God's Chosen Fast and millions of other books are available for Amazon Kindle. .. Later in life, he served on a leadership team, overseeing more than thirty . This book was so eye opening, I'm trying to encourage all my friends to read it.
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In one example cited by Block and confirmed by Gardner and Gooch, the original author discusses the periodicity of the chemical elements and concludes that the harmony in the construction of the atom suggests some unspecified plan of organization. The authors of The Urantia Book assert that this harmony is evidence of the intelligent design of the universe. Swann writes on page 64 of The Architecture of the Universe italics indicate edits as compared to The Urantia Book , bolding indicates deletions: Starting from any one of them [i.
The eighth element was in many respects like the first, the ninth like the second, the tenth like the third, and so on. Such a slate of affairs point[s] not only to a varied internal structure, but also to a certain harmony in that variation suggestive of some organized plan in building the atom. Starting from any one element, after noting some one property, such a quality will exchange for six consecutive elements, but on reaching the eighth, it tends to reappear, that is, the eighth chemically active element resembles the first, the ninth the second, and so on.
Such a fact of the physical world unmistakably points to the sevenfold constitution of ancestral energy and is indicative of the fundamental reality of the sevenfold diversity of the creations of time and space. Block and other believers do not see the use of the source materials as plagiarism, but express a view instead that the quality of the way the material was borrowed is consistent with authorship by celestial beings and that study of the sources leads to an even deeper understanding of The Urantia Book.
It is difficult to gauge how many adherents there may be as there is no central organization to census. Informal study groups "tend to sprout, ripen, then vanish or splinter" and have not been counted reliably. The small movement inspired by The Urantia Book has not developed clergy or institutions such as churches, reading rooms, or temples. Sarah Lewis notes that, "The Urantia Revelation is not securing legitimacy through historically known and accepted means to any great degree, nor is it even using common language that would increase the likelihood of understanding and therefore acceptance.
It introduces new concepts and a new language, and this does not make acceptance any easier. Urantia Foundation advocated a "slow growth" policy in the past and had not significantly marketed the book.
- The Urantia Book - Wikipedia.
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Since the book was determined to be in the public domain in , other organizations, such as The Urantia Book Fellowship under the publishing name Uversa Press, have also published the book. Several audio books of the text are also on the Internet. The International Urantia Association had twenty-six reader associations worldwide as of , and the Urantia Book Fellowship formerly the Urantia Brotherhood, founded in with Urantia Foundation as the original social fraternal organization of believers claimed roughly twelve hundred official members, with the highest concentrations in the West of the United States and the Sun Belt , especially California, Colorado, Florida, and Texas.
The Teaching Mission is a group of Urantia channellers. According to Richard Landes , "The foundation considers them self-deluded, but they have created a schism that continues to disrupt the movement. Vern Grimsley was a "dynamic speaker" who founded a Urantian outreach organization called Family of God in the s, which was initially supported by others in the movement, including the Urantia Foundation.
One symbol described in The Urantia Book consists of three concentric azure circles on a white background. The circles are said to symbolize God's triune nature of Father, Son, and Spirit. When the Creator Son Michael, later incarnated on Earth as Jesus, went to war with Lucifer , years ago, he used the concentric circles on his banner. Lucifer's emblem was a solid black circle in the center of a red one. Urantia Foundation, the original publisher, placed the concentric circles on the cover of The Urantia Book and has a United States trademark.
The circles are used to indicate other organizations affiliated with the foundation. The Urantia Association International, one of the main readership organizations in the movement, has been licensed by Urantia Foundation to use the three azure concentric circles on a white background. The symbol is also used in various altered forms. The Urantia Book Fellowship, an independent reader organization established in , uses a similar symbol.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Urantia Book First edition. Copyright and Trademark Policies". The Mind at Mischief: Kristen Maaherra , 9th Cir. Copyright, censorship, and religious pluralism". How Old Is the Universe? Archived from the original PDF on The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the Earliest Complex Life. A Guide 2nd ed. New Age Encyclopedia 1st ed. Encyclopedia of Millennialism and Millennial Movements. The New York Times. Retrieved May 29, Caught in the Crossfire. Little, Brown and Company.
Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix. A Long Strange Trip. Find more about The Urantia Book at Wikipedia's sister projects. Sadler Lena Sadler Urantia Foundation. Retrieved from " https: Articles with incomplete citations from January All articles with incomplete citations Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from October Articles with Curlie links. Views Read Edit View history. Will he have the capacity to learn, to speak? And finally, Erdrich's description of snow is just exquisite. Will our environment warm enough that someday we will no longer be able to experience the cold pleasures of snow?
View all 12 comments. Jul 13, Donna rated it it was ok Shelves: Imagine a world somewhere in time in which evolution has reversed itself for some reason in a certain percentage of the human, animal, and creature population in certain places of the world and where the humans being born are somehow different than normal in certain ways.
And imagine society trying to cope with this crisis and with government supporting certain drastic actions to enforce certain policies that go against what would be considered humane. The author has done next to no world building in this book and has seemingly done no research to answer the questions she raises by her fascinating premise that is never fully developed.
There are no acknowledgements in the afterword where the author thanks any geneticists or doctors of any kind who helped with her research, making me suspect she did none. Maybe this line from the book sums it up best: But on a positive note, the premise fascinated me. That and the fact that there was some good writing here in a technical sense with a very suspenseful middle section that I wish had extended beyond that point. There was also a somewhat engaging family drama running throughout the story that made me want to know what would happen next.
So if you enjoy good dystopian novels and plan to read this book, you may come away from it dissatisfied despite its interesting premise. View all 25 comments. Nov 24, Caroline rated it liked it Shelves: Future Home of the Living God is a disjointed jumble--literary fiction, thriller, suspense, and just a smidgen of dystopian. Part I is literary fiction sprinkled with some dystopian; part II is thriller, suspense, and dystopian; and part III is literary fiction with more sprinkled dystopian. Erdrich also tossed in some vague poetic, meditative passages now and then, sometimes apropos of nothing.
All parts are supposed to connect, but the end result is a forced, unsatisfying mesh. These are two totally incompatible stories--parts I and III as one story and part II as its own--that Erdrich insisted on melding rather than patiently crafting into separate, complete books. Both stories have glimmers of real substance, but it was in trying to connect the two that Erdrich was constrained. Here I thought the story was finally taking a turn for the better after a plodding and mostly non-dystopian part I, but then part III begins, and Future Home of the Living God once again takes a wrong turn.
In a single book Erdrich tried to tackle too many social issues, all within the framework of some dystopian United States that she never came remotely close to fleshing out. This is a three-star read for the thick part II section, which greatly moves the story along. Parts I and III are uneventful and two-star. Fans of dystopian stories should absolutely steer clear. Apr 30, Beverly rated it really liked it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This reminds me of The Handmaid's Tale a bit, because it is set in a dystopian world where pregnant women are on the front lines of a new world; they are hunted and jailed by the government.
There are enough differences to make it well worth reading and I devoured it lickety split. Evolution is going backwards and no one knows what the new crop of babies will be like. Women, who were pregnant already, before the devolution are highly suspect. What will they give birth to? Cedar doesn't care, she This reminds me of The Handmaid's Tale a bit, because it is set in a dystopian world where pregnant women are on the front lines of a new world; they are hunted and jailed by the government.
Cedar doesn't care, she just wants her baby. She is also going through some other stuff, she was adopted and wants to find out about her birth parents. Do they have any genetic diseases and why did they give her up? Her birth mother is Native-American, she has a letter from her and goes to find her in the middle of the world crisis. This is a book that contemplates mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, the weakness and strength of pregnancy, and government against anti-government forces.
Nov 15, Maxwell rated it really liked it Shelves: I really enjoyed the blend of speculative and literary fiction in this book! Also haven't read any Erdrich before, but I've been meaning too—and I will definitely pick up more from her. Definitely check this one out if the premise intrigues you. And so become yourself because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well, their father's hell did slowly go by, And feed them on your dreams, the one they pick's the one you'll know by. Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry, So just look at them and sigh and know they love you. Apparently — I mean, nobody knows — our world is running backward.
