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Lessons on Family, Home Life and Civilization · Urantia Radio

0:00
Well, it's good to have you back.
0:01
Welcome to another edition of the Arrancha Radio Podcast.
0:04
It's where we talk about the 5th Epochal Revelation.
0:08
My name is Jim. I'm a long time reader and
0:10
student of the Arrancha book, so I love sharing all kinds of
0:14
anecdotes and topical studies of the revelation and what it
0:18
teaches us. And I'm so thrilled to have you
0:21
with me. In a moment, we're going to be
0:22
talking specifically about marriage and family life and why
0:27
it's so important. And there's a lot that we'll
0:31
talk about, a lot that we'll cover, and it will be
0:34
interesting to you. And I think that you'll really
0:37
appreciate even more so if you're a new reader to the
0:41
Uranche book, or even if you're not a reader at all.
0:45
We welcome people from all faiths and from people from no
0:47
faiths. This is an educational
0:49
experience and hopefully spiritually uplifting to you as
0:52
well. So in light of a lot of the
0:55
troubles that are going on in the world today, we are going to
0:59
focus specifically on marriage and family life and I think
1:02
it'll be a good journey. I also want to mention that
1:05
there's an upcoming session that's going on that's caught my
1:08
eye, thanks to the folks over at the fellowship.
1:14
There's a Urantia study session coming up July 24th through the
1:18
27th. It will be at Unity Village in
1:21
Missouri or Missouri as they say.
1:24
And if you go to urantiabook.org, you can find
1:28
out more information and you can register, find out all about the
1:32
accommodations and what it's all about.
1:35
I'll even give you a phone number.
1:36
It's 303-467-7858. That's again 303-467-7858.
1:47
Or you can go to the website yourrancherradio.net and look up
1:51
the connections and you'll find it.
1:52
It's coming up in July, and it should be a lot of fun.
1:56
It's about how to share the teachings and the truths of the
1:59
Urantia Book. And I know a lot of Urantia book
2:02
readers. It's it's it's not as easy as it
2:05
sounds. And the first urge I had when I
2:09
started reading The Urantia Book was that I wanted to tell people
2:12
about it. And so imagine you'll go to a
2:15
study session and talk to all kinds of people who have gone
2:18
through that same experience, and there's going to be some
2:21
sharing of knowledge, I'm sure. Should I give out the number
2:24
again? OK, it's 303-467-7858 and we'll
2:31
get underway with our topic of discussion, which is marriage
2:35
and family life. This time up on the Urantia
2:37
Radio Podcast. Well, I hope you got yourself a
2:59
nice cup of coffee or some tea, and let's delve right into our
3:03
topic of discussion this time up.
3:05
It's about marriage and family life, something that I've
3:08
learned a lot in reading the Arantia book.
3:11
And this particular series of papers talks about the
3:15
importance of family. Many of our current social
3:18
problems we'll never, ever get fixed if we don't first address
3:22
the breakdown of the family. In Western civilization, this is
3:26
an important topic. Broken homes, materialism,
3:29
Whatever the social disease, anything that tampers with or
3:33
thwarts the institutions of marriage will ultimately
3:36
threaten society. We know this to be true, but
3:40
let's see what our revelatory Commission has delivered into
3:43
our hands on this specific matter.
3:45
And this is just one of many illustrations of what the
3:48
Urantia Book offers to humanity. Frank statements we should
3:52
consider and learn from in the Urantia Book.
3:55
Now the author of this paper, and I think it's important to
3:58
note the author author because it gives you a little bit of
4:02
background as to what their source of knowledge is.
4:06
And it's interesting, if you ever want to do it as an
4:08
exercise, when you read the any paper in the Urantia Book,
4:14
whoever the author is, do a word search and and read up on what
4:18
that author author's background might be.
4:21
So, for example, in this particular paper that we're
4:24
about to explore, it was written by a chief of Seraphim of our
4:27
planet. So this is an actual Angel who
4:31
wrote, it's not just an Angel, it's the chief of all the
4:34
angels. And he was, he was asked by
4:38
Gabriel and the errant, revelatory Commission, hey, you
4:41
have all this information about how marriage evolved over the
4:46
thousands of years, all the different phases that it went
4:51
to, the nature of the relationship between men and
4:54
women, evolutionary men and women, and all the customs.
