential for eternity, 12 signs that reveal that we have authentic spiritual faith:
All of these points are important, but I think the last one includes all the others: if we worship God despite everything and above all else, we show all the other signs.
Revealed religion is the second phase of the manifestation of religion in a world of time and space. In contrast to evolutionary religion, which proceeds from the human mind, revelation offers us a cosmic vision, expands our horizons, and shows us that the cosmic Deity is attainable.
Evolutionary religion drives home to the individual the idea of personal duty; revealed religion lays increasing emphasis on loving, the golden rule. UB 101:5.11
And there is a third phase, for which revealed religion is an essential preliminary step:
The third step in religion, or the third phase of the experience of religion, has to do with the morontia state, the firmer grasp of mota. Increasingly in the morontia progression the truths of revealed religion are expanded; more and more you will know the truth of supreme values, divine goodnesses, universal relationships, eternal realities, and ultimate destinies. UB 101:5.13
Only at that stage will we have the assurance of pure spiritual insight. In the meantime, we will continue to need faith.
To fully experience personal religion, we need to develop our own philosophy of religion: that is, create a system of values based on our experience of God that gives purpose to our lives and leads us to act in accordance with those values.
Our personal philosophy of religion should not be a dead theory, but rather based on our experiences, both internal and external (with our surroundings). This philosophy is influenced by a multitude of factors:
How do we develop our philosophy of religion? From all these factors and our personal experience, we create a set of higher values by which to live our lives. During this development, we form our understanding of God and our relationship to Him. This is how the Revelators explain the stages in which religious philosophy evolves:
As human beings, we are part of the material creation. We live fully immersed in space and time and therefore always think in terms of cause and effect. But what happens when we try to conceive of a First Cause? Nature offers us no answers there, nor does it allow us to discover spiritual reality within it. Nor do logic and reason reveal eternal truths to those who use them; they do not allow us to escape the uncertainty of being an ephemeral reality that ceases as soon as our physical body dies. Only in the spiritual sense are we aware of being children of God and inhabited by a divine fragment. If we accept God’s truth through faith, we are freed from the shackles of the material world to embrace eternal life. In this way, we are no longer mere mortals but perfectible human beings with the potential to be eternal.
…Such faith-liberated sons have certainly enlisted in the struggles of time on the side of the supreme forces and divine personalities of eternity; even the stars in their courses are now doing battle for them; at last they gaze upon the universe from within, from God’s viewpoint, and all is transformed from the uncertainties of material isolation to the sureties of eternal spiritual progression. Even time itself becomes but the shadow of eternity cast by Paradise realities upon the moving panoply of space. UB 101:10.9
Much has been said about faith, but what exactly is it? Is it the same as belief? Is it compatible with reason and logic? Let’s now delve into what faith is and what its foundations are, and compare faith and its certainties with other concepts such as belief, knowledge, wisdom, and insight, in light of the new religion championed by the Revelators and the living example of Jesus’ life and teachings.
Faith and belief are on different levels; rather, we could say that faith is on a higher level because it compels us to live according to the highest ideals we know. Belief is simply accepting a teaching, but if it doesn’t condition our lives, it remains mere intellectual assent; it doesn’t rise to the level of faith. Furthermore, beliefs are often held by groups, but faith, like religion, must be personal to be authentic.
… Belief fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving… UB 101:8.2
Many philosophers, theologians, and believers in general have believed they’ve proven the existence of God to others. But have they managed to persuade anyone who wasn’t already convinced? There is no proof, as we know it, anywhere other than science (the material world) and logic (the world of reason), and it’s precisely there that we won’t find it. The existence of God is a spiritual and therefore personal certainty that cannot be used to persuade nonbelievers. And the reason is clear: because religion must be lived.
… The God-knowing man describes his spiritual experiences, not to convince unbelievers, but for the edification and mutual satisfaction of believers. UB 1:6.6
Besides, if the existence of God could be proven, why would we need faith?
True religion must be dynamic in order to survive. If religion were not dynamic, if it were locked into rigid, immutable formulas imposed by tradition, it would not lead us to progress but would simply enslave us to empty dogmas and rituals.
