Evolution+of+Religion

== Urantia Book: [|PAPER 86]: [|EARLY EVOLUTION OF RELIGION] == 86:0.1 The [|evolution] of [|religion] from the preceding and [|primitive] [|worship] urge is not dependent on [|revelation]. The [|normal] functioning of the [|human] [|mind] under the directive [|influence] of the [|sixth and seventh mind-adjutants] of universal spirit [|bestowal] is wholly sufficient to insure such [|development]. 86:0.2 Man's earliest prereligious [|fear] of the [|forces] of [|nature] gradually became [|religious] as [|nature] became personalized, spiritized, and eventually deified in [|human] [|consciousness]. Religion of a primitive type was therefore a [|natural] [|biologic] consequence of the [|psychologic] [|inertia] of evolving [|animal] minds after such minds had once entertained [|concepts] of the [|supernatural]. 

86:1. CHANCE: GOOD LUCK AND BAD LUCK
86:1.1 Aside from the [|natural] [|worship] urge, early evolutionary [|religion] had its [|roots] of [|origin] in the human [|experiences] of [|chance]—so-called [|luck], commonplace happenings. [|Primitive man] was a [|food] [|hunter]. The results of hunting must ever vary, and this gives certain [|origin] to those [|experiences] which man [|interprets] as good luck and bad luck. Mischance was a great [|factor] in the lives of men and women who lived constantly on the ragged edge of a precarious and harassed [|existence]. 86:1.2 The [|limited] [|intellectual] [|horizon] of the [|savage] so [|concentrates] the [|attention] upon [|chance] that luck becomes a constant [|factor] in his life. [|Primitive Urantians] [|struggled] for [|existence], not for a [|standard of living]; they lived lives of [|peril] in which [|chance] played an important role. The constant dread of [|unknown] and unseen calamity hung over these [|savages] as a cloud of despair which effectively [|eclipsed] every [|pleasure]; they lived in constant dread of doing something that would bring bad [|luck]. [|Superstitious] [|savages] always feared a run of good luck; they viewed such good fortune as a certain harbinger of [|calamity]. 86:1.3 This ever-present dread of bad luck was [|paralyzing]. Why [|work] hard and reap bad luck—nothing for something—when one might drift along and encounter good luck—something for nothing? Unthinking men forget good luck—take it for granted—but they [|painfully] [|remember] bad luck. 86:1.4 Early man lived in [|uncertainty] and in constant [|fear] of [|chance]—bad luck. Life was an exciting [|game] of [|chance]; [|existence] was a gamble. It is no [|wonder] that partially civilized people still believe in [|chance] and evince lingering predispositions to [|gambling]. [|Primitive man] alternated between two potent interests: the [|passion] of getting something for nothing and the [|fear] of getting nothing for something. And this [|gamble] of [|existence] was the main interest and the supreme fascination of the early savage [|mind]. 86:1.5 The later [|herders] held the same views of [|chance] and luck, while the still later [|agriculturists] were increasingly [|conscious] that crops were immediately [|influenced] by many things over which man had little or no [|control]. The [|farmer] found himself the victim of drought, floods, hail, storms, pests, and [|plant] [|diseases], as well as heat and cold. And as all of these [|natural] [|influences] affected [|individual] [|prosperity], they were regarded as good luck or bad luck. 86:1.6 This notion of [|chance] and [|luck] strongly pervaded the [|philosophy] of all [|ancient] peoples. Even in recent times in the [|Wisdom of Solomon] it is said: "I returned and saw that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither bread to the [|wise], nor riches to men of [|understanding], nor [|favor] to men of [|skill]; but [|fate] and [|chance] befall them all. For man knows not his [|fate]; as fishes are taken in an evil net, and as birds are caught in a snare, so are the sons of men snared in an [|evil] time when it falls suddenly upon them."[|[1]] 

86:2. THE PERSONIFICATION OF CHANCE
86:2.1 [|Anxiety] was a [|natural] [|state] of the [|savage] [|mind]. When men and women fall [|victims] to excessive [|anxiety], they are simply reverting to the [|natural] estate of their far-distant [|ancestors]; and when anxiety becomes [|actually] [|painful], it inhibits [|activity] and unfailingly institutes [|evolutionary] [|changes] and [|biologic] [|adaptations]. [|Pain] and [|suffering] are [|essential] to [|progressive] [|evolution]. 86:2.2 The [|struggle] for life is so [|painful] that certain backward [|tribes] even yet howl and [|lament] over each new sunrise. [|Primitive man] constantly asked, "Who is tormenting me?" Not finding a [|material] [|source] for his miseries, he settled upon a [|spirit] [|explanation]. And so was [|religion] born of the [|fear] of the [|mysterious], the [|awe] of the [|unseen], and the dread of the [|unknown]. [|Nature] [|fear] thus became a [|factor] in the [|struggle] for [|existence] first because of [|chance] and then because of [|mystery]. 86:2.3 The [|primitive] [|mind] was [|logical] but contained few [|ideas] for [|intelligent] [|association]; the savage mind was uneducated, wholly unsophisticated. If one [|event] followed another, the [|savage] considered them to be [|cause] and [|effect]. What civilized man regards as [|superstition] was just plain [|ignorance] in the [|savage]. [|Mankind] has been slow to learn that there is not [|necessarily] any [|relationship] between [|purposes] and [|results]. [|Human beings] are only just beginning to [|realize] that the [|reactions] of [|existence] appear between [|acts] and their [|consequences]. The [|savage] strives to [|personalize] [|everything] intangible and [|abstract], and thus both [|nature] and [|chance] become personalized as [|ghosts]—spirits—and later on as [|gods]. 86:2.4 [|Man] naturally tends to [|believe] that which he deems best for him, that which is in his [|immediate] or remote interest; [|self-interest] largely obscures [|logic]. The [|difference] between the [|minds] of savage and civilized men is more one of [|content] than of [|nature], of [|degree] rather than of [|quality]. 86:2.5 But to continue to ascribe [|things] difficult of [|comprehension] to [|supernatural] [|causes] is nothing less than a [|lazy] and convenient way of avoiding all forms of [|intellectual] hard [|work]. [|Luck] is merely a term coined to cover the inexplicable in any age of [|human] [|existence]; it designates those [|phenomena] which men are unable or unwilling to [|penetrate]. [|Chance] is a [|word] which signifies that man is too [|ignorant] or too [|indolent] to determine [|causes]. Men regard a [|natural] occurrence as an [|accident] or as bad luck only when they are destitute of [|curiosity] and [|imagination], when the races lack [|initiative] and [|adventure]. [|Exploration] of the [|phenomena] of life sooner or later destroys man's [|belief] in [|chance], luck, and so-called [|accidents], substituting therefor a [|universe] of [|law] and order wherein all [|effects] are preceded by definite [|causes]. Thus is the [|fear] of [|existence] replaced by the [|joy] of living. 86:2.6 The [|savage] looked upon all [|nature] as alive, as [|possessed] by something. Civilized man still kicks and [|curses] those inanimate objects which get in his way and bump him. [|Primitive] man never regarded anything as [|accidental]; always was everything [|intentional]. To primitive man the [|domain] of [|fate], the [|function] of [|luck], the spirit world, was just as unorganized and haphazard as was [|primitive] [|society]. Luck was looked upon as the whimsical and [|temperamental] [|reaction] of the [|spirit] world; later on, as the [|humor] of the [|gods]. 86:2.7 But all [|religions] did not develop from [|animism]. Other [|concepts] of the [|supernatural] were contemporaneous with animism, and these [|beliefs] also led to [|worship]. [|Naturalism] is not a religion—it is the [|offspring] of [|religion]. 