4:57
So if you start reading the first couple of papers on this
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paper 83 and 84, you really get a historical knowledge of how
5:09
how this whole institution evolved and what purpose it
5:12
serves in in society and particularly in advancing
5:16
civilization. So these are important lessons
5:19
and I'll get, I'll leave it to you to read, but I just want to
5:23
share some highlights with you because I even think from this
5:26
brief sort of cherry picking, there's a lot to be learned.
5:29
So let's get through some of it. So first of all, in paper 83, it
5:34
starts with this statement. Marriage is enduring.
5:37
It is not inherent in biological evolution, but it is the basis
5:42
of all social evolution and is therefore certain of continued
5:45
existence in some form. Marriage has given mankind the
5:49
home institution, and the home is the crowning glory of the
5:54
whole long and arduous evolutionary struggle.
5:59
In Paper 83, it says the high degree of imagination and
6:03
fantastic romance entering into courtship is largely responsible
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for the increasing divorce tendencies among modern
6:11
Occidental peoples, all of which is further complicated by
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women's greater personal freedom and increased economic liberty.
6:20
Easy divorce when the results of lack of self-control or failure
6:25
of normal personality adjustment only leads directly back to
6:29
those crude societal stages from which men has emerged so
6:32
recently and as a result of so much personal anguish and racial
6:37
suffering. So even in 1934 and 1935, this
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the Seraphim is pointing out that there's a problem starting
6:46
to emerge in the Occidental peoples with regard to marriage
6:52
and romance. Entering into courtship is also
6:57
setting up a sort of a red flag, because if people engage in
7:02
marriage simply for romance and courtship, then it doesn't have
7:06
that undergird of strength. And so that's what's leading to
7:12
divorce. It's this illusion or
7:13
disillusionment. It also says from Paper 83, But
7:18
just so long as society fails to properly educate children and
7:22
youth, so long as the social order fails to provide adequate
7:26
premarital training, and so long as unwise and immature youthful
7:32
idealism is to be the arbiter of the entrance upon marriage.
7:36
Just so long will divorce remain prevalent.
7:39
So we in the in our society. I interpret that to mean that we
7:43
have to take a look at what it is that we want out of marriage
7:46
and why are we entering into it. And they're saying that the
7:50
reason the divorce is so high is because many people are entering
7:53
into it under false pretenses. It's important because it
7:57
explains why we're having the breakdown.
7:59
I mean, I I read 50%, maybe 60% of all marriages in America end
8:04
up in divorce. So that tells you that there's
8:07
there's, there's a something that we're not taking into
8:10
account when we enter into the idea of marriage.
8:16
From a paper 82, it says while religious, social and
8:19
educational institutions are all essential to the survival of
8:24
culturalization, the family is the master civilizer.
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A child learns most of the essentials of life from his
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family and the neighbors. Today, the human race or races
8:37
possesses a rich social and cultural heritage, and it should
8:41
be wisely and effectively passed on to succeeding generations.
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The family, as an educational institution, must be maintained
8:53
also from paper 82. Hybridization of superior and
8:58
dissimilar stocks is the secret of the creation of new and more
9:03
vigorous strains, and this is true of plants, animals, and the
9:08
human species. Hybridization augments vigor and
9:12
increases fertility. Race mixtures of the average or
9:16
superior strains of various people greatly increases
9:20
creative potential, as is shown in the present population of the
9:24
United States of North America from paper 82, that same
9:30
section. Race blending greatly
9:31
contributes to the sudden appearance of new
9:34
characteristics, and if such hybridization is the union of
9:38
superior strains, then these new characteristics will also be
9:42
superior traits. For the past 100 years, more
9:48
racial hybridization has been taking place on Urantia than has
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occurred in thousands of years. The danger of gross disharmonies
9:55
as a result of crossbreeding of human stocks has been greatly
9:59
exaggerated. The chief troubles of half
10:02
breeds are due more so to social prejudices.
10:07
From Paper 83, marriage has been many times in jeopardy and the
10:10
marriage mores have drawn heavily on both property and
10:14
religion for support. But the real influence which
10:17
forever safeguards marriage and the result in family, is the
10:21
simple and innate biological fact that men and women
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positively will not live without each other, be they the most
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primitive savages or the most cultural mortals. 83 it reads.
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The family, which grows out of marriage, is itself a stabilizer
10:39
of the marriage institution, together with a property mores.
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More potent factors in marriage stability are pride, vanity,
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chivalry, duty, and religious convictions.
