I recently read an article about a series of billboards which question Christian beliefs, posted in Florida, Ohio, and New Jersey by American Atheists. The signs prominently feature pictures of Jesus, Santa Claus, and devil images, and ask, “what myths do you see?”  According to American Atheists, the purpose of the campaign is not to attack Christians but to encourage them to ask themselves why one god (i.e. Jesus) is different from gods they call myths (i.e. Neptune). (more…)

Not long ago in the news, I heard a discussion about how the United States is drowning in regulation. Regulations by Federal, State, and local regulatory agencies are the standards set to protect individuals, society, our country, even our planet.  Our political landscape is one side calling for deregulation because regulations cause undue extra process and costs; the other for more regulation citing the 2008 investment bank (Goldman Sachs) scandal causing the Great Recession and the BP Gulf Oil rig explosion and ecological disaster, both the direct result of  deregulation.

“Experts” argued back and forth about the pros and cons of regulation without the slightest consideration to the question: Are increasing regulations systemic of a self-serving society?  Most regulations are the result of the need for standards, but many stem from corruption or corner cutting to enhance the bottom line of the balance sheet. 

I believe it is. Freedom from regulation, like freedom from violence, greed, tyranny, and intolerance, is the gradual result in a nation whose citizenry is increasingly committed to the pursuit of wisdom and the cultivation of an honest and loyal personality.  Liberty without a growing ability to treat others as we are willing to be treated is unrealistic and unlikely.  Today we are experiencing the fruit of our collective emergence  as a self-serving nation, reflected in our troubled society where the advancement of science and technology has eclipsed the stagnation of morals and values.

So what needs to be done?  How can we improve the mores of our society so that we can regain the trust in one another and the integrity in our actions so needed to peel off layer upon layer of regulation?

I believe the answer lies in one very simple but increasingly ignored action:   We live in a country where God has been replaced with narcissism. We must strive to put God back where God belongs - in our hearts and minds.   And we do this  most effectively by being open to discovering  new meanings in our understanding of God and the universe so that we may enliven the passion and appreciation for God that moves us to build a philosophy of universal concepts that may be shared by all.  Increasing  unity in the understanding of these universal and spiritual concepts has the potential to break through the philosophic chaos and spiritual stagnation that grips America today.

Exploring our beliefs in the light of the revealed teachings in The Urantia Book is the first most decisive step in fostering unity in the comprehension of the relationships between the physical and the spiritual. By expanding the concept of God and the universe, elaborating upon the uniqueness of personality, and presenting critical distinctions between soul and spirit, this book brings new depth to the study of philosophy and theology.  The concepts in The Urantia Book gain greater significance when reconciled with existing knowledge.  Heaven Is Not the Last Stop provides this reconciliation. The expanded perspectives in The Urantia Book and Heaven Is Not the Last Stop challenge many belief systems, including present-day Christianity. Like any challenge, the ideas presented in these books can be perceived as an obstacle, a heresy, or an opportunity. Approached as an opportunity, they can serve as a touchstone to uplift our belief systems. And through this achievement, one person at a time, decisions and actions will begin to reflect the trustworthiness and loyalty that fosters less involvement of government in the lives of citizens.

The Huffington Post “Obama Education Waiver Plan” of 8/10/2011 speaks of wavering parts of the No Child Left Behind program to modernize education. From my perspective, we can try to patch our education system through rigid standards and waivers, but the full potential of educating our children cannot be reached if we continue to apply an incomplete definition of education, as “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.”

An “enduring” State is founded on culture, dominated by ideals, and motivated by service attained when its citizens have been raised with the personal commitment to develop a well-balanced personality, leading us to a companion definition for education:

“The acquirement of skills, the pursuit of wisdom, a realization of self, and the attainment of spiritual values.”

To achieve this definition, education must cultivate the three endowments of the human mind: intelligence, moral awareness and spiritual insight. Together, these endowments create the harmonious development of the human personality, and bring us the PURPOSE of education:  to be fully empowered to contribute one’s best to the advancement of self and civilization.  Through the development of intelligence we hone our skills and cultivate our reasoning and emotional abilities.

What about moral awareness?  Our expanding social structure has readily adapted to intellectual and scientific growth, but abounding technological achievements have eclipsed the moral ethics that the home institution once provided. And

Ethics is the external social mirror that faithfully reflects the inner development of the members of society.

The home and family - the crowning glory of a long and arduous evolutionary struggle - is the natural social arena for the development of ethics: patience, altruism, forbearance and tolerance, all essential for peace and progress. Home ethics is one of civilization’s only hope for survival.

