Errors in the Science of the Urantia
Papers.
In previous publications5,6,7 we have concentrated
attention on what we called the prophetic component in the cosmology of the
Papers. Though we were aware of discrepancies in their history of the geology
and paleontology of the planet, these were set aside on the grounds that dating
procedures were too inaccurate to be certain that the Papers were in error.
A new dimension has since been added to radiometric dating
procedures by the discovery of the remarkable properties of tiny zircon
crystals. These crystals accompany many sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and,
in combination with incredible new micro-analytical technology, they enable the
accurate dating of spots no wider than a human hair, taken either at the
surface or the crystals interior.3
The revelators were well aware that this would eventually be so:
“The radium clock is your most reliable timepiece.” (659)
Included in the error listing that follows are statements from
the Urantia Papers that would almost certainly be seen as erroneous by new
readers and cause them to abandon interest—the more so if their expectation was
they are reading a revelation from a supernatural source:
Page 656. Referring to Jupiter and Saturn, “These two largest
of the solar system planets have remained largely gaseous to this day…The
gas-contraction nucleuses of the other ten planets soon reached the stage of
solidification and so began to draw to themselves increasing quantities of the
meteoric matter circulating in near-by space.”
Comment: The inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and
Mars are classed as ‘terrestrial.’ The Jovian planets are the giant planets,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These are also classed as ‘the gaseous
planets’ because the major part of their volume is gaseous. All have a ‘rocky’
core. As a proportion of its mass, Uranus is much more ‘rocky’ than Jupiter.
Nevertheless, it has a lower density.3
Page 657. “Such gravitational influences also contribute
to the stabilization of planetary orbits while acting as a brake on the rate of
planetary-axial revolution, causing a planet to revolve ever slower until axial
revolution ceases, leaving one hemisphere of the planet always turned toward
the sun or larger body, as is illustrated by the planet Mercury and by the
moon, which always turns the same face toward Urantia.”
Comment: In the late 19th century it was
concluded that Mercury was in synchronous rotation exactly equal to its year of
88 Earth days. Thus there would be a dark side always facing away from the Sun.
This was brought into question in the 1960’s when observations indicated the
‘dark’ side was much hotter than it should be. A final answer came in 1974 from
photographs taken by the spacecraft Mariner from which the rotational period
was shown to be 58.646 Earth days—hence for Mercury there is no permanently
dark side.3
Page 658. “2,500,000,000 years ago the planets had grown
immensely in size. Urantia was a well-developed sphere about one tenth its
present mass and was still growing rapidly by meteoric accretion.”
Comment: The fact that evidence is available for the
occurrence of sedimentary rocks and oceans dating back to from 3.8 to 4.4
billion years ago and for life forms existing close to 4 billion years ago is
impossible to reconcile with this statement. And there is much convincing
evidence indicating the Earth and its moon were close to their full size by
about 4.4 billion years ago.3,4
Page 659. “1,500,000,000 years ago the earth was two
thirds its present size…Volcanic action is now at its height. The whole earth
is a veritable fiery inferno, the surface resembling its earlier molten state
before the heavier metals gravitated toward the center. This is the volcanic
age…The primitive planetary atmosphere is slowly evolving, now containing some
water vapor, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen chloride, but there
is little or no free nitrogen or free oxygen. Presently, the atmosphere became
more settled and cooled sufficiently to start precipitation of rain on the hot
rocky surface of the planet. For thousands of years Urantia was enveloped in
one vast and continuous blanket of steam. And during these ages the sun never
shone upon the earth's surface.”
Comment: There is no geological evidence to support such
a scenario. Photosynthetic bacteria have been present in the oceans of the
world since between 3.5 and 4 billion years ago, a fact demonstrated by the
ratio of carbon isotopes in fossil remains that is unique to photosynthesis by
living organisms. Additionally, studies of crater formation on the moon
demonstrate that bombardment by large planetesimals virtually ceased by 3.8
billion years ago and that crater formation fell to the current level at about that
time. An Earth, two thirds its present size just 1.5 billion years ago is not a
possibility.
Oxygen is the waste product of photosynthesis, itself a
biological process. 3.8 billion years ago these bacteria had oxygenated the
waters sufficiently to convert the soluble ferrous iron salts to the insoluble
oxidized ferric form. Deposits from this process are present as sedimentary
strata at Isua in Greenland and elsewhere. Barite/gypsum deposits, aged 3.5
billion years are found at places like Pilbarra in Western Australia, and are
the result of oxidation of sulfides to sulfates. This oxidation process
continued until 1.7 billion years ago when the oceans were cleared of the
excess reduced salts.
