© 2011 Halbert Katzen J.D.
There are a number of unique assertions in The Urantia Book regarding the genetic history of humanity. Developing an understanding of its statements about eugenics and race requires a degree of familiarity with its version of our genetic history. The history is not being offered as a justification for anything. The book makes statements about our current circumstances that need to be understood within the historical context that it provides. Assessing the merits of The Urantia Book to a certain extent needs to be done on its own terms, even if one does not buy into the belief system. The historical perspective provides the necessary context for understanding the statements and recommendations that are made about our current circumstances—the problems we are facing, how we should think about them, and what we should do about them.
Providing the relevant sections on history requires presenting material that is intertwined with theological and cosmological aspects of The Urantia Book. When the later chapters cover material that directly addresses eugenics and race issues, the relevance of this information will become apparent.
Considering whether The Urantia Book’s statements regarding eugenics and race are morally consistent with the parallel standards of a loving parent and service-minded citizen discussed in Chapter 2 must be done independently of its theological and historical assertions. But there is a difference between not believing and disbelieving. The rejection of The Urantia Book’s authenticity is not a reasonable pretext for disparaging its position on eugenics and race any more than belief in its authenticity provides support for its position on these subjects. Hopefully, the ongoing nature of the UBtheNEWS project sufficiently encourages open-mindedness and helps readers avoid the bias of disbelief.
While the cosmological context of The Urantia Book may not be a justification for anything, it nonetheless reflects the sensitivity that this particular paradigm has to the issues at hand and merits consideration on this level. Because the topic of eugenics covers when and how it might be best to governmentally promote, restrict, or prohibit reproduction, a review of some of The Urantia Book’s statements about the relationship between procreation and the afterlife warrant some consideration.
Details about the afterlife provided in The Urantia Book exhibit a notable sensitivity to the value and importance of experiencing family life. Its cosmology asserts that there is a process for “equaling things out” in the afterlife with respect to parental experience. In referring to the last step in this first stage of the afterlife experience, The Urantia Book states, “Here you will be purged of all the remnants of unfortunate heredity, unwholesome environment, and unspiritual planetary tendencies. The last remnants of the “mark of the beast” are here eradicated.”[1].
The Urantia Book also provides a more detailed description of this process:
[Immediately upon resurrecting] . . . ascending mortals are afforded ample opportunities for compensating any and all experiential deprivations suffered on their worlds of origin, whether due to inheritance, environment, or unfortunate premature termination of the career in the flesh. This is in every sense true except in the mortal sex life and its attendant adjustments. Thousands of mortals . . . [begin their post-mortal experience] without having benefited particularly from the disciplines derived from fairly average sex relations on their native spheres. The mansion world experience [the first stage of the resurrection experience] can provide little opportunity for compensating these very personal deprivations. Sex experience in a physical sense is past for these ascenders, but in close association with . . . [an order of celestial beings (referred to as “Adamic”) whose families provide the necessary environment], both individually and as members of their families, these sex-deficient mortals are enabled to compensate the social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual aspects of their deficiency. Thus are all those humans whom circumstances or bad judgment deprived of the benefits of advantageous sex association on the evolutionary worlds, . . . afforded full opportunity to acquire these essential mortal experiences in close and loving association with the supernal Adamic sex creatures . . . [2]
No surviving mortal . . . may ascend to Paradise . . . without having passed through that sublime experience of achieving parental relationship to an evolving child of the worlds or some other experience analogous and equivalent thereto. The relationship of child and parent is fundamental to the essential concept of the Universal Father and his universe children. Therefore does such an experience become indispensable to the experiential training of all ascenders [resurrected mortals].
. . . Thus do such . . . ascenders obtain the experience of parenthood by assisting the . . . Adams and Eves in rearing and training their progeny [on a world we visit after being resurrected].
