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Nicholas Knight - Sharing The Revelation · Urantia Radio

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  His name is Nicholas Knight and he has published a wonderful
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  book which I've had the pleasure of reading.
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  It's a delightful introduction of the Urantia book concepts and
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  in general, spiritual, common sense spiritual concepts that
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  are presented in his book, Carl's Theodicy.
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  It's a great book. We'll talk about it.
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  Nicholas Knight, It's called Carl's Theodicy and it's a great
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  book because it it basically essentially teaches the Urantia
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  book without mentioning the Urantia book.
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  And we're going to find out how Nicholas did it and why on the
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  Urantia Radio podcast. So hang on for just a few more
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  seconds. I ran across this gentleman.
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  He reads, he listened to the podcast, his name is Nicholas
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  Knight, and he's written a great book, which I absolutely love
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  for reasons I'll explain in a minute.
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  It's called Carl's Theodicy, A hopeful skeptic guide to finding
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  God in the world of teeth and thorns, and it is a fantastic
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  book. The and the author with me today
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  to talk about his journey with the Urantia book.
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  Nicholas, tell me about your journey.
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  Hey, Jim, it's an honor to be here.
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  Thanks for inviting me. And like you said, the, the
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  decision to not mention Urantia book in, in the book overtly was
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  a design decision. You know, I, I was really going
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  after, after the crowd of people who are not already familiar
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  with, with the UB. I kind of loosely defined them
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  as, you know, hopeful skeptics, you know, agnostics or maybe
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  they were hurt by religion or maybe they're too smart for
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  traditional religion. And and I think it's a good
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  chunk of audience that is kind of looking, I don't know if
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  they're like super duper mythical audience, you know,
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  searching for for, you know, truth.
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  But they're definitely more open minded than, you know, folks
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  from traditional religions. So yeah, this book is is really
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  for them. And my goal is not really about
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  introducing them to the Urantia book, as in them becoming a
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  reader, but winning souls for the Kingdom, you know?
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  I feel the same way. In fact, as I've learned in
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  reading other secondary books, a lot of people, including myself,
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  when we attempt to try to explain the book, we get into
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  this world word salad where if you're not familiar with the
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  terms that it doesn't make any sense.
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  I've had people who, who know me well, they say, you know, I, I
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  like your podcast, but sometimes I got to be tell you, I got to
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  tell you, I don't understand what the Arante book says and I
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  don't know what it means. And I think that in today's
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  world, people are more, they just want to know that there's,
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  there's some meaning behind everything.
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  And it's not just. And if that leads them on a
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  spiritual journey of truth discovery, great.
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  But I think a lot of people right now are feeling lonely and
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  they feel like the system is telling them that it's, there's
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  nothing else. It's all this is all there is.
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  And this is, do you feel like that?
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  Is that what motivated you to? What motivated you to want to
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  put pen to paper and come up with this theodicy?
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  Well, to be honest, it was, it was first an, an escape from a
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  day job. You know, I got some days when,
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  when I'm just like it's, you know, it's grinding corporate
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  cheese grater, you know, and I just wanted an escape to do
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  something meaningful, purposeful, something I, I feel
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  like I want to dedicate my, my life to.
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  So it kind of started as just like bunch of ideas and
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  journaling and all that. And then, well, it's actually a
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  funny story about the title I Are you familiar with the
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  Odyssey as a like a scholarly activity?
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  I. Am I talked?
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  There's a great interview with Byron Blitzer, who's explained
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  to me about about the Odyssey. It's very intriguing, but tell
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  us more. Yeah, it's basically
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  intellectual, you know, intellectually proving the
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  goodness of God. And despite the evidence we have
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  in the world of, you know, the problem of evil, the suffering,
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  the injustice, you know, it certainly seems that God is
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  either hiding and caring or incapable of, you know, running
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  things differently. So there's a apparently it's a
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  whole scholarly field in Christian and, and and and
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  other, you know, religions of vindicating God.
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  But the but I thought that it's spelled theodicy like like
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  Homer's Odyssey. So I'm like, Hey, how cool would
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  it be if the journey of grappling with these big
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  questions that prevent people from believing in God was an
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  actual journey, a person moving through a symbolic landscape
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  where monsters and obstacles are trying to like, snuff out their
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  their flame of, of faith. And then I learned it's spelled
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  differently. I'm like, holy crap, that was a
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  mistake. But it was a really nice
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  mistake. I'm glad.
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  It's funny how this creative stuff happens, you know,
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  sometimes unexpected. Yeah, the, so it's also a very
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  plain language. It's it's a real language.
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  You're just kind of talking the way that you explain it.
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  You're the, the, the very, I always hate to do this, but at
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  the very end you have kind of an unusual epilogue, more of a call
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  to action. And I want to find it so that I
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  can kind of read it. But give me the essence of this
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  book. What do you want people to get
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  out of it? The ultimate goal is to bring
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  people to God and that ultimate place we hear and in you be
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  where their their will becomes the will of God.
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  Essentially the alignment with the spirit within right and I
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  know it sounds esoteric, but in in reality, it's actually not
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  that complex, right. All the things of the spirit,
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  truth, beauty and goodness, they're not of this world.
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  They're they're not they cannot be arrived through pure sort of
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  evolution right. It needs it needs this
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  connection with the spirit. And this is, I'm sure you, you
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  know this well, this is the beginning of a long, long
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  journey of travelling God word, right?
