SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM IV

Science and Spirituality

It is with a great and joyous anticipation that we await the first solar eclipse to come across North America in several decades.  This amazing eclipse will stretch all the way across the United States of America from Oregon to South Carolina (view the path of the eclipse here). The wonderful thing for Urantia Book readers, is that this eclipse will occur on Jesus’ 2023rd birthday! 

We are hosting the fourth Scientific Symposium.  These symposia had their origin in 1988 in Nashville, Tennessee.  The second was held in 1991 in Oklahoma City. The third was also in Oklahoma City in 1994.  

Our Scientific Symposium as in the past, will be a larger event and will be geared more toward the generic reader of the Urantia Book.  In other words, the science topics will be so well known to the presenters, that they will be able to make their subject matter understandable to nearly anybody.

This exciting event will be held at the Wilderness Camping and Retreat Center near Lawson, Missouri on August 18-21, 2017.  An extraordinary solar eclipse will occur on the occasion of the celebration of the birth of our lord and master, Jesus of Nazareth.  The retreat center is very near to the center of the solar path.  The duration of totality will be 2 minutes and 38 seconds and will occur at 1:08 pm on Monday, August 21st.  We will be in a very dark location, away from lights, so celestial observations at night should be spectacular.

This conference will be a delightfully balanced jubilee of both Science and Spirituality.  A Sunday night banquet will be devoted to marvelous, worshipful remembrances of Jesus and his remarkable life.  Several remembrance presentations will occur along with music and poetry.

Read More: 

Carter on Current U.S.-North Korea Relations

Scientists Find Root That Kills 98% Of Cancer Cells In Only 48 Hours: This root has been used medicinally since ancient times for its various health benefits. However, the most powerful benefit to come out of this common weed is something that medical researchers are super excited to have “discovered” – which is its potential to cure cancer! This potent root builds up blood and immune system- cures prostate, lung, and other cancers better than chemotherapy. According to Dr. Carolyn Hamm from the Windsor Regional Cancer Centre in Ontario, Canada, dandelion root extract was the only thing that helped with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. This form of cancer typically affects older adults. John Di Carlo, who at the time was a 72-year old cancer patient at the hospital, was sent home to live out his final days after all efforts failed to treat his leukemia.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

He told CBC News that he was advised to drink dandelion root tea as a last ditch effort. Perhaps it should have been the first option offered in his treatment plan, as his cancer went into remission only four months later! His doctors attributed this to the dandelion tea that he drank. Recent studies have shown that dandelion root extract can work very quickly on cancer cells, as was evidenced in Di Carlo’s case. Within 48 hours of coming into contact with the extract, cancerous cells begin to disintegrate. The body happily replaces these with healthy new cells. Further studies have concluded that the extract also has anti-cancer benefits for other types of cancer, including breast, colon, prostate, liver, and lung cancer! Dandelion root tea may not taste as pleasant as other teas, but it’s certainly more pleasant than living with the side effects of chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Traditional cancer therapies harm the immune system by killing all cells, even the healthy ones. Dandelion root has the opposite effect – it actually helps boost your immune system and only targets the unhealthy cells. It’s definitely a win-win situation! Dr. Hamm warns, however, that dandelion root extract can negatively impact the effects of chemotherapy. It’s always best to consult with your doctor, and let them know any and all supplements or foods that you are consuming on a regular basis. Even if you don’t have cancer, eating the greens or drinking dandelion tea can still give you great health! For example, the roots and stems of dandelion can help fight diabetes. It does this by stimulating the pancreas to produce insulin, which in turn stabilizes the spikes in blood sugar levels.