86:3. DEATH—THE INEXPLICABLE
86:3.1 [|Death] was the supreme [|shock] to evolving man, the most perplexing combination of [|chance] and [|mystery]. Not the [|sanctity] of life but the shock of [|death] [|inspired] [|fear] and thus effectively fostered [|religion]. Among [|savage] peoples [|death] was ordinarily due to [|violence], so that nonviolent [|death] became increasingly [|mysterious]. [|Death] as a [|natural] and expected end of life was not clear to the [|consciousness] of [|primitive] people, and it has required age upon age for man to [|realize] its [|inevitability]. 86:3.2 [|Early man] [|accepted] life as a [|fact], while he regarded [|death] as a [|visitation] of some sort. All [|races] have their [|legends] of men who did not die, vestigial [|traditions] of the early [|attitude] toward death. Already in the [|human] [|mind] there existed the nebulous [|concept] of a hazy and unorganized [|spirit] world, a [|domain] whence came all that is inexplicable in human life, and [|death] was added to this long list of unexplained [|phenomena]. 86:3.3 All human [|disease] and [|natural] [|death] was at first believed to be due to [|spirit] [|influence]. Even at the [|present] time some civilized races regard [|disease] as having been produced by "the enemy" and depend upon [|religious] [|ceremonies] to effect [|healing]. Later and more [|complex] systems of [|theology] still ascribe [|death] to the [|action] of the spirit world, all of which has led to such [|doctrines] as [|original sin] and the fall of man. 86:3.4 It was the [|realization] of impotency before the mighty [|forces] of [|nature], together with the [|recognition] of [|human] weakness before the [|visitations] of sickness and [|death], that impelled the [|savage] to seek for help from the supermaterial world, which he vaguely visualized as the [|source] of these [|mysterious] [|vicissitudes] of life. 

86:4. THE DEATH-SURVIVAL CONCEPT
86:4.1 The [|concept] of a supermaterial [|phase] of mortal [|personality] was born of the [|unconscious] and purely [|accidental] [|association] of the occurrences of everyday life plus the [|ghost] [|dream]. The [|simultaneous] dreaming about a departed chief by several members of his [|tribe] seemed to constitute convincing [|evidence] that the old chief had really returned in some form. It was all very real to the savage who would [|awaken] from such [|dreams] reeking with sweat, trembling, and screaming. 86:4.2 The [|dream] [|origin] of the [|belief] in a [|future] [|existence] [|explains] the [|tendency] always to [|imagine] [|unseen] things in the terms of [|things] seen. And presently this new [|dream]-[|ghost]-[|future-life] [|concept] began effectively to antidote the [|death] [|fear] associated with the [|biologic] [|instinct] of self-preservation. 86:4.3 Early man was also much concerned about his [|breath], especially in cold climates, where it appeared as a [|cloud] when exhaled. The breath of life was regarded as the one [|phenomenon] which differentiated the living and the [|dead]. He knew the breath could leave the [|body], and his [|dreams] of doing all sorts of [|queer] [|things] while asleep convinced him that there was something immaterial about a [|human being]. The most [|primitive] [|idea] of the human [|soul], the [|ghost], was derived from the [|breath]-[|dream] [|idea]-[|system]. 86:4.4 [|Eventually] the savage conceived of himself as a double—[|body] and [|breath]. The breath minus the body equaled a [|spirit], a [|ghost]. While having a very definite [|human] [|origin], [|ghosts], or spirits, were regarded as [|superhuman]. And this [|belief] in the [|existence] of disembodied spirits seemed to explain the occurrence of the unusual, the extraordinary, the infrequent, and the inexplicable. 86:4.5 The [|primitive] [|doctrine] of [|survival] after [|death] was not necessarily a [|belief] in [|immortality]. Beings who could not count over twenty could hardly conceive of [|infinity] and [|eternity]; they rather thought of recurring [|incarnations]. 86:4.6 The [|orange race] was especially given to [|belief] in transmigration and [|reincarnation]. This [|idea] of [|reincarnation] originated in the [|observance] of [|hereditary] and trait resemblance of [|offspring] to [|ancestors]. The [|custom] of naming children after grandparents and other [|ancestors] was due to [|belief] in [|reincarnation]. Some later-day [|races] believed that man died from three to [|seven] times. This [|belief] (residual from the teachings of [|Adam] about the [|mansion worlds]), and many other remnants of [|revealed religion], can be found among the otherwise absurd [|doctrines] of twentieth-century [|barbarians]. 86:4.7 [|Early man] entertained no [|ideas] of hell or [|future] [|punishment]. The [|savage] looked upon the [|future] life as just like this one, minus all ill [|luck]. Later on, a separate [|destiny] for [|good] [|ghosts] and bad ghosts—heaven and hell—was conceived. But since many [|primitive races] believed that man entered the next life just as he left this one, they did not relish the [|idea] of becoming old and decrepit. The aged much preferred to be killed before becoming too infirm. 86:4.8 Almost every [|group] had a [|different] [|idea] regarding the [|destiny] of the [|ghost] [|soul]. The [|Greeks] believed that weak men must have weak [|souls]; so they invented [|Hades] as a fit place for the [|reception] of such anemic souls; these unrobust specimens were also supposed to have shorter [|shadows]. The early [|Andites] [|thought] their [|ghosts] returned to the [|ancestral] homelands. The [|Chinese] and [|Egyptians] once believed that [|soul] and [|body] remained together. Among the [|Egyptians] this led to careful tomb construction and efforts at [|body] [[[|preservation]. Even [|modern] peoples seek to arrest the decay of the [|dead]. The [|Hebrews] conceived that a [|phantom] replica of the [|individual] went down to [[|Sheol]; it could not return to the land of the living. They did make that important advance in the [|doctrine] of the [|evolution] of the [|soul].

