© 1985 Paul Snider
© 1985 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
The following was given as a talk at a Conference in Atlanta in the spring of 1983. The editors.
Friends, fellow adventurers … I salute the God within you,
When Cap asked me to speak here today, I said sure -there had been a thought lingering in the back of my mind for several years. I told him I could say it in two words. Cap said: How about a half hour, forty-five minutes. Figuring I could speak very slowly, I told him okay.
It all seemed quite simple at the time. I had already memorized the two words. But in thinking about it, it didn’t seem so simple after all. Several large and very puzzling questions kept getting in the way. So after reading books, praying for greater understanding, talking ideas over with several people, and then rediscovering some beautiful passages in The URANTIA Book — the two words began to take on additional dimensions.
It didn’t seem right for me just to start by talking about what we as Urantians could share. This had a ring of arrogance. The question kept coming into my mind: Who are we anyway? So, starting with the question: “Who are we anyway ” and then assuming that sharing is a two-way street — that we can learn from other religions at the same time we are sharing — the talk began to take shape around three basic ideas that seem to be strongly inter-related:
— Paul Snider
Wilmette, Illinois
As this issue completes its final production process, we are beginning to receive the first responses to the questions we posed in the last two issues. We will begin to include some responses in our next issue, but just to keep you thinking, here’s another question based upon this quote from Paper 3 of the The URANTIA Book:
“It is a great blunder to humanize God, except in the concept of the indwelling Thought Adjuster, but even that is not so stupid as completely to mechanize the idea of the First Great Source and Center.” (UB 3:6.5)
What do you think this sentence means?
While our intent is to stimulate the submittal of finished articles for publication, we will also welcome, edit (if necessary), and publish in summary form any responses to this question you care to send us. In fact, if this approach generates the level of interest we hope it will, we plan to use it on a regular basis to provide a way for our readers to share their thoughts, observations, and responses to questions many of us struggle with on a regular basis, alone, or in our study groups, as we seek to understand our Father better through the mechanism of The URANTIA Book. Thanks in advance for your willingness to participate with us in a more active way of using The URANTIAN Journal to crossfertilize our thinking.
Warmly.
—The Editors
“Be not deceived by those who come saying here is the kingdom or there is the kingdom, for my Father’s kingdom concerns not things visible and material. And this kingdom is even now among you, for where the spirit of God teaches and leads the soul of man, there in reality is the kingdom of heaven. And this kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (UB 137:8.9) Jesus in the synagogue in Capernaum.