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"All Conflict is Evil"
Since we printed this clause as a quotation from The Urantia Book in the final 1997 issue of Innerface with a full stop (period) after the word "evil," we have had several reprimands of varying degrees of intensity. So our apology for that editorial error.
Typical of the comments is this one from reader, Gloria Colot, of Qld., Australia:
"It is essential that this statement be understood in its entirety, therefore the meaning of the word 'evil' should be clarified. There are four levels of human misconduct; error, evil, sin, and iniquity. On page 754 The Urantia Book tells us:
'"Error might be regarded as a misconception or distortion of reality. Evil is a partial realization, or maladjustment or distortion of reality. But sin is a purposeful resistance to divine reality--a conscious choosing to oppose spiritual progress--while iniquity consists in an open and persistent defiance of recognized reality and signifies such a degree of personality disintegration as to border on cosmic insanity.'
"It can be deduced from this that conflict may be evil but not sinful or iniquitous.
"On p. 1097, an apparent contradiction appears in this quotation, 'New religious insights arise out of conflicts which initiate the choosing of new and better reaction habits in the place of older and inferior reaction patterns. New meanings only emerge amid conflict; and conflict persists only in the face of refusal to espouse the higher values connoted in superior meanings. Religious perplexities are inevitable; there can be no growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation.'
"On page 51 there are nine examples of 'the uncertainties and the vicissitudes of existence....' Conflict seems to be inherent in all nine of these examples:
'1. Is courage--strength of character--desirable? Then must man be reared in an environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting to disappointments.
2. Is altruism--service of one's fellows--desirable? Then must life experience provide for encountering situations of social inequality.
3. Is hope--the grandeur of trust--desirable? Then human existence must constantly be confronted with insecurities and recurrent uncertainties.
4. Is faith--the supreme assertion of human thought--desirable? Then must the mind of man find itself in that troublesome predicament where it ever knows less than it can believe.
5. Is the love of truth and the willingness to go wherever it leads, desirable? Then must man grow up in a world where error is present and falsehood always possible.
6. Is idealism--the approaching concept of the divine--desirable? Then must man struggle in an environment of relative goodness and beauty, surroundings stimulative of the irrepressible reach for better things.
7. Is loyalty--devotion to highest duty--desirable? Then must man carry on amid the possibilities of betrayal and desertion. The valor of devotion to duty consists in the implied danger of default.
8. Is unselfishness--the spirit of self-forgetfulness--desirable? Then must mortal man live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an inescapable self for recognition and honor. Man could not dynamically choose the divine life if there were no self-life to forsake. Man could never lay saving hold on righteousness if there were no potential evil to exalt and differentiate the good by contrast.
9. Is pleasure--the satisfaction of happiness--desirable? Then must man live in a world where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of suffering are ever-present experiential possibilities.'
"Finally, on page 1729, Jesus said, 'The religion of the spirit means effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress.'"
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Thanks Gloria for the thought and effort put into your remarks. Not all readers were as charitable with their comments.
After much consideration, we feel that, although our apology for the full stop at the end of the quote stands, the quotation, "All conflict is evil." is neither incorrect nor at variance with meanings and values within The Urantia Book. As an example, let's consider the following:
"All war is evil."
Can it be denied that enormous "good" of many kinds flowed forth from the World War 2 conflict? Some were the result of incredible new technological developments vastly hastened by the war. Others were in fields such as medicine--antibiotics, the use of metallic rods, screws, etc., to hasten the healing of broken bones, etc., (for which Jews in concentration camps were used as experimental guinea pigs). Does the fact that good can flow from evil mean that evil is not evil?
There are many degrees of conflict but in most instances even mild conflict can be avoided by something better. Rodan displayed considerable wisdom on this topic:
"My philosophy tells me that there are times when I must fight, if need be, for the defense
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