Or maybe sideways, in a way as yet ungrasped. But things have changed in these between-times, in this somewhat pre-apocalyptic period, pregnant women are being rounded up, and the hyper-vigilant government seems to know where you are at all times. Turns out Big Brother, or in this case, Mother has been watching. Of course, they only want to help you, make sure you deliver a healthy baby and there are so many precautions one should take… of course, they feel that you should trust them to know what is best for you, for your unborn child.
Evolution has begun its own revolution, and the earth and its inhabitants are changing. Human beings might be saved by science. It might happen, but I am quite sure even then there will be no true explanation. It is like consciousness. We can map the brain and parse out the origins of thoughts, even feelings. We can tell everything about the brain except why it exists. And why it thinks about itself. Jun 22, Tatiana rated it liked it Shelves: The idea of devolution at the center of the novel is gripping, but this is essentially The Handmaid's Tale fanfic.
I expected something much less derivative from an author of such a high acclaim. They are nourishing, accessible, somewhat ethnic, relatively healthy, and full of beans. Even on the rare days when they are not great they are still pretty damn delicious. This bleak and dystopian tale takes place in the future—maybe near future, maybe far off.
What exactly is happening? Why is it happening? Who are these draconian mobs rounding up pregnant women? Good luck finding out. Erdrich is holding her cards so close to the vest in this go round that even Kenny Rogers would have no idea if he is supposed to hold them or fold them or even count his money while siting at the table No, wait! No Kenny, I am pretty sure you should never ever do that! What we do know is that it is getting pretty darn warm. There are flying lizards and sabre tooth tigers running around suburban backyards, eating house pets. Evolution is somehow going backwards and this is impacting plants, animals and us—people!
What does this mean exactly? The book never really elaborates, but it is strongly hinted that now most women will be giving birth to some sort of stocky Neanderthal hominid. In other words, this will be horrible and it might mean the end of mankind. Cedar Hawk Songmaker narrates the book as a letter to the child she is currently carrying.
Cedar has spent her life in the care of a progressive Caucasian hippie couple that adopted her while she was young. But now on the run, frantically working to save her unborn child, she seeks refuge with her Native American Ojibwe biological family. All the fixings you would expect in a dystopian tale are here—you could call it the Atwood recipe.
There are the extreme repressive agencies working to seize and enslave most women. There are harrowing betrayals and people standing by as these horrible things continue to happen. And ultimately there is a sad and pessimistic coating to all events that will make all readers curl into a fetal ball, pull a blanket over their head and eat only expensive Vermont ice cream from the carton for days and days and days.
But to me this was a miss. The details were vague, the direction of the story too gloomy.
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I was having no fun. May 08, Taryn Pierson rated it really liked it Shelves: Because the answer to that supposedly rhetorical question is an emphatic YES. We do need more books like The Handmaid's Tale. Because news flash, whiny white guys, none of the stuff that Margaret Atwood was writing about and rebelling against back in has been fixed. So until that beautiful, blessed day finally arrives, I hope and pray that talented, gorgeous writers like Louise Erdrich will continue to churn out books that make us all confront the reality of the world we live in.
Also, are we really only allowed one heavy-hitting dystopian feminist novel? Is that a one and done situation? I think you guys can spot us one every 32 years. Some key plot points are glossed over in a couple of lines, while multiple pages are spent dwelling on seemingly minor or irrelevant detail. It leaves a lot of loose ends lying around, which is uncomfortable in a book about so bleak a future. But the last two pages knocked me senseless with their stark beauty. More book recommendations by me at www. Jul 19, Cynthia rated it really liked it Shelves: I've never been a big fan of Erdrich though she's undeniably an excellent writer.
This is a grim book and what I've often found objectionable in Erdrich's writing is her over emphasized political views strangely even as I often agree with her stance I object to being hit on the head repeatedly with it. Future is a haunting story of a young woman caught in a grim future where women are reduced to criminals and brood mares.
