The Cosmic Citizen

This is the first episode in a segué from "the religion papers" which fall in the heart of The Urantia Revelation. This was religion from a Melchizedek viewpoint full of insights. Jesus' Discourse on True Religion from Paper 155 §5 of The Urantia Book is one of the seminal treatises on religion on our world.  Jesus discourse to his apostles contextualizes personal religious experience with primitive and "authoritative" religion.  He develops an evolutionary viewpoint in the mids of his apostles. Here is just some of what Jesus says to the apostles and to us today: Until the human race progresses to the level of a higher and more general recognition of the realities of spiritual experience, large numbers of men and women will continue to show a personal preference for those religions of authority which require only intellectual assent, in contrast to the religion of the spirit, which entails active participation of mind and soul in the faith adventure of grappling with the rigorous realities of progressive human experience.  (1729.3) 155:5.8 And Jesus went on to say: “...And now are we about to enter upon a deadly conflict with such a religion since we will so shortly begin the bold proclamation of a new religion — a religion which is not a religion in the present-day meaning of that word, a religion that makes its chief appeal to the divine spirit of my Father which resides in the mind of man; a religion which shall derive its authority from the fruits of its acceptance that will so certainly appear in the personal experience of all who really and truly become believers in the truths of this higher spiritual communion.” (1729.7) 155:5.12 Call in, let's talk.  Tune in for some GOOD NEWS that Jesus willingly shared with us! http://tobtr.com/11703067

This is the last episode in our study of "the religion papers" which fall in the heart of The Urantia Revelation. We are finishing Urantia Paper 103, The Reality of Religious Experience and covering the last section, Section 9, The Essence of Religion. It's a short study this week so we open the lines to you. How are you holding up? Call in, let's talk. Some think that a study on religion is boring. Of course, defining "religion" as a set of rigid and dogmatic rules, handed down by the priest, mystic, shaman, pastor, medicine man, etc., IS boring. Some think of God as an offended monarch, whose chief delight is to detect human beings in wrongdoing and see that they are adequately punished, so it's no wonder they don't like religion. Such ideas are not only boring, they are senseless, cruel, and inconsistent with enlightened teachings. In truth, religion provides us with the essentials of human happiness, faith, trust, and assurance. Here are just a few key concepts we've covered in this study: Religion is not a slavish belief in threats of punishment or magical promises of future mystical rewards.True religion is a matter of personal spiritual experience.Religion is a living love, a life of service.True religion is an insight into reality, the faith-child of the moral consciousness.Religion is so vital that it persists in the absence of learning.Religion is man's experience with the cosmos of spirit values. In these trying times, we need wisdom like this: "When the flood tides of human adversity, selfishness, cruelty, hate, malice, and jealousy beat about the mortal soul, you may rest in the assurance that there is one inner bastion, the citadel of the spirit, which is absolutely unassailable..." So, since you're stuck at home, perhaps you can tune in for some GOOD NEWS!

Likely, our second-to-last show in our study of religion with the fifth of the "religion papers, The Reality of Religious Experience with §7 & §8, Science and Religion and Philosophy and Religion. But as ascending man reaches inward and Paradiseward for the God experience, he will likewise be reaching outward and spaceward for an energy understanding of the material cosmos. The progression of science is not limited to the terrestrial life of man; his universe and superuniverse ascension experience will to no small degree be the study of energy transmutation and material metamorphosis. (1138.1) 103:7.3 The teachers of both science and religion are often altogether too self-confident and dogmatic. Science and religion can only be self-critical of their facts. (1138.5) 103:7.7 A good and noble man may be consummately in love with his wife but utterly unable to pass a satisfactory written examination on the psychology of marital love. Another man, having little or no love for his spouse, might pass such an examination most acceptably. The imperfection of the lover’s insight into the true nature of the beloved does not in the least invalidate either the reality or sincerity of his love. If you truly believe in God — by faith know him and love him — do not permit the reality of such an experience to be in any way lessened or detracted from by the doubting insinuations of science, the caviling of logic, the postulates of philosophy, or the clever suggestions of well-meaning souls who would create a religion without God. (1140.3,4) 103:8.3,4  Join us as we continue this splendid exploration on how The Urantia Book defines the meaning, purpose and value of true religion. We'll have many great cross references and commentary enhancing our study.  http://tobtr.com/11689242

