What The Urantia Book Says About Religion

The Urantia Book offers real religious faith much more majesty than current thinking conveys. The strength of the proclamation that the "Kingdom of God is within you" has been enlarged by redefined truth regarding the light within each and every person, the Thought Adjuster, an individuated pre-personal divine fragment yearning to reach us to participate through our free-will choices, in the growth of our eternal soul.   

Understanding religion starts with me. The fundamental definition of religion is “living knowledge of God” [24.5]. The Urantia Book says that religion is the “actual experience of spiritual communion with the spirit influences resident within the human mind” [1105.1]. Living knowledge of God must mean an interaction between me and God’s spiritual influences, i.e. the Thought Adjuster, Spirit of Truth and Holy Spirit. I not only need to be in contact with these spiritual influences but to allow their influence to affect my behavior. The book says that this living experience with the divine should dominate the decision making of a genuinely religious person [1114.5]. Truly religious people are those who live in such a way as to be dominated by love – love of God and love of neighbor. Religious living transcends a person’s belief system. It doesn’t matter whether ones theology is up to date with the most recent heavenly revelation. Real experience with God that is lived out on a daily basis is what determines whether a person is religious or not. Real religion starts with me. It begins and ends with my personal, experienced and life changing relationship with my Father in Heaven.

Religion is not empty rituals, hallow phrases and meaningless gestures. It is not the culturally based traditions of the so called major world religions. This is true even though our perceptions of God are intrinsically bound by the limitations of the culture we live in and our personal spiritual development [1119.6]. As we struggle to develop our personal understanding of God, at the same time we strive for unification and standardization of belief systems. Doctrines and theology develop but these are still not religion. The Urantia Book says, “Let the term faith stand for the individuals relations to God rather than for the creedal formulation of what some group of mortals seem able to agree upon” [1091.6]. Even though the book says that the socialization of religious people is a good thing it is very critical of religious institutions saying that they restrain personal spiritual growth [1092.4]. And the book makes it clear that a religious person can belong to a religious institution, but belonging to a religious institution does not make a person religious. Personal religious development is a growing, ever progressing phenomenon. A person who follows traditional religious practices shows that he/she is interested in finding God. Yet Jesus showed in his battles with religious authorities that one can know all that can be known about a particular religious belief system and be very far from God.

A religious person seeks to be good as God is good. Therefore a religious person seeks the highest ethical and moral behavior in dealing with people. The religion of Jesus is “salvation from self”, salvation from self-destructive and self-focused isolation [67.3]. Religion is relational, in relationship with others. God is in relationship with God-self, through the Trinity. God is also in relationship with a multitude of other beings. A religious person believes that God is aware of us and is responsive to our needs [40.6]. Because of this relationship a religious person recognizes the value of being in relationship with other beings and is responsive to their needs. Though moral values can come from evolutionary development [1045.5], true religion enhances all moral values making them more meaningful [2096.3]. A religious philosophy which is spirit infused is a religion which seeks to be more selfless, self-sacrificing, and unselfish than the philosophies which come from the natural desire to get along.

Religion is not exclusive. Its purpose is not to determine who is in and who is out. A truly religious person seeks to build relationships not draw lines of distinction between individuals. Jesus instructed us to love God and love our neighbors. Many religionists on our world say to love God but only in the culturally biased way that we seek to love God. Those who don’t go along with this limited plan are at the very least told that they are excluded from heaven. At the most they are excluded from the community. Religion should be the great unifier of our world. Instead, sectarianism is the driving force behind institutional religion. Even as I write major Christian Denominations are subdividing over the exclusion of homosexuals. The Muslim world is also split over differing interpretations of the Koran. This is not the action of religious people as defined by The Urantia Book. A truly religious person seeks the good will of every person he/she meets. A spirit led mortal attempts to treat everyone with love and dignity. True religion embraces the inclusive vision of the goodness of God. And God wants to embrace every being in a loving and supportive relationship.

Religion is reasonable and based upon sound judgment. This is because all of us are living in a vast universe that is ultimately logical. As people reach heavenward we also reach out to understand the material cosmos [1138.1]. It is only natural then that as we seek to comprehend our relationship with God we should look with open eyes at our relationship with God’s creation. The Urantia Book says “faith is always logical from the basis of an inner viewpoint” [1138.4]. In other words, God is understandable. We can use the gifts of logic and reason to attempt to understand something of our Father in Heaven. The book defines the understanding of truth as follows; the gathering of universe facts, the relationship of these facts within the cosmos, and the application of spiritual values to these universal relationships [1138.6]. Religion is then a mixture of reason and spirit leading. God helps us to view and understand the cosmos with wisdom from above.

Religion is not the practice of using doctrine to place blindfolds around the higher reasoning powers of its practitioners. It is not a device for the preservation of cultural traditions in opposition to the advancements of science. One example of this is the current debate over evolution within Christian circles. The Urantia Book encourages religious people to explore the cosmos and take part in the learned growth of humanity. The book condemns attempts to stifle scientific advancement. It does no one any good to cling to ancient ideas while science based proofs are displayed right before our eyes. A religious person embraces and rejoices over God’s creation.

The world continues to dance around many different and competing ideas of religion. The Urantia Book talks about religion in many different ways as well, but it all comes down to a very simple formula that has been known on our world for a very long time. Religion is loving God and loving people. How that love is expressed is as individualistic as there are individuals. Attempts to limit the expression of love always fall short. God created an unimaginable number of creatures and desires a relationship with every one. A religious person seeks the same thing.

God bless you,

William Whitehead, USA