Preview: a read-only copy of the forum. To post or reply, use the current forum.

Social brotherhood

53 posts · 6 participants · started Aug 10, 2015, 5:15 PM

MaraParticipant
Aug 10, 2015, 5:15 PM
In a previous discussion (What is spiritual brotherhood?) I asked if spiritual brotherhood were the same as social brotherhood. I’d like to discuss social brotherhood here. After the previous discussion, I discovered an enlarged meaning of spiritual brotherhood. It is wrapped into in the definition of cosmic brotherhood, universal brotherhood which says it’s the all relationship. “Brotherhood is a reality of the total and therefore discloses qualities of the whole in contradistinction to qualities of the part.” (12:7:10 ) Do you think social brotherhood is also an all relationship? Consider this reference:

68:1:1 When brought closely together, men often learn to like one another, but primitive man was not naturally overflowing with the spirit of brotherly feeling and the desire for social contact with his fellows. Rather did the early races learn by sad experience that “in union there is strength”; and it is this lack of natural brotherly attraction that now stands in the way of immediate realization of the brotherhood of man on Urantia.
MaraParticipant
Aug 11, 2015, 7:55 PM

Mara wrote: “. . . it is this lack of natural brotherly attraction that now stands in the way of immediate realization of the brotherhood of man on Urantia.”

Lack of natural brotherly attraction keeps us from realizing social brotherhood. Social brotherhood is folded up in brotherly love. Brotherly love says, love your neighbor as you love yourself, and that would be adequate fulfillment of the “golden rule” (140:5:1), though Jesus kicked up the golden rule to its highest notch when he taught his followers (us) to manifest fatherly love rather than brotherly love, requiring us to love with a fatherly affection: that we should love our fellow mortals as Jesus loves us.

.

I’m still working on brotherly love. On an intellectual level, I know it, and I know when I fall short of natural brotherly affection. If brotherly love is hard for Jesus-lovers like me, oh how hard it is for those who do not know and love him who says, “He who has seen me has seen the Father”? (157:6:13) (180:3:9) (169:4:12) Personal adjustments need to be made for some like me, and I pray to do better, to yield my mind to the divine spirit.

(146:3:6) “While you cannot observe the divine spirit at work in your minds, there is a practical method of discovering the degree to which you have yielded the control of your soul powers to the teaching and guidance of this indwelling spirit of the heavenly Father, and that is the degree of your love for your fellow men. This spirit of the Father partakes of the love of the Father, and as it dominates man, it unfailingly leads in the directions of divine worship and loving regard for one’s fellows. At first you believe that you are sons of God because my teaching has made you more conscious of the inner leadings of our Father’s indwelling presence; but presently the Spirit of Truth shall be poured out upon all flesh, and it will live among men and teach all men, even as I now live among you and speak to you the words of truth. And this Spirit of Truth, speaking for the spiritual endowments of your souls, will help you to know that you are the sons of God. It will unfailingly bear witness with the Father’s indwelling presence, your spirit, then dwelling in all men as it now dwells in some, telling you that you are in reality the sons of God.”

.

Perhaps social brotherhood scaled up to the planetary level depends a lot on personal adjustments and transformations – as the part, so the whole. I don’t know if social brotherhood is the all relationship. While our planetary history is not an excuse for where we are now, Urantia is one full dispensation or more behind where a normal world would be. (52:3:6)

(52:6:2) Even on normal evolutionary worlds the realization of the world-wide brotherhood of man is not an easy accomplishment. On a confused and disordered planet like Urantia such an achievement requires a much longer time and necessitates far greater effort. Unaided social evolution can hardly achieve such happy results on a spiritually isolated sphere. Religious revelation is essential to the realization of brotherhood on Urantia.[…]

.
VernParticipant
Aug 12, 2015, 1:15 AM

Mara wrote: Lack of natural brotherly attraction keeps us from realizing social brotherhood.

Life is a process of adaptation, habitual patters of behaviour when reflected on, with the benefit of hindsight, should be helpful when eternal goals are appreciated, hence with the problem of lack of natural brotherly attraction the practical benefits impel society towards brotherhood. Change is fundamental to progress, spiritual and social.

Mara wrote: …the early races learn by sad experience that “in union there is strength.”

There is no denying we are gregarious creatures. The very capacity to take the Adjutant mind spirit to the next level and infuse it with love originates in choosing to accept the love of the divine Adjuster without who’s presence we could not spiritually love. Human fellow feeling requires seeding with the benign virus of love, the spirit within is the source of that very capacity to love.

Humanitarian fellowship — love. The purely animal mind may be gregarious for self-protection, but only the spirit-indwelt intellect is unselfishly altruistic and unconditionally loving. ^[Paper^{196:3.7, page 2094.6]}

Mara, seeing you have initiated a topic on Social brotherhood on this forum, in looking at the activity here for over the past twelve months and noting at no time have there been more than 13 contributors to any topic presented, I would suggest it may be worth asking what might encourage more participation? I know there are more than 13 people in the Association how come they do not lead by example, and share the love?

It’s a sad situation when the dedicated few give expression to beautiful thoughts and all that happens is they get lodged in the great virtual repository of unanswered dangling conversations. Associations of friendship and mutual affection are socializing and ennobling because they encourage and facilitate mutual self-expression and self-understanding.

Mutual self-expression and self-understanding. Many noble human impulses die because there is no one to hear their expression. Truly, it is not good for man to be alone. Some degree of recognition and a certain amount of appreciation are essential to the development of human character. ^[Paper ^{160:2.6, page 1775:7]}

Mara, we should all take comfort in knowing the revelation is well and truly in the social area, the seeds of truth are being scattered far and wide online and in face-to-face dialogue via all manner of mediums, audio-visual and in increasingly different languages. There are hundreds of Urantia based facebook groups already, each with their own audience. After scattering the seeds of truth there must be given time for growth and consolidation as an organic spiritual brotherhood emerges.

