In attempting to fathom why this great and mysterious book has been written in such a peculiar manner, perhaps it would be enlightening to examine some of its own statements on validity. The premier thing to notice is the emphasis on the role of human experience in validating belief. On page 24, we read:
“The existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by the pure reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms of human experience.”
In the next paragraph we are told:
“Those who know God have experienced the fact of his presence; such God-knowing mortals hold in their personal experience the only positive proof of the existence of the living God which one human being can offer to another.”(1:2.4)
Further emphasizing the role of human experience, on pages 1105-1106 we are told:
“The fact of religion consists wholly in the religious experience of rational and average human beings. And this is the only sense in which religion can ever be regarded as scientific or even psychological. The proof that revelation is revelation is the same fact of human experience; the fact that revelation does synthesize the apparently divergent sciences of nature and the theology of religion into a consistent and logical universe philosophy, thus creating a harmony of mind and satisfaction of spirit which answers in human experience those questionings of the mortal mind which crave to know how the infinite works out his will and plans in matter, with minds, and on spirit.”(101:2.1)
On page 1106, the significance of experience becomes cardinal:
“There are two basic reasons for believing in a God who fosters human survival:
- Human experience, personal assurance, the somehow registered hope and trust initiated by the indwelling Thought Adjuster.
- The revelation of truth, whether by direct personal ministry of the Spirit of Truth, by the world bestowal of divine Sons, or through revelations of the written word.” (101:2.4)
And two paragraphs beyond:
“Reason is the proof of science, faith the proof of religion, logic the proof of philosophy, but revelation is validated only by human experience.”
The nature of proof is a topic that has received much attention in recent times, particularly from those skilled in the arts of mathematics and logic. However, conclusions emanating from this research have been quite discouraging in relation to our ability to prove, beyond doubt, even the basics tenets Of mathematics and science. The Urantia Papers (received in the mid-1930’s) comment: “in the mortal state, nothing can be absolutely proved; both science and religion are predicated on assumptions.” And in the following paragraph it says:
“All divisions of human thought are predicated on certain assumptions which are accepted, though unproved, by the constitutive reality sensitivity of the mind endowment of man.” (page 1139,103:7.11)
Urantia Evidence 