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Marriage is an institution of society, not a department of
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church. True, religion should mighty
10:58
mightily influence it, but should not undertake exclusively
11:02
to control and regulate it, the chief of Seraphim writes in
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Paper 83, Section 6. Monogamy is monopoly.
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It is good for those who attain the desirable state, but it
11:16
tends to work a biological hardship on those who are not so
11:20
fortunate. But quite regardless of the
11:22
effect on the individual, monogamy is decidedly best for
11:26
the children, and it kind of goes into this paper 83, Section
11:32
6. And even though they don't
11:34
properly identify it as we would today, what would include the
11:39
LGBTQ community? You can sense from the chief of
11:42
Seraphim that that he's addressing that there are
11:44
certain people in society, for whatever reason, don't fit.
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And I take that to mean that they're talking about people who
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might have sexual dysfunction, people who are emotionally
11:55
dysfunctional, people who come from horrible backgrounds, and
11:58
they just can't connect emotionally with other human
12:00
beings. And so they addressed this issue
12:03
head on. And I think it's bolded in many
12:06
ways, even far, far advancing. It's thinking because it's
12:10
addressing some of the issues that we're having today in
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society with all these different kinds of family units.
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So the writer writes, while pursuing the mono monogamic goal
12:22
of the ideal parent paramarriage, which is after all
12:26
something of a monopolistic sex association, society must not
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overlook the unenviable situation of those unfortunate
12:34
men and women who failed to find a place in this new and improved
12:39
social order, even when having done their best to cooperate
12:43
with and enter into its requirements.
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Failure to gain mates in the social arena of competition may
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be due to insurmountable difficulties or multi to Dunatus
12:54
restrictions, which are the current mores and what they have
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imposed. Truly monogamy is ideal for
13:00
those who are in, but it must inevitably work great hardship
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for those who are left out in the cold of solitary existence.
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Monogamy is the art stick which measures the advance of social
13:13
civilization as distinguished from purely biologic evolution.
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Monogamy is not necessarily biologic or natural, but it is
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indispensable to the immediate maintenance and further
13:26
development of social civilization.
13:29
It contributes to a delicacy of sentiment, a refinement of moral
13:33
character, and a spiritual growth which are utterly
13:36
impossible in polygamy. From Paper 83, Section 8, The
13:41
Ideals of Marriage have made great progress in recent times.
13:46
Among some peoples, women enjoy practically equal rights with
13:49
their consort. In concept at least, the family
13:53
is becoming a loyal partnership for rearing offspring
13:57
accompanied by sexual fidelity. But even this newer version of
14:00
marriage need not presume to swing so far to the extreme as
14:05
to confer mutual monopoly of all personality and individuality.
14:10
Marriage is not just an individualistic ideal.
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It is the evolving social partnership of a man and a
14:17
woman, existing and functioning of the current mores, restricted
14:22
by the taboos and enforced by the laws and regulations of
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society. So it's here.
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Remember, this book was written in 34.
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Again, they're forecasting that marriage is going to start
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evolving. It used to be based on tradition
14:36
and all kinds of tribal mores and taboos, but now it's what is
14:40
it becoming? It's becoming a true partnership
14:43
between a male and a female who've chosen to go through life
14:47
together and have a family and produce a family of children who
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learn from that parental example.
14:56
Here, they write in Paper 83, Section 8, paragraph. 920th
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century marriages stand high in comparison with those of past
15:04
ages notwithstanding, if the home institution is now
15:08
undergoing a serious testing because of the problem so
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suddenly thrust upon the social organization by the precipitate
15:17
augmentation of women's liberties and rights so long
15:21
denied her in the tardy evolution of the mores of past
15:24
generations. So what's challenging the home
15:27
institution are all these rights now and it's causing a shift in
15:34
in the dynamics of the male and the female in the in the
15:37
relationship and they're saying though that marriage stands in
15:40
high comparison but well now we need new tools.
15:43
We need a new attitude. We need a new perspective and
15:45
understanding what that what that relationship entails when
15:49
when now you have women and men who have all of these these
15:53
rights that have suddenly been thrust upon them.
15:55
So in 80 paper 84 it writes the modern idea of sex equality is
16:00
beautiful and worthy of an expanding civilization but it is
16:04
not found in nature. When might is right, man Lords
16:07
over women. When more justice, peace, and
16:10
fairness prevail, she gradually emerges from slavery and
16:13
obscurity. Women's social position has
16:16
generally varied inversely with a degree of militarism in any
16:20
nation or age from Paper 84 or Section 5.
