Chapter 1 – In Darkness
Opening Thoughts
There is an unseen element on our world able to communicate with mortals in ways we are not aware of. If we let them into our lives, they can gradually guide us, seduce us, into thinking and even doing things entirely against who we are and who we wish to become. These unseen beings cannot force us against our will, but by getting our attention and then giving us subtle suggestions they can gradually lead us into dark thoughts and deeds.
These invisible beings have been on our planet since before there was any evidence of civilization and were instrumental in the downfall of Adam and Eve. If they could lead those noble beings astray what chance can we possibly have? We shall see.
Evidence of their work is obvious; our global society is filled with emotional exchanges and many individuals react with emotion instead of thoughtful consideration; this trend is observed in many parts of our planet.
Leaders exploiting dark emotions have been observed countless times on our planet and the regularity in which they appear (Caesar, Napoleon, and Hitler to name only three) suggest a common underlying driving force. There is something sinister attempting to motivate society and influence individuals to move toward a lessening of civilized norms.
In our times dark thoughts permeate our society in ways we have not experienced in many years. Politicians run for office spouting hatred for selected classes of individuals and they are elected by voters responding to such emotional appeals. This is a clear echo of Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.[1] Politicians today are chosen by an electorate refusing to examine the facts and consider rational evidence. These politicians deny the facts of science; they also deny other proven facts, calling anything portraying them in a bad light as “fake news.”
These dark thoughts color personal relationships and have a definite impact on our health and well-being. Many modern people living in our mostly secular society are drowning in fear and feel cut off from a meaningful existence; they have been disenfranchised.
There are many ways society is divided in addition to political groups. These are the rich against everyone else, science and religion, various religious groups contending with one another, racial and ethnic differences to name a few.
Occasionally a group of individuals meet and agree on a particular common goal. Whatever this goal may be, it is of such importance it is greatly revered. This goal may be to give workers a fair compensation for their work, it may be to expand the brotherhood of believers to include all of mankind or it may be some other worthy goal. This sublime goal increases in importance until it becomes the morality of these believers. Anything working toward achieving this goal becomes acceptable; the goal becomes the morality. When this happens, other considerations, even normal moral considerations, become secondary. We will explore this again later.
Everything needs to have a proper foundation to prevent disaster. This might be building a house not on sand but on a firm foundation or it might be basing our life on spiritual reality. Physical objects may appear and disappear but our Heavenly Father is constant. Since our foundation must be solid and unchanging what better foundation could we have than the Creator of all things? When we have such a moral foundation we will be less vulnerable to misleading thoughts.
For a brief change of pace, we want to hear about some good stuff, not to gloss over the bad things in our society but rather to put everything in proper perspective. There is certainly good stuff out there, for example:
Man as a moral being is inexplicable unless the reality of the Universal Father is acknowledged.[2]
Morality, being above the physical realm, is evidence of spiritual values within us. Purely physical beings might experience lust but they could not love, they would have no more concept of right and wrong than would a hungry bear searching for food. If we recognize moral values in people then we must realize there is some higher entity of supreme value, the source of these values and infinitely more.
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See for example “The Death of Democracy – Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic,” by Benjamin Carter Hett, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2018, p 10. ↑
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The Urantia Book, 53.1, this refers to the page.paragraph of the one column edition. That this book is worthy of being a primary reference is discussed in Appendix 1. ↑