All mortal survivors who have not experienced parenthood on the evolutionary worlds must . . . obtain this necessary training while sojourning in the homes of . . . Material Sons [and Daughters] and as parental associates of these superb fathers and mothers. [3]
¶ Overview of our human genetics
The Urantia Book asserts that humanity began about one million years ago, initially as one race. This, it says, occurred as the result of a series of progressive evolutionary mutations. According to The Urantia Book, the various colored races did not appear for another 500,000 years. (Eskimos are said to have a general appearance and skin color that most resembles the first humans.[4]) The following describes this transition:
850,000 years ago the superior Badonan tribes [a Urantia Book designation] began a warfare of extermination directed against their inferior and animalistic neighbors. In less than one thousand years most of the borderland animal groups of these regions had been either destroyed or driven back to the southern forests. This campaign for the extermination of inferiors brought about a slight improvement in the hill tribes of that age. And the mixed descendants of this improved Badonite stock appeared on the stage of action as an apparently new people—the Neanderthal race. [5]
500,000 years ago the Badonan tribes of the northwestern highlands of India became involved in another great racial struggle. For more than one hundred years this relentless warfare raged, and when the long fight was finished, only about one hundred families were left. But these survivors were the most intelligent and desirable of all the then living descendants of Andon and Fonta [the first two human beings].
And now, among these highland Badonites there was a new and strange occurrence. A man and woman living in the northeastern part of the then inhabited highland region began suddenly to produce a family of unusually intelligent children. This was the Sangik family, the ancestors of all of the six colored races of Urantia. [Sangik is a coined term in The Urantia Book with the etymological meaning: blood-building or blood-foundation.]
These Sangik children, nineteen in number, were not only intelligent above their fellows, but their skins manifested a unique tendency to turn various colors upon exposure to sunlight. Among these nineteen children were five red, two orange, four yellow, two green, four blue, and two indigo. These colors became more pronounced as the children grew older, and when these youths later mated with their fellow tribesmen, all of their offspring tended toward the skin color of the Sangik parent. [6]
The Urantia Book provides details about the migratory history and interrelationships between these six races. The following passages are examples of its extensive coverage of this topic and have been chosen to emphasize the point that there are no longer pure examples of the original Sangik races.
The red men early began to migrate to the northeast, on the heels of the retreating ice, passing around the highlands of India and occupying all of northeastern Asia. They were closely followed by the yellow tribes, who subsequently drove them out of Asia into North America.
When the relatively pure-line remnants of the red race forsook Asia, there were eleven tribes, and they numbered a little over seven thousand men, women, and children. These tribes were accompanied by three small groups of mixed ancestry, the largest of these being a combination of the orange and blue races. These three groups never fully fraternized with the red man and early journeyed southward to Mexico and Central America, where they were later joined by a small group of mixed yellows and reds. These peoples all intermarried and founded a new and amalgamated race, one which was much less warlike than the pure-line red men. Within five thousand years this amalgamated race broke up into three groups, establishing the civilizations respectively of Mexico, Central America, and South America. The South American offshoot did receive a faint touch of the blood of Adam [The Adamic race—“the blood of Adam”—is discussed later in this chapter].
To a certain extent the early red and yellow men mingled in Asia, and the offspring of this union journeyed on to the east and along the southern seacoast and, eventually, were driven by the rapidly increasing yellow race onto the peninsulas and near-by islands of the sea. They are the present-day brown men.
The yellow race has continued to occupy the central regions of eastern Asia. Of all the six colored races they have survived in greatest numbers. While the yellow men now and then engaged in racial war, they did not carry on such incessant and relentless wars of extermination as were waged by the red, green, and orange men. These three races virtually destroyed themselves before they were finally all but annihilated by their enemies of other races. [7]
The last of the Sangik peoples to migrate from their center of race origin was the indigo man. About the time the green man was killing off the orange race in Egypt and greatly weakening himself in so doing, the great black exodus started south through Palestine along the coast; and later, when these physically strong indigo peoples overran Egypt, they wiped the green man out of existence by sheer force of numbers. These indigo races absorbed the remnants of the orange man and much of the stock of the green man, and certain of the indigo tribes were considerably improved by this racial amalgamation.
And so it appears that Egypt was first dominated by the orange man, then by the green, followed by the indigo (black) man, and still later by a mongrel race of indigo, blue, and modified green men. . . .
