You might want to take out the “pole” in your eye because a cannibal has mere motes compared to the “devious strivings of a vainglorious generation”… But maybe I just do not understand your attachment to that quote!! Maybe you are asking to be as “afflicted” as are the modern day slaves being processed on the block today in the “democratic” nation in the Middle East?? I can be of service there – sending you the same kind of “affliction” as has molded me into the cool being I am today!
Me here: Despite my blinding obstacles to clear vision, I am certain of humanity’s progress in many ways when compared to our past and have great confidence in those charged with the ministry of progress still to come. Light and life is an inevitability and this Shrine of Nebadon will make that journey no matter how ugly or invisible that effort may be to those of us such a brief time and so blinded by what’s in our face to everything else happening on our world that serves truth, beauty, and goodness. Mortals are in partnership, or at least kingdom believers and the spiritual brotherhood serve as ably as they can to live in love and shine the light of love. I am certain of love’s victory over fear. It is not our world that requires our immediate concern so much as our own souls and our own light and progress in the spirit….the world? Saving it and propelling it is above my pay grade and will take far longer than my life….we do what we can while we can. Don’t see how teeth gnashing and hand wringing and whining and blaming help anything at all. But hey, that’s just me.
No doubt failures still attend us today and dangers are all around and no civilization is spared which does not conform to the patterns and requirements of progress. But we have had a long journey to be where we are and we will make the rest of the transformative process work in the end as we align priorities with those of our unseen friends and leadership. My priority is to become my own potential and minister in my daily walk as led by the spirit. Our world is in good hands….whether we see it or believe it or trust it is of little consequence to those who serve our world and lead it forward through time into its own potential. Fear not.
77:9.10 (867.1) Midwayers are the skillful ministers who compensate that gap between the material and spiritual affairs of Urantia which appeared upon the death of Adam and Eve. They are likewise your elder brethren, comrades in the long struggle to attain a settled status of light and life on Urantia. The United Midwayers are a rebellion-tested corps, and they will faithfully enact their part in planetary evolution until this world attains the goal of the ages, until that distant day when in fact peace does reign on earth and in truth is there good will in the hearts of men.
77:9.11 (867.2) Because of the valuable work performed by these midwayers, we have concluded that they are a truly essential part of the spirit economy of the realms. And where rebellion has not marred a planet’s affairs, they are of still greater assistance to the seraphim.
77:9.12 (867.3) The entire organization of high spirits, angelic hosts, and midway fellows is enthusiastically devoted to the furtherance of the Paradise plan for the progressive ascension and perfection attainment of evolutionary mortals, one of the supernal businesses of the universe — the superb survival plan of bringing God down to man and then, by a sublime sort of partnership, carrying man up to God and on to eternity of service and divinity of attainment — alike for mortal and midwayer.
81:2.14 (902.4) The savage is a slave to nature, but scientific civilization is slowly conferring increasing liberty on mankind. Through animals, fire, wind, water, electricity, and other undiscovered sources of energy, man has liberated, and will continue to liberate, himself from the necessity for unremitting toil. Regardless of the transient trouble produced by the prolific invention of machinery, the ultimate benefits to be derived from such mechanical inventions are inestimable. Civilization can never flourish, much less be established, until man has leisure to think, to plan, to imagine new and better ways of doing things.
81:6.6 (907.3) 2. Capital goods. Culture is never developed under conditions of poverty; leisure is essential to the progress of civilization. Individual character of moral and spiritual value may be acquired in the absence of material wealth, but a cultural civilization is only derived from those conditions of material prosperity which foster leisure combined with ambition.
81:6.9 (907.6) Knowledge is power. Invention always precedes the acceleration of cultural development on a world-wide scale. Science and invention benefited most of all from the printing press, and the interaction of all these cultural and inventive activities has enormously accelerated the rate of cultural advancement.
81:6.10 (907.7) Science teaches man to speak the new language of mathematics and trains his thoughts along lines of exacting precision. And science also stabilizes philosophy through the elimination of error, while it purifies religion by the destruction of superstition.
81:6.19 (908.8) While very little progress has been made on Urantia toward developing an international language, much has been accomplished by the establishment of international commercial exchange. And all these international relations should be fostered, whether they involve language, trade, art, science, competitive play, or religion.
81:6.20 (909.1) 7. Effectiveness of mechanical devices. The progress of civilization is directly related to the development and possession of tools, machines, and channels of distribution. Improved tools, ingenious and efficient machines, determine the survival of contending groups in the arena of advancing civilization.
81:6.30 (910.3) Social, artistic, technical, and industrial specialists will continue to multiply and increase in skill and dexterity. And this diversification of ability and dissimilarity of employment will eventually weaken and disintegrate human society if effective means of co-ordination and co-operation are not developed. But the intelligence which is capable of such inventiveness and such specialization should be wholly competent to devise adequate methods of control and adjustment for all problems resulting from the rapid growth of invention and the accelerated pace of cultural expansion.
81:6.43 (911.8) And it was by these rungs on the evolutionary ladder that civilization climbed to that place where those mighty influences could be initiated which have culminated in the rapidly expanding culture of the twentieth century. And only by adherence to these essentials can man hope to maintain his present-day civilizations while providing for their continued development and certain survival.
81:6.44 (912.1) This is the gist of the long, long struggle of the peoples of earth to establish civilization since the age of Adam. Present-day culture is the net result of this strenuous evolution. Before the discovery of printing, progress was relatively slow since one generation could not so rapidly benefit from the achievements of its predecessors. But now human society is plunging forward under the force of the accumulated momentum of all the ages through which civilization has struggled.
Me here: It would appear the authors are not so discouraged nor have such great despair as some here. Progress can only be discerned by the proper perspective – the view of time, from the first of us to those to come in the far future, we can but witness a brief moment. Those blinded by the “now” are quite confused, frightened, and often despair by their “view” of “reality” which is very narrow and biased by lack of experience in time….not to mention the effect of “local” bias transferred to a whole world and personal bias and prejudice which is very blinding indeed. Unfortunate. And the compelling purpose for epochal revelation. Thank God we have better information than human opinion to guide us forward.
"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