86:5. THE GHOST-SOUL CONCEPT
86:5.1 The nonmaterial part of man has been variously termed [|ghost], [|spirit], shade, phantom, specter, and latterly [|soul]. The soul was early man's [|dream] double; it was in every way exactly like the [|mortal] himself except that it was not [|responsive] to [|touch]. The [|belief] in dream doubles led directly to the notion that all [|things] animate and inanimate had souls as well as men. This [|concept] tended long to perpetuate the [|nature]-spirit [|beliefs]; the [|Eskimos] still conceive that [|everything] in nature has a [|spirit]. 86:5.2 The [|ghost] [|soul] could be heard and seen, but not [|touched]. [|Gradually] the [|dream] life of the [|race] so [|developed] and expanded the [|activities] of this evolving spirit world that [|death] was finally regarded as "giving up the ghost."[|[2]] All [|primitive] [|tribes], except those little above [|animals], have [|developed] some [|concept] of the [|soul]. As [|civilization] advances, this [|superstitious] [|concept] of the soul is destroyed, and man is wholly dependent on [|revelation] and [|personal] [|religious] [|experience] for his new [|idea] of the soul as the joint creation of the [|God]-knowing [|mortal] [|mind] and its indwelling [|divine] spirit, the [|Thought Adjuster]. 86:5.3 Early mortals usually failed to differentiate the [|concepts] of an [|indwelling spirit] and a [|soul] of [|evolutionary] [|nature]. The [|savage] was much [|confused] as to whether the [|ghost] soul was [|native] to the [|body] or was an external [|agency] in [|possession] of the body. The [|absence] of [|reasoned] [|thought] in the [|presence] of [|perplexity] [|explains] the gross inconsistencies of the savage view of [|souls], [|ghosts], and [|spirits]. 86:5.4 The [|soul] was [|thought] of as being related to the [|body] as the [|perfume] to the flower. The [|ancients] believed that the soul could leave the body in various ways, as in: 86:5.5 The [|savage] looked upon sneezing as an [|abortive] attempt of the [|soul] to [|escape] from the [|body]. Being [|awake] and on guard, the body was able to thwart the soul's attempted escape. Later on, sneezing was always accompanied by some [|religious] [|expression], such as "God bless you!" 86:5.6 Early in [|evolution] [|sleep] was regarded as proving that the [|ghost] soul could be [|absent] from the [|body], and it was believed that it could be called back by speaking or shouting the sleeper's [|name]. In other forms of [|unconsciousness] the [|soul] was thought to be farther away, perhaps trying to [|escape] for good—impending [|death]. [|Dreams] were looked upon as the [|experiences] of the [|soul] during [|sleep] while temporarily absent from the [|body]. The savage believes his [|dreams] to be just as real as any part of his [|waking] [|experience]. The [|ancients] made a [|practice] of awaking sleepers [|gradually] so that the [|soul] might have time to get back into the [|body]. 86:5.7 All down through the ages men have stood in [|awe] of the [|apparitions] of the [|night] [|season], and the [|Hebrews] were no exception. They truly believed that [|God] spoke to them in [|dreams], despite the injunctions of [|Moses] against this [|idea]. And Moses was right, for ordinary dreams are not the [|methods] employed by the [|personalities] of the [|spiritual] world when they seek to communicate with [|material] [|beings]. 86:5.8 The [|ancients] believed that [|souls] could enter [|animals] or even inanimate objects. This culminated in the [|werewolf] [|ideas] of [|animal] identification. A [|person] could be a [|law]-abiding [|citizen] by day, but when he fell asleep, his [|soul] could enter a [|wolf] or some other [|animal] to prowl about on nocturnal depredations. 86:5.9 [|Primitive men] [|thought] that the [|soul] was [|associated] with the [|breath], and that its [|qualities] could be imparted or transferred by the breath. The [|brave] chief would breathe upon the newborn [|child], thereby imparting [|courage]. Among early [|Christians] the [|ceremony] of [|bestowing] the [|Holy Spirit] was accompanied by breathing on the [|candidates]. Said the Psalmist: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth."[|[3]] It was long the [|custom] of the eldest son to try to catch the last [|breath] of his dying [|father]. 86:5.10 The [|shadow] came, later on, to be feared and [|revered] equally with the [|breath]. The [|reflection] of oneself in the [|water] was also sometimes looked upon as [|proof] of the double [|self], and [|mirrors] were regarded with [|superstitious] [|awe]. Even now many civilized [|persons] turn the mirror to the wall in the [|event] of [|death]. Some backward [|tribes] still believe that the making of pictures, drawings, models, or images removes all or a part of the [|soul] from the [|body]; hence such are forbidden. 86:5.11 The [|soul] was generally [|thought] of as being identified with the [|breath], but it was also located by various peoples in the head, hair, [|heart], liver, blood, and fat. The "crying out of Abel's blood from the ground"[|[4]] is [|expressive] of the onetime [|belief] in the [|presence] of the [|ghost] in the blood. The [|Semites] taught that the [|soul] resided in the bodily fat, and among many the eating of [|animal] fat was [|taboo]. [|Head hunting] was a [|method] of capturing an enemy's [|soul], as was scalping. In recent times the eyes have been regarded as the [|windows of the soul]. 86:5.12 Those who held the [|doctrine] of three or four souls believed that the loss of one soul meant discomfort, two illness, [|three] [|death]. One soul lived in the [|breath], one in the head, one in the hair, one in the [|heart]. The sick were advised to stroll about in the open [|air] with the [|hope] of recapturing their strayed souls. The greatest of the [|medicine men] were supposed to exchange the sick soul of a diseased person for a new one, the "new [|birth]." 86:5.13 The [|children] of [|Badanan] [|developed] a belief in two souls, the [|breath] and the [|shadow]. The early [|Nodite] races regarded man as consisting of two [|persons], [|soul] and [|body]. This [|philosophy] of [|human] [|existence] was later [|reflected] in the [|Greek] [|viewpoint]. The [|Greeks] themselves believed in three souls; the vegetative resided in the stomach, the animal in the heart, the [|intellectual] in the head. The [|Eskimos] believe that man has three parts: [|body], [|soul], and [|name]. 
 * 1. Ordinary and transient fainting.
 * 2. [|Sleeping], natural [|dreaming].
 * 3. [|Coma] and [|unconsciousness] associated with [|disease] and [|accidents].
 * 4. [|Death], permanent departure.

86:6. THE GHOST-SPIRIT ENVIRONMENT
86:6.1 [|Man] inherited a [|natural] [|environment], acquired a [|social] environment, and [|imagined] a [|ghost] environment. The [|state] is man's [|reaction] to his natural environment, the [|home] to his social environment, the [|church] to his [|illusory] [|ghost] [|environment]. 86:6.2 Very early in the [|history] of [|mankind] the [|realities] of the [|imaginary] world of [|ghosts] and spirits became [|universally] believed, and this newly imagined spirit world became a [|power] in [|primitive] [|society]. The mental and [|moral] life of all mankind was [|modified] for all time by the [|appearance] of this new factor in [|human] [|thinking] and [|acting]. 86:6.3 Into this major premise of [|illusion] and [|ignorance], mortal [|fear] has packed all of the subsequent [|superstition] and [|religion] of [|primitive peoples]. This was man's only [|religion] up to the times of [|revelation], and today many of the world's races have only this crude [|religion] of [|evolution]. 86:6.4 As evolution [|progressed], good [|luck] became associated with good spirits and bad luck with bad spirits. The discomfort of enforced [|adaptation] to a changing [|environment] was regarded as ill luck, the displeasure of the spirit [|ghosts]. [|Primitive man] slowly evolved [|religion] out of his innate [|worship] urge and his misconception of [|chance]. Civilized man provides [|schemes] of [|insurance] to overcome these chance occurrences; [|modern] [|science] puts an [|actuary] with [|mathematical] reckoning in the place of fictitious spirits and whimsical gods. 86:6.5 Each passing [|generation] smiles at the foolish [|superstitions] of its [|ancestors] while it goes on [|entertaining] those [|fallacies] of [|thought] and [|worship] which will give cause for further smiling on the part of [|enlightened] posterity. 86:6.6 But at last the [|mind] of [|primitive man] was occupied with [|thoughts] which [|transcended] all of his [|inherent] [|biologic] urges; at last man was about to evolve an [|art of living] based on something more than [|response] to [|material] [|stimuli]. The beginnings of a primitive philosophic life policy were emerging. A [|supernatural] [|standard of living] was about to appear, for, if the spirit [|ghost] in [|anger] visits ill luck and in [|pleasure] good fortune, then must human [|conduct] be [|regulated] accordingly. The [|concept] of [|right and wrong] had at last evolved; and all of this long before the times of any [|revelation] on [|earth]. 86:6.7 With the [|emergence] of these [|concepts], 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! 

86:7. THE FUNCTION OF PRIMITIVE RELIGION
86:7.1 The [|savage] felt the need of [|insurance], and he therefore willingly paid his burdensome premiums of [|fear], [|superstition], dread, and [|priest] gifts toward his [|policy] of [|magic] insurance against ill [|luck]. [|Primitive] [|religion] was simply the payment of premiums on insurance against the [|perils] of the [|forests]; civilized man pays [|material] premiums against the [|accidents] of [|industry] and the exigencies of [|modern] modes of living. 86:7.2 [|Modern] [|society] is removing the [|business] of [|insurance] from the realm of [|priests] and [|religion], placing it in the [|domain] of [|economics]. Religion is concerning itself increasingly with the insurance of [|life] beyond the [|grave]. [|Modern] men, at least those who [|think], no longer pay wasteful premiums to [|control] [|luck]. [|Religion] is slowly ascending to higher [|philosophic] levels in [|contrast] with its former [|function] as a [|scheme] of insurance against bad [|luck]. 86:7.3 But these [|ancient] [|ideas] of [|religion] prevented men from becoming fatalistic and hopelessly pessimistic; they believed they could at least do something to [|influence] [|fate]. The [|religion] of [|ghost] [|fear] impressed upon men that they must [|regulate] their [|conduct], that there was a supermaterial world which was in [|control] of [|human] [|destiny]. 86:7.4 [|Modern] civilized [|races] are just emerging from [|ghost] [|fear] as an [|explanation] of [|luck] and the commonplace inequalities of [|existence]. [|Mankind] is achieving [|emancipation] from the [|bondage] of the [|ghost]-spirit [|explanation] of ill [|luck]. But while men are giving up the erroneous [|doctrine] of a spirit [|cause] of the [|vicissitudes] of life, they exhibit a surprising willingness to [|accept] an almost equally fallacious teaching which bids them attribute all [|human] inequalities to [|political] misadaptation, [|social] injustice]], and industrial [|competition]. But new [|legislation], increasing [|philanthropy], and more industrial reorganization, however [|good] in and of themselves, will not remedy the [|facts] of [|birth] and the [|accidents] of living. Only [|comprehension] of [|facts] and [|wise] [|manipulation] within the laws of [|nature] will enable man to get what he wants and to avoid what he does not want. [|Scientific] [|knowledge], leading to scientific [|action], is the only antidote for so-called accidental ills. 86:7.5 [|Industry], [|war], [|slavery], and civil [|government] arose in [|response] to the [|social] [|evolution] of man in his [|natural] [|environment]; [|religion] similarly arose as his [|response] to the [|illusory] [|environment] of the imaginary [|ghost] world. Religion was an evolutionary [|development] of [|self]-[|maintenance], and it has worked, notwithstanding that it was originally erroneous in [|concept] and utterly illogical. 86:7.6 [|Primitive] [|religion] [|prepared] the [|soil] of the [|human] [|mind], by the powerful and [|awesome] [|force] of false [|fear], for the [|bestowal] of a [|bona fide] [|spiritual] [|force] of [|supernatural] [|origin], the [|Thought Adjuster]. And the [|divine] [|Adjusters] have ever since labored to [|transmute] God-[|fear] into God-[|love]. [|Evolution] may be slow, but it is unerringly [|effective]. 86:7.7 Presented by an [|Evening Star] of [|Nebadon].