As the Sangik migrations draw to a close, the green and orange races are gone, the red man holds North America, the yellow man eastern Asia, the blue man Europe, and the indigo race has gravitated to Africa. India harbors a blend of the secondary Sangik races [orange, green, and indigo], and the brown man, a blend of the red and yellow, holds the islands off the Asiatic coast. An amalgamated race of rather superior potential occupies the highlands of South America. The purer Andonites live in the extreme northern regions of Europe and in Iceland, Greenland, and northeastern North America. [8]
There are no pure races in the world today. The early and original evolutionary peoples of color have only two representative races persisting in the world, the yellow man and the black man; and even these two races are much admixed with the extinct colored peoples [orange and green]. While the so-called white race is predominantly descended from the ancient blue man, it is admixed more or less with all other races much as is the red man of the Americas. [9]
In addition to stating that there are no pure races left, The Urantia Book also teaches that an intelligent blending of the races will produce the best foundation for the future of our human gene pool. Along with being antithetical to “master race” beliefs, philosophies, and agendas, it also provides a perspective on the origin and history of this unfortunate aspect of human history.
According to The Urantia Book, we also had two extra-planetary genetic infusions. This aspect of The Urantia Book provides a unique view on what gave rise to such a wide range of traditions and unexplained mysteries ranging from the development of the white/“Aryan” supremacists beliefs to Greek mythology about the Gods coming down from heaven and mating with humans to speculations about the facts that gave rise to the our various creation stories to the beliefs people have about aliens and UFOs.
As with the historical assertions, which are provided as a necessary context for understanding The Urantia Book’s statements about eugenics and race, again it is important to bear in mind that a bias against (or in favor of) its theology and cosmology, if not kept in check, can easily be turned into a misdirected criticism (or support) for its statements about eugenics and race.
¶ Overview of our superhuman genetics
The Urantia Book says that beings—referred to as “Life Carriers”—design and implant life on worlds that can provide suitable habitation for a variety of mortal types similar to human beings. The Life Carriers are said to work in cooperation with a host of other celestial personalities entrusted with the administration (care) of worlds like ours. At a certain maturation point in the evolutionary process, a pair of immortal beings arrives on the planet to initiate a new phase of biologic uplift and start a new dispensation of planetary affairs.
And there came a time in the planetary history, almost forty thousand years ago, when the Life Carriers on duty took note that, from a purely biologic standpoint, the developmental progress of the Urantia races was nearing its apex. . . . [The] Life Carriers . . . petition[ed] to the . . . [appropriate celestial administrators] asking that Urantia be inspected with a view to authorizing the dispatch of biologic uplifters, a Material Son and Daughter [Adam and Eve]. [10]
This ancient, extra-planetary, genetic infusion, along with a previous one from 200,000 years ago, gave rise to the beliefs about restoring a “master race.” The authors of The Urantia Book explain how these two events have become both genetically and culturally interwoven over tens of thousands of years. The Urantia Book teaches that Adam and Eve’s mission was to be of genetic service to humanity and support the evolution of human civilization, not to supplant human genetics or deny us the opportunity to develop our own civilization.
The . . . [celestial administrators] counseled Adam not to initiate the program of racial uplift and blending until his own family had numbered one-half million. It was never intended that the Garden should be the permanent home of the Adamites. They were to become emissaries of a new life to all the world; they were to mobilize for unselfish bestowal upon the needy races of earth. [11]
The Urantia Book explains that many lower orders of celestial administrators are imperfect and, though they rarely lose faith in the belief that God exists, this does happen on rare occasions— such is the nature of freewill. When immortal, imperfect personalities lose faith in God, this is considered a spiritual rebellion against God. The Urantia Book teaches that our world continues to suffer the consequences of a rebellion by some of our senior celestial administrators. The religious traditions regarding Lucifer, Satan, and the Devil preserve a confused and limited account of these occurrences; The Urantia Book’s portrayal of these events is quite detailed. Additionally, we suffered a default by our Material Son and Daughter, Adam and Eve—deviance from the ordained plan with which they were entrusted. According to The Urantia Book, both the Lucifer rebellion and the Adamic default led to the introduction of superhuman genetics that were in various ways inappropriate, premature, incomplete, and outside the intended plan for the planet’s biologic evolution.