True religion must act. Conduct will be the result of religion when man actually has it, or rather when religion is permitted truly to possess the man. Never will religion be content with mere thinking or unacting feeling. UB 102:2.8
Following religious beliefs without question is certainly very convenient and saves us from complications on countless occasions, but in the long run it ends up stagnating and leads us to the false idea that we are buying our salvation by following traditional recipes. Doing something because “it’s been done that way all my life” or because “I’ve been told I have to do it,” even if the action is objectively good, does not advance us spiritually. Action must arise from a deep religious conviction.
True religion leads to ever-increasing social service. If religion doesn’t lead to service to our fellow human beings, how is it any different from a mere intellectual belief? Religion should be our impetus to face life’s difficulties, and also to enjoy it fully and put our existence into perspective: the cosmic perspective.
Material feelings, human emotions, lead directly to material actions, to selfish acts. Religious insight, spiritual motivations, lead directly to religious actions, to unselfish acts of social service and altruistic generosity. UB 102:3.3
Revealed religion, which has reached us five times throughout human history, has elevated our understanding of religion as human civilization has advanced. Evolutionary religion, the religion we humans have created to answer the great questions, cannot reach beyond where the best human wisdom leads. Revelations have come to us precisely to convey ideas about the divine that take root in our minds, elevate them, and eventually transform into truths we could not have reached on our own. They are seeds that bear fruit in the mind and lead us to new meanings and values.
Revealed religion is the unifying element of human existence. Revelation unifies history, co-ordinates geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, and psychology. Spiritual experience is the real soul of man’s cosmos. UB 102:4.6
Our religious experience should in no way be separate or disconnected from the rest of our lives, for this will damage both our lives and our religion. For this reason, the revelators tell us that “the God of worship demands total faithfulness, or none at all.” UB 102:6.1 This also reminds me of the famous saying of Jesus of Nazareth, who said: “You cannot sincerely worship God and at the same time serve Money with all your heart.” UB 140:6.13
Faith in God should in no way be at odds with reason, logic, or the facts of material life. Indeed, it is desirable that it be in harmony with them and complement them.
Convictions about God may be arrived at through wise reasoning, but the individual becomes God-knowing only by faith, through personal experience. In much that pertains to life, probability must be reckoned with, but when contacting with cosmic reality, certainty may be experienced when such meanings and values are approached by living faith. The God-knowing soul dares to say, “I know,” even when this knowledge of God is questioned by the unbeliever who denies such certitude because it is not wholly supported by intellectual logic. To every such doubter the believer only replies, “How do you know that I do not know?” UB 102:6.5
This last one seems like the perfect answer for materialistic people who doubt our faith. How can they doubt something as personal and non-transferable as religious faith? They can doubt their faith, but never ours. It’s not an emotion, it’s not a feeling, it’s not an idea: it’s a living experience, and therefore, it’s real.
The facts of evolution must not be arrayed against the truth of the reality of the certainty of the spiritual experience of the religious living of the God-knowing mortal. Intelligent men should cease to reason like children and should attempt to use the consistent logic of adulthood, logic which tolerates the concept of truth alongside the observation of fact. Scientific materialism has gone bankrupt when it persists, in the face of each recurring universe phenomenon, in refunding its current objections by referring what is admittedly higher back into that which is admittedly lower. Consistency demands the recognition of the activities of a purposive Creator. UB 102:6.9
We must admit that there are many good people who claim (at least outwardly) that they don’t believe in God. They are moral people, but not religious; morality isn’t enough to produce spiritual fruit. This quote makes this very clear:
True, many apparently religious traits can grow out of nonreligious roots. Man can, intellectually, deny God and yet be morally good, loyal, filial, honest, and even idealistic. Man may graft many purely humanistic branches onto his basic spiritual nature and thus apparently prove his contentions in behalf of a godless religion, but such an experience is devoid of survival values, God-knowingness and God-ascension. In such a mortal experience only social fruits are forthcoming, not spiritual. The graft determines the nature of the fruit, notwithstanding that the living sustenance is drawn from the roots of original divine endowment of both mind and spirit. UB 102:7.4
In the face of those who have remained at the material level or at the level of morality, there is a response that reaffirms our faith, and which is indicated in this quote in a very beautiful way:
If science, philosophy, or sociology dares to become dogmatic in contending with the prophets of true religion, then should God-knowing men reply to such unwarranted dogmatism with that more farseeing dogmatism of the certainty of personal spiritual experience, “I know what I have experienced because I am a son of I AM.” If the personal experience of a faither is to be challenged by dogma, then this faith-born son of the experiencible Father may reply with that unchallengeable dogma, the statement of his actual sonship with the Universal Father. UB 102:7.7
As individuals, we can live our relationship with God in a unique way and share it with others without imposing anything. When religious consciousness arises, it leads us along paths of service to a life in which body, mind, and spirit are integrated and harmonized.