How will social brotherhood grow? We are told, if each of us could only fathom the “motives” of our associates, how much better we would understand them. Then, by understanding them, we come to know our fellows, and we will eventually fall in love with them.

You cannot truly love your fellows by a mere act of the will. Love is only born of thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor’s motives and sentiments. It is not so important to love all men today as it is that each day you learn to love one more human being. If each day or each week you achieve an understanding of one more of your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability, then you are certainly socializing and truly spiritualizing your personality. Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man. ^[Paper^{100:4.6, page 1098:3]}

Let your love be fearless, confidently share it, for it is more catching than hate. For love to be effective it needs to connect with someone.

For that reason I choose to engage with forums where the general pubic gather to share ideas on current affairs like our own Australian news broadcaster, ABC online, which has daily opinion articles which range from, politics, science, philosophy, environment to religion. Such blogs open to the general public, are to my thinking, wonderful examples of democracy at work, where the common people can have a say on issues that affect their lives. In the ABC online blog on which I’ve been active over the past year, I’ve been including concepts from The Urantia Book and I am having productive exchanges with those who respond. Concepts of brotherhood are taking root in the minds of thinking men and women, the world over.

Oh and I’ve also been sharing some of the posts I’ve written on this forum with our friends on some of the main Urantia facebook groups to extend the reach.

Mara, I’ve also been personally contacted by previous participants of this Association forum who now have formed their own discussion group.

Each of us does what we choose with what we have. Let us pray for inner confirmation and strength from our Father that we choose to his will to the maximum of our ability.

In bringing about social brotherhood the main task is the proclamation of the religion of Jesus for that is, “what the world most needs to know.” All his life this was his constant message and shortly after his resurrection, Jesus said again, Men are the sons of God.

“I admonish you ever to remember that your mission among men is to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom — the reality of the fatherhood of God and the truth of the sonship of man. Proclaim the whole truth of the good news, not just a part of the saving gospel. Your message is not changed by my resurrection experience. Sonship with God, by faith, is still the saving truth of the gospel of the kingdom. You are to go forth preaching the love of God and the service of man. That which the world needs most to know is: Men are the sons of God, and through faith they can actually realize, and daily experience, this ennobling truth. My bestowal should help all men to know that they are the children of God, but such knowledge will not suffice if they fail personally to faith-grasp the saving truth that they are the living spirit sons of the eternal Father. The gospel of the kingdom is concerned with the love of the Father and the service of his children on earth.” ^[Paper ^{193:0.4, page 2052.4]}

We now have the Spirit of Truth which enables Jesus to live anew in each of us, when he comes to life this way, sharing is the natural fruit of his spirit. Desire for all the world to know him.

…When men once knew Jesus, they were possessed with the urge to share him with their friends; they really wanted all the world to know him. ^[Paper ^{139:1.11, page 1550.2]}
MaraParticipant
Aug 13, 2015, 5:53 PM

Vern wrote: Each of us does what we choose with what we have.

Thanks so much Vern for your personal account. Interesting. Individual participation in a virtual or everyday milieu can sure help social fraternity.

(52:6:2) […] Unaided social evolution can hardly achieve such happy results on a spiritually isolated sphere. Religious revelation is essential to the realization of brotherhood on Urantia. While Jesus has shown the way to the immediate attainment of spiritual brotherhood, the realization of social brotherhood on your world depends much on the achievement of the following personal transformations and planetary adjustments:

.

The revelators provide 5 areas of personal transformations and planetary adjustments necessary to achieve social brotherhood. (In the book I always wonder whether or not a list of something indicates a ranking of the items listed, such as listed in the order of importance – from the lesser to the greater – or ranked by some other feature.) Anyhow, here’s the first one listed.

(52:6:3) 1. Social fraternity. Multiplication of international and interracial social contacts and fraternal associations through travel, commerce, and competitive play. Development of a common language and the multiplication of multilinguists. The racial and national interchange of students, teachers, industrialists, and religious philosophers.

.

More international, interracial social contacts. More fraternal associations, more broad cross-cultural interchanges. More multilinguists. I wonder if in two or three hundred years English will be the common language.

70:3:5   The absence of a common language has always impeded the growth of peace groups, but money has become the universal language of modern trade. Modern society is largely held together by the industrial market. The gain motive is a mighty civilizer when augmented by the desire to serve.

The gain motive is best when augmented by the desire to serve. What about the economic interdependence leading to social fraternity?

99:7:5   Economic interdependence and social fraternity will ultimately conduce to brotherhood. Man is naturally a dreamer, but science is sobering him so that religion can presently activate him with far less danger of precipitating fanatical reactions. Economic necessities tie man up with reality, and personal religious experience brings this same man face to face with the eternal realities of an ever-expanding and progressing cosmic citizenship.

.

On competition and intelligent co-operation:

71:5:1   Competition is essential to social progress, but competition, unregulated, breeds violence. In current society, competition is slowly displacing war in that it determines the individual’s place in industry, as well as decreeing the survival of the industries themselves. (Murder and war differ in their status before the mores, murder having been outlawed since the early days of society, while war has never yet been outlawed by mankind as a whole.)

.

71:5:3   Throughout the earlier ages of any world, competition is essential to progressive civilization. As the evolution of man progresses, co-operation becomes increasingly effective. In advanced civilizations co-operation is more efficient than competition. Early man is stimulated by competition. Early evolution is characterized by the survival of the biologically fit, but later civilizations are the better promoted by intelligent co-operation, understanding fraternity, and spiritual brotherhood.

.

On religious experience and religious philosophy:

103:1:1   The unity of religious experience among a social or racial group derives from the identical nature of the God fragment indwelling the individual. It is this divine in man that gives origin to his unselfish interest in the welfare of other men. But since personality is unique — no two mortals being alike — it inevitably follows that no two human beings can similarly interpret the leadings and urges of the spirit of divinity which lives within their minds. A group of mortals can experience spiritual unity, but they can never attain philosophic uniformity. And this diversity of the interpretation of religious thought and experience is shown by the fact that twentieth-century theologians and philosophers have formulated upward of five hundred different definitions of religion. In reality, every human being defines religion in the terms of his own experiential interpretation of the divine impulses emanating from the God spirit that indwells him, and therefore must such an interpretation be unique and wholly different from the religious philosophy of all other human beings.