The story in the Old Testament of Adam and Eve doing what they were forbidden to do, becoming mortal, and having to leave the Garden of Eden is connected to statements made in The Urantia Book regarding problems associated with Adam and Eve’s bestowal to our planet. This information provides some of the foundation needed to appreciate other statements, made elsewhere, regarding the concerns the authors have for the genetic wellbeing of humanity.
It was a source of regret to the Life Carriers that our special efforts to modify intelligent life on Urantia should have been so handicapped by tragic perversions beyond our control: the . . . [Lucifer rebellion] and the Adamic default.
But throughout all of this biologic adventure our greatest disappointment grew out of the reversion of certain primitive plant life to the prechlorophyll levels of parasitic bacteria on such an extensive and unexpected scale. This eventuality in plant-life evolution caused many distressful diseases in the higher mammals, particularly in the more vulnerable human species. When we were confronted with this perplexing situation, we somewhat discounted the difficulties involved because we knew that the subsequent admixture of the Adamic life plasm would so reinforce the resisting powers of the resulting blended race as to make it practically immune to all diseases produced by the vegetable type of organism. But our hopes were doomed to disappointment owing to the misfortune of the Adamic default. [12]
The body cells of the Material Sons and their progeny are far more resistant to disease than are those of the evolutionary beings indigenous to the planet. The body cells of the native races are akin to the living disease-producing microscopic and ultramicroscopic organisms of the realm. These facts explain why the Urantia peoples must do so much by way of scientific effort to withstand so many physical disorders. You would be far more disease resistant if your races carried more of the Adamic life. [13]
According to The Urantia Book, both an intended biological uplift and the inherent spiritual receptivity that attends improved genetic qualities are now compromised. The authors explain the interconnection between the quality of our genetic foundation, our spiritual potentials (moral progress), and the development of civilization:
Biologic evolution and cultural civilization are not necessarily correlated; organic evolution in any age may proceed unhindered in the very midst of cultural decadence. But when lengthy periods of human history are surveyed, it will be observed that eventually evolution and culture become related as cause and effect. Evolution may advance in the absence of culture, but cultural civilization does not flourish without an adequate background of antecedent racial progression. Adam and Eve introduced no art of civilization foreign to the progress of human society, but the Adamic blood did augment the inherent ability of the races and did accelerate the pace of economic development and industrial progression. Adam’s bestowal improved the brain power of the races, thereby greatly hastening the processes of natural evolution. [14]
On most of the inhabited worlds [that have received a Material Son and Daughter] the Gardens of Eden remain as superb cultural centers and continue to function as the social patterns of planetary conduct and usage age after age. Even in early times when the violet peoples are relatively segregated, their schools receive suitable candidates from among the world races, while the industrial developments of the garden open up new channels of commercial intercourse. Thus do the Adams and Eves and their progeny contribute to the sudden expansion of culture and to the rapid improvement of the evolutionary races of their worlds. And all of these relationships are augmented and sealed by the amalgamation of the evolutionary races and the sons of Adam, resulting in the immediate upstepping of biologic status, the quickening of intellectual potential, and the enhancement of spiritual receptivity. [15]
The result of the gift of the Adamic life plasm to the mortal races is an immediate upstepping of intellectual capacity and an acceleration of spiritual progress. There is usually some physical improvement also. On an average world the post-Adamic dispensation is an age of great invention, energy control, and mechanical development. This is the era of the appearance of multiform manufacture and the control of natural forces; it is the golden age of exploration and the final subduing of the planet. Much of the material progress of a world occurs during this time of the inauguration of the development of the physical sciences, just such an epoch as Urantia is now experiencing. Your world is a full dispensation and more behind the average planetary schedule [due to the Lucifer rebellion and the Adamic default]. [16]
This is the fuller context for appreciating why the authors of The Urantia Book use the word eugenics only one time and in a section about our souls. This is why it is identified as being in the same category with other crucial cultural pillars like ethics, sociology, philosophy, the fine arts, religion, and cosmology.
¶ Links
¶ External links
¶ Footnotes & References
The relationship of this order of beings to our world is the subject of three of the most impressive reports published by UBtheNEWS: the Adam and Eve Report, the Garden of Eden Report and the Gobekli Tepe Report. ↩︎
UB 64:3.5. Also see Appendix 1. Urantia Book-based Taxonomy. ↩︎