If we can share our religious experience with others, it is because we all possess the same spiritual endowment: the Thought Adjuster, the divine fragment of the Father. But it is also true that we all have a unique personality (no two mortals are alike), which causes each of us to interpret the impulses and directives emanating from the Adjuster differently. That is, there are as many personal experiences with God as there are mortal beings in the universe of universes. They may be similar experiences, but they are not the same.
Does this mean we’re destined to be islands of spirituality? Absolutely not. In fact, it’s highly recommended that we learn about other people’s religious experiences. Here’s what the Revelators tell us about this:
While your religion is a matter of personal experience, it is most important that you should be exposed to the knowledge of a vast number of other religious experiences (the diverse interpretations of other and diverse mortals) to the end that you may prevent your religious life from becoming egocentric—circumscribed, selfish, and unsocial. UB 103:1.3
Let’s now address another aspect of religious experience: group expressions of religion. It’s true that many of us have moved away from institutionalized religions because they offer meaningless ceremonies and rituals, so we tend to think of them as useless. Interestingly, The Urantia Book not only doesn’t dismiss this practice, but it tells us that group prayer and worship are important. In section 5 of Paper 91, “The Social Implications of Prayer,” some very interesting statements are made on this subject:
But prayer need not always be individual. Group or congregational praying is very effective in that it is highly socializing in its repercussions. When a group engages in community prayer for moral enhancement and spiritual uplift, such devotions are reactive upon the individuals composing the group; they are all made better because of participation. Even a whole city or an entire nation can be helped by such prayer devotions. Confession, repentance, and prayer have led individuals, cities, nations, and whole races to mighty efforts of reform and courageous deeds of valorous achievement. UB 91:5.2
(The symbols of socialized religion are not to be despised as channels of growth, albeit the river bed is not the river.) UB 100:5.1
Of course, this communion must be based on the loving character of our Father:
Jesus swept away all of the ceremonials of sacrifice and atonement. He destroyed the basis of all this fictitious guilt and sense of isolation in the universe by declaring that man is a child of God; the creature-Creator relationship was placed on a child-parent basis. God becomes a loving Father to his mortal sons and daughters. All ceremonials not a legitimate part of such an intimate family relationship are forever abrogated. UB 103:4.4
And we must also keep in mind that religious symbols and ceremonies cannot replace religious experience. Let’s see what Jesus did in this regard:
… And he never grew weary of pointing out to the twelve the great danger of accepting religious symbols and ceremonies in the place of religious experience… UB 155:3.8
Since the symbol refers to the idea it represents, but is not the same as the idea, we must be very careful to separate the symbol from the underlying idea and avoid worshipping the symbol itself, because then we will remain at a superficial level.
Throughout the centuries, religious unity has not only been misunderstood, but has also caused countless suffering to all those who did not understand it in the same way as the religious leaders. Unity has always been confused with uniformity. Jesus himself had to clarify this misunderstanding with his apostles, for they believed that Jesus was asking them for uniformity in what they should believe and think, when what he was asking of them was unity.
The religion of the spirit does not demand uniformity of intellectual views, only unity of spirit feeling. The religions of authority crystallize into lifeless creeds; the religion of the spirit grows into the increasing joy and liberty of ennobling deeds of loving service and merciful ministration. UB 155:6.9
The Revelators give us the key to achieving religious unity within a religious social group: allowing religious freedom.