== Urantia Book: [|PAPER 92]: [|THE LATER EVOLUTION OF RELIGION] == 92:0.1 Man possessed a [|religion] of [|natural] [|origin] as a part of his [|evolutionary] [|experience] long before any systematic [|revelations] were made on [|Urantia]. But this [|religion] of [|natural] origin was, in itself, the product of man's superanimal [|endowments]. [|Evolutionary religion] arose slowly throughout the millenniums of mankind's [|experiential] [|career] through the ministry of the following [|influences] operating within, and impinging upon, savage, barbarian, and civilized man: 92:0.5 The [|co-ordinate] [|functioning] of these three [|divine] ministrations is quite sufficient to [|initiate] and prosecute the [|growth] of [|evolutionary religion]. These [|influences] are later augmented by [|Thought Adjusters], [|seraphim], and the [|Spirit of Truth], all of which [|accelerate] the rate of religious [|development]. These [|agencies] have long functioned on [|Urantia], and they will continue here as long as this [|planet] remains an [|inhabited sphere]. Much of the [|potential] of these [|divine] [|agencies] has never yet had [|opportunity] for [|expression]; much will be revealed in the ages to come as [|mortal] [|religion] ascends, level by level, toward the [|supernal] heights of [|morontia] [|value] and [|spirit] [|truth]. 
 * 1. 92:0.2 //The [|adjutant of worship]// —the [|appearance] in [|animal] [|consciousness] of superanimal [|potentials] for [|reality] [|perception]. This might be termed the primordial [|human] [|instinct] for [|Deity].
 * 2. 92:0.3 //The [|adjutant of wisdom]// —the [|manifestation] in a [|worshipful] [|mind] of the tendency to direct its [|adoration] in higher channels of [|expression] and toward ever-expanding [|concepts] of [|Deity] [|reality].
 * 3. 92:0.4 //The [|Holy Spirit]// —this is the initial supermind [|bestowal], and it unfailingly appears in all [|bona fide] [|human] [|personalities]. This ministry to a [|worship]-craving and [|wisdom]-desiring [|mind] creates the [|capacity] to [|self-realize] the postulate of [|human] [|survival], both in theologic [|concept] and as an [|actual] and [|factual] [|personality] [|experience].

92:1. THE EVOLUTIONARY NATURE OF RELIGION
92:1.1 The [|evolution] of [|religion] has been traced from early [|fear] and [|ghosts] down through many [|successive] [|stages] of [|development], including those [|efforts] first to [|coerce] and then to cajole the spirits. Tribal [|fetishes] grew into [|totems] and tribal gods; magic [|formulas] became [|modern] [|prayers]. [|Circumcision], at first a [|sacrifice], became a [|hygienic] [|procedure]. 92:1.2 [|Religion] progressed from [|nature] [|worship] up through [|ghost] [|worship] to [|fetishism] throughout the savage [|childhood] of the races. With the [|dawn of civilization] the [|human] race espoused the more [|mystic] and [|symbolic] [|beliefs], while now, with approaching [|maturity], [|mankind] is ripening for the [|appreciation] of real [|religion], even a beginning of the [|revelation] of [|truth] itself. 92:1.3 [|Religion] arises as a [|biologic] [|reaction] of [|mind] to spiritual beliefs and the [|environment]; it is the last thing to perish or [|change] in a race. [|Religion] is [|society]'s [|adjustment], in any age, to that which is [|mysterious]. As a social [|institution] it [|embraces] rites, [|symbols], [|cults], [|scriptures], [|altars], [|shrines], and [|temples]. [|Holy] [|water], relics, [|fetishes], charms, vestments, bells, drums, and [|priesthoods] are common to all [|religions]. And it is impossible entirely to [|divorce] purely [|evolved religion] from either [|magic] or [|sorcery]. 92:1.4 [|Mystery] and [|power] have always [|stimulated] [|religious] [|feelings] and [|fears], while [|emotion] has ever [|functioned] as a powerful conditioning [|factor] in their [|development]. [|Fear] has always been the basic [|religious] [|stimulus]. [|Fear] fashions the gods of [|evolutionary religion] and [|motivates] the religious [|ritual] of the primitive believers. As [|civilization] advances, fear becomes [|modified] by [|reverence], admiration, [|respect], and [|sympathy] and is then further conditioned by remorse and repentance. 92:1.5 One Asiatic people taught that "God is a great fear"; that is the outgrowth of [|purely] [|evolutionary religion]. [|Jesus], the [|revelation] of the highest type of religious living, proclaimed that "God is love."[|[1]] 

92:2. RELIGION AND THE MORES
92:2.1 [|Religion] is the most rigid and unyielding of all [|human] [|institutions], but it does tardily [|adjust] to changing [|society]. [|Eventually], [|evolutionary religion] does [|reflect] the changing [|mores], which, in turn, may have been affected by [|revealed religion]. Slowly, surely, but grudgingly, does [|religion] ([|worship]) follow in the wake of [|wisdom]—[|knowledge] directed by experiential [|reason] and [|illuminated] by [|divine] [|revelation]. 92:2.2 [|Religion] clings to the [|mores]; that which was is [|ancient] and supposedly [|sacred]. For this reason and no other, stone implements [|persisted] long into the age of bronze and iron. This [|statement] is of [|record]: " And if you will make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for, if you use your tools in making it, you have polluted it."[|[2]] Even today, the [|Hindus] kindle their [|altar] fires by using a primitive fire drill. In the [|course] of [|evolutionary religion], novelty has always been regarded as [|sacrilege]. The [|sacrament] must consist, not of new and [|manufactured] [|food], but of the most primitive of viands: "The flesh roasted with fire and unleavened bread served with bitter herbs."[|[3]] All types of social usage and even [|legal] [|procedures] cling to the old forms. 92:2.3 When [|modern] man [|wonders] at the presentation of so much in the [|scriptures] of [|different] [|religions] that may be regarded as [|obscene], he should pause to [|consider] that passing [|generations] have feared to eliminate what their [|ancestors] deemed to be [|holy] and [|sacred]. A great deal that one [|generation] might look upon as [|obscene], preceding generations have considered a part of their [|accepted] [|mores], even as approved [|religious] [|rituals]. A considerable amount of religious [|controversy] has been occasioned by the never-ending attempts to [|reconcile] olden but reprehensible [|practices] with newly advanced [|reason], to find plausible [|theories] in justification of creedal perpetuation of [|ancient] and outworn [|customs]. 92:2.4 But it is only foolish to attempt the too sudden [|acceleration] of religious [|growth]. A race or nation can only assimilate from any advanced [|religion] that which is reasonably [|consistent] and compatible with its current [|evolutionary] [|status], plus its [|genius] for [|adaptation]. [|Social], climatic, [|political], and [|economic] conditions are all [|influential] in determining the [|course] and [|progress] of [|religious] [|evolution]. Social [|morality] is not determined by [|religion], that is, by [|evolutionary religion]; rather are the forms of [|religion] dictated by the racial [|morality]. 92:2.5 Races of men only [|superficially] [|accept] a strange and new religion; they [|actually] adjust it to their [|mores] and old ways of believing. This is well [|illustrated] by the example of a certain New Zealand [|tribe] whose [|priests], after nominally accepting [|Christianity], professed to have received direct [|revelations] from [|Gabriel] to the [|effect] that this selfsame [|tribe] had become the [|chosen people] of [|God] and directing that they be permitted freely to indulge in loose [|sex] relations and numerous other of their olden and reprehensible [|customs]. And [|immediately] all of the new-made Christians went over to this new and less exacting version of [|Christianity]. 92:2.6 [|Religion] has at one time or another [|sanctioned] all sorts of contrary and inconsistent [|behavior], has at some time approved of practically all that is now regarded as immoral or sinful. [|Conscience], untaught by [|experience] and unaided by [|reason], never has been, and never can be, a safe and unerring [|guide] to human [|conduct]. [|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. 

