What does The Urantia Book claim about the information it provides?

Forward: Paragraph 2:

   "We have been instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning."

From Chapter 101, Section 4: THE LIMITATIONS OF REVELATION

   "Because your world is generally ignorant of origins, even of physical origins, it has appeared to be wise from time to time to provide instruction in cosmology. And always has this made trouble for the future. The laws of revelation hamper us greatly by their proscription of the impartation of unearned or premature knowledge. Any cosmology presented as a part of revealed religion is destined to be outgrown in a very short time. Accordingly, future students of such a revelation are tempted to discard any element of genuine religious truth it may contain because they discover errors on the face of the associated cosmologies therein presented.

   Mankind should understand that we who participate in the revelation of truth are very rigorously limited by the instructions of our superiors. We are not at liberty to anticipate the scientific discoveries of a thousand years. Revelators must act in accordance with the instructions which form a part of the revelation mandate. We see no way of overcoming this difficulty, either now or at any future time. We full well know that, while the historic facts and religious truths of this series of revelatory presentations will stand on the records of the ages to come, within a few short years many of our statements regarding the physical sciences will stand in need of revision in consequence of additional scientific developments and new discoveries. These new developments we even now foresee, but we are forbidden to include such humanly undiscovered facts in the revelatory records. Let it be made clear that revelations are not necessarily inspired. The cosmology of these revelations is not inspired. It is limited by our permission for the co-ordination and sorting of present-day knowledge. While divine or spiritual insight is a gift, human wisdom must evolve."

   "Truth may be but relatively inspired, even though revelation is invariably a spiritual phenomenon. While statements with reference to cosmology are never inspired, such revelations are of immense value in that they at least transiently clarify knowledge by:

1. The reduction of confusion by the authoritative elimination of error.

2. The co-ordination of known or about-to-be-known facts and observations.

3. The restoration of important bits of lost knowledge concerning epochal transactions in the distant past.

4. The supplying of information which will fill in vital missing gaps in otherwise earned knowledge.

5. Presenting cosmic data in such a manner as to illuminate the spiritual teachings contained in the accompanying revelation."

Dating the Text of The Urantia Book

Developing the validity and credibility of The Urantia Book through corroboration of its statements about science and history must take into account the timing of two types of developments. The one type of development is when a supermajority opinion forms on a particular scientific or historic issue about which The Urantia Book makes statements. A development of this type must then be compared to the period of time during which the information in The Urantia Book was finalized.

When determining whether information in The Urantia Book came in advance of cultural acceptance, account must be taken of when the information in The Urantia Book was a settled issue. Obviously, the material in a book must become a settled issue before the printing process is started.

Many of the advances in the sciences and scholarship that corroborate information in The Urantia Book have come after its publication date of October 12, 1955. But much of the science and scholarship that corroborates information in The Urantia Book was developed prior to that date. There is solid evidence that the printing plates for The Urantia Book were completed almost ten years prior to the book’s publication, suggesting that publication was strategically delayed so that some of this information could be included in the text in a way that would keep the focus on the context of the information rather than the issue of the information being presented “ahead of its time.”

If our interest is in weighing the evidence that suggests that the authorship of The Urantia Book is as the book claims, angelic, then in all fairness we must inquire as to when the text was finalized, not merely when the book rolled off the press and was bound into a book. Because the provision of information in advance of human discovery weighs in favor of the validity and credibility of The Urantia Book, our inquiry must go deeper than merely the publication date.

The Urantia Book was printed by R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company in Chicago, Illinois. On June 28, 1941 this company submitted to Wilfred Kellogg for approval a contract for creating the printing plates. On September 11, 1941 Wilfred Kellogg signed a contract with R. R. Donnelley & Sons for typesetting The Urantia Book.

By 1946 the plates were complete and held for safekeeping in the R. R. Donnelley & Sons vault.

On January 11, 1950 the Urantia Foundation was established and lists as one of its original assets the printing plates, having been given title to them by Wilfred Kellogg.

On February 11, 1955 the Urantia Foundation made formal arrangements with R. R. Donnelley & Sons to start publication of The Urantia Book.

Links to the source material that verifies this information are provided below. Other people have done early histories of The Urantia Book. Notwithstanding the variety of opinions on various topics related to the early history of The Urantia Book, there seems to be a general consensus regarding the above referenced dates.

The events associated with the creation of the printing plates are documented by business receipts, letters, and interviews conducted with the people directly involved. The owners of R. R. Donnelley & Sons were not otherwise associated with the emerging Urantia Book readership and standard business practices are in evidence.

If anyone should ever find credible information that calls these dates into question, please present this information for consideration and inclusion in this research.

Source material:

A History of the Urantia Papers by Larry Mullins copyright 2000, Penumbra Press, "

http://urantiabook.org/archive/originals/uf_fund_raising_102550.pdf

http://urantiabook.org/archive/history/plates_contract.pdf

http://urantiabook.org/archive/history/sadler_sherman122941.htm