When a member of a social religious group has complied with the requirements of such a group, he should be encouraged to enjoy religious liberty in the full expression of his own personal interpretation of the truths of religious belief and the facts of religious experience. The security of a religious group depends on spiritual unity, not on theological uniformity. A religious group should be able to enjoy the liberty of freethinking without having to become “freethinkers.” There is great hope for any church that worships the living God, validates the brotherhood of man, and dares to remove all creedal pressure from its members. UB 103:5.12
The kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men will create religious unity (not necessarily uniformity) because any and all religious groups composed of such religious believers will be free from all notions of ecclesiastical authority—religious sovereignty. UB 134:4.6 (bold added)
…The true church—the Jesus brotherhood—is invisible, spiritual, and is characterized by unity, not necessarily by uniformity. Uniformity is the earmark of the physical world of mechanistic nature. Spiritual unity is the fruit of faith union with the living Jesus. The visible church should refuse longer to handicap the progress of the invisible and spiritual brotherhood of the kingdom of God. And this brotherhood is destined to become a living organism in contrast to an institutionalized social organization. It may well utilize such social organizations, but it must not be supplanted by them. UB 195:10.11 (bold added)
The relationship between science and religion has been conflictive since the beginning of recorded history. Primitive humans offered supernatural explanations for natural phenomena. With the development of evolutionary religions, they interfered with the nascent development of science, attributing to God natural and physical phenomena that did not belong within the realm of religion. And since the twentieth century, we find that it is science that is interfering in the realm of religion, attempting to answer all transcendental questions through the observation of physical phenomena and experimentation.
In reality, there is no possible conflict between science and religion (or there shouldn’t be), because science and religion have different spheres of action. Furthermore:
Science is sustained by reason, religion by faith. Faith, though not predicated on reason, is reasonable; though independent of logic, it is nonetheless encouraged by sound logic… UB 103:7.1
Deepening our experience of God doesn’t mean that the material cosmos is alien to us. In fact:
… The progression of science is not limited to the terrestrial life of man; his universe and superuniverse ascension experience will to no small degree be the study of energy transmutation and material metamorphosis… UB 103:7.3
The Revelators insist greatly on the idea that philosophy is the necessary point of union between science and religion:
…but through the mediation of a philosophy strengthened by revelation, logic may confirm both the inward and the outward view, thereby effecting the stabilization of both science and religion. Thus, through common contact with the logic of philosophy, may both science and religion become increasingly tolerant of each other, less and less skeptical. UB 103:7.6
But not just any philosophy is worth it:
Philosophy, to be of the greatest service to both science and religion, should avoid the extremes of both materialism and pantheism. Only a philosophy which recognizes the reality of personality—permanence in the presence of change—can be of moral value to man, can serve as a liaison between the theories of material science and spiritual religion… UB 103:8.6
Furthermore, both science and religion need a good dose of self-criticism: scientists and religious leaders must be aware that science and religion, on their own, do not explain everything:
What both developing science and religion need is more searching and fearless self-criticism, a greater awareness of incompleteness in evolutionary status. The teachers of both science and religion are often altogether too self-confident and dogmatic. Science and religion can only be self-critical of their facts. The moment departure is made from the stage of facts, reason abdicates or else rapidly degenerates into a consort of false logic. UB 103:7.7
If science has its axioms (unprovable principles, since they are supposed to be self-evident), religion has them too:
…Science starts out on its vaunted career of reasoning by assuming the reality of three things: matter, motion, and life. Religion starts out with the assumption of the validity of three things: mind, spirit, and the universe—the Supreme Being. UB 103:7.11
Spiritual realities (such as, for example, the presence of the Thought Adjuster in the minds of mortals) are not demonstrable according to the scientific method, but that does not make them any less real to the religious people who experience them. We could say that if something is spiritually real, it is because of the fruits it produces. Therefore, that should be sufficient proof of its reality.
Can there be a religion without faith and without God that is worthy of the name?
… Religion without faith is a contradiction; without God, a philosophic inconsistency and an intellectual absurdity. UB 103:9.3
Although evolutionary religions have conveyed many misconceptions, they were necessary in earlier stages of humanity and should be valued for all the good they brought to the world. They contain the wisdom of many human religious teachers and leaders.
Now we have a new formulation of religion, a revelation of religion that expands on the religion of Jesus, which was the fourth epochal revelation. This religion doesn’t require a theology or a religious hierarchy. There are no experts or religious authorities. Nor does it require us all to believe the same thing in the same way. It simply urges us to follow some very simple guidelines:
Religion stands above science, art, philosophy, ethics, and morals, but not independent of them. They are all indissolubly interrelated in human experience, personal and social. Religion is man’s supreme experience in the mortal nature… UB 196:3.28