92:3. THE NATURE OF EVOLUTIONARY RELIGION
92:3.1 The [|study] of [|human] [|religion] is the [|examination] of the [|fossil]-bearing [|social] strata of [|past] ages. The [|mores] of the [|anthropomorphic] gods are a truthful [|reflection] of the [|morals] of the men who first conceived such [|deities]. [|Ancient] religions and [|mythology] faithfully portray the [|beliefs] and [|traditions] of peoples long since lost in obscurity. These olden [|cult] [|practices] [|persist] alongside newer [|economic] [|customs] and [|social] evolutions and, of course, appear grossly inconsistent. The remnants of the [|cult] present a true picture of the racial religions of the past. Always remember, the cults are formed, not to [|discover] [|truth], but rather to promulgate their creeds. 92:3.2 [|Religion] has always been largely a matter of rites, [|rituals], observances, [|ceremonies], and [|dogmas]. It has usually become tainted with that [|persistently] mischief-making [|error], the [|chosen-people] [|delusion]. The cardinal religious [|ideas] of [|incantation], [|inspiration], [|revelation], propitiation, [|repentance], [|atonement], [|intercession], [|sacrifice], [|prayer], [|confession], [|worship], [|survival] after [|death], [|sacrament], [|ritual], ransom, salvation, redemption, covenant, uncleanness, purification, [|prophecy], [|original sin]—they all go back to the early times of primordial [|ghost] [|fear]. 92:3.3 [|Primitive] [|religion] is nothing more nor less than the [|struggle] for [|material] [|existence] extended to [|embrace] existence beyond the grave. The [|observances] of such a creed [|represented] the extension of the [|self]-[|maintenance] struggle into the [|domain] of an [|imagined] ghost-spirit world. But when tempted to criticize evolutionary religion, be careful. Remember, that is what happened; it is a historical [|fact]. And further recall that the [|power] of any [|idea] lies, not in its certainty or [|truth], but rather in the vividness of its [|human] [|appeal]. 92:3.4 Evolutionary [|religion] makes no provision for [|change] or revision; unlike [|science], it does not provide for its own [|progressive] [|correction]. Evolved religion commands respect because its followers believe it is The Truth; "the faith once delivered to the saints"[|[4]] must, in [|theory], be both final and infallible. The [|cult] resists [|development] because real [|progress] is certain to [|modify] or destroy the [|cult] itself; therefore must revision always be forced upon it. 92:3.5 Only two [|influences] can [|modify] and uplift the [|dogmas] of [|natural] [|religion]: the [|pressure] of the slowly advancing [|mores] and the periodic [|illumination] of [|epochal] [|revelation]. And it is not strange that [|progress] was slow; in [|ancient] days, to be [|progressive] or [|inventive] meant to be killed as a [|sorcerer]. The [|cult] advances slowly in [|generation] [|epochs] and agelong [|cycles]. But it does move forward. Evolutionary [|belief] in [|ghosts] laid the [|foundation] for a [|philosophy] of revealed religion which will [|eventually] destroy the [|superstition] of its [|origin]. 92:3.6 [|Religion] has [|handicapped] [|social] [|development] in many ways, but without religion there would have been no enduring [|morality] nor [|ethics], no worth-while [|civilization]. [|Religion] en[|mothered] much nonreligious [|culture]: [|Sculpture] originated in [|idol] making, [|architecture] in [|temple] building, [|poetry] in [|incantations], [|music] in [|worship] [|chants], [|drama] in the acting for spirit [|guidance], and [|dancing] in the seasonal [|worship] festivals. 92:3.7 But while calling [|attention] to the [|fact] that [|religion] was [|essential] to the [|development] and preservation of [|civilization], it should be recorded that [|natural] [|religion] has also done much to cripple and [|handicap] the very [|civilization] which it otherwise fostered and [|maintained]. [|Religion] has hampered [|industrial] [|activities] and [|economic] [|development]; it has been wasteful of labor and has squandered [|capital]; it has not always been helpful to the [|family]; it has not adequately fostered [|peace] and good will; it has sometimes neglected [|education] and retarded [|science]; it has unduly impoverished life for the pretended enrichment of [|death]. Evolutionary religion, [|human] [|religion], has indeed been [|guilty] of all these and many more mistakes, [|errors], and blunders; nevertheless, it did maintain [|cultural] [|ethics], civilized [|morality], and social coherence, and made it possible for later revealed [|religion] to [|compensate] for these many evolutionary shortcomings. 92:3.8 [|Evolutionary] religion has been man's most expensive but incomparably [|effective] [|institution]. Human religion can be justified only in the light of evolutionary [|civilization]. If man were not the ascendant product of [|animal] evolution, then would such a [|course] of religious [|development] stand without [|justification]. 92:3.9 [|Religion] [|facilitated] the accumulation of [|capital]; it fostered [|work] of certain kinds; the [|leisure] of the [|priests] promoted [|art] and [|knowledge]; the [|race], in the end, gained much as a result of all these early errors in [|ethical] [|technique]. The [|shamans], [|honest] and dishonest, were terribly expensive, but they were worth all they cost. The learned [|professions] and [|science] itself emerged from the [|parasitical] priesthoods. [|Religion] fostered [|civilization] and provided societal [|continuity]; it has been the [|moral] [|police] force of all time. Religion provided that human [|discipline] and [|self-control] which made [|wisdom] possible. [|Religion] is the [|efficient] scourge of evolution which ruthlessly drives [|indolent] and suffering [|humanity] from its natural [|state] of [|intellectual] [|inertia] forward and upward to the higher levels of [|reason] and [|wisdom]. 92:3.10 And this [|sacred] [|heritage] of animal [|ascent], evolutionary [|religion], must ever continue to be refined and ennobled by the [|continuous] censorship of revealed religion and by the fiery furnace of [|genuine] [|science]. 