If you suffer from digestive issues or need to get rid of toxins, dandelion tea may be just what the herbal medicine doctor ordered! The liver aids the digestive system by producing bile, and it also filters the blood of chemicals and other impurities. According to Dr. Axe, the vitamins and minerals found in dandelions can help cleanse the liver and keep it in tip top shape. So by supporting your liver, you are actually creating better health! Dandelions are also high in antioxidants and vitamin C, which is crucial to helping your body fight off infections, such as the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections. If you suffer from frequent bouts of UTI, drinking dandelion tea on a daily basis may prevent it from happening ever again. Dandelion greens are bitter, but completely edible – as long as you get it from an area that hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals. The greens are rich in fiber, which is great for intestinal health! High fiber diets have also been shown to reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. The greens are also high in vitamin A – just one cup contains 100% of your recommended daily allowance. Vitamin A is critical for maintaining healthy vision, and it can also prevent premature aging of the skin. Also read: Your Body Is Acidic. Here Is What You Need To Do (The Real Truth Behind Cancer You Will Never Hear From Your Doctor) Since you probably aren’t likely to eat an entire cup of bitter greens on its own, you can incorporate it into a morning smoothie. Just blend it up with your favorite fruit, which will offset the bitter taste.

WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW TO FIND OUT HOW TO MAKE FRESH DANDELION TEA FROM SCRATCH:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGgKakWOXaQ

SOURCE

Ecologist Special Report: Biological Annihilation on Earth is Accelerating

Robert J. Burrowes

1st August, 2017

Human beings are now waging war against life itself as we continue to destroy not just individual lives, local populations and entire species in vast numbers but also the ecological systems that make life on Earth possible. By doing this we are now accelerating the sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history and virtually eliminating any prospect of human survival, writes ROBERT J BURROWES

In a recently published scientific study ‘Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines' the authors Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich and Rodolfo Dirzo document the accelerating nature of this problem.

‘Earth's sixth mass extinction is more severe than perceived when looking exclusively at species extinctions.... That conclusion is based on analyses of the numbers and degrees of range contraction ... using a sample of 27,600 vertebrate species, and on a more detailed analysis documenting the population extinctions between 1900 and 2015 in 177 mammal species.' Their research has found that the rate of population loss in terrestrial vertebrates is ‘extremely high' - even in ‘species of low concern'.

In their sample, comprising nearly half of known vertebrate species, 32% (8,851 out of 27,600) are decreasing; that is, they have decreased in population size and range. In the 177 mammals for which they had detailed data, all had lost 30% or more of their geographic ranges and more than 40% of the species had experienced severe population declines. Their data revealed that ‘beyond global species extinctions Earth is experiencing a huge episode of population declines and extirpations, which will have negative cascading consequences on ecosystem functioning and services vital to sustaining civilization. We describe this as a "biological annihilation" to highlight the current magnitude of Earth's ongoing sixth major extinction event.'

Illustrating the damage done by dramatically reducing the historic geographic range of a species, consider the lion. Panthera leo ‘was historically distributed over most of Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East, all the way to northwestern India. It is now confined to scattered populations in sub-Saharan Africa and a remnant population in the Gir forest of India. The vast majority of lion populations are gone.'

Why is this happening? Ceballos, Ehrlich and Dirzo tell us: ‘In the last few decades, habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive organisms, pollution, toxification, and more recently climate disruption, as well as the interactions among these factors, have led to the catastrophic declines in both the numbers and sizes of populations of both common and rare vertebrate species.'

Further, however, the authors warn ‘But the true extent of this mass extinction has been underestimated, because of the emphasis on species extinction.' This underestimate can be traced to overlooking the accelerating extinction of local populations of a species.

‘Population extinctions today are orders of magnitude more frequent than species extinctions. Population extinctions, however, are a prelude to species extinctions, so Earth's sixth mass extinction episode has proceeded further than most assume.' Moreover, and importantly from a narrow human perspective, the massive loss of local populations is already damaging the services ecosystems provide to civilization (which, of course, are given no value by government and corporate economists).

As Ceballos, Ehrlich and Dirzo remind us: ‘When considering this frightening assault on the foundations of human civilization, one must never forget that Earth's capacity to support life, including human life, has been shaped by life itself.'

When public mention is made of the extinction crisis, it usually focuses on a few (probably iconic) animal species known to have gone extinct, while projecting many more in future. However, a glance at their maps presents a much more realistic picture: as much as 50% of the number of animal individuals that once shared Earth with us are already gone, as are billions of populations.

