Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 195-II
AFTER PENECOST -- GREEK AND ROMAN INFLUENCE
17. Religion is the revelation to man of his divine and eternal destiny. Religion is a purely personal and spiritual experience and must forever be distinguished from man's other high forms of thought, such as:
1. Man's logical attitude toward the things of material reality.
2. Man's aesthetic appreciation of beauty contrasted with ugliness.
3. Man's ethical recognition of social obligations and political duty.
4. Even man's sense of human morality is not, in and of itself, religious.
Religion is designed to find those values in the universe which call forth faith, trust, and assurance; religion culminates in worship. Religion discovers for the soul those supreme values which are in contrast with the relative values discovered by the mind.
18. Do not try to satisfy the curiosity or gratify all the latent adventure surging within the soul in one short life in the flesh. Be patient! be not tempted to indulge in a lawless plunge into cheap and sordid adventure. Harness your energies and bridle your passions; be calm while you await the majestic unfolding of an endless career of progressive adventure and thrilling discovery.
19. As you view the world, remember that the black patches of evil which you see are shown against a white background of ultimate good .... When there is so much good truth to publish and proclaim, why should men dwell so much upon the evil in the world just because it appears to be a fact? The beauties of the spiritual values of truth are more pleasurable and uplifting than is the phenomenon of evil.
20. In religion, Jesus advocated and followed the method of experience, even as modem science pursues the technique of experiment. We find God through the leadings of spiritual insight, but we approach this insight of the soul through the love of the beautiful, the pursuit of truth, loyalty to duty, and the worship of divine goodness. But of all these values, love is the true guide to real insight.
21. Scientists have unintentionally precipitated mankind into a materialistic panic; they have started an unthinking run on the moral bank of the ages, but this bank of human experience has vast spiritual resources; it can stand the demands being made upon it .... When the materialistic-secular panic is over, the religion of Jesus will not be found bankrupt .... In reality, true religion cannot become involved in any controversy with science; it is in no way concerned with material things. Religion is simply indifferent to, but sympathetic with, science, while it supremely concerns itself with the scientist..
22. Modern science has left true religion—the teachings of Jesus as translated in the lives of his believers—untouched. All science has done is to destroy the childlike illusions of the misinterpretations of life .... The fatalistic agility of the mind of the materialist forever disproves his assertions that the universe is a blind and purposeless energy phenomenon .... One of the great troubles with modem life is that man thinks he is too busy to find time for spiritual meditation and religious devotion.
23. But religious leaders are making a great mistake when they try to call modern man to spiritual battle with the trumpet blasts of the Middle Ages. Religion must provide itself with new and up‑to‑date slogans.
24. To say that mind "emerged" from matter explains nothing. If the universe were merely a mechanism and mind were unapart from matter, we would never have two differing interpretations of any observed phenomenon. The concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness are not inherent in either physics or chemistry .... Moral convictions based on spiritual enlightenment and rooted in human experience are just as real and certain as mathematical deductions based on physical observations, but on another and higher level.
25. The fact of the absolute mechanism of Paradise at the center of the universe of universes, in the presence of the unqualified volition of the Second Source and Center, makes forever certain that determiners are not the exclusive law of the cosmos. Materialism is there, but it is not exclusive; mechanism is there, but it is not unqualified; determinism is there, but it is not alone.
The finite universe of matter would eventually become uniform and deterministic but for the combined presence of mind and spirit. The influence of the cosmic mind constantly injects spontaneity into even the material worlds.
26. The "scientific method" is merely an intellectual yardstick wherewith to measure material adventures and physical achievement. But being material and wholly intellectual, it is utterly useless in the evaluation of spiritual realities and religious experience. The inconsistency of the modern mechanist is: If this were merely a material universe and man only a machine, such a man would be wholly unable to recognize himself as such a machine, and likewise would such a machine‑man be wholly unconscious of the fact of the existence of such a material universe.
27. Paradise values of eternity and infinity, of truth, beauty, and goodness, are concealed within the facts of the phenomena of the universes of time and space. But it requires the eye of faith in a spirit‑born mortal to detect and discern these spiritual values.
28. And let not your dabblings with the faintly glimpsed findings of "relativity" disturb your concepts of the eternity and infinity of God. And in all your solicitation concerning the necessity for self‑expression do not make the mistake of failing to provide for Adjuster-expression, the manifestation of your real and better self.
29. The partially evolved mental mechanism of mortal man is not overendowed with consistency and wisdom. Man's conceit often outruns his reason and eludes his logic .... Both optimism and pessimism are concept reactions in a mind conscious of values as well as of facts .... Without the consciousness of the concept of values within the spirit‑born mind, the fact of universe materialism and the mechanistic phenomena of universe operation would be wholly unrecognized by man. One machine cannot be conscious of the nature or value of another machine .... The sincere effort of man to become a mechanist represents the tragic phenomenon of that man's futile effort to commit intellectual and moral suicide. But he cannot do it.
30. Art is moral morontia, the intervening field between man, the material, and man, the spiritual. Poetry is an effort to escape from material realities to spiritual values. In a high civilization, art humanizes science, while in turn it is spiritualized by true religion—insight into spiritual and eternal values. Art represents the human and time‑space evaluation of reality. Religion is the divine embrace of cosmic values and connotes eternal progression in spiritual ascension and expansion. The art of time is dangerous only when it becomes blind to the spirit standards of the divine patterns which eternity reflects as the reality shadows of time. True art is the effective manipulation of the material things of life; religion, is the ennobling transformation of the material facts of life, and it never ceases in its spiritual evaluation of art.
31. Any scientific interpretation of the material universe is valueless unless it provides due recognition for the scientist.. No appreciation of art is genuine unless it accords recognition to the artist. No evaluation of morals is worthwhile unless it includes the moralist. No recognition of philosophy is edifying if it ignores the philosopher, and religion cannot exist without the real experience of the religionist . ... Likewise is the universe of universes without significance apart from the I AM, the infinite God who made it and unceasingly manages it.
32. The universe is not like the laws, mechanisms, and the uniformities which the scientist discovers, and which he comes to regard as science, but rather like the curious, thinking, choosing, creative, combining, and discriminating scientist who thus observes universe phenomena and classifies the mathematical facts inherent in the mechanistic phases of the material side of creation. Neither is the universe like the art of the artist, but rather like the striving, dreaming, aspiring, and advancing artist who seeks to transcend the world of material things in an effort to achieve a spiritual goal.
Discussion Questions
1. Why do most people think of religion in its social context rather than as a “purely personal” experience?
2. How is religion related to ethics and morality?
3. How does the soul differ from the mind?
4. If "love is the guide to real insight," how does this relate to the problems of divorce and war?
5. How do religion and science differ? Can true religion and authentic science be in conflict?
6. Are religious leaders trying to call modern peoples to "spiritual battle with the trumpet blasts of the Middle Ages?"
7. Why is the universe more like the creative scientist than the discipline of science?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship