Race and Genetics: Modern Science Applied to the Urantia Papers

This is a summary of my paper "Understanding the Urantia Papers Using Modern Science of Race and Genetics," created for a 2024 Urantia University Institute course on race and The Urantia Book.

The use of the word “race” in The Urantia Book has often led to controversy and sometimes causes people to reject the book entirely. This paper explores the current scientific and cultural understandings of race considering the information in The Urantia Book.

The Urantia Book offers a creation story that is far superior to the Book of Genesis and is consistent with modern science. The current secular creation story, that life accidentally formed in primordial slime, is unable to account for the complexity of the earliest surviving cells that genetic scientists can identify. I call it a creation story because it cannot be proven scientifically that Life Carriers started the evolution of life by implanting three sets of ancestral organisms.

There has been tremendous scientific progress in the social and biological sciences since the early 20th century, the science that was included in the papers. The Urantia Papers are very clear in establishing that the limitation of the text was that it could not reveal undiscovered scientific findings. In the time since the delivery of Part III of The Urantia Book, our scientists discovered DNA, the underlying genetic code for life on our planet. Not just discovered, but have sequenced the entire human genome, and begun to discover ways to manipulate, edit, and alter life forms. The insertion of human genes for insulin into E.coli bacteria is one life-saving example of our mastery of the genetic code.

The 21st century understanding of the concept of race is now informed by this new knowledge derived from the behavioral and biological sciences. We have a much better understanding of the difference between genotype (the underlying genetic code) and phenotype (the actual expression of traits and characteristics in living organisms). The phenotype is a complex interaction of genetic potential and ongoing interaction with the environment. We now appreciate that most complex traits and characteristics of complex organisms, like humans, are determined by what we call polygenetic inheritance including susceptibility to mental illness, cognitive abilities, athletic abilities, and risk for common health problems like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. There is no simple way to eliminate undesirable traits by preventing selected people from reproducing due to the polygenetic nature of the traits and the environmental influences on the phenotype. 

Two important discoveries of the social sciences have had considerable influence on our understanding of the expression of genetic potential. Early life trauma and the widespread occurrence of historical trauma have a tremendous impact on biological, cognitive, emotional, and intellectual development and are risk factors for many different bad outcomes. In addition, we have a detailed understanding of what is called the social determinants of health (e.g., poverty, discrimination, education) that also influence the phenotypic emergence of complex traits.

The current scientific consensus about race is that it is a social construct not a genetic reality. Reducing what we call the races to a genetic explanation is not justified by the scientific data. There is more variability within socially constructed racial groups than between them. This is consistent with The Urantia Book story of the blending and migration of the races leaving no “pure” races in the world today. Race, as socially constructed, is very important in our world. It is part of our culture, our economic and political systems, and our own cognitive understandings of ourselves and others.

The problems we face are not inferior and superior genetically determined racial groups, but racism in its various forms: individual prejudice, systemic racism, and implicit bias. The Urantia Book, in my opinion, leads us to advocate for all humans by recognizing the divine gift of the Thought Adjuster, and the potential eternal destiny. We must work to improve our world so that all people are able to achieve their underlying genetic potential. The book leads me to take a strong stand against racism in all its manifestations.

David Schlundt is Vice President of The Urantia Book Fellowship. You can read his full paper here.

Other perspectives on race in The Urantia Book:

Article by Jesse Tweneboa-Kodua

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Article by Charles Olivea

Video by Pato Banton

War

(based on a 1963 speech by Haile Selassie) performed by Bob Marley on the 1976 album Rastaman Vibrations:

Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned
Everywhere is war
Me say war

That until there are no longer
First-class and second-class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war

That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all
Without regard to race
Dis a war

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued
But never attained
Now everywhere is war
War

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