Tribute to Ken Glasziou by Neil Francey, Brisbane
Ken Glasziou, one of our great Urantia friends, recently passed away at the grand age of 90. He is survived by his wife Betty, children, and grandchildren. A long term student of the book, Ken was known internationally for his contribution to revelatory thought. He was a scientist by profession and brought his critical thinking to the realm of religion. He was a keen churchgoer, enjoyed singing in the choir, and loved his horses. As a young man he was a valiant fighter in foreign lands for his country.
Ken leaves a treasure trove of writings on the most diverse range of subjects ever presented, with a particular interest in science and The Urantia Book. These are mostly contained in Innerface International, the journal he commenced at about 70 years of age. This legacy, which he has lovingly called Journal of the Brotherhood of Man Library, contains over five hundred of his articles.
Over the years, Ken and Betty conducted a study group in their home, and travelled widely to participate in conferences at home and abroad. Ken was also influential with his correspondence to many Urantia friends around the world.
By leading us into new areas of thought and presenting new challenges, Ken took us with him on his unique adventure. But above all, we fellow travelers shall remember his friendship, his smile, and the way he was thrilled by the revelation and the spiritual quest it inspired.
Ken founded the Innerface newsletter and dedicated many years to writing in-depth articles on topics arising from The Urantia Book. An extensive archive is available for ready reference at http://urantia-book.org/archive/newsletters/innerface/ and a sample from it on “Sincerity” is below:
The Spiritual Teachings of The Urantia Book: Synopsis, Part 3 Sincerity
The sincere religionist is conscious of universe citizenship and self-worth-a self that has surrendered to an all encompassing motivation that imposes heightened self-discipline, lessens emotional conflict, and makes mortal life truly worth living.
The morbid recognition of human limitations is changed to the natural consciousness of mortal shortcomings that is associated with moral determination and the spiritual aspiration to attain the highest universe goals. And this intense striving for the attainment of super-mortal ideals is always characterized by increasing patience, forbearance, fortitude, and tolerance.
True religion is living love, a life of service. But the religionist’s detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation. Genuine religion takes nothing away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life.
One of the most amazing hallmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace that passes all understanding, that cosmic poise that betokens the absence
of all doubt and turmoil.
**
Ken lived the life of a sincere righteous soul conscious of sonship with the Father, he has now gone to the place prepared for him—his Father’s mansion. A righteous soul is more to be desired than the sovereignty of all the earth.… [Paper 131:3.7, page 1447:4] n Ken presenting at the ANZURA Conference, Canberra 1991
Winter 2015 The ArenA by Ken Glasziou , (1923 – 2013)
Misinformation in The Urantia Book?
The possibility that The Urantia Book may contain serious misinformation came to me as I reflected on some of its statements about material aspects of matter and on historical events that may be shown to be untrue. Let me first affirm that I have total faith that The Urantia Book is what it claims to be, a revelation originating from divinely authorised sources.The problem associated with belief in miracles and miraculous healing have always intrigued me. The effects of the mind on the health and healing of the body as well as the reality of the placebo effect in the healing process have become well recognized in modern medicine. The Urantia Book tells us that some of the healings associated with the ministry of Jesus were true miracles, but that many healings were due to the interaction of mind and faith with the body’s own natural heal-ing processes.In recent times many cases of apparent miracles have been documented and vouched for by well qualified medical practitioners and many of these were associated with an act of religious faith. But with virtually all of this type of event the hard-ened sceptic will always find some alternative explanation other than divinely mediated healing.What kind of healing could there be that would force sceptics to acknowledge divine intervention? Assume a man with no eyes (eyeballs physically ab-sent) walked into a healing ministry meeting and, following a declaration of faith, instantly grew a new set of seeing eyes. Or that someone with no legs grew two new legs. Are such people less deserving than cancer sufferers, many of whom have received healing? I know of no adequately verified accounts that anyone ever grew new eyeballs or new legs. If as an immediate response to a declaration of faith in God such an event occurred, would we not be forced to acknowledge it as irrefutable evidence for the existence of God? Why then does it not happen? Why are we always left with the possibility to doubt?The Urantia Book describes Lucifer before his fall, as a brilliant individual, yet despite his attributes, the circumstances of his existence and the advantages of his environment, Lucifer took the step of renouncing God the Father as a fake, the invention of his superiors to keep him in servitude. From this we must conclude that positive, irrefutable evidence for the existence of God the Father was not available, even to a finite being at the level of the Lanonandeks sons. Why? Perhaps such proof is incompatible with the degree of free will choice that God the Father wills for us and other finite beings at least to the level of the Lanonandeks. For example, if there is a God whose nature is Love, and our survival is dependent on honouring His will, then our will is constrained in that if we do not love one another as God loves us our survival is not assured. To voluntarily show love purely as an act of free will without constraint we must also be free not to believe in the existence of a God whose nature is love.If Lucifer had the free will to doubt the existence of God the Father, then surely we must also have that free will.
This is why nobody grows eyeballs or new legs, this is why unnatural miracles do not occur and also the reason, why The Urantia Bookmust leave us with room for doubt. Now if all the statements in the book on subjects such as the red shift, continental drift, the timing and the course of evolution etc, etc, turned out to be exactly correct, there would be little room for scientists with minds similar to my own to doubt the rest of the content of the book. But just one mistake makes that doubt possible and perhaps leaves us with the degree of free will choice we were meant to have.
I will not be surprised if there are such errors. This does not imply that God has told us lies. That would of course be utterly impossible. It would simply mean that those who authorised the book permitted certain harmless errors in matters of science and history to go uncorrected. In granting us uncertainty, God also gives us the opportunity to make that ultimate freewill decision and that is to choose to believe in and to do the will of the God Jesus called Father, even though he may not exist. A God who loves us must give us that choice.