.

Each of us manifests a uniqueness of religious thought, interpretation, experience and creativity. We have different aptitudes, attitudes, temperamental feelings and social inclinations, among other things. In this reference we are reminded about the enjoyment of “profound spiritual unity” (the divine fruit of faith union with the living Jesus) in the very face of such diversity.

141:5:2   “In this way you may experience a perfected unity of spirit purpose and spirit understanding growing out of the mutual consciousness of the identity of each of your indwelling Paradise spirits; and you may enjoy all of this profound spiritual unity in the very face of the utmost diversity of your individual attitudes of intellectual thinking, temperamental feeling, and social conduct. Your personalities may be refreshingly diverse and markedly different, while your spiritual natures and spirit fruits of divine worship and brotherly love may be so unified that all who behold your lives will of a surety take cognizance of this spirit identity and soul unity; they will recognize that you have been with me and have thereby learned, and acceptably, how to do the will of the Father in heaven. You can achieve the unity of the service of God even while you render such service in accordance with the technique of your own original endowments of mind, body, and soul.”

.

As Vern wrote: Each of us does what we choose with what we have. Let us pray for inner confirmation and strength from our Father that we choose to his will to the maximum of our ability.
MaraParticipant
Aug 15, 2015, 4:45 PM
The second area of focus toward the achievement of social brotherhood is:

( 52:6:4) 2. Intellectual cross-fertilization. Brotherhood is impossible on a world whose inhabitants are so primitive that they fail to recognize the folly of unmitigated selfishness. There must occur an exchange of national and racial literature. Each race must become familiar with the thought of all races; each nation must know the feelings of all nations. Ignorance breeds suspicion, and suspicion is incompatible with the essential attitude of sympathy and love.

When they talk about primitive inhabitants, are they talking about us, planetarily speaking? They are clear when they tell us each race must become familiar with the thought of all races; each nation must know the feelings of all nations.

155:6:8 Every race of mankind has its own mental outlook upon human existence; therefore must the religion of the mind ever run true to these various racial viewpoints. Never can the religions of authority come to unification. Human unity and mortal brotherhood can be achieved only by and through the superendowment of the religion of the spirit. Racial minds may differ, but all mankind is indwelt by the same divine and eternal spirit. The hope of human brotherhood can only be realized when, and as, the divergent mind religions of authority become impregnated with, and overshadowed by, the unifying and ennobling religion of the spirit — the religion of personal spiritual experience.

.

What about race relations and the harmonization of different racial viewpoints?

48:6:22 2. Racial Interpreters. All races of mortal beings are not alike. True, there is a planetary pattern running through the physical, mental, and spiritual natures and tendencies of the various races of a given world; but there are also distinct racial types, and very definite social tendencies characterize the offspring of these different basic types of human beings. On the worlds of time the seraphic racial interpreters further the efforts of the race commissioners to harmonize the varied viewpoints of the races, and they continue to function on the mansion worlds, where these same differences tend to persist in a measure. On a confused planet, such as Urantia, these brilliant beings have hardly had a fair opportunity to function, but they are the skillful sociologists and the wise ethnic advisers of the first heaven.

.

.

The angels of the races are working for the conservation of the races.

5. The angels of the races. Those who work for the conservation of the evolutionary races of time, regardless of their political entanglements and religious groupings. On Urantia there are remnants of nine human races which have commingled and combined into the people of modern times. These seraphim are closely associated with the ministry of the race commissioners, and the group now on Urantia is the original corps assigned to the planet soon after the day of Pentecost.

.

Who are the race commissioners?

(37:5:5) The High Commissioners begin their service on the planets as race commissioners. In this capacity they interpret the viewpoints and portray the needs of the various human races. They are supremely devoted to the welfare of the mortal races whose spokesmen they are, ever seeking to obtain for them mercy, justice, and fair treatment in all relationships with other peoples. Race commissioners function in an endless series of planetary crises and serve as the articulate expression of whole groups of struggling mortals.

.

After long experience in problem solving on the inhabited worlds, these race commissioners are advanced to the higher levels of function, eventually attaining the status of High Commissioners of and in the local universe. The last registration recorded slightly over one and one-half billion of these High Commissioners in Nebadon. These beings are not finaliters, but they are ascendant beings of long experience and of great service to their native realm.

.

We are not alone in wrestling with the problems of race relations and prejudice, if there is any comfort in knowing we have help from our unseen friends. Yet such help doesn’t mitigate personal responsibility in getting to know the thoughts and feelings of all races and all nations to the best of our ability, through literature and through personal relations. Perhaps the Internet has a positive effect on intellectual cross-fertilization. Perhaps it’s already happening

( 100:1:2) Some persons are too busy to grow and are therefore in grave danger of spiritual fixation. Provision must be made for growth of meanings at differing ages, in successive cultures, and in the passing stages of advancing civilization. The chief inhibitors of growth are prejudice and ignorance.

(111:4:9) Since this inner life of man is truly creative, there rests upon each person the responsibility of choosing as to whether this creativity shall be spontaneous and wholly haphazard or controlled, directed, and constructive. How can a creative imagination produce worthy children when the stage whereon it functions is already preoccupied by prejudice, hate, fears, resentments, revenge, and bigotries?

.

.

.
SabinatuBlocked
Aug 15, 2015, 9:32 PM
Mara, you shared this opinion, “Yet such help doesn’t mitigate personal responsibility in getting to know the thoughts and feelings of all races and all nations to the best of our ability, through literature and through personal relations. Perhaps the Internet has a positive effect on intellectual cross-fertilization. Perhaps it’s already happening.”