This week we continue our study on Religion from The Urantia Book. We've covered 4 of the 5 papers that are the seminal papers about human religion.  We've learned so far that although religious awakening is a gradual process, some spiritual births are accompanied by crisis and anguish while others can be a natural growth of the recognition of spiritual values. Because personalities are unique, no two individuals interpret divine leadings the same way. People tend to agree more easily on religious goals rather than on beliefs or creeds. Every human being experiences conflict between self-seeking and altruistic impulses. An unselfish choice in the face of a desire to be selfish constitutes a primitive religious experience. God-consciousness is sometimes attained as the result of seeking for help in the resolution of such moral conflicts.  As we continue our study of Paper 103 §2 (Reprised) & 6: We'll see that our human ideals tend to grow by geometric progression, while our ability to live up to those ideals grows only arithmetically. Rather than hoping to live up to our highest ideals, we might do better to try to seek God and become more like him. The pursuit of the ideal (striving to be Godlike) is a continuous effort before and after death. The good accomplished in mortal life carries over to the enhancement of the next life and directly contributes to the first stages of immortalexperience. Every person is truly the architect of his or her own eternal destiny. Our highest human philosophy should be based on the reason of science, the faith of religion, and the insight of revelation. Genuine religion is not merely thinking, but is also feeling, acting, and living. The earmarks of true religion are faith in a supreme Deity, hope of eternal survival, and love-especially love of one's fellows. Please join us on The Cosmic Citizen.

This week on the Cosmic Citizen we will take a one week break in our in-depth study of the the “religion papers.” We'll be resuming that fascinating study on March 7th.   Our special guests this Saturday will be our friends from Urantia University Institute, including Marvin Gawryn, Elizabeth Callahan, Jisoo Han and Michael Hill. Our guests will be sharing the latest on the evolving vision of UUI, as well as exciting details of the new classes currently being offered at urantiauniversity.org .  The recently developed “New Reader Course,” taught by Marvin Gawryn and Elisabeth Callahan and presented in cooperation with the Urantia Book Fellowship, is now open for registration and starts on March 14th.   The first Korean language class, UUI’s popular “A Way of Life in the Family of God,” has been developed with a dedicated team of Korean readers and will start on March 27th.  Jisoo Han will call in from Seoul, South Korea to share the latest on that front.   In addition, longtime reader Michael Hill will contribute his thoughts on the experience of teaching his current class, “Self Mastery, Circle Attainment and True Faith.” Please join us at 10 am Mountain time this Saturday for what promises to be a lively conversation, on these new fronts in the unfolding mission of the Urantia revelation!

We go on with our study of religion with the fifth of the "religion papers, The Reality of Religious Experience with sections 5 & 6, The Origin of Ideals and Philosophic Coordination. This idea-ideal of doing good to others — the impulse to deny the ego something for the benefit of one’s neighbor — is very circumscribed at first. Primitive man regards as neighbor only those very close to him, those who treat him neighborly; as religious civilization advances, one’s neighbor expands in concept to embrace the clan, the tribe, the nation. And then Jesus enlarged the neighbor scope to embrace the whole of humanity, even that we should love our enemies. And there is something inside of every normal human being that tells him this teaching is moral — right. Even those who practice this ideal least, admit that it is right in theory.  All men [and women] recognize the morality of this universal human urge to be unselfish and altruistic. The humanist ascribes the origin of this urge to the natural working of the material mind; the religionist more correctly recognizes that the truly unselfish drive of mortal mind is in response to the inner spirit leadings of the Thought Adjuster.  (1133.7,1134.1) 103:5.2,3 Theology is the study of the actions and reactions of the human spirit; it can never become a science since it must always be combined more or less with psychology in its personal expression and with philosophy in its systematic portrayal. Theology is always the study of your religion; the study of another’s religion is psychology. (1135.3) 103:6.1 Join us as we continue this splendid exploration on how The Urantia Book defines the meaning, purpose and value of true religion. We'll have many great cross references and commentary enhancing our study.  http://tobtr.com/11676822

We continue our study of religion with the fifth of the "religion papers, The Reality of religious Experience With sections 3 & 4, Religion and the Human Race and Spiritual Communion. Man evolved through the superstitions of mana, magic, nature worship, spirit fear, and animal worship to the various ceremonials whereby the religious attitude of the individual became the group reactions of the clan. And then these ceremonies became focalized and crystallized into tribal beliefs, and eventually these fears and faiths became personalized into gods. But in all of this religious evolution the moral element was never wholly absent. The impulse of the God within man was always potent. And these powerful influences — one human and the other divine — insured the survival of religion throughout the vicissitudes of the ages and that notwithstanding it was so often threatened with extinction by a thousand subversive tendencies and hostile antagonisms.  (1132.5) 103:3.5 The characteristic difference between a social occasion and a religious gathering is that in contrast with the secular the religious is pervaded by the atmosphere of communion. ...The atmosphere of the communion provides a refreshing and comforting period of truce in the conflict of the self-seeking ego with the altruistic urge of the indwelling spirit Monitor. And this is the prelude to true worship — the practice of the presence of God which eventuates in the emergence of the brotherhood of man. (1133.1) 103:4.1  (1133.4) 103:4.4 Jesus swept away all of the ceremonials of sacrifice and atonement. He destroyed the basis of all this fictitious guilt... Join us as we continue this splendid exploration on how The Urantia Book defines the meaning, purpose and value of true religion. We'll have many great cross references and commentary enhancing our study.  http://tobtr.com/11676648

