/lit/ - Literature

>>15090248
>Is there a few particular essays/revelations in it one can read to get the general idea and feel for it before committing to do a cover to cover read?

These middle papers are extremely accessible and give an account of the origins of evolutionary religion and the nature and essence of religion:
Paper 85. The Origins of Worship
Paper 86. Early Evolution of Religion
Paper 87. The Ghost Cults
Paper 88. Fetishes, Charms, and Magic
Paper 89. Sin, Sacrifice, and Atonement
Paper 90. Shamanism—Medicine Men and Priests
Paper 91. The Evolution of Prayer
Paper 92. The Later Evolution of Religion
Paper 93. Machiventa Melchizedek
Paper 94. The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient
Paper 95. The Melchizedek Teachings in the Levant
Paper 96. Yahweh—God of the Hebrews
Paper 97. Evolution of the God Concept among the Hebrews
Paper 98. The Melchizedek Teachings in the Occident
Paper 99. The Social Problems of Religion
Paper 100. Religion in Human Experience
Paper 101. The Real Nature of Religion
Paper 102. The Foundations of Religious Faith
Paper 103. The Reality of Religious Experience

>>15090248
>Finally are there any good critical takes of it to get a balanced opinion/view of it.

Skeptic Martin Gardner probably has the most critical book on Urantia. Interestingly he also said:

The Urantia Book is noted for its high level of internal consistency and an advanced writing style. Skeptic Martin Gardner, in a book otherwise highly critical of The Urantia Book, writes that it is "highly imaginative" and that the "cosmology outrivals in fantasy the cosmology of any science-fiction work known to me."[71]

Martin Gardner considers Part IV to be an especially "well-written, impressive work," and says, "Either it is accurate in its history, coming directly from higher beings in position to know, or it is a work of fertile imagination by someone who knew the New Testament by heart and who was also steeped in knowledge of the times when Jesus lived."[35]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Urantia_Book#Consideration_as_literature

bump

Thank you anon, due to time zones I wasn't able to bump that thread.

I appreciate the recommendations and the fact you were able to provide a non trashy critical analysis as well.

And if its of any relevance I am coming from an agnostic background

>>15090248
is this really worth reading if I don't wanna be some frufru weirdo newager?

>>15093355
You shouldnt let stigmatic newage notions deter you from exploring its contents.

>>15093355
A running theme of the book is to be open to truth no matter where it comes from. This should include newage expressions and modern religious movements, for the living God continually reveals Himself through the experience and understanding of evolving humans of every age.

94:12.4.The great strength of Buddhism is that its adherents are free to choose truth from all religions; such freedom of choice has seldom characterized a Urantian faith. In this respect the Shin sect of Japan has become one of the most progressive religious groups in the world; it has revived the ancient missionary spirit of Gautama's followers and has begun to send teachers to other peoples. This willingness to appropriate truth from any and all sources is indeed a commendable tendency to appear among religious believers during the first half of the twentieth century after Christ.

196:3.30.Art results from man's attempt to escape from the lack of beauty in his material environment; it is a gesture toward the morontia level. Science is man's effort to solve the apparent riddles of the material universe. Philosophy is man's attempt at the unification of human experience. Religion is man's supreme gesture, his magnificent reach for final reality, his determination to find God and to be like him.
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196:3.31.In the realm of religious experience, spiritual possibility is potential reality. Man's forward spiritual urge is not a psychic illusion. All of man's universe romancing may not be fact, but much, very much, is truth.
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196:3.32.Some men's lives are too great and noble to descend to the low level of being merely successful. The animal must adapt itself to the environment, but the religious man transcends his environment and in this way escapes the limitations of the present material world through this insight of divine love. This concept of love generates in the soul of man that superanimal effort to find truth, beauty, and goodness; and when he does find them, he is glorified in their embrace; he is consumed with the desire to live them, to do righteousness.

>>15093415
Sounds like urantia was written by a deluded westerner who thinks buddhism is just a philosophy bro.

>>15095482
When people say shit like this it’s instantly obvious how little they know about Buddhism and how they only want to latch onto certain of the most ritualistic/religious parts of certain sects of Buddhism as if this discounts the history of Buddhists constantly being iconoclastic and divorcing its philosophical implications from religious worship of the Gautama Buddha himself as a specific human being localized in some section of time and space. It’s like you think Zen monks were worshipping Amitabha Buddha and calling upon his name so they could go to the Pure Land** after they die instead of saying stuff like, “The Buddha is a dried shit-stick.”

**Pure Land Buddhism is one of the more “religious” sects of Buddhism which does indeed do stuff like this.