PRAYER AND WORSHIP
I. NATURE WORSHIP
1. Early worship was suggested by nature objects close at hand. (944.2) 85:0.2 [2]
2. Man has worshipped everything on the face of the earth—including himself. (944.4) 85:0.4 [3]
3. The first object of worship was a stone. (944.5) 85:1.1 [4]
4. Hills and mountains were early worshipped; gods lived on mountains, demons in caves. (945.3) 85:1.5 [5]
5. The cults of tree worship are among the oldest religions. (945.6) 85:2.3 [6]
6. Clouds, hail, windstorms, thunder and lightning overawed early man. (947.2) 85:4.3 [7]
7. Nature worship led to the deification of sun, moon, and stars. (947.4) 85:5.1 [8]
8. Fire was long worshipped. (947.3) 85:4.4 [9]
9. Man’s early fear became religious as nature became personalized, spiritized, and eventually deified. (950.2) 86:0.2 [10]
II. CHANCE AND LUCK
1. Early man lived in fear of chance—existence was a gamble. (950.6) 86:1.4 [11]
2. Even the wise man said: “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.” (951.2) 86:1.6 [12]
3. The savage personalized everything—both nature and chance. (951.5) 86:2.3 [13]
4. Presently, good luck was associated with good spirits—bad luck with bad spirits. (955.9) 86:6.4 [14]
5. The savage willingly paid the premiums of fear and priest gifts toward his magic insurance against bad luck. (956.4) 86:7.1 [15]
6. Modern man has removed the insurance business from the realm of priests to the domain of economics. (956.5) 86:7.2 [16]
III. THE GHOST CULT
1. Ghost fear was the fountainhead of world religion. (961.2) 87:4.1 [17]
2. Men viewed ghosts as having unlimited rights but no duties. (962.2) 87:5.1 [18]
3. Self-deprecation was an effort to avoid ghost jealousy. All this led to civilized modesty and restraint. (963.2) 87:5.7 [19]
4. The effort to placate ghosts and bribe spirits led to a world philosophy. (963.4) 87:5.9 [20]
5. The ghost cult rendered ancestor worship inevitable. (960.5) 87:3.1 [21]
6. Evolutionary religion was born of man’s fear of the unknown, the inexplicable, and the incomprehensible. (986.3) 90:0.3 [22]
IV. DEATH FEAR
1. To primitive man, death was a shocking combination of chance and mystery. (952.3) 86:3.1 [23]
2. Dreams gave origin to the belief in a future life. (953.1) 86:4.2 [24]
3. The ghost cult led to the belief in recurring incarnations. (953.4) 86:4.5 [25]
4. Death was feared, because it released another ghost to be contended with. (958.3) 87:1.1 [26]
5. The funeral service was an effort to get rid of the ghost. (959.4) 87:2.3 [27]
6. Man inherited a natural environment, acquired a social environment, and imagined a ghost environment. The state is man’s reaction to natural environment, the home to his social environment, the church to his illusory ghost environment. (955.6) 86:6.1 [28]
V. FETISHES, MAGIC, AND CHARMS
1. For ages the “breath of life” was a fetish. (955.1) 86:5.13 [29]
2. The doctrine of spirit possession is fetishism. (967.1) 88:0.1 [30]
3. Belief in relics is an outgrowth of the fetish cult. (968.6) 88:2.1 [31]
4. Magic developed science; astrology led to astronomy; magic numbers to mathematics. (972.5) 88:6.5 [32]
5. Magic still lingers—many fossil words afford evidence—spellbound, entrancing, and astonished. (972.7) 88:6.7 [33]
6. Ancient magic was the cocoon of modern science. (973.1) 88:6.8 [34]
VI. SACRAMENTS AND RITUALS
1. Salvation depended on vows, oaths, pledges, fasting, and prayer. Then came self-denial, suffering, and deprivation. (965.3) 87:6.16 [35]
2. The cult of sacrifice evolved into the cult of sacrament. (984.3) 89:9.4 [36]
3. Religious observances evolved through placation, avoidance, exorcism, coercion, conciliation, and propitiation to sacrifice, atonement, and redemption. (986.1) 90:0.1 [37]
4. Ritual sanctifies custom and perpetuates myths. (992.3) 90:5.2 [38]
5. Mysticism often leads to social isolation and religious fanaticism. (1000.2) 91:7.1 [39]
6. The common people craved consolation and promises of salvation. (1081.4) 98:4.1 [40]
VII. EVOLVING PRAYER
1. The first prayers were not addressed to God—they were like saying: “Wish me luck.” (994.2) 91:0.2 [41]