92:4. THE GIFT OF REVELATION
92:4.1 [|Revelation] is [|evolutionary] but always [|progressive]. Down through the ages of a world's [|history], the [|revelations] of religion are ever-expanding and successively more [|enlightening]. It is the mission of [|revelation] to sort and [|censor] the successive religions of [|evolution]. But if [|revelation] is to exalt and upstep the religions of [|evolution], then must such [|divine] [|visitations] portray teachings which are not too far removed from the [|thought] and [|reactions] of the age in which they are presented. Thus must and does [|revelation] always keep in [|touch] with [|evolution]. Always must the religion of [|revelation] be limited by man's [|capacity] of [|receptivity]. 92:4.2 But regardless of [|apparent] [|connection] or derivation, the religions of [|revelation] are always characterized by a [|belief] in some [|Deity] of final [|value] and in some concept of the [|survival] of [|personality] [|identity] after [|death]. 92:4.3 [|Evolutionary] [|religion] is [|sentimental], not [|logical]. It is man's [|reaction] to [|belief] in a [|hypothetical] [|ghost]-spirit world—the human [|belief]-reflex, excited by the [|realization] and [|fear] of the [|unknown]. [|Revelatory] religion is propounded by the real [|spiritual] world; it is the [|response] of the [|superintellectual] [|cosmos] to the [|mortal] [|hunger] to believe in, and depend upon, the [|universal] [|Deities]. [|Evolutionary] religion pictures the circuitous gropings of [|humanity] in quest of [|truth]; [|revelatory] religion is that very truth. 92:4.4 There have been many [|events] of religious [|revelation] but only five of [|epochal] significance. These were as follows: 
 * 1. 92:4.5 //[|The Dalamatian teachings]//. The true [|concept] of the [|First Source and Center] was first promulgated on [|Urantia] by the [|one hundred corporeal members] of [|Prince] [|Caligastia]' s staff. This expanding [|revelation] of [|Deity] went on for more than three hundred thousand years until it was suddenly terminated by the [|planetary secession] and the disruption of the [|teaching regime]. Except for the [|work] of [|Van], the [|influence] of the [|Dalamatian] [|revelation] was [|practically] lost to the whole world. Even the [|Nodites] had forgotten this [|truth] by the time of [|Adam]' s arrival. Of all who received the teachings of the [|one hundred], the [|red men] held them longest, but the [|idea] of the //[|Great Spirit]// was but a hazy [|concept] in Amerindian [|religion] when contact with [|Christianity] greatly [|clarified] and [|strengthened] it.
 * 2. 92:4.6 //[|The Edenic teachings]// [|Adam and Eve] again portrayed the [|concept] of [|the Father] of all to the [|evolutionary peoples]. The disruption of the [|first Eden] halted the [|course] of the [|Adamic revelation] before it had ever fully started. But the [|aborted] teachings of [|Adam] were carried on by the [|Sethite] [|priests], and some of these [|truths] have never been entirely lost to the world. The entire [|trend] of [|Levantine] [|religious] [|evolution] was [|modified] by the teachings of the [|Sethites]. But by [|2500 B.C.] [|mankind] had largely lost sight of the [|revelation] sponsored in the days of [|Eden].
 * 3. 92:4.7 //[|Melchizedek of Salem]//.This [|emergency Son] of [|Nebadon] [|inaugurated] the third [|revelation] of [|truth] on [|Urantia]. The cardinal precepts of his [|teachings] were [|trust] and [|faith]. He taught [|trust] in the [|omnipotent] [|beneficence] of [|God] and proclaimed that [|faith] was the [|act] by which men earned [|God]'s [|favor]. His teachings [|gradually] commingled with the [|beliefs] and [|practices] of various [|evolutionary] [|religions] and finally [|developed] into those [|theologic] [|systems] present on [|Urantia] at the opening of the [|first millennium after Christ].
 * 4. 92:4.8 //[|Jesus of Nazareth]//. [|Christ] [|Michael] presented for the fourth time to [|Urantia] the [|concept] of [|God] as the [|Universal Father], and this teaching has generally persisted ever since. The [|essence] of his teaching was [|love] and [|service], the loving [|worship] which a [|creature] son [|voluntarily] gives in [|recognition] of, and [|response] to, the loving [|ministry] of [|God] his [|Father]; the [|freewill] [|service] which such [|creature] sons [|bestow] upon their brethren in the [|joyous] [|realization] that in this [|service] they are likewise serving [|God] [|the Father].
 * 5. 92:4.9 //[|The Urantia Papers].// The papers [|constitute] the most recent presentation of [|truth] to the [|mortals] of [|Urantia]. These papers differ from all previous [|revelations], for they are not the [|work] of a single [|universe] [|personality] but a composite presentation by many [|beings]. But no [|revelation] short of the [|attainment] of the [|Universal Father] can ever be complete. All other [|celestial] ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and [|practically] [|adapted] to local conditions in [|time and space]. While such admissions as this may possibly detract from the [|immediate] [|force] and [|authority] of all [|revelations], the time has arrived on [|Urantia] when it is advisable to make such frank [|statements], even at the risk of weakening the [|future] [|influence] and [|authority] of this, the most recent of the [|revelations] of truth to the [|mortal] [|races] of [|Urantia].

