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Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery

av Martin Gardner

MedlemmarRecensionerPopularitetGenomsnittligt betygOmnämnanden
423593,071 (3.5)1
"Martin Gardner, one of America's most acclaimed science writers, has here compiled the first complete history of a growing, modern religious cult. Gardner traces the cult's beginnings back to its "bible," The Urantia Book, a book supposedly revealed solely by celestial beings to correct the flaws in the traditional Bible. Published in 1955 under the direction of cult leader Dr. William Sadler, The Urantia Book (Urantia is the cult's name for the earth) is the largest work ever said to have been channeled by unseen higher beings through human contacts. It differs from earlier channeled "bibles" in that it contains a vast amount of modern science as well as a detailed biography of Jesus Christ, complete with facts not found in the Gospels. As a result, many scientists and scholars are dedicated Urantians." "In addition to discussing the beliefs of the Urantia cult, Gardner reveals two major developments that threaten to splinter the movement. The first is a sectarian rift that has split the movement into two major competing factions. The second is the growing belief of hundreds of Urantians that they, too, are receiving their own messages from the celestials, who they claim are preparing Urantia for a new revelation intended to usher in a utopia of "light and life." Such secondary revelations are seen as jeopardizing the authority of The Urantia Book. Among the other topics addressed are the extent to which Seventh-day Adventist beliefs influenced the writing of The Urantia Book, the flaws in Urantian science, and allegations of plagiarism on the part of the authors of The Urantia Book."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (mer)
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    Strange Creations: Aberrant Ideas of Human Origins from Ancient Astronauts to Aquatic Apes av Donna Kossy (kswolff)
    kswolff: The Urantia Book makes an appearance in Donna Kossy's look into strange creation beliefs.
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Picking up a book by an interesting author on an interesting subject would lead one to expect the book would not be tedious. In the case of this work, one would be wrong. Over long, and larded with unnecessary and boring details (for instance, who in the world is interested in every single address that Dr. William Sadler lived in before he finally arrived at 533 Diversey, where the Urantia Foundation is headquartered?), this book is not for those who want to find their reading fascinating. Nearly half of the book deals with Seventh-Day Adventists, which could have been pared to a fraction of the length. It is important to deal with some basic Adventist doctrine and history, since Gardner is making the point that Urantia is based heavily in Adventism, but seriously, most of what he discusses is simply irrelevant, and not particularly interesting. This should have been a fascinating read, but he spent way too much time on such things, and the 400+ page book reads like a college freshman in many ways, including some nasty editing errors, and some scientific errors that make you cringe. Mitosis? Nope, what he described was Meiosis. Seem like a nitpick? Not when you're exploring the science of a text and considering yourself more up on modern science than those who lived before certain things were discovered. So take it or leave it; there are interesting bits, which is why it got the amount of stars it did, but not worth the number of hours of my life I committed to it, constantly hoping it would get better (from experience with the author, mostly). ( )
  Devil_llama | Apr 24, 2018 |
Ugh. I have read other works by this author, and find him a trustworthy historian. My issues with this book are not about what he has to say, but about how he structures the book for readability (or lack thereof). The first few chapters are great. I grew up in the Seventh Day Adventist church community, and am familiar with Ellen White's writings, as well as the Adventist teachings, and I read the Urantia Book while acting out in middle school (yes, I read the whole thing). I thought back then that the Urantia book was amusing, entertaining, but quite a waste of someone's time. The poor author(s) of that massive book put together lots of tedious detail about a fantasy realm that is supposed to be real, but reads like a bad fantasy novel out of the late 1800's. I knew nothing about the history of the Urantia movement back then, but I thought it was interesting how easily I could work out what ideas and imagery the Urantia Book was trying in its odd, wordy way to relate.

I found Gardner's book interesting at first because it turned out to be a history of the early Adventist church and its splinter groups, of which Urantia is one. No wonder I understood the Urantia Book so well. The history chapters are well-written and clearly well-researched. I had never heard anyone say that Ellen White plagiarized content from other authors for her books, nor had I heard any reasonable explanation as to how she, with the education and penmanship of a 3rd-grader, could write books like The Desire of Ages. I am sure many Adventists would prefer to stick proverbial fingers in their ears and remain in the dark on the information Gardner presents about Ellen White and her books. To discover that the authorship of the Urantia Book is similarly problematic is hardly surprising.

What I did not like about this book is the chapters on the proof of plagiarism, which are extremely tedious. Most believers in either sect would not bother reading these chapters too closely, and most non-believers would lose interest after the first paragraph of this section. I would have expected side-by-side comparisons between texts to belong in an appendix, not in chapters right smack in the middle of a history. Eventually the book returns to history, and while still tedious in places, the last few chapters regain the overall readability of the first part of the book. Reading the review blurbs on the back cover, I am sure that the first reviewer only read the first chapter, while the second waded all the way into the plagiarism topic before giving up.