2. With the coming of God-consciousness, these petitions attained the level of prayer. (994.3) 91:0.3 [42]
3. Man prayed before he knew God—when in need or when jubilant. (1001.5) 91:8.1 [43]
4. Primitive prayer was bargaining, argument, with the gods. (983.6) 89:8.8 [44]
5. Early prayer was hardly worship. It sought health, wealth, and life. (983.6) 89:8.8 [44]
6. Prayer may be an angry cry for vengeance or the joy of a liberated son of God. (1001.11) 91:8.7 [45]
VIII. PROVINCE OF PRAYER
1. Prayer is communion between man and his Maker. (996.3) 91:2.5 [46]
2. It is impossible to separate the psychological and spiritual aspects of prayer. (997.4) 91:3.6 [47]
3. Prayer can never be ethical when the petitioner seeks selfish advantage over his fellows. (997.6) 91:4.1 [48]
4. Prayer must not be so prostituted as to become a substitute for action. (997.7) 91:4.2 [49]
5. Prayer does not change God, but it may effect great changes in the one who prays. (998.3) 91:4.5 [50]
6. Prayer is a sure cure for the habit of criticizing others. (998.6) 91:5.3 [51]
7. We should be tolerant of those who pray in primitive fashion. (999.3) 91:5.7 [52]
8. Prayer is not the cure for organic diseases. (999.5) 91:6.2 [53]
9. Prayer enriches the life; worship illuminates destiny. (1123.5) 102:4.5 [54]
10. Jesus taught sixteen conditions for effective prayer. (1638.1) 146:2.1 [55]
IX. TRUE WORSHIP
1. In the highest sense, we worship only the Universal Father. (65.3) 5:3.1 [56]
2. Worship is dispatched over the Father’s personality circuit. (65.4) 5:3.2 [57]
3. Worship asks nothing for the worshiper. (65.5) 5:3.3 [58]
4. From the standpoint of worship, God is one—a unified and personal Deity. (640.4) 56:4.5 [59]
5. Worship is the highest joy of Paradise existence. (304.3) 27:7.5 [60]
X. REAL RELIGION
1. The early Christian cult was most effective, but is today devitalized by the loss of fundamental ideas. (965.8) 87:7.4 [61]
2. No cult will survive unless it embodies some masterful mystery. (966.4) 87:7.9 [62]
3. Doctrines may differ, but in worship unity can be realized. (1012.5) 92:7.4 [63]
4. Religion is the foundation and guiding star of enduring civilization. (1013.10) 92:7.15 [64]
5. Jesus enlarged the neighbor concept to embrace the whole of humanity. (1133.7) 103:5.2 [65]
6. The great need of both science and religion is fearless self-criticism. (1138.5) 103:7.7 [66]
7. The religion of the Hebrews exalted morals, the Greeks beauty. Paul preached faith, hope, and charity. Jesus revealed a religion of love, security, and service. (2095.3) 196:3.19 [67]
8. To Jesus, prayer was “doing the Father’s will”—a way of religious living. (2088.5) 196:0.10 [68]
XI. RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION
1. The power of an idea lies not in its truth, but in its vividness of appeal. (1005.5) 92:3.3 [69]
2. Religion handicaps social development, but without it, there would be no morals or ethics. (1006.3) 92:3.6 [70]
3. Evolutionary religion is man’s most expensive but effective institution. (1006.5) 92:3.8 [71]
4. Religion is the efficient scourge which drives indolent mankind from inertia forward to levels of reason and wisdom. (1006.6) 92:3.9 [72]
5. The church, in fostering racial degeneracy, has retarded civilization. (1088.6) 99:3.5 [73]
6. In these unsettled times, as never before, man needs the stabilization of sound religion. (1090.2) 99:4.6 [74]
7. The cosmology of the Urantia Revelation is not inspired. (1109.3) 101:4.2 [75]
8. Every new revelation gives rise to a new cult—with new and appropriate symbolism. (966.1) 87:7.6 [76]
9. There have been five epochal revelations on Urantia:
- The Dalamatian teachings.
- The Edenic teachings.
- Melchizedek of Salem.
- Jesus of Nazareth.
- The Urantia Papers. (1007.4) 92:4.4 [77]
BIBLE REFERENCES: Ps 66:18 [78]. Prov 21:13 [79]. I John 5:14, 15 [80]. Ps 34:17 [81]. Prov 15:8 [82]. John 15:7 [83]. Ps 37:4 [84]. James 1:5 [85]. Luke 18:1 [86]. Mark 14:38 [87]. Phil 4:6-19 [88]. Jer 29:12-13 [89]. Ps 92:1 [90]. Col 4:2 [91]. I Thes 5:18 [92].