92:5. THE GREAT RELIGIOUS LEADERS
92:5.1 In [|evolutionary religion], the gods are conceived to exist in the likeness of [|man]'s image; in [|revelatory religion], men are taught that they are [|God]'s [|sons]—even fashioned in the [|finite] image of [|divinity]; in the synthesized [|beliefs] compounded from the teachings of [|revelation] and the products of [|evolution], the God concept is a blend of: 92:5.2 Most great religious [|epochs] have been [|inaugurated] by the life and teachings of some outstanding [|personality]; [|leadership] has originated a [|majority] of the worth-while [|moral] [|movements] of [|history]. And men have always tended to [|venerate] the [|leader], even at the expense of his teachings; to revere his [|personality], even though losing sight of the [|truths] which he proclaimed. And this is not without [|reason]; there is an [|instinctive] longing in the [|heart] of evolutionary [|man] for help from above and beyond. This craving is designed to [|anticipate] the [|appearance] on [|earth] of the [|Planetary Prince] and the later [|Material Sons]. On [|Urantia] man has been deprived of these [|superhuman] leaders and rulers, and therefore does he constantly seek to make good this loss by enshrouding his [|human] [|leaders] with [|legends] pertaining to [|supernatural] [|origins] and miraculous [|careers]. 92:5.3 Many races have conceived of their [|leaders] as being born of [|virgins]; their [|careers] are liberally sprinkled with miraculous [|episodes], and their return is always expected by their respective groups. In [|central Asia] the tribesmen still look for the return of [|Genghis Khan]; in [|Tibet], [|China], and [|India] it is [|Buddha]; in [|Islam] it is [|Mohammed]; among the [|Amerinds] it was [|Hesunanin Onamonalonton]; with the [|Hebrews] it was, in general, [|Adam]' s return as a material ruler. In [|Babylon] the god [|Marduk] was a perpetuation of the [|Adam] [|legend], the son-of-God [|idea], the [|connecting] link between man and God. Following the [|appearance] of [|Adam] on [|earth], so-called sons of God were common among the world races. 92:5.4 But regardless of the [|superstitious] [|awe] in which they were often held, it remains a [|fact] that these [|teachers] were the [|temporal] [|personality] [|fulcrums] on which the [|levers] of revealed [|truth] depended for the advancement of the [|morality], [|philosophy], and [|religion] of [|mankind]. 92:5.5 There have been hundreds upon hundreds of [|religious] [|leaders] in the million-year [|human] [|history] of [|Urantia] from [|Onagar] to [|Guru Nanak]. During this time there have been many ebbs and [|flows] of the tide of religious [|truth] and spiritual [|faith], and each [|renaissance] of Urantian [|religion] has, in the past, been identified with the life and teachings of some religious [|leader]. In considering the [|teachers] of recent times, it may prove helpful to group them into the [|seven] major religious [|epochs] of [|post-Adamic Urantia]: 92:5.13 The [|future] of [|Urantia] will doubtless be characterized by the [|appearance] of [|teachers] of religious [|truth]—the Fatherhood of God and the fraternity of all [|creatures]. But it is to be [|hoped] that the ardent and [|sincere] [|efforts] of these [|future] [|prophets] will be directed less toward the strengthening of interreligious barriers and more toward the augmentation of the religious [|brotherhood] of [|spiritual] [|worship] among the many followers of the differing [|intellectual] [|theologies] which so characterize [|Urantia] of [|Satania]. 
 * 1. The pre-existent [|ideas] of the [|evolutionary] [|cults].
 * 2. The [|sublime] [|ideals] of [|revealed religion].
 * 3. The [|personal] [|viewpoints] of the great religious [|leaders], the [|prophets] and teachers of [|mankind].
 * 1. 92:5.6 //The Sethite period//. The [|Sethite] [|priests], as regenerated under the [|leadership] of //Amosad//, became the great post-Adamic [|teachers]. They [|functioned] throughout the lands of the [|Andites], and their [|influence] [|persisted] longest among the [|Greeks], [|Sumeria], and [|Hindus]. Among the latter they have continued to the present time as the [|Brahmans] of the [|Hindu] [|faith]. The [|Sethites] and their followers never entirely lost the [|Trinity] concept revealed by [|Adam].[|[5]]
 * 2. 92:5.7 //Era of the Melchizedek missionaries//. [|Urantia] [|religion] was in no small measure regenerated by the [|efforts] of those [|teachers] who were commissioned by [|Machiventa] [|Melchizedek] when he lived and taught at [|Salem] almost [|two thousand years before Christ]. These missionaries proclaimed [|faith] as the price of [|favor] with [|God], and their teachings, though unproductive of any immediately appearing [|religions], nevertheless formed the [|foundations] on which later teachers of [|truth] were to build the [|religions] of [|Urantia].
 * 3. 92:5.8 //The post-Melchizedek era//. Though [|Amenemope] and [|Ikhnaton] both taught in this period, the outstanding [|religious] [|genius] of the post-Melchizedek era was the [|leader] of a [|group] of [|Levantine] [|Bedouins] and the founder of the [|Hebrew] [|religion]—[|Moses]. Moses taught [|monotheism]. Said he: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God."[|[6]] "The Lord he is God. There is none beside him."[|[7]] He [|persistently] sought to uproot the remnants of the [|ghost cult] among his people, even prescribing the [|death penalty] for its practitioners. The [|monotheism] of [|Moses] was adulterated by his successors, but in later times they did return to many of his teachings. The greatness of Moses lies in his [|wisdom] and sagacity. Other men have had greater [|concepts] of [|God], but no one man was ever so successful in inducing large [|numbers] of people to adopt such advanced [|beliefs].
 * 4. 92:5.9 //The sixth century before Christ//. Many men arose to [|proclaim] [|truth] in this, one of the greatest centuries of religious [|awakening] ever witnessed on [|Urantia]. Among these should be recorded [|Gautama], [|Confucius], [|Lao-tse], [|Zoroaster], and the [|Jainist] teachers. The teachings of Gautama have become widespread in Asia, and he is revered as the [|Buddha] by millions. [|Confucius] was to Chinese [|morality] what [|Plato] was to [|Greek] [|philosophy], and while there were religious repercussions to the teachings of both, strictly speaking, neither was a religious teacher; [|Lao-tse] envisioned more of [|God] in [|Tao] than did [|Confucius] in [|humanity] or [|Plato] in [|idealism]. [|Zoroaster], while much affected by the prevalent [|concept] of [|dual] spiritism, the good and the bad, at the same time definitely exalted the [|idea] of one [|eternal] [|Deity] and of the [|ultimate] victory of [|light] over [|darkness]. [|[8]]
 * 5. 92:5.10 //The first century after Christ//. As a [|religious] [|teacher], [|Jesus] of [|Nazareth] started out with the [|cult] which had been [|established] by [|John the Baptist] and progressed as far as he could away from fasts and forms. Aside from [|Jesus], [|Paul of Tarsus] and [|Philo of Alexandria] were the greatest [|teachers] of this era. Their [|concepts] of religion have played a dominant part in the [|evolution] of that [|faith] which bears the name of [|Christ].
 * 6. 92:5.11 //The sixth century after Christ//. [|Mohammed] founded a [|religion] which was superior to many of the [|creed]s of his time. His was a protest against the [|social] demands of the [|faiths] of foreigners and against the incoherence of the [|religious] life of his own people.
 * 7. 92:5.12 //The fifteenth century after Christ//. This period witnessed two [|religious] [|movements]: the disruption of the [|unity] of [|Christianity] in the [|Occident] and the [|synthesis] of a new [|religion] in the [|Orient]. In Europe institutionalized [|Christianity] had [|attained] that degree of inelasticity which rendered further [|growth] incompatible with [|unity]. In the Orient the combined teachings of [|Islam], [|Hinduism], and [|Buddhism] were synthesized by [|Nanak] and his followers into [|Sikhism], one of the most advanced religions of Asia.[|[9]]

92:6. THE COMPOSITE RELIGIONS
92:6.1 [|Twentieth-century] [|Urantia] [|religions] present an interesting [|study] of the [|social] [|evolution] of man's [|worship] impulse. Many [|faiths] have [|progressed] very little since the days of the [|ghost cult]. The [|Pygmies] of Africa have no [|religious] [|reactions] as a class, although some of them believe slightly in a [|spirit] [|environment]. They are today just where [|primitive man] was when the [|evolution] of [|religion] began. The basic [|belief] of [|primitive] [|religion] was [|survival] after [|death]. The [|idea] of [|worshiping] a [|personal] [|God] indicates advanced [|evolutionary] [|development], even the first [|stage] of [|revelation]. The [|Dyaks] have evolved only the most [|primitive] religious [|practices]. The comparatively recent [|Eskimos] and [|Amerinds] had very meager [|concepts] of [|God]; they believed in [|ghosts] and had an indefinite [|idea] of [|survival] of some sort after [|death]. Present-day [|native Australians] have only a [|ghost] [|fear], dread of the [|dark], and a crude [|ancestor] [|veneration]. The [|Zulus] are just evolving a [|religion] of [|ghost] [|fear] and [|sacrifice]. Many African [|tribes], except through missionary work of [|Christians] and [|Mohammedans], are not yet beyond the [|fetish] stage of religious [|evolution]. But some [|groups] have long held to the [|idea] of [|monotheism], like the onetime [|Thracians], who also believed in [|immortality]. 92:6.2 On [|Urantia], [|evolutionary] and [|revelatory religion] are progressing side by side while they blend and coalesce into the [|diversified] [|theologic] [|systems] found in the world in the times of the inditement of these papers. These [|religions], the religions of [|twentieth-century] [|Urantia], may be enumerated as follows: 92:6.3 The most advanced [|religions] of [|ancient] times were [|Hinduism] and [|Judaism], and each respectively has greatly [|influenced] the [|course] of religious [|development] in [|Orient] and [|Occident]. Both [|Hindus] and [|Hebrews] believed that their [|religions] were [|inspired] and [|revealed], and they believed all others to be [|decadent] forms of the one true [|faith]. 92:6.4 India is divided among Hindu, Sikh, Mohammedan, and Jain, each picturing God, man, and the universe as these are variously conceived. China follows the Taoist and the Confucian teachings; Shinto is revered in Japan. 92:6.5 The great [|international], interracial faiths are the [|Hebraic], [|Buddhist], [|Christian], and [|Islamic]. [|Buddhism] stretches from [|Ceylon] and [|Burma] through [|Tibet] and [|China] to [|Japan]. It has shown an [|adaptability] to the [|mores] of many peoples that has been equaled only by [|Christianity]. 92:6.6 The [|Hebrew] [|religion] [|encompasses] the philosophic [|transition] from [|polytheism] to [|monotheism]; it is an [|evolutionary] link between the [|religions] of [|evolution] and the religions of [|revelation]. The [|Hebrews] were the only western people to follow their early evolutionary gods straight through to the [|God] of [|revelation]. But this [|truth] never became widely accepted until the days of [|Isaiah], who once again taught the blended [|idea] of a [|racial] [|deity] combined with a [|Universal] [|Creator]: "O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, you are God, even you alone; you have made heaven and earth."[|[10]] At one time the [|hope] of the [|survival] of [|Occidental] civilization lay in the [|sublime] [|Hebraic] [|concepts] of [|goodness] and the advanced [|Hellenic] concepts of [|beauty]. 92:6.7 The [|Christian] religion is the religion about the [|life and teachings of Christ] based upon the [|theology] of [|Judaism], modified further through the assimilation of certain [|Zoroastrian] teachings and [|Greek] [|philosophy], and formulated primarily by three [|individuals]: [|Philo], [|Peter], and [|Paul]. It has passed through many [|phases] of [|evolution] since the time of [|Paul] and has become so thoroughly [|Occidentalized] that many non-European peoples very naturally look upon [|Christianity] as a strange [|revelation] of a strange God and for strangers. 92:6.8 [|Islam] is the religio-cultural connective of [|North Africa], the [|Levant], and [|southeastern Asia]. It was [|Jewish] [|theology] in [|connection] with the later [|Christian] teachings that made [|Islam] [|monotheistic]. The followers of [|Mohammed] stumbled at the advanced teachings of the [|Trinity]; they could not [|comprehend] the [|doctrine] of [|three] [|divine] [|personalities] and one Deity. It is always [|difficult] to induce evolutionary [|minds] suddenly to [|accept] advanced revealed [|truth]. Man is an [|evolutionary] [|creature] and in the main must get his [|religion] by evolutionary [|techniques]. 92:6.9 [|Ancestor] [|worship] onetime constituted a decided advance in [|religious] [|evolution], but it is both amazing and regrettable that this [|primitive] [|concept] persists in [|China], [|Japan], and [|India] amidst so much that is [|relatively] more advanced, such as [|Buddhism] and [|Hinduism]. In the [|Occident], [|ancestor] [|worship] [|developed] into the [|veneration] of national gods and [|respect] for racial [|heroes]. In the [|twentieth century] this [|hero]-venerating nationalistic religion makes its [|appearance] in the various [|radical] and nationalistic [|secularisms] which characterize many [|races] and [|nations] of the [|Occident]. Much of this same [|attitude] is also found in the great [|universities] and the larger [|industrial] communities of the [|English]-speaking peoples. Not very [|different] from these [|concepts] is the idea that [|religion] is but "a shared quest of the good life." The "[|national religions]" are nothing more than a reversion to the early [|Roman emperor] [|worship] and to [|Shinto]—[|worship] of the [|state] in the [|imperial family]. 
 * 1. [|Hinduism]—the most [|ancient].
 * 2. The [|Hebrew religion].
 * 3. [|Buddhism].
 * 4. The [|Confucian] teachings.
 * 5. The [|Taoist] beliefs.
 * 6. [|Zoroastrianism].
 * 7. [|Shinto].
 * 8. [|Jainism].
 * 9. [|Christianity].
 * 10. [|Islam].
 * 11. [|Sikhism]—the most recent.