The portrayal of her I've never been a big fan of Erdrich though she's undeniably an excellent writer. The portrayal of her relationship with her unborn child and her complicated interactions with her boyfriend and her extended family are well done an realistic in any situation but the chaos their lives have become make their connections more fraught. I didn't love how it was ended though it was in keeping with the theme and mood of the book. It's not as grueling as McCarthy's Road and it lacks the humor of Atwood's futuristic MaddAdam trilogy but it's definitely worth reading.
I liked the quietness of her prose which conveyed an inevitability. Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance reader's copy. In one of her previous titles, La Rose , the lack of quotation marks did what this particular stylistic choice usually does, and made it difficult for readers to know who was speaking, and when. The rest of this review can be found HERE! Nov 12, Jessica Sullivan rated it it was amazing Shelves: One day, evolution stops. Twenty-six-year-old Cedar is a few months pregnant, putting her in constant danger.
Pregnant women are wanted by the government, partly because they may be the last chance at human life as we know it, and partly because no one really knows how their babies will turn out. Cedar chronicles each day in diary entries ad "The first thing that happens at the end of the world is that we don't know what is happening.
Cedar chronicles each day in diary entries addressed to her unborn baby. In the beginning, before things become so dire, she is in the midst of seeking out her biological parents, who live on an Indian reservation in Minnesota. Having spent her whole life raised by white adoptive parents, she's finally ready for answers about where she came from. There's something so realistic about how this book portrays the potential end of the world. Much of it is about Cedar trying to evade capture, but it's also more simply about her relationship with her family biological and adoptive and the father of her baby.
One of my favorite side characters is Eddy, her biological mother's husband, who is writing a 3,page book about why he hasn't kill himself.
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I absolutely loved this book. I often had no idea where it was going, so it constantly kept me on my toes. Cedar's narration is bleak, funny, bizarre and relatable. It's rare to find a book that's so emotionally AND intellectually stimulating. If you like literary dystopian fiction, don't miss it.
Nov 15, Eric Anderson rated it it was amazing. Erdrich succeeds on giving a compellingly new take on these issues as well as raising intriguing questions about faith, nationality, race and biology. Nov 17, Kasa Cotugno rated it it was ok Shelves: It really pains me to give a negative to Louise Erdrich, one of my favorite authors.
But this, an exercise in dystopia, leaves me cold maybe because this premise of the end of the world as exemplified by the inability of women to produce viable babies has been done before. Most notably, The Handmaid's Tale. And also by P. I'm not sure if this is a metaphor for today's society, but this is definitely not her best work, and I'm hoping she returns to what she does better than anyone, and c It really pains me to give a negative to Louise Erdrich, one of my favorite authors.
I'm not sure if this is a metaphor for today's society, but this is definitely not her best work, and I'm hoping she returns to what she does better than anyone, and continues her novels about modern native American life. Oct 11, Nancy rated it really liked it. In a world of governmental breakdown, wars, and natural disasters, winters without snow, the over expansion of American government, something--perhaps a virus-- has tampered with genomes to set off a cavalcade of reverse evolution.
In this world lives one twenty-six year old pregnant woman, Cedar, writing to her unborn child. After an ultrasound, the doctor tells her to flee and go into hiding. Congress has revitalized articles of the Patriot Act to round up pregnant women, searching medical dat In a world of governmental breakdown, wars, and natural disasters, winters without snow, the over expansion of American government, something--perhaps a virus-- has tampered with genomes to set off a cavalcade of reverse evolution.
Congress has revitalized articles of the Patriot Act to round up pregnant women, searching medical data bases, considering it an 'issue of national security. Her adoptive parents warn her about an impending state of emergency. Siri and GPS no longer work, the world is falling apart. But Cedar is determined. As she nears the reservation she sees a billboard. Are You Ready to Rapture? She writes and publishes a magazine "of Catholic inquiry. But all creation is devolving, backward, to prehistoric forms.
Is God asleep at the wheel? Has God abandoned Earth? Will the written word die out, incomprehensible to whatever humanity is becoming? Is humanity losing its spark of the divine, their souls? Cedar's birth father is nonplussed. Aware of the beauty of the vanishing 'now', haunted by an unknown future, Cedar must hide from the American Government, now the Church of the New Constitution, which is rounding up pregnant women, controlling who is bred and who is born, endeavoring to save humanity.