Furthermore, they claim that their analysis is conservative given the increasing trajectories of those factors that drive extinction together with their synergistic impacts. ‘Future losses easily may amount to a further rapid defaunation of the globe and comparable losses in the diversity of plants, including the local (and eventually global) defaunation-driven coextinction of plants.'

They conclude with the chilling observation: ‘Thus, we emphasize that the sixth mass extinction is already here and the window for effective action is very short.'

Of course, it is too late for those species of plants, birds, animals, fish, amphibians, insects and reptiles that humans have already driven to extinction or will yet drive to extinction in the future: 200 species yesterday. 200 species today. 200 species tomorrow. 200 species the day after. And as Ceballos, Ehrlich and Dirzo emphasize, the ongoing daily extinctions of a myriad of local populations.

If you think that the above information is bad enough in assessing the prospects for human survival, you will not be encouraged by awareness or deeper consideration of even some of the many variables adversely impacting our prospects that were beyond the scope of the above study.

While Ceballos, Ehrlich and Dirzo, in addition to the problems they noted which are cited above, also identified the problems of human overpopulation and continued population growth, as well as overconsumption (based on ‘the fiction that perpetual growth can occur on a finite planet') and even the risks posed by nuclear war, there were many variables that were beyond the scope of their research.

For example, in a recent discussion of that branch of ecological science known as ‘Planetary Boundary Science', Dr Glen Barry identified ‘at least 10 global ecological catastrophes which threaten to destroy the global ecological system and portend an end to human beings, and perhaps all life. Ranging from nitrogen deposition to ocean acidification, and including such basics as soil, water, and air; virtually every ecological system upon which life depends is failing'. See ‘The End of Being: Abrupt Climate Change One of Many Ecological Crises Threatening to Collapse the Biosphere'.

Moreover, apart from the ongoing human death tolls caused by the endless wars and other military violence being conducted across the planet - see, for example, ‘Yemen cholera worst on record & numbers still rising' - there is catastrophic environmental damage caused too. For some insight, see The Toxic Remnants of War Project.

In addition, the out-of-control methane releases into the atmosphere that are now occurring - see ‘7,000 underground gas bubbles poised to "explode" in Arctic' and ‘Release of Arctic Methane "May Be Apocalyptic," Study Warns' - and the release, each and every day, of 300 tons of radioactive waste from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean - see ‘Fukushima Radiation Has Contaminated The Entire Pacific Ocean - And It's Going To Get Worse' - are having disastrous consequences that will negatively impact life on Earth indefinitely. And they cannot be reversed in any timeframe that is meaningful for human prospects.

Apart from the above, there is a host of other critical issues - such as destruction of the Earth's rainforests, destruction of waterways and the ocean habitat and the devastating impact of animal agriculture for meat consumption - that international governmental organizations such as the UN, national governments and multinational corporations will continue to refuse to decisively act upon because they are controlled by the insane global elite. See ‘The Global Elite is Insane' with more fully elaborated explanations in ‘Why Violence?' and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice'.

So time may be short, the number of issues utterly daunting and the prospects for life grim. But if, like me, you are inclined to fight to the last breath, I invite you to consider making a deliberate choice to take powerful personal action in the fight for our survival.

If you do nothing else, consider participating in the 15-year strategy of ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth'. You can do this as an individual, with family and friends or as a neighbourhood.

If you are involved in (or considering becoming involved in) a local campaign to address a climate issue, end some manifestation of war (or even all war), or to halt any other threat to our environment, I encourage you to consider doing this on a strategic basis. See Nonviolent Campaign Strategy.

And if you would like to join the worldwide movement to end violence in all of its forms, environmental and otherwise, you are also welcome to consider signing the online pledge of ‘The People's Charter to Create a Nonviolent World'.

We might be annihilating life on Earth but this is not something about which we have no choice.

In fact, each and every one of us has a choice: we can choose to do nothing, we can wait for (or even lobby) others to act, or we can take powerful action ourselves. But unless you search your heart and make a conscious and deliberate choice to commit yourself to act powerfully, your unconscious choice will effectively be the first one (including that you might take some token measures and delude yourself that these make a difference). And the annihilation of life on Earth will continue, with your complicity.