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  We're, we're evolving on this physical world, you know, beyond
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  our, our, our physicality to something luminous and, and
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  internal. So ultimately I want people to
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  connect with God, right? It sounds very simple, but it's,
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  it's actually not. It's simple to understand but
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  complex to achieve, especially when you start talking about
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  indwelling spirit and all the limitations of their gesture and
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  how it speaks to the mind, you know?
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  Yeah, there's sorry, go ahead. Now, I wanted to sort of on that
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  note from from your book on paper 126, you write on a cleric
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  confusion. I love your little cleric
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  confusions that you put into the book that little like excerpts
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  and you talk about the religion of the spirit.
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  You say it's a deeply personal living experience based on a
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  direct relationship with God rather than on rituals, sacred
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  books, or religious values. It transforms an individual's
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  life from the inside out, naturally expressing itself
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  through sincere kindness, moral courage, and unselfish service
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  to others. That's pretty good, plain speak
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  and it doesn't delve too deep, but at the same time, there's
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  there's such a ring of truth to these kinds of things that you
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  you put in the book. I think that's why I like the
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  book. It makes you take the complex
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  and and kind of make it sort of simple.
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  Was it was that? That yeah, that was, that was my
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  whole goal. And you know, the, the analogy I
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  like to use is inside the tent teaching and, and outside the
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  tent teaching, kind of referencing what Jesus taught to
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  the public versus what he taught his, you know, disciples and
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  apostles inside the tent. It was very advanced truths,
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  right? And I think they, they've missed
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  a lot of them because of that, right?
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  But he, when Jesus went out in the public, it was symbolism, it
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  was metaphor. It was very plain kind of
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  language, you know, you know, father, sonship, kinship, right
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  family. He saved the deep cosmological
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  philosophical stuff for inside the tent.
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  When the person is secure, you know, secured in the Kingdom,
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  and then they come to you with deeper questions, that's when
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  you can unload the sea of glass and, you know, purple morontia
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  trees and just go all out. But don't open with that.
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  You know, it's like it's like blasting people with a fire
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  hose. You're going to blow their, you
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  know, inklings of curiosity away with all that stuff.
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  You know, celestial stuff. Somebody said the other day that
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  we have the emotion of the caveman, the intellect of a 17th
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  century intellectual and the in the technology of God.
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  That's a dangerous that's a dangerous combination there.
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  But it is true because you do and, and Jesus taught this to
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  his disciples and apostles talk to people in their own language.
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  Don't try to don't try to beat him over the head with, you
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  know, this bright concept. It it's, it's blinding.
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  It can be blinding. I want to find your epilogue
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  because there was a part of it that kind of jumped out at me.
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  But the, again, the name of the book is Carl's Theodicy and it
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  is out now. And how will people be able to
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  get it once it's, well, how can we get a copy?
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  It's. Going to be on Amazon.
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  That you buy a copy of this book and give it to your friends.
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  That you want to know about the Urantia book, and if they like
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  this book, they'll probably dig on the Urantia book.
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  Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I was going to share that in in
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  in my notes but I forgot. This is also the reason why I
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  wrote it is because there isn't like something I can give to a
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  friend or Co worker that may be interested that I'm comfortable
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  with. I can't send them to the
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  truthbook.org or to the Urantia Foundation.
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  I can't give them the book. I've tried that several times
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  and I get just crickets and silence because, you know, it's,
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  it's overwhelming it. Is overwhelming.
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  What it, what is, what can they give them either website or
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  something or book that I'm comfortable with that's going to
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  nudge them a little bit forward. So.
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  So yeah, what was your other question?
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  I forgot. Oh, just how do we get a copy of
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  your book? Oh yeah, so Amazon is my only
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  distribution channel right now. I'm working on audiobook as
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  well, and I have a website, carlfindsgod.com.
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  There's a mailing list if if you want to join and see when the
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  next thing is out. I'd love to kind of build a
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  group of my people, but yeah, it's going to be available on
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  Amazon primarily. You write in your book the
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  epilogue. It says before you lies the
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  greatest of all opportunities, a chance to contribute to the
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  spiritual evolution of this planet, to live in a way that,
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  multiplied across enough lives, quietly builds a little more
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  heaven on earth. By choosing to wrestle with God,
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  by courageously following the leadings of your spirit, you've
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  joined something. Not an organization, not a
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  movement with a name and a membership role, but a kinship,
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  A scattered unofficial fellowship of man and women in
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  every nation and every tradition.
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  And in no tradition at all, all who have heard the same quiet
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  call and turn to answer it. You may not even have known they
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  were there. They are, and you're now one of
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  them. I just think that's so simple.
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  And the truth is simple. And for you, Nicholas, I
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  appreciate you taking a few minutes to talk about it.
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  It's a great book. So you going to write another
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  one? Oh yeah, Carl finds Jesus and
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  something for the kids, kids books as well.
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  That's not sure what, but Jesus might might be next.
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  But it's a it's a whole different ball game of of
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  complexity. We'll see.
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  We'll see what happens all. Right.
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  Well, we'll have you on as a frequent guess if you're up for
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  it and you know, we appreciate you too.
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  So again, if you want to go to his website and you're, what is
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  it? Carl finds God or Carls, the
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  odyssey dot dot com. OK, All right.
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  Well, thank you, my friend and I.
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  Look, it's good to meet you. I hope we can talk again soon.
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  And with that, you know how to reach me.
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  We are always available to you if you have a comment or
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  question you ranchoradio.org. Until next time, be of good
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  cheer. We'll talk to you again soon.