16:25
But man did not consciously or intentionally seize women's
16:29
rights and then gradually and grudgingly give them back to
16:32
her. All this was unconscious and
16:35
unplanned as an episode of social evolution.
16:39
When the time really came for women to enjoy added rights, she
16:42
got them and all, quite regardless of man's conscious
16:46
attitude. Slowly but surely, the mores
16:49
changed so as to provide for those social adjustments which
16:53
are a part of the persistent evolution of civilization.
16:56
The advancing mores slowly provided increasingly better
17:00
treatment for females. Those tribes which persisted in
17:03
cruelty to them did not survive Paper 84 Science, not religion,
17:09
really emancipated woman. It was the modern factory which
17:14
largely set her free from the confines of the home.
17:18
Man's physical abilities became no longer a vital essential in
17:22
the new maintenance mechanism. Science so changed the
17:26
conditions of living that manpower was no longer so
17:29
superior to woman. Power.
17:33
From Paper 84, Section 5, paragraph 10, in the Ideals of
17:37
Paramarriage, woman has finally won recognition, dignity,
17:41
independence, equality and education.
17:43
But will she prove worthy of all this new and unprecedented
17:47
accomplishment? Will modern woman respond to
17:49
this great achievement of social liberation with idleness,
17:53
indifference, barrenness and infidelity?
17:57
Today, in the 20th century, woman is undergoing the crucial
18:00
test of her long world existence.
18:04
You know, the Urantia Book, I have to think less than a dozen
18:07
times. There are exclamation points,
18:10
and there's an exclamation point after that statement.
18:13
Today, in the 20th century, woman is undergoing the crucial
18:16
test of her long world existence.
18:20
Exclamation point, Paper 84, Section 5, paragraph 11, it
18:26
reads. Woman is man's equal partner in
18:29
race reproduction. Hence, just as important at the
18:31
unfolding of racial evolution, therefore, has evolution
18:35
increasingly worked toward the realization of women's rights.
18:39
But women's rights are by no means men's rights.
18:42
Women cannot thrive on man's rights any more than man can
18:46
prosper on women's rights. These are very important
18:49
statements that are being made at a time when suffrage is was
18:53
less than 20 years old. Women having the right to vote
18:56
and a lot of the tension going on and the factions that go into
19:00
the disintegration of marriage and family life are being
19:04
addressed in these in these writings here from paper 84,
19:07
male and female are practically regarded 2 distinct varieties of
19:12
the same species living in close and intimate association.
19:16
Their viewpoints and their entire life reactions are
19:19
essentially different. They are wholly incapable of
19:22
full and real comprehension of each other.
19:26
Complete understanding between the sexes is not attainable.
19:30
This is coming from a chief of Seraphim, and they've seen a
19:33
lot. I'm sure that's what they do.
19:35
They observe human behavior. Paper 84, section Six Women seem
19:40
to have more intuition than men, but they also appear to be
19:43
somewhat less logical. Woman, however, has always been
19:47
the moral standard bearer and the spiritual leader of mankind.
19:52
The hand that rocks the cradle still fraternizes with destiny.
19:57
The difference in viewpoint between male and female persist
20:00
even beyond the first life. And throughout the local and
20:04
super universe ascensions, marriage is an institution
20:09
designed to compose sex differences, meanwhile affecting
20:14
the continuation of civilization and ensuring the reproduction of
20:18
the race. Paper 84, section 6, paragraph
20:22
eight. Marriage is the mother of all
20:25
human institutions, for it leads directly to the home founding
20:30
and home maintenance, which is the structural basis of society.
20:35
The family is linked to the mechanisms of self maintenance.
20:39
It is the sole hope of race perpetuation under the mores of
20:43
civilization, while at the same time it is most effectively
20:47
provide certain high satisfactory forms of self
20:51
gratification. The family is man's greatest
20:53
purely human achievement, combining as it does the
20:57
evolution, the biologic relations of male and female
21:01
with the social relations of husband and wife.
21:04
The hunger of the soul cannot be satisfied with physical
21:07
pleasures. The love of home and children is
21:10
not augmented by the unwise pursuit of pleasure.