Only if the internet helps to multiply the amount of free-will decisions people can make in the UNLIMITED and creative realm of “Spirit” – I guess I will have to keep reminding myself that my free-will choices are UNLIMITED in the Spirit realm, especially with the help of a TA – if you believe this info in the UB – you can never make TOO MANY sincere choices in service to truth, beauty and goodness – the Divinity expressions of “love” in the shadows of time and space.

In practice, taking a look at the landscape of “race” in the NOW, I am ready to discuss a better alternative to what I have experientially learned from being raised in the most crowded area of USA where the world was all mixed up on the island of Manhattan (and the surrounding boroughs). Commerce steered competition for each race to present their BEST – food, music, arts, SCIENCE, philosophy, history, home education (which included “religion”), etc. If one race presumes to pick out the mote of “prejudice and ignorance” in another race when it might have beams in their own race, you immediately went off track.

Each race must clean its own house, so to speak, and choose their ambassadors to represent what THEY want to present as the BEST in their race.

TUB is FULL of very practical suggestions for IMMEDIATE improvements when people make SPIRITUAL free-will choices.

^71:3.2 ^(803.2) Much as it is to be regretted, national egotism has been essential to social survival. The chosen people doctrine has been a prime factor in tribal welding and nation building right on down to modern times. But no state can attain ideal levels of functioning until every form of intolerance is mastered; it is everlastingly inimical to human progress. And intolerance is best combated by the co-ordination of science, commerce, play, and religion.

^71:3.3 ^(803.3) The ideal state functions under the impulse of three mighty and co-ordinated drives:

^71:3.4 ^(803.4) 1. Love loyalty derived from the realization of human brotherhood.

^71:3.5 ^(803.5) 2. Intelligent patriotism based on wise ideals.

^71:3.6 ^(803.6) 3. Cosmic insight interpreted in terms of planetary facts, needs, and goals.

Being as I am a “Caucasoid”, I concern myself with the fight within my own “race” in the NOW – the “what is torture when greed is good” philosophy for living contained in the global economy “vision” running on Nihilism, Hedonism and Anarchy at the tip of a nuke.

No offense, but people entering the USA from all over the world TODAY have no clue how we used to live pre-911 and the trajectory we were on – SPIRITUALLY and SOCIALLY. Before it is too late, THAT closet needs to be cleaned out and what is hiding in there is NOT a problem with intolerance, prejudice and ignorance.

What do you think about avoiding the mistake of one race picking out the motes in another race – is not the beter way letting the race be responsible for cleaning its own house?
VernParticipant
Aug 16, 2015, 2:46 AM
Mara wrote: …personal religious experience brings this same man face to face with the eternal realities of an ever-expanding and progressing cosmic citizenship.

This requires courage. Modern society has gone soft and is so afraid of being taken out of its comfort zone. Responsibility avoidance is at epidemic proportions. Only a brave person can face what a sincere and logical mind discovers.
1. locate the difficulty
2. isolate the problem
3. recognize its nature and gravity
4. take required action
5. assess results, is difficulty resolved?
Successful living is nothing more or less than the art of the mastery of dependable techniques for solving common problems. The first step in the solution of any problem is to locate the difficulty, to isolate the problem, and frankly to recognize its nature and gravity. The great mistake is that, when life problems excite our profound fears, we refuse to recognize them. Likewise, when the acknowledgment of our difficulties entails the reduction of our long-cherished conceit, the admission of envy, or the abandonment of deep-seated prejudices, the average person prefers to cling to the old illusions of safety and to the long-cherished false feelings of security. Only a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and fearlessly to face, what a sincere and logical mind discovers. ^[Paper ^{160:1.7, page 1773.4]}
VernParticipant
Aug 16, 2015, 3:10 AM

Mara wrote: …”face to face” with the eternal realities of an ever-expanding and progressing cosmic citizenship.

Hmmmmm………..this set me thinking about “face to face” in general…………..people place a premium on “face to face” contact.

It’s the means by which we see “eye-to-eye” what we are really doing is seeking mutual understanding “mind-to-mind” in the spirit of brotherhood………love.

I did a search of instances of “face to face” in The Urantia Book and saw there are a lot…………35 in fact. I will share some of them below as I believe it is relevant to this topic of Social brotherhood………..an organic fraternity.

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. ^[Paper^{3:5.13, page 51.12]}

Ethics has been duly taught and adequately learned by the pilgrims of time in their long ascent to the glories of Paradise. As this inward-ascending career has unfolded from the nativity worlds of space, the ascenders have continued to add group after group to their ever-widening circle of universe associates. Every new group of colleagues met with adds one more level of ethics to be recognized and complied with until, by the time the mortals of ascent reach Paradise, they really need someone to provide helpful and friendly counsel regarding ethical interpretations. They do not need to be taught ethics, but they do need to have what they have so laboriously learned properly interpreted to them as they are brought face to face with the extraordinary task of contacting with so much that is new. ^[Paper^{27:3.2, page 300.5]}
SabinatuBlocked
Aug 16, 2015, 11:34 PM
^132:4.3 ^(1461.1) In this manner, during the sojourn in Rome, Jesus personally came into affectionate and uplifting contact with upward of five hundred mortals of the realm. He thus gained a knowledge of the different races of mankind which he could never have acquired in Jerusalem and hardly even in Alexandria. He always regarded this six months as one of the richest and most informative of any like period of his earth life.

One of my favorite Papers…face to face contact ala Jesus perfectly doing God’s Will
VernParticipant
Aug 17, 2015, 4:01 AM

Sabinatu wrote: …gained a knowledge of the different races of mankind which he could never have acquired in Jerusalem and hardly even in Alexandria.

International travel is so rewarding in many ways. I still have lasting friendships from roving to distant shores when I had benefit of youthful curiosity, the opportunity and few responsibilities.

Each person is an ambassador of brotherhood in a world of kindred spirits. Trust in the Father’s watchcare and he will accompany you each step of the way.
MaraParticipant
Aug 19, 2015, 1:34 AM
Note: This is the second try at submitting this blog.

