© 1986 John M. Andrews, Dick Bain, Gilles Laverdure
© 1986 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
It seems to me that we all construct a philosophy of living of one sort or another. It’s part of the natural mental function of integrating our expanding consciousness. The great challenge is to construct one with certain characteristics and based upon certain concepts. And the great promise is that such a philosophy of living will mightily help in furthering the religious evolution of all mankind, and in a way that the book cannot do by itself and that we cannot do without the book.
“… to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living …”
To meet this challenge, such a philosophy of living must be both new and appealing. It must be new: not just a patching of new bits of truth onto an old philosophical structure, but a new philosophical structure. And it must be appealing: not just true or beautiful, but good — effectively attractive. Others must be able to relate to it; it must satisfactorily address their true needs. From this consideration alone, it seems unlikely to me that the formalized religions of the world will be successful in meeting this challenge if they insist on holding fast to their old and (to many) unappealing philosophy.
— John Andrews
Juneau, Alaska
We are sometimes faced with the ultimate paradox. Just when we’re explaining the loving nature of God to an agnostic, he ruins our day by asking, “How can this loving God stand by while innocent children suffer?” Mankind has struggled with this question since the beginning of recorded history. The early Jews believed that we suffer because we have sinned; God punishes us for our transgressions, In the Old Testament we read about Job’s struggle with this question. For the Hindu, the answer to the question is Karma; we reap reward of suffering in this life to a degree determined by our previous life here. If we are suffering, we must have bad karma. Every religion seems to have devised some answer to the question, but not everyone sees the suffering as some sort of punishment. St Francis of Assisi is reported to have said that the truly afflicted are those who have never been afflicted. How does The URANTIA Book see this problem?
In simple terms, it seems to say that we suffer because we live in an evolving, imperfect, time-space universe and it exists because God so willed it. So, it’s all God’s fault, right? But could it be that we have some responsibility for what happens to us? And what about what St. Francis said? Does it have any merit? is affliction always bad? Does it have any value? Does the value more than offset the sum of the suffering?
—Dick Bain
St. Petersburg, Florida
Why does God let so many people suffer, and why does he allow sin to occur?
For most people who are suffering unduly, simple faith might not be enough as an answer. We often need some logical reasoning to substantiate on the intellectual level what is the only true answer on the spiritual level. To answer the above questions, let us take the example of someone choosing to do evil.
As readers of The Urantia Book, we know that the Father’s plan consists of giving freewill to lowly creatures like us in order that we may gain irreplaceable experience through maximum accomplishment. As human beings, perfection is not our lot at birth, but our eternal destiny. The Father’s plan for personal evolution must then allow each of his children to decide for himself what he will or will not do, Such decisions will obviously result from previous planetary history, social context, and heredity, but it remains a fact that we are free in our actions, be they good or bad, conscious or unconscious.
— Gilles Laverdure
Greenfield Park. Quêbec
“Physical status may handicap mind, and mental perversity may delay spiritual attainment, but none of these obstacles can defeat the whole-souled choice of will.” (UB 65:8.5)