A period of “thousands of years” during which the “sun never
shone on the earth’s surface” would have wiped out all photosynthetic
organisms. Thus the incredibly complicated oxygen producing process of
photosynthesis would have needed to evolve all over again. But the evidence is
for a sharp rise in atmospheric oxygen commencing in this period, rising
towards 10% of current levels by its end, 1.0 billion years ago.3,4
Page-660. 1,000,000,000 years ago. “The planet had
attained approximately its present size…. The real geologic history of Urantia
begins with the cooling of the earth's crust sufficiently to cause the
formation of the first ocean. Water-vapor condensation on the cooling
surface of the earth, once begun, continued until it was virtually complete. By
the end of this period the ocean was world-wide, covering the entire planet to
an average depth of over one mile. The tides were then in play much as they are
now observed, but this primitive ocean was not salty; it was practically a
fresh-water covering for the world. In those days, most of the chlorine was
combined with various metals, but there was enough, in union with hydrogen, to
render this water faintly acid.”
Comment: The Urantia Paper describes a period of
500,000,000 years prior to this billion year period during which “the surface
of the planet was bombarded by meteorites so that it increased its mass by one
third, for much of the time was a fiery inferno due to volcanic activity, and
for thousands of years was enveloped in steam.” And ocean formation commenced
only after this period.
In conflict with the above, craters and maree on the moon’s
surface date back as far as 3.9 billion years, and present no signs for a
meteor bombardment that could increase the Earth’s mass by one third in this period.
Also algal fossils are known aged 1.9 billion years from the
Gunflint formations in Canada and aged 1.5 billion years from the Amelia
dolomites in Australia. Current estimates are that the oceans reached their
present degree of salinity 1.5 to 2 billion years ago.3 And sea
dwelling Ediacaran creatures3 were present on the ocean bottoms from
almost one billion years ago to the late Pre-Cambrian a half billion years
later
The description in the Paper is diametrically opposed to the
evidence of modern investigatory sciences—so much so that any new reader having
a sound knowledge of the new technologies of geophysics and astronomy would be
mystified as to why it was ever written.
Page-663. 750,000,000 years ago the first breaks in the
continental land mass began…
Comment: We finally arrive at what is a truly prophetic
statement for the period in which it was made. This breakup of a single land
mass is the commencement of continental drift, now a virtually unopposed
theory. But up until towards the end of the 1950 period it was vigorously
opposed by the vast majority of professional geologists. The concept was put
forward around 1910 by Alfred Wegener and drew almost hysterical opposition
from many prominent geologists.1
British geophysicist, Sir Harold Jeffreys, spent years
attempting to demonstrate that continental drift is impossible because the
strength of the mantle should be greater than any conceivable driving force.
Eminent American geologist, R. T. Chamberlin listed 18 points that he
considered destructive of the hypothesis.
The turning point came with the discovery of sea floor spreading
at the Atlantic ridge around 1960. However, The Urantia Book’s story of the
Earth’s geological history from 750,000,000 years ago had been presented in the
face of intense opposition to continental drift and also to Wegener’s view that
drift had started much more recently, around the 200,000, 000 year mark.
In the 1980’s, geologists started to publish their belief that
the first breakdown of a single continent commenced much earlier, around
500,000,000 years ago. By 1995, this had blown out to 750,000,000, the same
period as given in the Urantia Paper.2 So was continental drift,
commencing 750 million years ago just a lucky guess? There is only one chance
in hundreds of it being so. But if not by chance, why have the revelators given
us what appears to be an utterly ridiculous account of other aspects of
geological history?
Page-667. “550,000,000 years ago the Life Carrier corps
returned to Urantia. In co-operation with spiritual powers and superphysical
forces we organized and initiated the original life patterns of this world and
planted them in the hospitable waters of the realm. All planetary life (aside
from extraplanetary personalities) down to the days of Caligastia, the
Planetary Prince, had its origin in our three original, identical, and
simultaneous marine-life implantations. These three life implantations have
been designated as: the central or Eurasian-African, the eastern or Australasian,
and the western, embracing Greenland and the Americas.”
Page-668. “500,000,000 years ago primitive marine vegetable life
was well established on Urantia.”
Comment: Primitive marine vegetable life of both
prokaryote (no nucleus housing the chromosome) and eukaryote forms (chromosomes
are contained in a nucleus) had for long existed on Urantia. The prokaryotes
were in existence close to 4 billion years ago while the eukaryotes, including
photosynthetic algae, had been present
for about 2 billion years.
Fossils of red algae of the species Eosphaera and Huroniospora
are dated at 1.9 billion years ago. The crawling trails of bottom-dwelling,
worm-like creatures are found among Ediacaran fossils that occur as early as
about 1 billion years ago. Amongst these Ediacaran creatures was a leaf-like
organism called Charniodiscus that grew to about 10 feet in length and had a
holdfast for anchoring it to the sea bed.
The only way to reconcile the Urantia Papers version of the
beginning of life on our planet with the fossil evidence is to redefine what is
meant by “life.” It is possible that the life implantations made by the Life
Carriers were re-organized from the existing forms and had the full potential
to eventually evolve to a self-conscious intelligent life form. It would be
this latter quality that defines it as life for the Revelators.
Evidence of our direct relationship to the early forms that we
call “life” is present in the DNA of our shared genes—so these forms would need
to be classed as pre-life if the Revelators’ assertion is correct. Of course,
new readers would not be likely to rationalize such an apparent error.
Page-673. “400,000,000 years ago marine life, both
vegetable and animal, is fairly well distributed over the whole world. The
world climate grows slightly warmer and becomes more equable. There is a
general inundation of the seashores of the various continents, particularly of
North and South America. New oceans appear, and the older bodies of water are
greatly enlarged.
“Vegetation now for the first time crawls out upon the land and
soon makes considerable progress in adaptation to a nonmarine habitat.
“Suddenly and without gradation ancestry the first multicellular
animals make their appearance.”
Comment: According to modern paleontology, most of the
known phyla were already represented in the Cambrian period, 570-505 million
years ago.3 The multicellular priapulid worms were already diverse,
fossils of annelid worm are present, also sponges, coelenterates, arthropods,
trilobites, and crustaceans. Air-breathing scorpions are found in the Silurian
period, 410-435 million years ago.3
Page-674. This was the biogeologic picture of Urantia at
the end of that long period of the world's history, embracing fifty million
years, designated by your geologists as the Cambrian.
Comment: This curious statement appears at the end of a
section commencing at 360,000,000 years ago so would cover from 410-360 million
years ago. As far back as the 1950’s the Cambrian period was given as from
540,000,000 to 500,000,000 years ago.
Page-675. 310,000,000 years ago. “The marine fauna
developed to the point where every type of life below the vertebrate scale was
represented in the fossils of those rocks which were laid down during these
times. But all of these animals were marine organisms. No land animals had yet
appeared except a few types of worms which burrowed along the seashores, nor
had the land plants yet overspread the continents; there was still too much carbon
dioxide in the air to permit the existence of air breathers.”
Comment: Air-breathing scorpions (an animal) were present
in the Silurian period 100 million years earlier. Fossil evidence for land
plants exists in the Ordovician (505-438 million years ago) and fossilized
tracheids (which are diagnostic of vascular plants) are found in the early
Devonian (408-360 million years ago)
Page-681. “200,000,000 years ago the really active stages
of the Carboniferous period began. For twenty million years prior to this time
the earlier coal deposits were being laid down, but now the more extensive
coal-formation activities were in process. The length of the actual
coal-deposition epoch was a little over twenty-five million years.
“180,000,000 years ago brought the close of the Carboniferous
period, during which coal had been formed all over the world—in Europe, India,
China, North Africa, and the Americas.”
Comment: Modern geology places the Carboniferous at from
360,000,000 to 286,000,000 years ago. In the 1950 period some geologists drew
the boundaries at 320,000,000 to 260,000,000 years ago. It would be interesting
to obtain information on the geological time scale for the 1920 to 1935 period.
As with other commentaries on matters of science and cosmology in the Urantia
Papers, it is possible that much of the information on paleontology is drawn
from one or two text books that were current in that period. If so, they will
eventually come to light.
However the time scale for continental drift is another matter,
the commencing period at 750,000,000 years ago not appearing in science papers
until the 1990’s. Also the age given for the origin of the solar system of 4.5
billion years is remarkable for 1934, the time the Papers were received, or
even for 1955 when they were published. In 1952, Hubble had estimated the rate
of universe expansion and from his data, calculated its age to be 2 billion
years. Later it was found that the Cepheid variable stars used in measuring
distance from the Earth actually had two components and Hubble’s age for the
universe had to be doubled. But that still made the Urantia Paper’s age for the
solar system about the same as Hubble’s estimate for the whole universe—which
was known to be impossible.