The third area of focus toward the achievement of social brotherhood is noted in the following:

(52:6:5) 3. Ethical awakening. Only ethical consciousness can unmask the immorality of human intolerance and the sinfulness of fratricidal strife. Only a moral conscience can condemn the evils of national envy and racial jealousy. Only moral beings will ever seek for that spiritual insight which is essential to living the golden rule.

.

What do they mean by telling us this? I found a clue in this reference.

4. Ethical Sensitizers. It is the mission of these seraphim [superior seraphim] to foster and to promote the growth of creature appreciation of the morality of interpersonal relationships, for such is the seed and secret of the continued and purposeful growth of society and government, human or superhuman. These enhancers of ethical appreciation function anywhere and everywhere they may be of service, as volunteer counselors to the planetary rulers and as exchange teachers on the system training worlds. You will not, however, come under their full guidance until you reach the brotherhood schools on Edentia, where they will quicken your appreciation of those very truths of fraternity which you will even then be so earnestly exploring by the actual experience of living with the univitatia in the social laboratories of Edentia, the seventy satellites of the Norlatiadek capital.

And another clue about ethics here –

(43:8:3) Your sojourn on Edentia and its associated spheres will be chiefly occupied with the mastery of group ethics, the secret of pleasant and profitable interrelationship between the various universe and superuniverse orders of intelligent personalities.

Social laboratories in the brotherhood schools on Edentia! Meanwhile, back on earth. . . and by epochal revelation we learn that the religious capacity of receptivity of our inhabitants evolves and determines the rate of our spiritual advancement here.

(52:2:3) […] Each dispensation, each mortal epoch, receives an enlarged presentation of spiritual truth and religious ethics. The evolution of the religious capacity of receptivity in the inhabitants of a world largely determines their rate of spiritual advancement and the extent of religious revelation.

By contrast our primitive progenitors developed a natural consciousness of relative right and wrong – thank God for the adjutant mind spirits and the long drawn out course of the ups and downs of evolutionary religion. Human ethics was born.

(86:6:7 ) With the emergence of these concepts [the imaginary world of ghosts], there was initiated the long and wasteful struggle to appease the ever-displeased spirits, the slavish bondage to evolutionary religious fear, that long waste of human effort upon tombs, temples, sacrifices, and priesthoods. It was a terrible and frightful price to pay, but it was worth all it cost, for man therein achieved a natural consciousness of relative right and wrong; human ethics was born!

They tell us religion is the ancestor of advanced ethics and…

(101:0:2) Religion is the ancestor of the advanced ethics and morals of progressive social evolution. But religion, as such, is not merely a moral movement, albeit the outward and social manifestations of religion are mightily influenced by the ethical and moral momentum of human society. Always is religion the inspiration of man’s evolving nature, but it is not the secret of that evolution.

Then what is the secret of that evolution?

(102:7:2) God is the one and only self-caused fact in the universe. He is the secret of the order, plan, and purpose of the whole creation of things and beings. The everywhere-changing universe is regulated and stabilized by absolutely unchanging laws, the habits of an unchanging God. The fact of God, the divine law, is changeless; the truth of God, his relation to the universe, is a relative revelation which is ever adaptable to the constantly evolving universe.

(112:2:14) The possibility of the unification of the evolving self is inherent in the qualities of its constitutive factors: the basic energies, the master tissues, the fundamental chemical overcontrol, the supreme ideas, the supreme motives, the supreme goals, and the divine spirit of Paradise bestowal–the secret of the self-consciousness of man’s spiritual nature.

(117:2:1) The Supreme is God-in-time; his is the secret of creature growth in time; his also is the conquest of the incomplete present and the consummation of the perfecting future. And the final fruits of all finite growth are: power controlled through mind by spirit by virtue of the unifying and creative presence of personality. The culminating consequence of all this growth is the Supreme Being.

.

To love your neighbor as yourself is the highest ethics. (170:3:6) The golden rule of living – the ethical awakening.
ZarParticipant
Aug 19, 2015, 7:11 PM

Mara wrote:

universal brotherhood

There is a book that presents a rational brotherhood.
This brotherhood reaches the entire planet, even the entire universe.
In this brotherhood there is no religion only science.
The book is “Build Yourself Paradise.”
MaraParticipant
Aug 19, 2015, 9:11 PM

Zar wrote: “Build Yourself Paradise.”

Hello Zar. So I looked this up and a summary of the book you indicate. It’s an instruction manual on how to build Thomas More’ s “Utopia”published in 1516 which tells the story of a fictional island called Utopia and what a perfect and ideal society would look like, as imagined by More. The author of your book has a plan for a do-it-yourself-one-world-order via computers/science and without religion, as you mention.

Did I get that right?

In reality science is one constitutive endowment of man. But there are other factors as well. After all, man is not a machine.

Human self-consciousness implies the recognition of the reality of selves other than the conscious self and further implies that such awareness is mutual; that the self is known as it knows. This is shown in a purely human manner in man’s social life. But you cannot become so absolutely certain of a fellow being’s reality as you can of the reality of the presence of God that lives within you.

.

The social consciousness is not inalienable like the God-consciousness; it is a cultural development and is dependent on knowledge, symbols, and the contributions of the constitutive endowments of man–science, morality, and religion. And these cosmic gifts, socialized, constitute civilization.

.

Civilizations are unstable because they are not cosmic; they are not innate in the individuals of the races. They must be nurtured by the combined contributions of the constitutive factors of man–science, morality, and religion. Civilizations come and go, but science, morality, and religion always survive the crash.
MaraParticipant
Aug 19, 2015, 10:46 PM
Going back to a previous post where the revelators speak of a moral conscience (52:6:5). I bring this up to find out and share with you what the book has to say about conscience and the moral nature of man. First of all morality (virtue) is indigenous to us. It is a constitutive endowment of man – comes with status as free will beings.

( 16:7:1) Intelligence alone cannot explain the moral nature. Morality, virtue, is indigenous to human personality. Moral intuition, the realization of duty, is a component of human mind endowment and is associated with the other inalienables of human nature: scientific curiosity and spiritual insight. Man’s mentality far transcends that of his animal cousins, but it is his moral and religious natures that especially distinguish him from the animal world.

