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Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery, by Martin Gardner
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Amazon.com Review
The media has temporarily turned its large but constantly blinking eye away from cult-of-the-day reportage after the Waco conflagration, but such organizations continue to collect adherents. Martin Gardner, best known as mathematical-games-meister for Scientific American, turns his refreshingly unblinking gaze on the origin and continuing growth of the Urantian cult. It is a marvellous study of the ways in which ideas can be propagated through society.
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From Publishers Weekly
First published in 1955, the Urantia Book, a 2097-page tome hailed by its advocates as the channeled wisdom of celestial beings, posits one infinite God, the great I AM, and billions of lesser gods. It contains pronouncements on evolution, cosmology, physics and quantum mechanics, which Gardner (The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher) finds deeply flawed, and it includes a biography of Jesus that asserts he toured Rome and Greece at ages 28 and 29, becoming an adept of Greek philosophy, mathematics and art. The Urantia cult was founded by two former Seventh-day Adventists?Chicago psychiatrist William Sadler (1875-1969) and his brother-in-law, Wilfred Kellogg (1876-1956), a businessman. In this intriguing expose, Gardner, former Scientific American mathematics columnist, makes a strong case that the Urantia Book is filled with plagiarized passages from other cult books. He also charts bitter schisms among the Urantians and looks at other Adventist splinter groups, notably David Koresh's Branch Davidian cult consumed by flames near Waco, Tex. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product details
Hardcover: 445 pages
Publisher: Prometheus Books (April 1, 1995)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0879759550
ISBN-13: 978-0879759551
Product Dimensions:
6.2 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
Average Customer Review:
2.9 out of 5 stars
34 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#1,454,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This book by Martin Gardner is an attempt to discredit "The Urantia Book" and to expose it as an elaborate hoax. It is a worthwhile counterbalance to the book entitled "A History of the Urantia Papers" by Larry Mullins and Dr. Meredith Sprunger. By reading these two books, you will get two opposing points of view regarding the origins of "The Urantia Book."In my estimation, Gardner did not accomplish his task with this book. He offers a few thought-provoking critiques that are difficult to refute, but for the most part, his assessments are subjective interpretations of objective facts. More advanced students of "The Urantia Book" could offer strong rebuttals to his conclusions on almost every point.By reading the two books mentioned in this review, plus "The Urantia Book" itself, you will be able to make an informed decision as to whether you will consider this book to be a revelation.
Having stumbled across the long and arcane Urantia Book at college, I was interested to read Gardner's skeptical take on the history of this rather obscure document.He does a good job in summarizing the somewhat bizarre Urantian cosmology and reveals the mindset of it's all too human authors, who came out of the Seventh Day Adventists religion. Doctor Sadler was an intelligent, well read man but his ideas on topics like health (esp sex and eugenics), politics and science seem eccentric to modern readers. Gardner makes a compelling case for Urantia being a continuation of the religious duplicity that caused Dr Sadler to lose faith in Ellen White, the Adventist prophet.The origins of a religion like Urantia is a familiar story to anyone who has studied new religious movements, and speaks volumes about our need to believe. The 1930's era scientific errors and rampant plagiarism that undermine the Urantia books alleged supernatural origin support Gardner's conclusion. In a postscript to the second edition published in 2008, Gardner reviews the chaos in the Urantia movement in recent years as different factions have formed around new channeled messages.True believers will likely find this book offensive as a result, in much the same way that Walter Rea's The White Lie caused chaos in the SDA twenty years ago when he revealed the full extent of White's plagiarism in her prophecies. In contrast with other reviewers, I didn't find Gardner to be too acerbic, although clearly he isn't afraid to slaughter some sacred cows. The organization of the book isn't ideal and a good editor could have trimmed down some of the excess material that comes from Gardner's fascination with mathematical puzzles. Chapters on people in Sadler's sphere like the famous Dr Kellog are revealing but deserve a book of their own.Time has proven that Urantia can be grouped with other 'inspired' documents of the early and mid twentieth century like the Oahspe bible, Ruth and Ernest Norman's Unarius Academy (see When Prophecy Never Fails: Myth and Reality in a Flying-Saucer Group) and the Aetherius Society, and follows in the footsteps of earlier prophets like Swedenborg. The explosion of New Age channeling has rendered this genre commonplace in recent years, stealing some of the Urantia book's unique glamor, but it remains a testament to Dr Sadler's ingenuity. Prophets keep coming up with this stuff, and believers keep believing it.
Wish, Gardner had used more stuff from Dr. (I. J.) Matrix
Many postings point out that the Ubook has been plagiarised. It has, but as the Ubook admits this, not with citations, a citation would be overcomplimentary. The work is many levels above the original source authors, or "those that have pieces of the truth (during 1955 and earlier) in the time of the writing of the Ubook"We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of presentation has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind."There a perhaps thousands of human source authors, there are no Ubook readers that doubt this, but if you would take the time to view the concepts that believed to be plagiarised you might come away believing as I do that it is akin to turning a Ford Model T into a modern Cadillac Eldorado. They both roll, use engines to propel but one is an advanced art form while the other remains mere transportation. The Ubook is a book written with beautiful precise advanced concepts written concisely.
For those who are seeking truth, Martin Gardner has done us a great service. He covers the history of those people who brought us the Urantia book. He makes a convincing case that this giant tome was conceived in deception. For those who believe that the Bible is true, will perceive that this possible channeled fantasy contradicts the Bible. For those who don't believe the Bible, they need to know that the creators of the Urantia book sprung forth or evolved from the Seventh day Adventist Church. A denomination with a false prophet and a history full of fanaticism. I highly recommend Martin Gardner's book, for anyone who has looked at the Urantia book or thinking of buying that ultimate grand cosmic fantasy.
Sandra Collins, SLIS, Univ. of Pittsburg, wrote in Library Journal, April 15, 1995: "Given the lack of scholary distance from the subject, the patronizing tone and the gross editorializing, it would be difficult to recommend this book to any library". Sarah Lewis, of the Univ. of Wales, stated: "Martin Gardner is one of the few people outside the Urantia Foundation who has undertaken research into the movement. His research is worth noting, although his position as a great skeptic does not allow his conclusions much academic credibility" (Lewis, James R. and Hammer, Olav (2007). The Invention of Sacred Tradition. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-86479-8)
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