The Indian poet Kabir once said, “Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer. Many deceptive preachers, when critically examined, turn out to be false.”

Carl Sagan articulated a scientific principle that I followed as I studied works claiming to be prophecy or revelation, such as The Urantia Book (The UB). To Sagan, the virtue of the scientific approach was that it was, “a self-correcting enterprise. To be accepted, all new ideas must survive rigorous standards of evidence,” including being, “consistent with the facts.” (Cosmos, p. 91) Albert Einstein added a more expansive view. He too respected the facts but looked to religion to establish “the goals and values.” Einstein felt, “the most important function of … science was to awaken the cosmic religious feeling (fr. Religion and Science).” Concerning this partnership between science and religion (and philosophy), the philosopher John Locke suggested, “Revelation must be judged of by reason.” Even the Apostle Paul urged us to “Test everything; hold on to what is good (Thessalonians, 5:21).”

Jesus applied a practical test that went further; he sought to discover values in action, embracing a concept of fruitfulness that he would return to in later teachings—“by their fruits you shall know them [the false prophets],” (Matthew 7:16). “As the years passed, this young carpenter [Jesus] of Nazareth increasingly measured every institution of society and every usage of religion by the unvarying test: What does it do for the human soul? does it bring God to man? does it bring man to God?” (126:2.5)

Be glad our book is challenged by thoughtful people. It is not The UB’s authority as a revelation that is so important as our own conviction of truth based on personal experience. My hope in the revelation revives when I hear truths gleaned from The UB revealed in our spontaneous conversations, when the authority of the believer springs from the heart to triumph over the authority of a quote from the book.

Because of my well-honed faith in the scientific approach to truth, I tried to test The UB in the Sagan way. When brave enough to question the mythology handed down by our UB forebears, I constantly correlated the information in the book with what was known in human traditions sometimes with surprising results. In the 1990’s when allegations about borrowings made to the text began, I painstakingly faced them head on, to examine where they might have occurred, to seek an explanation of what looked like plagiarisms. I liked Meredith Sprunger’s response to Martin Gardner: http://www.urantiabook.org/archive/mjs_archive/mjs_purpose_of_revelation.htm. Some readers hold on to the belief we received a sacrosanct, perfect text, though statements in The UB contradict the idea. “A new revelation is always contaminated by the older evolutionary beliefs, “(93:7.4, Pg. 1022), or as Jesus confided to Nathaniel in a private conversation, “Nothing which human nature has touched can be regarded as infallible.” (159.4.8, Pg. 1768) In “the religion papers” we find, “Revelation is validated only by human experience.” (101.2.8; p. 1106)

I hear readers freely use the term “revelation,” but shouldn’t we pause to wonder if we detect the ghost of a fundamentalist desire to proclaim an inerrant scripture lurking? Inerrancy, infallibility, was the first one of the Five Fundamentals agreed on at the Presbyterian General Assembly in 1910 which became the foundation of the fundamentalist churches. “To become fetishes, words had to be considered inspired, and the invocation of supposed divinely inspired writings led directly to the establishment of the authority of the church.” (88:2.10)

The church I used to attend, The Episcopal Church, arrived at what might be called an enlightened view of the Bible; they generally do not conform to the fundamentalist position on inerrancy of their text. However, the viewpoint regarding sacred texts often depends on the leadership of the individual parish.

Here is how Father Carl Hansen of Carmel, California (rector 1987-2005), spoke to his Episcopalian congregation about this issue, “The Bible is the truth, not because it contains no human errors, but because the one who is truth speaks to us through the imperfections of our humanity. …When the Bible is treated as God’s inerrant word, it becomes an excuse for Christians to say that we have the truth and no one else does…it becomes a weapon to use against others, to deny their dignity as children of God and to suggest that God will torture them eternally unless they become one of us…it becomes our god, an idol, and we substitute it for a relationship with the living Lord.” (from his column, Friends in Faith)

To insist on the inerrancy of The UB would repeat the error made by the religion “about Jesus” (195:10.15) that preceded us.

Do you find errors, contradictions, discrepancies in the Fifth Epochal revelation, The UB, alongside the eternal truths? We must use our rational minds and apply the hammer to the diamond. See if it bears the hits and truth comes up shining. For those with faith in the indwelling divine spirit, usually described as the Thought Adjuster in The UB, we look to our spiritual helper to be our radar, to resonate with support when we read a passage that holds meaning. “Does the UB speak to my heart?” And if it speaks from one of the human sources included in the book, the truth in the insight is still undiminished.

The fact that The UB is imperfect doesn’t mean it isn’t what it says it is, the Fifth Epochal Revelation (92:4.9). That the community survived challenges to the book’s authenticity gave me hope that we were following Jesus’ guidance to true religion, a religion of the spirit. “The old religion was motivated by fear-consciousness; the new gospel of the kingdom is dominated by truth-conviction, the spirit of eternal and universal truth. And no amount of piety or creedal loyalty can compensate for the absence in the life experience of kingdom believers of that spontaneous, generous, and sincere friendliness which characterizes the spirit-born sons of the living God.” (180:5.12)

The revelation must live in us, or we cannot make a revelation to others. The UB’s most relevant message to the world today is the call to support the faith of a true believer versus the authority of an institution and/or the infallibility of a text. The individual who builds on personal religious experience, follows the authority of the heart, allows others the freedom to undertake the same adventure. Jesus referred to the heart when he gave his apostles “the teaching that true religion was man’s heartfelt loyalty to his highest and truest convictions.” (155.3.5)

Seeking God is the greatest human endeavor. Jesus advised the apostles of “the perils of intellectual discovery…struggle, conflict,” fraught with, “mental uncertainties” and foretold an “uncertain and troublous future.” (155:5.10) Mistakes are made along the way, yet it is important to be on the journey.

Jesus used the heart metaphor again when he said to his apostles, (157:2.2, p. 1745) “There can be no peace in the heart or progress in the mind unless you fall wholeheartedly in love with truth.” As another author added later, (195, 5, 14, p. 2076) “Love is the true guide to real insight.”