.

Thanks to the 6th and 7th adjutants and the divine spirit within, if we would but listen to this divine pilot.

( 16:7:10) Moral acts are those human performances which are characterized by the highest intelligence, directed by selective discrimination in the choice of superior ends as well as in the selection of moral means to attain these ends. Such conduct is virtuous. Supreme virtue, then, is wholeheartedly to choose to do the will of the Father in heaven.

.

(67:3:7) […] Education, training, and experience are factors in most of the vital decisions of all evolutionary moral creatures. But it is entirely possible for the indwelling spirit to make direct contact with the decision-determining powers of the human personality so as to empower the fully consecrated will of the creature to perform amazing acts of loyal devotion to the will and the way of the Father in Paradise. And this is just what occurred in the experience of Amadon, the modified human associate of Van.

.

Conscience. What is it? It’s the discovery of selfhood accompanied by self-criticism – the criticism of oneself by one’s own value-habits, personal ideals (100:1:5) It’s your/my individual human reaction to things that we’ve built up over time. Is it the voice of the divine pilot? Nope.

110:5:1 Do not confuse and confound the mission and influence of the Adjuster with what is commonly called conscience; they are not directly related. Conscience is a human and purely psychic reaction. It is not to be despised, but it is hardly the voice of God to the soul, which indeed the Adjuster’s would be if such a voice could be heard. Conscience, rightly, admonishes you to do right; but the Adjuster, in addition, endeavors to tell you what truly is right; that is, when and as you are able to perceive the Monitor’s leading.

.

To the earlier suggestion by Zar of imagining a world without religion, read what follows.

( 101:3:1) Religion is so vital that it persists in the absence of learning. It lives in spite of its contamination with erroneous cosmologies and false philosophies; it survives even the confusion of metaphysics. In and through all the historic vicissitudes of religion there ever persists that which is indispensable to human progress and survival: the ethical conscience and the moral consciousness.

.

Even if everything crashes, science, morality and religion will survive the crash. (16:9:5)
SabinatuBlocked
Aug 21, 2015, 5:30 PM
@Zar – I am all for “competition” when it comes to science, how about you?

Let’s see which “brotherhood” does better – god-knowing vs. god-ignoring – when it comes to future scientific development.

You can use TUB or not. Fair enough?
MaraParticipant
Aug 21, 2015, 6:33 PM

Mara wrote: Conscience. What is it?

Here’s another bit about conscience:

( 92:2:6) […] Conscience is not a divine voice speaking to the human soul. It is merely the sum total of the moral and ethical content of the mores of any current stage of existence; it simply represents the humanly conceived ideal of reaction in any given set of circumstances.

Whereas moral consciousness is. . .

(101:9:5) […] Moral consciousness is just a name applied to the human recognition and awareness of those ethical and emerging morontial values which duty demands that man shall abide by in the day-by-day control and guidance of conduct.

But “true moral consciousness” is genuine spiritual faith.

101:3:4 Through religious faith the soul of man reveals itself and demonstrates the potential divinity of its emerging nature by the characteristic manner in which it induces the mortal personality to react to certain trying intellectual and testing social situations. Genuine spiritual faith (true moral consciousness) is revealed in that it:

.

1. Causes ethics and morals to progress despite inherent and adverse animalistic tendencies.

.

2. Produces a sublime trust in the goodness of God even in the face of bitter disappointment and crushing defeat.

.

3. Generates profound courage and confidence despite natural adversity and physical calamity.

.

4. Exhibits inexplicable poise and sustaining tranquillity notwithstanding baffling diseases and even acute physical suffering.

.

5. Maintains a mysterious poise and composure of personality in the face of maltreatment and the rankest injustice.

.

5. Maintains a mysterious poise and composure of personality in the face of maltreatment and the rankest injustice.

.

7. Persists in the unswerving belief in God despite all contrary demonstrations of logic and successfully withstands all other intellectual sophistries.

.

8. Continues to exhibit undaunted faith in the soul’s survival regardless of the deceptive teachings of false science and the persuasive delusions of unsound philosophy.

.

9. Lives and triumphs irrespective of the crushing overload of the complex and partial civilizations of modern times.

.

10. Contributes to the continued survival of altruism in spite of human selfishness, social antagonisms, industrial greeds, and political maladjustments.

.

11. Steadfastly adheres to a sublime belief in universe unity and divine guidance regardless of the perplexing presence of evil and sin.

.

12. Goes right on worshiping God in spite of anything and everything. Dares to declare, “Even though he slay me, yet will I serve him.”

.

(101:3:17) We know, then, by three phenomena, that man has a divine spirit or spirits dwelling within him: first, by personal experience–religious faith; second, by revelation–personal and racial; and third, by the amazing exhibition of such extraordinary and unnatural reactions to his material environment as are illustrated by the foregoing recital of twelve spiritlike performances in the presence of the actual and trying situations of real human existence. And there are still others.

.

(101:3:17) And it is just such a vital and vigorous performance of faith in the domain of religion that entitles mortal man to affirm the personal possession and spiritual reality of that crowning endowment of human nature, religious experience.

.

Isn’t it marvelous to have true moral consciousness spelled out for us in the way? Faith in the domain of religion on a personal level causes, produces, generates, maintains, exhibits, persists, lives, triumphs, contributes, steadfastly adheres, in spite of anything and everything to worship God and declare what does it matter if all things earthly crash? I dedicate my soul to the indwelling spirit of the our eternal God.

.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, ethical awakening is a big deal in advancement of social brotherhood. Jesus puts things in order for us.

(170:3:8) It therefore is evident that the true and inner religion of the kingdom unfailingly and increasingly tends to manifest itself in practical avenues of social service. Jesus taught a living religion that impelled its believers to engage in the doing of loving service. But Jesus did not put ethics in the place of religion. He taught religion as a cause and ethics as a result.
SabinatuBlocked
Aug 22, 2015, 2:21 AM
The most interesting thing about TUB is how it puts the life of Jesus in a much BIGGER context (and that is an understatement, no?).