21:14
Though you exhaust the resources of art, color, sound, rhythm,
21:18
music, the dormant of person, you cannot hope thereby to
21:22
elevate the soul or to nourish the spirit.
21:27
Vanity and fashion cannot minister to home building and
21:31
child culture. Pride and rivalry are powerless
21:35
to enhance the survival qualities of succeeding
21:38
generations. Paper 84, Section 8, paragraph
21:42
5. Advancing celestial beings all
21:45
enjoy rest and the ministry of the reversion directors.
21:49
All efforts to obtain wholesome diversion and to engage in
21:53
uplifting play and sound refreshing sleep, rest,
21:57
recreation at all pastimes which prevent the boredom of monotony
22:01
are worthwhile. What they're saying here in
22:03
these two paragraphs is addressing what's happening.
22:06
I think in culture today people are narcissists.
22:08
They're completely self absorbed.
22:11
Everything is centered around vanity and and often I was
22:15
telling my son this, you'll hear this often all the time.
22:17
Empowerment, self empowerment, to the degree where basically it
22:22
becomes the obsession of self, That's what they're that's what
22:25
they're saying here is that all of these things work against the
22:29
family. If they are distracting people
22:32
from the importance of family life and the satisfaction that
22:36
you get out of family life, and then all these other things are
22:40
attempts to have that same satisfaction, but they only
22:43
serve to undermine the integrity of the family unit.
22:46
I think that's what they're saying.
22:48
And then they go on to say that, you know, even in celestial
22:51
life, we're all entitled to rest.
22:53
We're all entitled to reversion, recreation, refreshing sleep.
22:59
But they're not intended to take the place of the real
23:02
achievements that are that are accomplished in family life.
23:07
And, and this is an important thing too, from Paper 84, let
23:12
man enjoy himself. Let the human races find
23:14
pleasure in 1001 ways. Let evolutionary mankind explore
23:19
all forms of legitimate self gratification, the fruits of the
23:23
long upward biological struggle. Man has well earned some of his
23:28
present day joys and pleasures, but look you well to the goal of
23:32
destiny. Pleasures are indeed suicidal if
23:35
they succeed in destroying property, which has become the
23:39
institution of self maintenance. And self gratifications have
23:43
indeed cost a fatal price If they bring about the collapse of
23:48
marriage, the decadence of family life, and the destruction
23:52
of the home, man's supreme evolutionary acquirement and
23:57
civilization's only hope of survival.
24:02
I'll close with this. AUS Congressman made a salient
24:04
point recently at a nationally televised conference, and he was
24:08
talking about the current state of family in the United States.
24:12
And he said that no one comes from a perfect family, but it
24:16
shouldn't mean the family shouldn't be preserved as an
24:19
important institution of society.
24:22
It's where all the great lessons come from, and no other
24:25
institution can better prepare men and women for the long
24:29
journey ahead in this world and the next.
24:33
Indeed, the Holy Trinity of the deities is really the First
24:36
Family. It is the model of existence.
24:39
We also see it in the Creator Son and the Divine Spirit and
24:43
the Jubilee of Jubilees. And we're learning here from
24:46
this Chief of Seraphim that those societies that treat
24:50
family as being precious and worth preserving endure far
24:55
longer than those societies that do not.
24:58
There is no way the Western society can survive unless we
25:02
change course and fight to preserve family, not only in the
25:06
United States, but the entirety of Western culture.
25:10
And that's where we'll leave it. Any comments that you have
25:13
Urantia Radio, I'm always happy to hear from you and I thank all
25:16
those people and I always try to respond the e-mail address
25:20
urantiabookradio@gmail.com and I hope that you've enjoyed this
25:25
segment of the Urantia Radio Podcast.
25:27
Until next time, thank you for stopping by.
25:30
If I were a Carpenter, you were a lady.
25:37
Would you marry me anyway to have my baby?
25:45
The tinker were my train. Would you still find me carrying
25:53
pots of me? Fall behind me.
26:02
Save my love through loneliness. Save my love through smile.
26:10
I give you my holiness. Give you to my If I were my
26:23
hands and would oh would you still love me.
26:29
Answer me babe. Yes, I would.
26:32
I put you for. Me.
26:36
There's nowhere on my train out of new wheel grinding.
26:42
Would you miss your color box? Oh, you're such a shining.
26:52
Save my love through loneliness. Save my love through sorrow.
26:58
I'll give you my own name. Come give me your tomorrow.