And spiritual insight?  Living faith is what empowers individuals to elevate morality to the spiritual levels of unselfish service. To constrain living faith in civil interaction is like removing the sails of a sailboat. It is wise to separate religious institutions from education and government, but it is true religion - the desire to find and know God -  that organizes the human personality in an ascent to higher levels of love and devotion, of service and fellowship.

The time is NOW to recognize that the educational concept and definition should include cultivation of the three endowments of the human mind; that modifications to our education system alone will not achieve the result we seek in our children without the edification of home life and the progressive force of living faith.

Meet Revie, the spirited butterfly who reminds us that the gulf between opposing philosophies cannot be bridged without the help of epochal revelation. Only with such a unified and comprehensive worldview can humanity transcend the philosophical chaos and spiritual stagnation that now exists in the midst of unprecedented scientific achievement.

When I look at our world today, the need for spiritual living seems to be more important than ever.

We know that science -which holds that the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics - does not nurture spiritual growth. We also know that “old religion” - which teaches that the universe and all life is the creation of God - may not survive the 21st century if it keeps refusing to embrace what is revealed by scientific discovery. In progressive circles, idealist ontology aims to unite science with religion, proposing that the universe is a manifestation of consciousness, Spirit, or intelligence; such a philosophy appeals to the increasingly secular thinking of our times. But does it promote spiritual living? Can it really inspire the formation of an advanced civilization, something archaic religion and materialistic science have failed to produce?

We can look around and see the answer is no. Partial approaches to the reality of the cosmos must be harmonized to establish unity in our understanding of the universe. This new and righteous vision of our origin, history, and destiny will elevate the quality of our thinking and interactions with one another to truly advance our world.

Is this achievable? Yes it is, but are we willing to take the steps? Questions arise: Am I willing to expand the Big Picture of Existence beyond the model that I currently grasp? Am I ready to search for higher truths outside my comfort zone? Am I willing to explore new and higher spiritual meanings in what I already know? Our egos are stubborn and our minds tend to be lazy, yet planetary progress requires us to develop humility and courage beyond that which we usually muster. Nothing less will advance philosophy and religion to support a growing spiritual culture.

Epochal revelation: the missing link

Revelation is a divine download of knowledge that expands human understanding. Personal revelations, for example, are insights that we receive through study, visions, or reflections on personal beliefs and convictions. Personal revelations have transformed lives and advanced morality throughout the centuries. Scientific discovery, sometimes called public revelation, acts as a stabilizing factor in philosophy and religion by eliminating error and superstition, respectively. However, personal and public revelations are not sufficient to transform a culture, a race, or a world. Only an EPOCHAL REVELATION, periodically imparted to inspire a new era of planetary evolution, can radically expand our knowledge base and reduce confusion in current thinking. There have been five epochal revelations on our planet; the fifth, found in The Urantia Book, powerfully synthesizes and expands science, philosophy, and religion in a unified and comprehensive new framework that uplifts all others. Epochal revelation is a gift to humanity designed to ease the philosophical chaos and heal the spiritual stagnation that thrives in the midst of unprecedented scientific achievement. Epochal revelation fosters a worldview that is harmonious with a glorified cosmic view - a symmetrical integration of science, philosophy, and religion wherein ethics will become dynamic and progressive, alive with universe reality. Ethics is indeed the external social mirror which faithfully reflects the otherwise unobservable progress of inner development. Revelational evolution, therefore, is progressive spiritual living that is characterized by expanded cosmic consciousness and enhanced spiritual perception, achieved through the illumination of epochal revelation.

Please join our Facebook group - Revelational Evolution to explore this concept further.

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that Heaven Is Not the Last Stop got coverage this month in the editor’s blog of EnlightenNext, a magazine which focuses on evolutionary spirituality. The article can be read at http://magazine.enlightennext.org/2011/01/10/a-revelation-of-cosmic-evolution/#more-5991. We have been working on getting the article published for at least ten months, and I am especially delighted with its publication. I truly believe that in Heaven Is Not the Last Stop, new and deeper spiritual meanings in the concept of “evolutionary spirituality” can be discovered which are essential to the progressive evolution of our planet. Please take some time to read the article which describes The Urantia Book as an integral guide to evolutionary cosmic reality and Heaven Is Not the Last Stop as a “a lead-off secondary work” which comprehensively relates “the complex teachings of the Urantia text to existing knowledge in multiple fields.” This is a call to action. It is so important that we take this amazing opportunity to share with others how our lives have been touched by these very timely and meaningful books. If you have questions or comments about how Heaven Is Not The Last Stop makes the complex script in The Urantia Book pertinent to our lives today, please leave them in the comments section of the article. Thank you for taking the time to do this; I really appreciate it.