So here is how Jesus (HIS religion in action) respected a SINCERE request to explore ethics by a Roman 2000 years ago – a down to earth and honest conversation about “wealth”, and I am sorry, but the disparity TODAY between the rich and everyone else is astronomical and is NOT honestly earned, so ANY social brotherhood will have to deal with it:

5. Counseling the Rich Man

132:5.1 (1462.2) A certain rich man, a Roman citizen and a Stoic, became greatly interested in Jesus’ teaching, having been introduced by Angamon. After many intimate conferences this wealthy citizen asked Jesus what he would do with wealth if he had it, and Jesus answered him: “I would bestow material wealth for the enhancement of material life, even as I would minister knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual service for the enrichment of the intellectual life, the ennoblement of the social life, and the advancement of the spiritual life. I would administer material wealth as a wise and effective trustee of the resources of one generation for the benefit and ennoblement of the next and succeeding generations.”

132:5.2 (1462.3) But the rich man was not fully satisfied with Jesus’ answer. He made bold to ask again: “But what do you think a man in my position should do with his wealth? Should I keep it, or should I give it away?” And when Jesus perceived that he really desired to know more of the truth about his loyalty to God and his duty to men, he further answered: “My good friend, I discern that you are a sincere seeker after wisdom and an honest lover of truth; therefore am I minded to lay before you my view of the solution of your problems having to do with the responsibilities of wealth. I do this because you have asked for my counsel, and in giving you this advice, I am not concerned with the wealth of any other rich man; I am offering advice only to you and for your personal guidance. If you honestly desire to regard your wealth as a trust, if you really wish to become a wise and efficient steward of your accumulated wealth, then would I counsel you to make the following analysis of the sources of your riches: Ask yourself, and do your best to find the honest answer, whence came this wealth? And as a help in the study of the sources of your great fortune, I would suggest that you bear in mind the following ten different methods of amassing material wealth:

132:5.3 (1462.4) “1. Inherited wealth — riches derived from parents and other ancestors.

132:5.4 (1462.5) “2. Discovered wealth — riches derived from the uncultivated resources of mother earth.

132:5.5 (1462.6) “3. Trade wealth — riches obtained as a fair profit in the exchange and barter of material goods.

132:5.6 (1462.7) “4. Unfair wealth — riches derived from the unfair exploitation or the enslavement of one’s fellows.

132:5.7 (1463.1) “5. Interest wealth — income derived from the fair and just earning possibilities of invested capital.

132:5.8 (1463.2) “6. Genius wealth — riches accruing from the rewards of the creative and inventive endowments of the human mind.

132:5.9 (1463.3) “7. Accidental wealth — riches derived from the generosity of one’s fellows or taking origin in the circumstances of life.

132:5.10 (1463.4) “8. Stolen wealth — riches secured by unfairness, dishonesty, theft, or fraud.

132:5.11 (1463.5) “9. Trust funds — wealth lodged in your hands by your fellows for some specific use, now or in the future.

132:5.12 (1463.6) “10. Earned wealth — riches derived directly from your own personal labor, the fair and just reward of your own daily efforts of mind and body.

132:5.13 (1463.7) “And so, my friend, if you would be a faithful and just steward of your large fortune, before God and in service to men, you must approximately divide your wealth into these ten grand divisions, and then proceed to administer each portion in accordance with the wise and honest interpretation of the laws of justice, equity, fairness, and true efficiency; albeit, the God of heaven would not condemn you if sometimes you erred, in doubtful situations, on the side of merciful and unselfish regard for the distress of the suffering victims of the unfortunate circumstances of mortal life. When in honest doubt about the equity and justice of material situations, let your decisions favor those who are in need, favor those who suffer the misfortune of undeserved hardships.”

132:5.14 (1463.8) After discussing these matters for several hours and in response to the rich man’s request for further and more detailed instruction, Jesus went on to amplify his advice, in substance saying: “While I offer further suggestions concerning your attitude toward wealth, I would admonish you to receive my counsel as given only to you and for your personal guidance. I speak only for myself and to you as an inquiring friend. I adjure you not to become a dictator as to how other rich men shall regard their wealth. I would advise you:

132:5.15 (1463.9) “1. As steward of inherited wealth you should consider its sources. You are under moral obligation to represent the past generation in the honest transmittal of legitimate wealth to succeeding generations after subtracting a fair toll for the benefit of the present generation. But you are not obligated to perpetuate any dishonesty or injustice involved in the unfair accumulation of wealth by your ancestors. Any portion of your inherited wealth which turns out to have been derived through fraud or unfairness, you may disburse in accordance with your convictions of justice, generosity, and restitution. The remainder of your legitimate inherited wealth you may use in equity and transmit in security as the trustee of one generation for another. Wise discrimination and sound judgment should dictate your decisions regarding the bequest of riches to your successors.

132:5.16 (1463.10) “2. Everyone who enjoys wealth as a result of discovery should remember that one individual can live on earth but a short season and should, therefore, make adequate provision for the sharing of these discoveries in helpful ways by the largest possible number of his fellow men. While the discoverer should not be denied all reward for efforts of discovery, neither should he selfishly presume to lay claim to all of the advantages and blessings to be derived from the uncovering of nature’s hoarded resources.

132:5.17 (1464.1) “3. As long as men choose to conduct the world’s business by trade and barter, they are entitled to a fair and legitimate profit. Every tradesman deserves wages for his services; the merchant is entitled to his hire. The fairness of trade and the honest treatment accorded one’s fellows in the organized business of the world create many different sorts of profit wealth, and all these sources of wealth must be judged by the highest principles of justice, honesty, and fairness. The honest trader should not hesitate to take the same profit which he would gladly accord his fellow trader in a similar transaction. While this sort of wealth is not identical with individually earned income when business dealings are conducted on a large scale, at the same time, such honestly accumulated wealth endows its possessor with a considerable equity as regards a voice in its subsequent distribution.

