What is this? Who Is Involved?
I, Halbert Katzen, started the UBannotated project in 2017 to provide a wide variety of study aids for efficiently learning from and about The Urantia Book, also known as the Urantia Papers. My educational background is in Philosophy of Religion and Law.
At over 2000 pages, efficiency naturally comes up as an issue for both new readers and those wishing to do in-depth study of the text.
UBannotated developed as an expansion of the UBtheNEWS project. Since 2007, UBtheNEWS features reports and research on how new discoveries and scientific advances increasingly support the account of planetary history provided in the Urantia Papers. When the book was first published in 1955, the authors asserted that “the historic facts and religious truths of this series of revelatory presentations will stand on the records of the ages to come.”
The last seventy years of new discoveries and scientific advances have been especially good for the veracity of the Urantia Papers. Both scientific and technological advances are rapidly accelerating and simplifying the process of demonstrating the book’s unique quality of credibility. Meanwhile, cultural challenges percolating since 1955 regarding God, government, race, sex, and free speech have made Urantia Paper teachings on those subjects increasingly relevant and timely.
Unless otherwise noted, everything on this website is my own effort, except that some UBtheNEWS reports were coauthored with other scholars. As well, without endorsement, this project incorporates the numerous noteworthy efforts by others.
Different Ways To Get Started
There are lots of ways to enjoy diving into the Urantia Papers. But starting from the beginning often times ends up being discouraging—not for all but for most. The one-page introduction to the Foreword provides an intriguing and informative perspective, and the several definitions starting here add to that. But beyond this, the Foreword tends to be a sophisticated glossary of theological and philosophical terminology written at a PhD level that wears most people out. You can always come back to it later; the text does encourage its use as a reference tool.
“Chapters” are referred to as Papers because the Urantia Papers are a cooperative effort, said to be authored by numerous celestial authors.
Overviews
Many people enjoy perusing the Sections of the Papers. With 197 Papers and roughly seven Sections per Paper, this can take a few minutes: Titles of the Papers and Sections. For convenient access to the text, the main menu takes you to a list of only the Papers.
Highlights: This starts with a perspective on the cultural transition from Jewish to Christian theology. Then it provides some food for thought and inspiration for the soul. 2000+ pages reduced to 20 pages.
Controversial Subjects
Sovereignty–Human and Divine; Political Sovereignty; Law, Liberty, and Sovereignty.
About five pages on democratic government.
Is The Urantia Book “gay friendly?”
(84:5.12) Each sex has its own distinctive sphere of existence, together with its own rights within that sphere. If woman aspires literally to enjoy all of man’s rights, then, sooner or later, pitiless and emotionless competition will certainly replace that chivalry and special consideration which many women now enjoy, and which they have so recently won from men.
Genetic Introductions, Mutations, and Evolution: a Urantia Book perspective. The plan and purpose behind racial differences.
Impressive UBtheNEWS Reports
The Urantia Book‘s Planetary History: A Credibility Check: This is an introductory lecture I did at a 2015 conference. It reviews the UBtheNEWS: Garden of Eden Report and the UBtheNEWS: Adam and Eve Report. The former shows that advances in bathymetric mapping and plate tectonics research supports assertions about the Garden of Eden sinking to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The latter primarily relates to Bruce Lahn’s research on how an addition to the microcephalin gene roughly 37,000 years ago and its global spread tracks with the story about Adam, Eve, and their descendants.
Study Aids By Academic Department
Animal Science
Anthropology
Archaeology
Agriculture
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Biology and Genetics
English
Gender Studies
Geology
Geophysics
Physics
Political Science/Government
Psychology
Religion and Biblical Studies
The Urantia Papers, plus Annotations
Annotations: Use these study notes while you read a hard copy of The Urantia Book. Or open an extra window for annotations, while reading this online publication of The Urantia Book.
Study Aids
The Topical Studies page is thematically organized, including a “Mysteries solved? You be the judge.” section. The Study Aids page includes access to translations, Urantia Book search engine recommendations, information about the history of The Urantia Book, and more.
Etymologies
Etymologies for Coined Terminology.
Urantia: The name of our planet.
Known in the heavens as (Uran) the “World of the Cross” (t, ia).
ur– Prefix meaning “original, earliest, primitive,” from German ur- “out of, original,” from Proto-Germanic uz- “out,” from PIE ud- “up, out.”
Uranus: First planet discovered that was not known in ancient times, named for the god of Heaven, husband of Gaia, the Earth, from Latin Uranus, from Greek Ouranos literally “heaven, the sky;” in Greek cosmology, the god who personifies the heavens, father of the titans.
uranian (adj.): Urania “Heavenly” (Greek Ourania) being an epithet of Aphrodite as born of Uranus and also as distinguished from the vulgar Venus of commonplace lust.
Urania: name of the Muse of astronomy and celestial forces, from Latin Urania, from Greek Ourania, fem. of ouranios, literally “heavenly,” from ouranos
The letter “T” looks like a cross.
(188:4.1) It is a fact that Urantia has become known among other neighboring inhabited planets as the “World of the Cross.”
-ia: Word-forming element in names of countries, diseases, and flowers, from Latin and Greek. -ia, noun ending, in Greek especially used in forming abstract nouns (typically of feminine gender).
