"In the not-distant future, new telescopes will reveal to the wondering gaze of Urantian astronomers no less than 375 million new galaxies in the remote stretches of outer space. At the same time these more powerful telescopes will disclose that many island universes formerly believed to be in outer space are really a part of the galactic system of Orvonton [the Milky Way Galaxy]. . . . [T]he periphery . . . is gradually expanding; new nebulae are constantly being stabilized and organized; and some of the nebulae which Urantian astronomers regard as extragalactic are actually on the fringe of Orvonton and are traveling along with us.(1)"
So none of this makes sense. This is from 1955.
In 1923, following the
Great Debate, it became clear that many "nebulae" were in fact galaxies far from the
Milky Way.
It was also known before 1955 that some nebulae were in our galaxy.
The Andromeda galaxy was confirmed before 1955, it was mapped in 1950.
Nebula are not on the fringe of the galaxy.
A person wrote this, they had bits and pieces of information about cosmology, enough to fool a layman who isn't a scientist.
Now he didn't say anything about super clusters, super-super clusters, the galactic web, big bang. He didn't explain the big bang or tell us about any cosmology objects we didn't yet know. Nor the age of the universe 13 billion years, or the current observational size 94 billion light years.
This is exactly like all revelations and modern channeling, Bashar, Seth, Abraham....
Computer Analysis of Dates in The Urantia Book
by Matt Neibaur, M.D.
Scientific Symposium I 1988
In 1572 a former professor of law from Bologna named Ugo Buoncompagni became Pope Gregory XIII; ten years later the Gregorian calendar was introduced. The Julian calendar, founded sixteen centuries earlier by Julius Caesar, was inaccurate and the need for reform was widely recognized. Its principal failure was the discrepancy between the mean length of its year, 365.25 days, and the tropical year, then averaging 365.24232 days. This is nearly eleven minutes and four seconds shorter than the Julian year, a small discrepancy which continued to accumulate until it was no longer a matter of minutes but days. By the time of the Gregorian reform, this error had grown to eleven days. Understandably, this was of concern to the Pope; if the calendar had continued unchanged, Easter would eventually be celebrated in the summer.
The attempts at reform set off a wide range of debates, both academic and religious. At one point excommunication was threatened by the Pope against anyone who refused to accept the new calendar. The details and controversies created by the reform are presented beautifully in an article in the May 1982 issue of The Scientific American by Gordon Moyer entitled, "The Gregorian Calendar."
Readers of
The Urantia Book should find the calendar reform and methods of measuring time interesting. In part four of the book, The Life and Teachings of Jesus, there are numerous references to dates. Dates and weekdays are listed unequivocally. Is there any way to check on these dates? Was April 14, A.D. 2, really a Friday as stated? Would it make any difference if the dates and weekdays did not correlate? Would
The Urantia Book be true if major discrepancies existed? Whether or not one accepts or rejects
The Urantia Book is determined more by its spiritual impact rather than possible scientific correlations. Still, it would be nice to know if there existed independent verification of these dates and times.
Using information obtained from the book,
Astronomical Formulae for Calculators by Jean Meeus, a program was written to calculate dates and weekdays. The program takes into account the Gregorian calendar reform. All dates are first converted to Julian Day numbers and the results are divided by seven to obtain weekdays from the remainder. A calendar is then generated using this information. Even by computer standards, it is a rather tedious process.
The results were reassuring. The odds of merely guessing the correct day would be one in seven for each day or the product of the separate probabilities for all of the dates listed. This calculates to one chance in 5,764,801 for correctly guessing the eight dates listed. (Now you know why bingo games are a great way of making money.) The following dates were sampled and showed correct dates with corresponding weekdays:
Date Weekday Correlation
April 14, AD 2 Friday Yes
June 24, AD 5 Wednesday Yes
January 9, AD 7 Sunday Yes
April 17, AD 9 Wednesday Yes
April 26, AD 22 Sunday Yes
March 3, AD 26 Sunday Yes
February 23, AD 26 Saturday Yes
June 18, AD 26 Tuesday Yes
There are more dates in
The Urantia Book. Perhaps other readers would like to experiment with the program. Future projects could include construction of a calendar with corresponding events listed for specific dates during the life of Jesus. A chronological guide with specific maps could become an important adjunct in studying part four of the book. The calendars are already available that encompass the time periods from 8 B.C. to 30 A.D.
Of note:
7. THE TRIP TO BETHLEHEM
122:7.1 In the month of March, 8 B.C. (the month Joseph and Mary were married), Caesar Augustus decreed that all inhabitants of the
Roman Empire should be numbered, that a census should be made which could be used for effecting better taxation. The Jews had always been greatly prejudiced against any attempt to “number the people,” and this, in connection with the serious domestic difficulties of Herod, King of Judea, had conspired to cause the postponement of the taking of this census in the Jewish kingdom for one year. Throughout all the Roman Empire this census was registered in the year 8 B.C., except in the Palestinian kingdom of Herod, where it was taken in 7 B.C., one year later.
122:7.2 It was not necessary that Mary should go to Bethlehem for enrollment—Joseph was authorized to register for his family—but Mary, being an adventurous and aggressive person, insisted on accompanying him. She feared being left alone lest the child be born while Joseph was away, and again, Bethlehem being not far from the City of Judah, Mary foresaw a possible pleasurable visit with her kinswoman Elizabeth.
122:7.3 Joseph virtually forbade Mary to accompany him, but it was of no avail; when the food was packed for the trip of three or four days, she prepared double rations and made ready for the journey. But before they actually set forth, Joseph was reconciled to Mary’s going along, and they cheerfully departed from Nazareth at the break of day.
8. THE BIRTH OF JESUS
122:8.1 All that night Mary was restless so that neither of them slept much. By the break of day the pangs of childbirth were well in evidence, and at noon, August 21, 7 B.C., with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers, Mary was delivered of a male child. Jesus of Nazareth was born into the world, was wrapped in the clothes which Mary had brought along for such a possible contingency, and laid in a near-by manger."
IMOP