Extinction beckons. Will you choose powerfully?

SOURCE

This Author

Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?' His email address is flametree@riseup.net and his website is here.

New Wineskins ● By Dave Kantor

Over the years there have been a number of conversations within the readership about starting a church or trying to start a Urantia religion of some sort. Groups in Oklahoma City, Boulder, Marin County, and other places actually formed church-like communities that served local readers for a while and then disappeared. On several occasions a considerable amount of money was spent on these projects.

This article contends that a distinctly Urantia religion has been evolving since the publication of the book in 1955. It is not only alive and well but is thriving and experiencing rapid growth. Urantia religion has been largely unrecognized because we're all subjectively immersed in it.

Let's go back to the point where the ship was still moored to the dock.

How we got The Fellowship

According to Bill Sadler, the revelators suggested that some sort of social organization be created for readers of the book. They specifically suggested something simple and were clear that they did not want to see a competing sect or denomination emerge. They said it would be a good idea to have something just to occupy the social space, to prevent someone else from doing it.

At the time—the 1950s—the most respectable social institution was the church. Local churches were the social hubs of most communities and even cities. If you didn't go to church on Sunday, there was something suspicious about you. In many places it was difficult to conduct business if you were not associated with a church. So the Sadlers set about researching social structures and came up with a model based on that of the Presbyterian church.

When the Sadlers presented their plan to the revelators they were told, "Well, if that's the best you can do, go ahead with it." The organizational structure of the Fellowship today was thus derived from a church model highly respected in the 1950s.

But not to despair! As the ship began to pull away from the dock the initial elements of what would become a radical new form of religious institution began to fall into place. As limited as it was, the Fellowship constitution provided a sufficient foundation enabling the readership to begin coalescing around a structure which would evolve into a 21st century networked religion.

The first nodes in the network were Societies in Chicago, Oklahoma City, and Los Angeles. In the 1950s the links between the nodes were tenuous—personal visits, written letters sent by mail, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings at occasional conferences. Each of these nodes spawned local subnetworks made up of regional study groups and served as local communication hubs.

Over the following two decades additional Society nodes began to appear along with the first nodes to develop outside of North America. The 1980s saw increasing struggles between a networked religion beginning to reach out to the world and the central node in Chicago struggling to maintain proprietary control over a growing readership increasingly motivated to share the revelation with the world.

Primary Elements of Urantia Religion

At this point we can already see the two primary elements of Urantia religion:

• 1. An evangelical drive to share the revelation with the world—service and outreach.
• 2. A desire to gather with other readers to study and share the exploration of the book—expanding the fellowship of God-knowing kingdom believers.

Urantia religion is unique in that its core religious elements are derived from a desire to socialize personal spiritual experience, rather than being based on specific beliefs, doctrines, rituals, or anything else that characterizes religion in the larger culture.

By the 1990s the sheltered bays of established tradition began to recede into the horizon as the copyright was put into the public domain concomittant with the spread of the Internet and the growing number of translations being published. The Internet provided the basis for a grass-roots movement to spring up simultaneously from many parts of the world—another unprecedented development in the history of religion.

The Urantia movement is the first major religious movement to be spawned in the age of the Internet. And just as Guttenburg's printing press drove the transformation of European civilization by making Bibles, tracts, and books available to an increasingly literate population, so is the Internet driving an unprecedented global social transformation, providing a vehicle through which the fifth epochal revelation is beginning to enhance spiritual perspectives in virtually every country on the planet.

In the early decades of the Internet the text of the book spread into every part of the world which had connections to the Internet. But as the 21st century got underway it was the development of social media that became the key element driving both revelation dissemination and the rapid growth of Urantia religion. Readers found themselves wanting to be involved in spreading the revelation and sharing its content; the Internet provided an ideal means for them to do so.

The Internet and social media provide the technological foundation for Urantia religion. Recall the two primary elements of Urantia religion identified earlier – dissemination and study. Urantia religion has become highly networked. There are now thousands of nodes in the network with more appearing almost daily. Each node catalyzes the sharing of information, communication between individuals, sharing within groups, and the building of diverse social communities.

