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To: James Calladine who wrote (96)	10/5/2001 7:14:55 PM
From: David R	Respond to of 2926

James, I briefly perused your link, but not nearly sufficiently to give you a reasoned response (either positive or negative). I will investigate the Urantia and get back to you. Thoughtfully, David

To: James Calladine who wrote (96)	10/9/2001 1:50:51 PM
From: David R	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2926

I have considered the Urantia, just a bit. I admit that I would be inclined to dismiss a book that claims to be authored by extra-terrestrials. Nevertheless, since I am firmly committed to using logic and reason as the foundational tool for evaluating a religion or belief system, Urantia must be given its own chance to succeed or fail. First, let me propose a system of reason for evaluating a religion or set of religious beliefs (including atheism). Every system of religion makes many claims. Some can not be verified, many can. Those claims that can be verified must be absolutely true or the religion must be assumed to be false. I must add, however, that logic dictates that a system of beliefs could meet the first criteria, and yet still be false. Urantia authorship is claimed to be from supermortal extraterrestrials from other planets and star systems. It stands to reason that beings who possessed the capability to travel the stars 1000's of years ago (as they claim to have interdicted in human evolution), would have knowledge of the physical universe that far exceeds our current knowledge. Since the Urantia make extraordinary scientific claims, this is the best area to being a logical investigation of the book. Urantia claims the universe is over one trillion years old; most scientists date it at about 15 billion years. The Urantia specifies a temperature for the sun that is off by thousands of degrees. It it incorrectly states that Mercury keeps the same face towards the sun, that humans have 48 chromosomes, and that atoms cannot possess more than 100 electrons. The Urantia fails the test of scientific knowledge, and its claim of authorship is fraudulent. THe "scientific knowledge" posed by the Urantia is actually that of the 1920's, which looks quite foolish today. The book is full of nonsense, and a trail of plagiarisms has been clearly established, as has the real human authorship (Dr. William S. Sadler and Wilfred Custer Kellogg). For a reference, I suggest that you get the book "URANTIA: The Great Cult Mystery", by Martin Gardner (a non-Christian). As for me, Urantia has failed the first test of truth and reason. It belongs on the dung heap of human folly.