We resume our study of religion with the fifth of the "religion papers, The Reality of religious Experience With sections 1 & 2, Philosophy of Religion and Religion and the Individual. When one mortal is in full agreement with the religious philosophy of a fellow mortal, that phenomenon indicates that these two beings have had a similar religious experience touching the matters concerned in their similarity of philosophic religious interpretation. (1130.1) 103:1.2  While your religion is a matter of personal experience, it is most important that you should be exposed to the knowledge of a vast number of other religious experiences (the diverse interpretations of other and diverse mortals) to the end that you may prevent your religious life from becoming egocentric — circumscribed, selfish, and unsocial.  (1130.2) 103:1.3 You do not enter the kingdom of heaven unless you have been “born again” — born of the Spirit. Many spiritual births are accompanied by much anguish of spirit and marked psychological perturbations, as many physical births are characterized by a “stormy labor” and other abnormalities of “delivery.” Other spiritual births are a natural and normal growth of the recognition of supreme values with an enhancement of spiritual experience, albeit no religious development occurs without conscious effort and positive and individual determinations. ... [C]onversion experiences ... usually characterize religious episodes occurring later in life as a result of mental conflict, emotional repression, and temperamental upheavals.  (1130.6) 103:2.1  Join us as we continue this splendid exploration on how The Urantia Book defines the meaning, purpose and value of true religion. We'll have many great cross references and commentary enhancing our study.  http://tobtr.com/11668882

We resume our study of religion with the fifth of these five "religion papers, The Reality of religious Experience.  We begin by considering that even biology predisposes uman beings to be religious. The religious tendencies of the human races are innate; they are universally manifested and have an apparently natural origin; primitive religions are always evolutionary in their genesis. As natural religious experience continues to progress, periodic revelations of truth punctuate the otherwise slow-moving course of planetary evolution. On Urantia, today, there are four kinds of religion: 1. Natural or evolutionary religion. 2. Supernatural or revelatory religion. 3. Practical or current religion, varying degrees of the admixture of natural and supernatural religions. 4. Philosophic religions, man-made or philosophically thought-out theologic doctrines and reason-created religions.  [(1129.2-7) 103:0.2-7] Religion is primarily a pursuit of values, and then there formulates a system of interpretative beliefs. [(1130.3) 103:1.4] What is termed the “birth of religion” is not directly associated with so-called conversion experiences which usually characterize religious episodes occurring later in life as a result of mental conflict, emotional repression, and temperamental upheavals. [(1130.6) 103:2.1] Join us as we continue this splendid exploration on how The Urantia Book defines the meaning, purpose and value of true religion. We'll have many great cross references and commentary enhancing our study.  http://tobtr.com/11668599

It's our 17th week studying religion from The Urantia Book. This week we'll cover the final two sections of Paper 102: 7 - The Certitude of the Divine and 8 - The Evidences of Religion. Some people may seek to escape the rigors of religious activities by retreating to the false shelter of religious dogmas; poorly disciplined souls may use religion as an escape from the demands of living; but the true mission of religion is to prepare religionists to bravely face the vicissitudes of life. True religion must act. Faith stimulates the realization that values can be translated from the material to the spiritual, from the human to the divine, from time into eternity. The certainties of science proceed from the intellect; but the certainties of religion spring from the entire personality. The Divine Indweller promotes a hunger for perfection that can be satisfied only by communion with God. 102:7.9.If the nonreligious approaches to cosmic reality presume to challenge the certainty of faith on the grounds of its unproved status, then the spirit experiencer can likewise resort to the dogmatic challenge of the facts of science and the beliefs of philosophy on the grounds that they are likewise unproved; they are likewise experiences in the consciousness of the scientist or the philosopher. 102:8.7. Religion is ever and always rooted and grounded in personal experience. And your highest religion, the life of Jesus, was just such a personal experience: man, mortal man, seeking God and finding him to the fullness during one short life in the flesh, while in the same human experience there appeared God seeking man and finding him to the full satisfaction of the perfect soul of infinite supremacy. Please join us as we continue this splendid exploration on how The Urantia Book defines the meaning, purpose and value of true religion. As always, we'll have many great cross references and commentary to enhance our study.