Urantia?!? a book, a cult?

[gthirkhill]

Has anyone been exposed to this. I have a Christian client that has developed an interest in it. They’re good folks, I just hate to see them get off track any further than their evangelical free track has already taken them. It seems like a New Age adaptation of Christian teachings. Allowing for other planets and creatures, levels of acendency to becoming more God like. It’s been around since 1955 supposedly. I’d like to be able to steer them with out reading the whole book and propaganda. I have little time for my own spiritual growth much less reading this stuff only to toss it. However they’ve asked for feedback. Anyone know about it?

 

[Sufjon]

Has anyone been exposed to this. I have a Christian client that has developed an interest in it. They’re good folks, I just hate to see them get off track any further than their evangelical free track has already taken them. It seems like a New Age adaptation of Christian teachings. Allowing for other planets and creatures, levels of acendency to becoming more God like. It’s been around since 1955 supposedly. I’d like to be able to steer them with out reading the whole book and propaganda. I have little time for my own spiritual growth much less reading this stuff only to toss it. However they’ve asked for feedback. Anyone know about it?

Hi gthirkhill: I have some friends who are very much into that. I have read some of the books and I can say that it will be a bit too complicated of a system to understand from a brief overview. You have said that you don’t have the time or interest to read any of it, so in that case I don’t think you’ll be able to give them much feedback on the material itself from a brief glance. From your statement I detect that you may however already already have an opinion about it, so why don’t you just tell your friends your opinion? You have a belief system and are probably not inclined to spend much time looking into another one, so an honest explanation of your opinion might save you a lot of time.

I personally think that the Urantia material creates a lot of diversions to feed the mind. I don’t know how much of it is true or is false. I only know that it deals with a lot of things that tie up your mind like looking for meaning in recurring numbers and the like. Is that bad? I don’t think so. I can with certainty say that it would be a diversion for me to delve into, because like you I have my own spiritual path that requires my time. I can say that my friends who are into this are very spiritual people and I respect their paths. When they ask me to read the materials, I read them. When they ask for comment, I usually just ask questions like a reporter would do and let them do the talking. That way they get to tell me all about it and I ask more questions and listen. What more can you do? Your friends are probably all too familiar with the message of your faith and mainstream Christianity already, so you are not going to give them some revelation by telling them how they are wrong. If you want to steer them, do so with non-leading questions and an interest in what they’re doing. Over time they might return the respect you gave their beliefs enough to learn about your beliefs from your actions.

Your friend
Sufjon

 

[edwest2]

It is a book of diversion. Various groups appeared during the 1950s, including teachers of Mayan wisdom. It is to be avoided.

God bless,
Ed

 

[Noesis]

As always, a little bit of critical thought and intellectual honesty will go a very long way when analysing such works as the Urantia book.

The work is meant to be a near omniscient account of all spiritual reality, of the structure of the cosmos, of human society, culture, and history, and many other things which all amount to being an incredibly vast set of assumptions. What validates such assumptions, beyond a person merely having confidence in the original claims of channeling which the Urantia Foundation puts forth? What sort of criteria could we establish, which would separate true omniscience from unfounded speculation written by educated, human minds? How is the Urantia book analysed by devotees of it? Is scepticism ever a viable form of analysis?

But of course, the best sort of person who can argue against a very complicated set of ideas, philosophies, and religious constructs, is a person who has spent a great deal of time intellectually sympathising with such positions. If you do not have time or will for this, or if you are not already a former Urantia book reader who found sufficient reason to abandon his beliefs, then perhaps you are best left simply arguing your own religious positions, if you so desire.

The claims of Christian orthodoxy and tradition undermine the validity of many things, including this Urantia book. Since your friends seem to be more and more walking away from beliefs you view as being inherently true, and since you seem to want them to return to your own ideals and perceptions of spiritual truth, then I would say that you should simply offer to them the same apologetics as you would to anyone else who is not a devoted Catholic.