The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. (43)

   Where do we find these "enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness?" Is there anything anywhere that is comparable to what we already have in the Urantia revelation? The answer to that question appears to be an emphatic, "No!" Which makes the statement self-referential.

   And so our instructions are to search the Urantia Papers for material that fits the above categories and then present it in a form that will attract and challenge all that which is best in the human soul.

   In the 1920 -1935 period when the Urantia Papers were received, anyone who wrote something of book length would have had some chance of at least getting their manuscript read and assessed for its suitability prior to a prospective publisher sending a courteous note of acceptance or rejection.

   Today, with the advent of computers and word processors, all that has changed. Publishers have been inundated with vast numbers of manuscripts from hopeful authors such that most will not accept an unsolicited manuscript, a task that they pass on to professional agents. And the fierceness of competition generated by anxious would-be authors means that agents who have the ear of a major publisher can ask premium prices for his or her services.

   An alternative pathway for budding authors is to pay to have their work printed--which shifts the problem to one of finding ways to get it distributed. But it is the publishers who control distribution and what gets distributed!!

   Hence the reality is that the vast majority of such authors will find they must give their work away free to anyone friendly enough or forbearing enough to accept a free copy that, most likely, they will dispose of in the nearest garbage bin.

   But is a full length book the way to spread the message of the Urantia revelation? In the previous issue of this newsletter, referring to the "religious challenge of this age" paragraph, it was concluded that:

   "Currently there is an urgent need for not just one new philosophy but one for every race, nation, religion, faction, language--each and every barrier that divides us. And all such  philosophies have to be short, sharp, and simple, and based directly upon those revelatory concepts of 'cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness.'"

   The need to be "short, sharp, and simple" appears to rule out book-length works. On pages 3 to 6 of this issue, some examples are presented of condensing sections of the Papers in the attempt to "construct new and appealing philosophies" that appear also to fit the description of "cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness"

   The text of each has been adapted so as to make sense to people not acquainted with the Urantia revelation--and for whom terms such as "Thought Adjuster" would be more likely to generate association with "thought control" or "brain washing" than the gift of self from a God who loves us.

   Whereas these condensations could readily become part of a larger work dedicated to philosophy or theology, or be stand alone articles in appropriate magazines, etc., they do not  appear to fill the requirement for short, sharp, and simple philosophies based on revelatory concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness.

   Above and beyond all else, they simply are not simple enough to be enticingly readable for the vast majority of the world's population. And so we ask, what would be simple enough?

   On pages 7 to 13 we have used a combined assault, first by invoking the Occam's razor principle of eliminating all unnecessary hypotheses. Is this the kind of thing the revelators are suggesting?

   Almost all Urantia Book commentaries produced to date have been of a promotional nature. While meritorious, that is not what we are challenged to do in that page 43 reference.

    Perhaps we should be promoting the required divine truth, beauty, and goodness in  pamphlets, booklets, articles, personal web sites, etc., and, to accord with the spirit of our p. 43 instructions, without mention of the Urantia Papers as our source.

   Maybe only ten people would read our efforts. But if they pass it on, ten times ten is a hundred and ten times that is a  thousand, and so on and so on. And after all, Jesus only had eleven dedicated followers at the time of his crucifixion!