Preface – We Need a Story
We examine the source of many of our difficulties as a global society and ask: how did we get this way? We also search for what we can do to help make this a better world for everyone. There are sources pointing the way, showing what we can do in our personal lives to work at improving life on Earth. Our planet has been living largely in spiritual darkness for many years; it is time to move forward into the Light of Truth.
Our society has no overall guiding principle, no well-defined goals, no story to motivate it, everything is piecemeal. “When we have no stories that describe the present and guide the future, hope evaporates. Political failure is, in essence, a failure of imagination.”[1] We seek a story to give us goals and hope; give our lives purpose; this story will become the foundation of our existence.
This motivating story is a captivating narrative giving our lives meaning and direction. Stories in the media, such as Star Wars or Harry Potter, are entertaining but they do not motivate our lives. The story we are seeking is a unifying ethic empowering our struggle for a better life. One such story brought about the westward expansion of America. Based on glowing (even exaggerated) reports of opportunities in the west, shopkeepers and ordinary people in the east fled westward with family and a few belongings to carve out a better life in the west; that story gave their hardships and their lives meaning; it gave them hope for the future.
Today we have no such encouraging story and as a result of this loss of direction there is an “epidemic of loneliness sweeping the world.”[2] People are not connected with their community, with their surroundings; they are isolated as never before. This impacts their actions in society, their effectiveness. This isolation brings negative, even self-destructive emotions into their lives.
People who have no direction in their lives are shut out of the system; they become disenfranchised and left out of society. This segment of our society can become a hotbed for radicalism. Instead of participating in society they turn to “virulent anti-politics, in which facts and arguments are replaced by slogans, symbols and sensation.”[3]
It would appear the state has failed us, what is our response? How do we regain control from the wealthy who have taken over our government? “Our task is not to dissolve the state they have corrupted, but to wrest it back from them.”[4] The iron grip of excessive wealth on our society can be loosened if the people rise up and assert their rights, assert their sovereignty. This they will do only when motivated by the right story.
The way we take our government back from the wealthy is to limit their monetary influence. “No voting system, without constraints on campaign finance, can prevent the very rich from buying the policies and even the election results they want.”[5] If we increase the value of equality and inclusion while leveling the playing field by turning off the money spigot, we will have a chance at improving our government and as we shall see in Chapter 6, we must exert global sovereignty based upon the equal sovereignty of every citizen on planet Earth.
Altruism and reciprocity have been replaced by extreme individualism and competition. Because of this, “alienation and loneliness have become the defining conditions of our time.”[6]
When individuals assert themselves and become participants in the political system they can make a difference. They can turn back the inordinate influence wealth has on our society. We can rise above this; having the most effective story will help make it happen.
This will work because each individual becomes empowered; each individual can become a part of the process to win this planet back from the powers of greed, suppression and alienation. It will work because when global sovereignty is exercised, the people will be able to speak. We will know how to mobilize the disenfranchised to rise up and assert themselves against the powers of repression. We can win this planet one issue at a time.
What is the story to motivate this change? This story to ignite our desire for a better society needs to be concise yet captivating, the goal needs to be enticing, and it should have a broad appeal to our society. The story has to be powerful enough people will be willing to undergo hardships to bring the story to life. Just as the story of a better life in the western United States gave citizens in the east the strength to endure the many dangers of the journey west, our story must give everyone strength to persevere through the struggle to bring about a better life for us all.
We propose a story based on the teachings of The Urantia Book. [7] These revelations have power, depth, and complexity; they have the possibility of transforming the society of our Planet. We use these truths to build a story capable of bringing about a better life for everyone.
There are only three components to this story. First is the truth that every thinking human being has a spark of God within. “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?”[8] This spirit of God is the Thought Adjuster, which is discussed in Chapter 2. The second component of the story is the truth that everyone can have eternal life if they so choose.[9] The third part of the story is the truth everyone is equally indwelt by our Heavenly Father; we are all sisters and brothers, when society comes to this realization there will be universal brotherhood.[10]
Here is the story.
Every thinking human being on Earth has the spirit of God within them. That truly means everyone, no exceptions. He does not dwell within certain selected individuals so they can lord it over the oppressed. God is within every person. How strongly can it be stated? This truth is the cornerstone of our story. Our Father did not just send His son here a couple thousand years ago and then forget about us. Our Heavenly Father is literally present within each thinking mortal on this planet. God is no respecter of persons,[11] He equally respects everyone.
Life eternal is freely given to everybody who asks for it. All we need do is to follow His guidance, choose to do His will in all things. Again, it is truly that simple. Physical death is simply like walking out of one room and into another; like walking out of this physical space and into a more spiritual realm. Eternal life is ours for the asking; we should live with the certainty of this truth.
As we recognize the presence of our Father equally within everyone we learn every person is our sister or brother; we are all equally the children of God. This feeling of universal brotherhood colors our interactions with our neighbors and everyone we may chance to meet or learn about. The watchword for every day becomes brotherhood.
One way to enlarge this story is to study the full life and teachings of Jesus as revealed in The Urantia Book. As we incorporate these teachings into our lives we are seeking to become more like our Heavenly Father, to live our faith, allow this faith to transform our existence and to change the world for the better, one interaction at a time.
Even though this fact of universal brotherhood is the final component of our story, this is where each one of us can have the greatest impact. The other two components, presence of God within and eternal life, primarily are personal and internal manifestations; something that we experience within ourself. This issue of universal brotherhood is external; we express this one in our daily life. This is how we react to situations we encounter as we pass by and interact with those around us. This feeling of brotherhood must be genuine; it is a natural consequence of internalizing the other two components of the story.
This issue of brotherhood is where we declare how we stand; exclusion or inclusion, hate or love, rejection or acceptance, a narrow existence or an eternal life of service doing God’s will.
Simply stated our story is that every mortal of sound mind has within them a fragment of our Heavenly Father, this God within is the promise of our eternal life and when we fully realize this we will know we are all sisters and brothers. This story with the potential to transform life on Earth is simple and profound, giving it power to vitalize our society.
This is the story that could ignite a resurgence in our spiritual awareness and our willingness to bring about a better life for everyone on Earth; no exceptions.
This story has the potential to transform our society and the life on our planet. How can we implement it?
Table of Contents
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“Out of the Wreckage: a New Politics for an Age of Crisis” by George Monbiot, Verso, New York, 2017, p6 ↑
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Monbiot p 17 ↑
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Monbiot p 39 ↑
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Monbiot p 138 ↑
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Monbiot p 145 ↑
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Monbiot p 183 ↑
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The Urantia Book, Urantia Foundation, Chicago IL, 2015 printing. See appendix 1 and 2 for a discussion of this revelation ↑
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Bible, 1 Corinthians 3:16 ↑
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The Urantia Book, 71.7, this refers to the page.paragraph of the one column edition. All references are to The Urantia Book unless otherwise noted. That this book is worthy of being a primary reference is discussed in Appendix 1. ↑
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2053.4 ↑
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Bible Acts 10,34 and Romans 2, 11; ↑