92:7. THE FURTHER EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
92:7.1 [|Religion] can never become a [|scientific] [|fact]. [|Philosophy] may, indeed, rest on a [|scientific] basis, but [|religion] will ever remain either [|evolutionary] or [|revelatory], or a possible combination of both, as it is in the world today. 92:7.2 New religions cannot be [|invented]; they are either evolved, or else they are suddenly revealed. All new [|evolutionary] [|religions] are merely advancing [|expressions] of the old [|beliefs], new adaptations and [|adjustments]. The old does not cease to exist; it is merged with the new, even as [|Sikhism] budded and blossomed out of the [|soil] and forms of [|Hinduism], [|Buddhism], [|Islam], and other contemporary [|cults]. [|Primitive] [|religion] was very [|democratic]; the [|savage] was quick to borrow or lend. Only with [|revealed religion] did [|autocratic] and intolerant theologic [|egotism] appear. 92:7.3 The many [|religions] of [|Urantia] are all [|good] to the extent that they bring man to [|God] and bring the [|realization] of [|the Father] to man. It is a [|fallacy] for any [|group] of religionists to conceive of their [|creed] as The Truth; such [|attitudes] bespeak more of [|theological] arrogance than of certainty of [|faith]. There is not a [|Urantia] [|religion] that could not profitably [|study] and assimilate the best of the [|truths] contained in every other [|faith], for all contain [|truth]. Religionists would do better to borrow the best in their [|neighbors]' living spiritual [|faith] rather than to denounce the worst in their lingering [|superstitions] and outworn [|rituals]. 92:7.4 All these [|religions] have arisen as a result of man's variable [|intellectual] [|response] to his identical [|spiritual] leading. They can never [|hope] to [|attain] a [|uniformity] of [|creeds], [|dogmas], and [|rituals]—these are [|intellectual]; but they can, and some day will, [|realize] a [|unity] in true [|worship] of [|the Father] of all, for this is [|spiritual], and it is forever true, in the [|spirit] all men are [|equal]. 92:7.5 [|Primitive] [|religion] was largely a [|material]-[|value] [|consciousness], but [|civilization] elevates religious [|values], for true [|religion] is the [|devotion] of the [|self] to the [|service] of meaningful and [|supreme] [|values]. As [|religion] evolves, [|ethics] becomes the [|philosophy] of [|morals], and [|morality] becomes the [|discipline] of [|self] by the [|standards] of highest [|meanings] and supreme [|values]—[|divine] and [|spiritual] [|ideals]. And thus [|religion] becomes a [|spontaneous] and exquisite [|devotion], the living [|experience] of the [|loyalty] of [|love]. 92:7.6 The [|quality] of a [|religion] is indicated by: 92:7.7 Religious [|meanings] [|progress] in [|self-consciousness] when the child [|transfers] his [|ideas] of [|omnipotence] from his [|parents] to [|God]. And the entire [|religious] [|experience] of such a [|child] is largely dependent on whether [|fear] or [|love] has [|dominated] the [|parent]-[|child] [|relationship]. [|Slaves] have always [|experienced] great [|difficulty] in transferring their master-[|fear] into [|concepts] of [|God]-[|love]. [|Civilization], [|science], and advanced [|religions] must deliver [|mankind] from those fears born of the dread of [|natural] [|phenomena]. And so should greater [|enlightenment] deliver educated [|mortals] from all dependence on intermediaries in [|communion] with [|Deity]. 92:7.8 These [|intermediate] [|stages] of [|idolatrous] hesitation in the [|transfer] of [|veneration] from the [|human] and the visible to the [|divine] and [|invisible] are [|inevitable], but they should be shortened by the [|consciousness] of the facilitating ministry of the [|indwelling divine spirit]. Nevertheless, man has been [|profoundly] [|influenced], not only by his [|concepts] of [|Deity], but also by the [|character] of the [|heroes] whom he has chosen to [|honor]. It is most unfortunate that those who have come to [|venerate] the divine and risen [|Christ] should have overlooked the man—the valiant and [|courageous] [|hero]—[|Joshua ben Joseph]. 92:7.9 [|Modern] man is adequately [|self-conscious] of [|religion], but his [|worshipful] [|customs] are [|confused] and discredited by his [|accelerated] [|social] [|metamorphosis] and unprecedented [|scientific] [|developments]. [|Thinking] men and women want [|religion] redefined, and this demand will compel religion to re-evaluate itself. 92:7.10 [|Modern] man is confronted with the task of making more readjustments of human [|values] in one [|generation] than have been made in two thousand years. And this all [|influences] the [|social] [|attitude] toward [|religion], for religion is a way of living as well as a [|technique] of [|thinking]. 92:7.11 True [|religion] must ever be, at one and the same time, the [|eternal] [|foundation] and the guiding [|star] of all [|enduring] [|civilizations]. 92:7.12 Presented by a [|Melchizedek] of [|Nebadon].
 * 1. Level of [|values]—loyalties.
 * 2. Depth of [|meanings]—the [|sensitization] of the [|individual] to the idealistic [|appreciation] of these highest values.
 * 3. [|Consecration] [|intensity]—the [|degree] of [|devotion] to these [|divine] [|values].
 * 4. The unfettered [|progress] of the [|personality] in this [|cosmic] path of idealistic [|spiritual] living, [|realization] of sonship with God and never-ending progressive [|citizenship] in the [|universe].