It is a theological reflection and speculative fiction. And it is the story of resistance and the fight for self-determination. I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. View all 6 comments. Nov 01, Book of the Month added it.
That rare effect begins with the voice of year-old Cedar Songmaker, our warm, chatty narrator and hand-holder through the apocalypse. What starts as writing letters to her unborn child becomes a way for Cedar to think through the unthinkable. Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. I've read all three of these books and Richard's book easily wins the race.
If there is any justice in publishing, this book should be a breakthrough book for RIchard Smoley.
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The scholarship is evident but you are never bogged down in his learning as you are swept up in his common sense observations and his folksy delivery. He never answers the dilemma that many thinking Christians find themselves in of how we reconcile our own intimate revelation of Christ with what we know historically and ethically to be true. Of course, I doubt anyone can answer that question. Nevertheless, if you want a fascinating survey of what the best archeologists and historians are saying about Yahweh, Jesus, and the Bible then you should start here. Also, you will find some very shrewd guesses about what we only partly know.
Thoughtful and thought provoking, Richard writes with sensitivity towards those who believe and those who know too much to surrender to belief. Since my investigation into Biblical archeology and accompanying history of the Old Testament when in my 30s, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't God who created May but rather Man who created God. The first few chapters of Richard Smoley's book confirmed my thoughts and resonated with my spiritual evolution. Reading those first chapters on the Old Testament reminded me of the minister who presided over our mainline Protestant congregation when I was a teenager and introduced me to the Old Testament, implanting in my mind the importance of religious mythology to believers.
It's too bad that so many believers down through the ages have taken this beautiful mythology from the various ancient traditions and put a literal stamp on it. Smoley's conversational style is so pleasant to read and easy to understand. At the same time it reminded me of the more academic "History of God" by Karen Armstrong -- a book that I have long loved.
Smoley's chapters on Jesus reminded me that scholars are still searching for the "historical" Jesus that those members of the Jesus Seminar attempted to pry out of the four Gospels. And how could we forget the Apostle Paul? I've always loved Paul even though he is denigrated by feminists and others.
Paul was my early inspiration to study for the ministry -- even though I was called out of that and into Buddhism. I love Smoley's work and while this is a wonderful book, my favorites remain "Forbidden Faith" an amazing study of Gnosticism; and "The Dice Game of Shiva" and consciousness creates the Universe.
For those thinking Christians who have read Amazon's introductory blurb above and worry that "How God Became God" may torpedo their faith entirely, take heart: The intro is rather misleading. Although Abraham was likely a fictional character and the jury's still out on Moses, Smoley never claims that Jesus was "unlikely to have existed. Not only does Smoley himself believe that Jesus was a real person, he suggests that Jesus may have been much, much more than that - a figure of cosmic importance, if not actually the literal son of God.
More I will not say, because Smoley's take on the meaning of Jesus' life is a highlight of the book, and I don't want to spoil it. Altogether, this is quite an insightful and fascinating read. Smoley has an accessible, almost conversational style that pulls you in and keeps you flipping through the pages, marking particularly thought-provoking passages for later study and contemplation. A very articulate and open-minded look at what we really know about the God of the Judaeo-Christian faith.
Future Home of the Living God
The author makes a lot of sense and relieves one of having to believe literally all of the writings but he does not dismiss the tradition of message of the long struggle to define and understand God. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the mysticism of the West, its inner traditions, and its partial origins in Jesus' "Kabbalah mysticism". In this last feature it makes an excellent companion volume to Margaret Barker's books, especially The Great Angel. Smoley points out that this divine Jesus can be seen as a kind of Semitic prototype of the later Holy Trinity: Trinitarianism altered this by elevating the Son to complete ontological Deity, and by adding into the Godhead the Holy Spirit as a "Person".
Be that as it may, this book is simply juicy in its explication of both New Testament and Hebrew Bible themes, and their meaning for our times. If you read this book, you will not be disappointed. One person found this helpful.
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