132:5.18 (1464.2) “4. No mortal who knows God and seeks to do the divine will can stoop to engage in the oppressions of wealth. No noble man will strive to accumulate riches and amass wealth-power by the enslavement or unfair exploitation of his brothers in the flesh. Riches are a moral curse and a spiritual stigma when they are derived from the sweat of oppressed mortal man. All such wealth should be restored to those who have thus been robbed or to their children and their children’s children. An enduring civilization cannot be built upon the practice of defrauding the laborer of his hire.

132:5.19 (1464.3) “5. Honest wealth is entitled to interest. As long as men borrow and lend, that which is fair interest may be collected provided the capital lent was legitimate wealth. First cleanse your capital before you lay claim to the interest. Do not become so small and grasping that you would stoop to the practice of usury. Never permit yourself to be so selfish as to employ money-power to gain unfair advantage over your struggling fellows. Yield not to the temptation to take usury from your brother in financial distress.

132:5.20 (1464.4) “6. If you chance to secure wealth by flights of genius, if your riches are derived from the rewards of inventive endowment, do not lay claim to an unfair portion of such rewards. The genius owes something to both his ancestors and his progeny; likewise is he under obligation to the race, nation, and circumstances of his inventive discoveries; he should also remember that it was as man among men that he labored and wrought out his inventions. It would be equally unjust to deprive the genius of all his increment of wealth. And it will ever be impossible for men to establish rules and regulations applicable equally to all these problems of the equitable distribution of wealth. You must first recognize man as your brother, and if you honestly desire to do by him as you would have him do by you, the commonplace dictates of justice, honesty, and fairness will guide you in the just and impartial settlement of every recurring problem of economic rewards and social justice.

132:5.21 (1464.5) “7. Except for the just and legitimate fees earned in administration, no man should lay personal claim to that wealth which time and chance may cause to fall into his hands. Accidental riches should be regarded somewhat in the light of a trust to be expended for the benefit of one’s social or economic group. The possessors of such wealth should be accorded the major voice in the determination of the wise and effective distribution of such unearned resources. Civilized man will not always look upon all that he controls as his personal and private possession.

132:5.22 (1465.1) “8. If any portion of your fortune has been knowingly derived from fraud; if aught of your wealth has been accumulated by dishonest practices or unfair methods; if your riches are the product of unjust dealings with your fellows, make haste to restore all these ill-gotten gains to the rightful owners. Make full amends and thus cleanse your fortune of all dishonest riches.

132:5.23 (1465.2) “9. The trusteeship of the wealth of one person for the benefit of others is a solemn and sacred responsibility. Do not hazard or jeopardize such a trust. Take for yourself of any trust only that which all honest men would allow.

132:5.24 (1465.3) “10. That part of your fortune which represents the earnings of your own mental and physical efforts — if your work has been done in fairness and equity — is truly your own. No man can gainsay your right to hold and use such wealth as you may see fit provided your exercise of this right does not work harm upon your fellows.”
MaraParticipant
Aug 22, 2015, 6:24 AM

Sabinatu wrote: . . .a SINCERE request. . .

Yes, the individual you mention was sincere and sought wisdom about what he should do with his wealth. Jesus perceived that he really desired to know more of the truth about his loyalty to God and his duty to men. The man’s faith in God and his duty to men were very much on his mind and he prevailed upon Jesus to tell him more. Jesus did so and prefaced his remarks with the caveat that he, Jesus, was not concerned with the wealth of any other rich man, and, that he offered advice only to this man and for his personal guidance.

( 132:5:0 ) “My good friend, I discern that you are a sincere seeker after wisdom and an honest lover of truth; therefore am I minded to lay before you my view of the solution of your problems having to do with the responsibilities of wealth. I do this because you have asked for my counsel, and in giving you this advice, I am not concerned with the wealth of any other rich man; I am offering advice only to you and for your personal guidance.“

.

Money cannot buy social brotherhood. Jesus said money cannot love. To Rebecca said something to the effect that no amount of money could take the place of his obligation personally to rear his father’s family, to “fulfill the most sacred of all human trusts — loyalty to one’s own flesh and blood.” (127:5:3)

.

How many times did Jesus say, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and render to God the things that are God’s”? (174:2:2) If you and I render to God the things that are God’s, then day by day our families, the neighborhoods, communities, and so on will inch closer to the ethical awakening of which the revelators inform us is necessary to achieve social brotherhood on our world.
SabinatuBlocked
Aug 22, 2015, 7:28 PM
Jesus obviously did not want the Roman to create an “ism” which does NOT happen when you have the IDEAL way to approach the problems that come with wealth accumulation – paragraph right above the one you cut and pasted, Mara:

Jesus answered him: “I would bestow material wealth for the enhancement of material life, even as I would minister knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual service for the enrichment of the intellectual life, the ennoblement of the social life, and the advancement of the spiritual life. I would administer material wealth as a wise and effective trustee of the resources of one generation for the benefit and ennoblement of the next and succeeding generations.”

Also, Jesus did not JUDGE, directly, because he used the positive method – listing ALL the different ways the Roman had access to wealth accumulation in the Roman Empire….
VernParticipant
Aug 23, 2015, 3:48 PM

Sabinatu wrote: You must first recognize man as your brother…

From recognition of your own sonship status, inevitably follows, recognition of this same status of our fellows, this is social brotherhood.

We do live in a friendly universe and we can take great comfort in Jesus’ teaching that there is nothing to fear for those firm in their sonship status as he has confirmed we have every right to be.

“…I have absolute confidence in my heavenly Father’s overcare; I am consecrated to doing the will of my Father in heaven. I do not believe that real harm can befall me; I do not believe that my lifework can really be jeopardized by anything my enemies might wish to visit upon me, and surely we have no violence to fear from our friends. I am absolutely assured that the entire universe is friendly to me — this all-powerful truth I insist on believing with a wholehearted trust in spite of all appearances to the contrary.” ^[Paper ^{133:1.4, page 1469:3]}

Reply on the current forum