By 1955 a new estimate made from radiometric data from
meteorites put the solar system’s age at 4.6 billion years. Could this new
information have been used in writing the account given in the Urantia Papers?
To do so would have required a complete rewriting of at least 50 pages. In
1955, far too many people had been involved in checking the galley proofs for
the book for this to have been even a remote possibility.
Further curiosities are statements such as 45,000 years ago “the
ancestors of kangaroos (marsupials) roamed Australia” (694) and around this
time, “a southern land bridge connected Australia, Antarctica, and South
America.” (695) At the time this was written, the concept of wandering
continents was heresy—which left paleontologists debating about how marsupials
could have existed in both South America and Australia. The 1982 discovery of
marsupial fossils at Seymour Island in Antarctica confirmed that their
migration between these continents had indeed been possible.3
Likewise Page 689 tells us “…as the continental land
drift continued, it met with the first great obstruction on the deep floor of
the Pacific. This contention of geologic forces gave impetus to the formation
of the whole vast north and south mountain range extending from Alaska down
through Mexico to Cape Horn.”
Comment: The concept of plate tectonics and the Pacific
plate diving under the American plates and pushing up the coastal mountain
chains did not become an acceptable hypothesis until long after the The Urantia
Book was published.
Page 690 “75,000,000 years ago marks the end of
continental drift.
Comment: Error returns. Drift continues. Satellite
pictures show that, taking Africa as a fixed point, the Australian plate moves
north at 8.4 cm/yr (4000 miles/75 million yrs); the South American plate west
at 3.2 cm/yr; the Arabian plate north at 2.6 cm/yr; the Pacific plate north
east at 10.6 cm/yr., etc. Plate movement is expected to continue far into the
future.10
There are statements
outside of the geological and paleontological history of our planet that will
be seen as simple error by new readers. For example, the human chromosome
number is given as 48 instead of 46; the distance to Andromeda is given as less
than I million light years instead of 2.2 million; elements with more than 100
orbital electrons are said to decay “instantaneously,” whereas the man made
element 101, mendelevium 258 has a half-life of 54 days. Most such errors
merely reiterate beliefs current in the mid 1930’s.
New errors now emerging are the migration of the red man to the
Americas that is given in the Papers as occurring as a single incident 85,000
years ago (723), which contrasts with recent work indicating that at least five
separate migrations occurred between 47,650 to 13,000 years ago.8 It
also appears that the “Out of Africa” hypothesis for the origin of modern man,
a story that would be impossible to fit with that in the Urantia Papers, is
almost certainly correct.9
Obviously this extraordinary contrast between error and
amazingly prophetic statement in these same Urantia Papers constitutes a
mystery—one that has yet to be solved. Surely though, we must seriously
consider the possibility that what is now obviously erroneous material was put
there, waiting to be discovered, because it serves some hidden purpose of the
revelators.
Reference list
1. Le Grand, H.E. Drifting
Continents and Shifting Theories. (Cambridge University Press, 1988)
2. Dalziel, I.W.D.
Scientific American 272 (1) 38, 1995
3. Encyclopedia Britannica
CDRom editions 1999-2001
4. Delsemme, A.H. An
Argument for the Cometry Origin of the Biosphere. American Scientist
89:432-442, 2001; E.B. 2001
5. Bain, R., Glasziou, K.,
Neibaur, M., and Wright, F. (1991) The Science Content of The Urantia Book.
(BOML, Mason City, Iowa)
6. Glasziou, K.(1997) Science,
Anthropology, and Archaeology in The Urantia Book. (BOML, Iowa)
7. Glasziou, K. An
Update of Science, Anthropology, and Archaeology in The Urantia Book.
Innerface International Vol.5, No. 7. (1998)
8. Schurr, T.G. Mitochondrial
DNA and the Peopling of the New World. American Scientist 88, (3) 246
(2000)
9. Shermer, M. I was
wrong. Scientific American 285 (4) 25 (2001)
10. Rothery, D. (1997) Geology
(Hodder & Stoughton, London)
[Note: Those wishing to confirm data cited herein can, for much
of it, do so by using keywords and the Encyclopedia Britannica CDRom.]
Ken Glasziou, Australia < Home < back to Cosmology