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Created page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame 86:7.1 The savage felt the need of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance insurance], and he therefore...'
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86:7.1 The [[savage]] felt the need of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance insurance], and he therefore willingly paid his burdensome premiums of [[fear]], [[superstition]], dread, and [[priest]] gifts toward his [[policy]] of [[magic]] insurance against ill [[luck]]. [[Primitive]] [[religion]] was simply the payment of premiums on insurance against the [[perils]] of the [[forests]]; civilized man pays [[material]] premiums against the [[accidents]] of [[industry]] and the exigencies of [[modern]] modes of living.

86:7.2 [[Modern]] [[society]] is removing the [[business]] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurance insurance] from the realm of [[priests]] and [[religion]], placing it in the [[domain]] of [[economics]]. Religion is concerning itself increasingly with the insurance of [[Afterlife|life]] beyond the [[grave]]. [[Modern]] men, at least those who [[think]], no longer pay wasteful premiums to [[control]] [[luck]]. [[Religion]] is slowly ascending to higher [[philosophic]] levels in [[contrast]] with its former [[function]] as a [[scheme]] of insurance against bad [[luck]].

86:7.3 But these [[ancient]] [[ideas]] of [[religion]] prevented men from becoming fatalistic and hopelessly pessimistic; they believed they could at least do something to [[influence]] [[fate]]. The [[religion]] of [[ghost]] [[fear]] impressed upon men that they must [[regulate]] their [[conduct]], that there was a supermaterial world which was in [[control]] of [[human]] [[destiny]].

86:7.4 [[Modern]] civilized [[races]] are just emerging from [[ghost]] [[fear]] as an [[explanation]] of [[luck]] and the commonplace inequalities of [[existence]]. [[Mankind]] is achieving [[emancipation]] from the [[bondage]] of the [[ghost]]-spirit [[explanation]] of ill [[luck]]. But while men are giving up the erroneous [[doctrine]] of a spirit [[cause]] of the [[vicissitudes]] of life, they exhibit a surprising willingness to [[accept]] an almost equally fallacious teaching which bids them attribute all [[human]] inequalities to [[political]] misadaptation, [[social]] injustice]], and industrial [[competition]]. But new [[legislation]], increasing [[philanthropy]], and more industrial reorganization, however [[good]] in and of themselves, will not remedy the [[facts]] of [[birth]] and the [[accidents]] of living. Only [[comprehension]] of [[facts]] and [[wise]] [[manipulation]] within the laws of [[nature]] will enable man to get what he wants and to avoid what he does not want. [[Scientific]] [[knowledge]], leading to scientific [[action]], is the only antidote for so-called accidental ills.

86:7.5 [[Industry]], [[war]], [[slavery]], and civil [[government]] arose in [[response]] to the [[social]] [[evolution]] of man in his [[natural]] [[environment]]; [[religion]] similarly arose as his [[response]] to the [[illusory]] [[environment]] of the imaginary [[ghost]] world. Religion was an evolutionary [[development]] of [[self]]-[[maintenance]], and it has worked, notwithstanding that it was originally erroneous in [[concept]] and utterly illogical.

86:7.6 [[Primitive]] [[religion]] [[prepared]] the [[soil]] of the [[human]] [[mind]], by the powerful and [[awesome]] [[force]] of false [[fear]], for the [[bestowal]] of a [[bona fide]] [[spiritual]] [[force]] of [[supernatural]] [[origin]], the [[Thought Adjuster]]. And the [[divine]] [[Adjusters]] have ever since labored to [[transmute]] God-[[fear]] into God-[[love]]. [[Evolution]] may be slow, but it is unerringly [[effective]].

86:7.7 Presented by an [[Brilliant Evening Stars|Evening Star]] of [[Nebadon]].

<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_86 Go to Paper 86]</center>
<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents Go to Table of Contents]</center>

[[Category:Paper 86 - Early Evolution of Religion]]

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