The social media domain is seeing the emergence of new Urantia institutions whose structures have been designed to exploit Internet technologies. Urantia University, Perfecting Horizons Institute, Cosmic Citizen, Symmetry of Soul, Urantia Book Films, Truthbook, UrantiaNow, Square Circles, online Skype study groups—these are just a few of the reader-initiated expressions of Urantia religion.

Social media is also providing a basis for the emergence of online ministries which extend Urantia religion's dissemination thrust. Pato's "Followers of Christ Michael" study group, ministries being developed by Richard Stinson and Dave Jesusonian, God's Gumshoe, Dick Bain's service to Christians, Bill Rocap's Urantia group—along with dozens of other readers hosting online groups whose membership numbers in the thousands—these constitute the most vital nodes in networked Urantia religion, a religion that is spreading globally, rapidly. Social media is the environment to which new readers are drawn when they want to find out more about The Urantia Book.

What is networked religion?

One of the foremost researchers in this newly emerging field is Dr. Heidi Campbell of Texas A&M University. She comments that, "Central to the idea of networked religion is that religious practice emerges within a distinctive social sphere constructed of networked interactions. Networked religious communities function quite differently than traditional religious institutions and structures. Rather than operating as tightly bounded social structures, they function as loose social networks with varying levels of religious affiliation and commitment.

"The study of online religious community shows that, rather than living in a single static religious community, people in contemporary society increasingly live in religious social networks that are emergent, varying in depth, fluid, and highly personalized. The Internet challenges the role that religion traditionally has played in the process of socialization into an accepted religious belief and community."

Dr. Campbell lists five characteristics of networked religion in her article, Understanding the Relationship between Religion Online and Offline in a Networked Society, published in the March 2012 issue of Journal of the American Academy of Religion. The article expands these five elements. A copy is available via the link at the bottom of this document. I urge you to read it.

Characteristics of Networked Religion

• 1. Convergent Practice
  • —Personalized blending of information and rituals.
  • —Internet serves as a spiritual hub allowing people to assemble and personalize religious behavior and belief.
  • —Tension: Offering guidance and instruction to people who draw spiritual wisdom and practices from multiple sources and traditions.
• 2. Multi-site Reality
  • —Online and offline religious activities inform and shape each other.
  • —Tension: Offline contexts increasingly no longer serve as primary source for spiritual connections and knowledge.
• 3. Networked Community
  • —Loosely-bounded social networks.
• 4. Storied Identity
  • —Fluid and dynamic identity construction.
  • —Identity is constructed and performed online, encouraging malleable self-presentations.
  • —Tension: Religious identity becomes flexible and highly personalized, impacting wider understandings of what it means to be Christian.
• 5. Shifting Authority
  • —Simultaneous individual empowerment and challenge of traditional authority as bloggers, content creators, webmasters, and group administrators replace clergy on the front lines of religious development.

This, as I see it, is the current state of Urantia religion—a religion which has evolved around the dissemination of the revelation and the development of reader communities.

The Urantia Book is part of a much greater social transformation taking place in the world that is being driven by a rapid sequence of technological changes profoundly impacting human communications and modes of interaction, both of which are intimately tied to Urantia religion.

Urantia religion is a robust expression of a new religious phenomena—networked religion. It is a collective expression of countless readers mobilized by an epochal revelation, led by the Spirit of Truth. Urantia religion not only is alive and well, but is thriving and experiencing explosive growth completely outside the domain of traditional institutional structures. It is far more healthy and viable as an organic product of evolution than anything we could design or fabricate from our limited experience, idealism, and zeal.

The concept of networked religion presents a radically new paradigm which must be understood and embraced if we're to optimize our ability to propagate the revelation and foster emerging Urantia religion.

Highly Recommended:

• Dr. Heidi Campbell's article, Understanding the Relationship between Religion Online and Offline in a Networked Society
• What do we do Now? Examples and background on how the locus of dissemination has shifted from Urantia institutions to the networked readership

SOURCE 

.        

 A Real Opportunity for Students of the Urantia Revelations to become Messengers of Truth!

GO HERE

Abegunde Julius Taiwo.