So, overall, this book was slow and tedious and took forever to read, requiring many cups of coffee and lots of patience (coupled with judicious skimming after a while). I would recommend the first few and the last few chapters, though, as interesting 'comparative religions' history that I doubt most people know much about. ( )
  JBarringer | Dec 30, 2017 |
Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery
By Martin Gardner
Prometheus Books (1995)
Also consulted : Strange Creations: Aberrant Ideas of Human Origins from Ancient Astronauts to Aquatic Apes, by Donna Kossy
Review by Karl Wolff

"Every now and then, someone arises who attempts to make other people believe in the things which they see or hear in their own minds. Self-styled 'prophets' arise to convince us of the reality of their visions. Odd geniuses appear who tell us of the voices they hear, and if they seem fairy sane and socially conventional in every way, they are sometimes able to build up vast followings, to create cults, and establish churches; whereas, if they are too bold in their imaginings, if they seem a little too far or hear a little too much, they are promptly seized and quickly lodged within the confines of an insane asylum ..." The man who wrote that paragraph was Dr. William Sadler, who "would himself become the founder of a cult based on a revelation initially channeled through his sleeping brother-in-law!" Martin Gardner wrote that assessment in Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery. Gardner was a noted skeptic and scientist and a prolific writer.

But there is also a Chicago connection. The Urantia Foundation, the subject of Gardner's in-depth investigation, has its headquarters at 533 W Diversey Pkwy, Chicago, IL 60614. Gardner digressive book takes many detours on its journey to discovering who really wrote The Urantia Book. On its own, without historical or religious context, The Urantia Book appears like an odd religious texts. Over two-thousand pages long and filled with strange names, it could be seen as a Flash Gordon meets The Book of Mormon. While the latter sections become a lengthy re-imagining of Jesus's life and ministry, the early sections read like bureaucratic legalese. We learn that Earth (or, rather, Urantia) "is number 606 of a planetary group called Satania." Satania is in the constellation called Norlatiadek (headquarters: planet Edentia), itself the 70th world of the universe Nebadon, the 84th universe in the minor sector Ensa, which is the third major sector of the seventh sector superuniverse Orvonton. Confused yet?

How did such a fantastic and grandiose cosmology come about? Gardner traces William Sadler back to his connections with Dr. John Kellogg and Wilfred Custer Kellogg. The Michigan-based health advocates embraced a lifestyle of vegetarianism, hard beds, and cold baths. John Kellogg ran the famous Sanatarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. He combined his idiosyncratic view of health and wellness with a pious devotion to Seventh-Day Adventism. The Sadlers moved to Chicago where William Sadler's channeling activities began in 1912. The process of revelation involved the sleeper to dictate to a listener who would transcribe the message. These became known as The Papers. The Urantia Book has 196 divided into four parts.

In Gardner's account, he regales the reader with chapters debunking the science of the book. He details evidence of large-scale plagiarism along with The Urantia Foundation's institutional in-fighting, and "new revelations" from dissident Urantians. Before it lost a pivotal copyright case, the Urantia Foundation was as litigious and ruthless as Scientology. Now The Urantia Book is in the public domain.

While a certain amount of Gardner's debunking came across as a bit heavy-handed, he rightly criticized The Urantia Book for its espousal of racism and eugenics. Beneath a thin veneer of pulpy science fiction narrative lay a vicious racist heart. If this was a piece of science fiction, we could all shrug our shoulders and move on. But there are people who take the book literally, seeing the Papers are revealed by agents of the Gods. Luckily, Urantians only number in the thousands at the very most. They are an off-shoot of Seventh-Day Adventism, but only a very small one. Urantians usually hold small-scale discussion groups and seem relatively harmless. Since they are such a small cohort of believers, Gardner's relentless attack on the absurdity and irrational nature of their beliefs came across as rather mean and smug. Other more dangerous groups also tap into America's long-simmering history of racism and violence.

The Urantia Book is a problematic snarl of racism and outdated science. Yet at the same time it should also be celebrated (is that the right word?) as an epic product of the religious imagination. The Urantia Book is on par with another monumental work of religious eccentricity, Oahspe: A New Bible, written in 1892 by John Ballou Newbrough. Like the Urantians, Newbrough conceived of a sacred universe filled with planets and angels and divine messengers. The United States legal framework allowing for individual expression and a lack of an established church create an atmosphere conducive to divinely inspired oddballs. Don't like your church? Start your own!

http://www.cclapcenter.com/2016/07/american_odd_urantia_the_great.html ( )
1 rösta kswolff | Jul 15, 2016 |
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Wikipedia på engelska (3)

"Martin Gardner, one of America's most acclaimed science writers, has here compiled the first complete history of a growing, modern religious cult. Gardner traces the cult's beginnings back to its "bible," The Urantia Book, a book supposedly revealed solely by celestial beings to correct the flaws in the traditional Bible. Published in 1955 under the direction of cult leader Dr. William Sadler, The Urantia Book (Urantia is the cult's name for the earth) is the largest work ever said to have been channeled by unseen higher beings through human contacts. It differs from earlier channeled "bibles" in that it contains a vast amount of modern science as well as a detailed biography of Jesus Christ, complete with facts not found in the Gospels. As a result, many scientists and scholars are dedicated Urantians." "In addition to discussing the beliefs of the Urantia cult, Gardner reveals two major developments that threaten to splinter the movement. The first is a sectarian rift that has split the movement into two major competing factions. The second is the growing belief of hundreds of Urantians that they, too, are receiving their own messages from the celestials, who they claim are preparing Urantia for a new revelation intended to usher in a utopia of "light and life." Such secondary revelations are seen as jeopardizing the authority of The Urantia Book. Among the other topics addressed are the extent to which Seventh-day Adventist beliefs influenced the writing of The Urantia Book, the flaws in Urantian science, and allegations of plagiarism on the part of the authors of The Urantia Book."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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