© 1989 William Wentworth
© 1989 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
In the paper he presented to the South Pacific meeting in October, Ken Glasziou argued that scientific theory is steadily converging on information revealed in The URANTIA Book. Over the last 50 years or so, opinion in many scientific fields has moved much closer to The URANTIA Book’s position. Ken’s argument is very convincing.
However, a student of the URANTIA Book needs only a very cursory knowledge of science to realize that there are still some major discrepancies.
In geology, for instance, currently accepted views differ widely from The URANTIA Book. The regular inundations of the land by the sea are scarcely recognised by contemporary experts, who recognize only irregular and fewer ones.
Similarly, they would query some of the information about ice ages, the movement and break up of continents, and the time scale of various significant events, including the date of the appearance of living organisms.
In astronomy, human scientists have not yet discovered the shape and structure of the material cosmos, the relative motions of the space levels or even the full extent of our solar system. And the notion that the Earth did not reach its present size until about 1 billion years ago would not be considered a respectable theory.
Same other sciences are probably in closer agreement with The URANTIA Book’s information, but scientists of most persuasions would reject any suggestion that the mechanism of cause and effect is at times influenced by intelligent manipulation.
Briefly then, the position is that science is gradually coming round to The URANTIA Book’s point of view, but it still has a long way to go.
I am ignoring here the possibility that The URANTIA Book’s information may be incorrect, although the book itself does refer to its own fallibility. But it is clear, nevertheless, that non-spiritual information — even incorrect or partial information — is included in the book, and included for good reasons, reasons which are outlined on pages 1109 and 1110.
We may speculate that if non-spiritual information is included, even though it is not “true” in any absolute sense, it is probably “more true” than the errors it is designed to correct. Unless for some reason un imaginable to us the revelators chose deliberately to mislead us, this information is better information than that which unaided human sources have managed to produce.
If this assumption is correct, it follows that the information supplied by the book, which is not yet verified and accepted by human scientists, indicates the direction towards which researchers should look for the next generation of scientific facts to be established. Thus we may conclude that The URANTIA Book maps out the path of the best likely research effort for the next period of history. In other words, the revelators have included some strong hints as to the most profitable lines of inquiry for scientific research to adopt.
Would it be possible for those readers of the book with expertise in science to compile a list of these hints? Whereas it would be naive to think that this would interest scientists now, a major discovery which occurred after having been predicted by the revelation might carry some weight.
We don’t yet know whether the Space Telescope, or the new ground based instruments now under construction will reveal anything starting, but the discovery of, say, the first outer space level would give astronomers something to think about.
A friend of mine (not a student of the book) suggested that the discovery of Dalamatia would have a profound effect. As much of the Persian Gulf region has already been drilled for oil, the evidence of where to look may already compose part of an existing drill core, possibly in sane oil company’s records. Can anyone think of a way of checking that one out?
Presumely, one of the functions of the students of The URANTIA Book is to think about ways and means of verifying the information it gives us. Maybe the scientists among the readership could develop some long range strategy for directing research effort in those directions.
William Wentworth, Towamba, NSW
I prayed to God to give me all things, in order that I might enjoy life … The Lord gave me life, in order that I might enjoy all things.
Contributed by Merindy Swadling, Sydney