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THE NATURE OF GOD
DIVINE TRUTH AND
BEAUTY |
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CEDOMIL VUGRINCIC, M.D., Ph.D. |
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All finite
knowledge and creature understanding are relative. Information and
intelligence, gleaned from even high sources, is only relatively complete,
locally accurate, and personally true. Physical facts
are fairly uniform, but truth is a living and flexible factor in the
philosophy of the universe. Evolving personalities are only partially wise
and relatively true in their communications. They can be certain only as far
as their personal experience extends. That which apparently may be wholly
true in one place may be only relatively true in another segment of creation. Divine Truth,
final Truth, is uniform and universal, but the story of things spiritual, as
it is told by numerous individuals hailing from various spheres, may
sometimes vary in details owing to this relativity in the completeness of
knowledge and in the repleteness of personal experience as well as in the
length and extent of that experience. While the laws and decrees, the
thoughts and attitudes, of the First Great Source and Center are eternally,
infinitely, and universally true; at the same time, their application to, and
adjustment for, every universe, system, world, and created intelligence, are
in accordance with the plans and technique of the Creator Sons as they
function in their respective universes, as well as in harmony with the local
plans and procedures of the Infinite Spirit and of all other associated
celestial personalities. The false
science of materialism would sentence mortal man to become an outcast in the
universe. Such partial knowledge is potentially evil; it is knowledge
composed of both good and evil. Truth is beautiful because it is both replete
and symmetrical. When man searches for truth, he pursues the divinely real. Philosophers
commit their gravest error when they are misled into the fallacy of
abstraction, the practice of focusing the attention upon one aspect of
reality and then of pronouncing such an isolated aspect to be the whole
truth. The wise philosopher will always look for the creative design which is
behind, and pre-existent to, all universe phenomena. The creator thought
invariably precedes creative action. Intellectual
self-consciousness can discover the beauty of truth, its spiritual quality,
not only by the philosophic consistency of its concepts, but more certainly
and surely by the unerring response of the ever-present Spirit of Truth.
Happiness ensues from the recognition of truth because it can be acted out;
it can be lived. Disappointment and sorrow attend upon error because, not
being a reality, it cannot be realized in experience. Divine Truth is best
known by its spiritual flavor. The eternal
quest is for unification, for divine coherence. The far-flung physical
universe coheres in the Isle of The discernment
of supreme beauty is the discovery and integration of reality: The
discernment of the divine goodness in the eternal truth, that is ultimate
beauty. Even the charm of human art consists in the harmony of its unity. The great
mistake of the Hebrew religion was its failure to associate the goodness of
God with the factual truths of science and the appealing beauty of art. As
civilization progressed, and since religion continued to pursue the same
unwise course of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the relative
exclusion of truth and neglect of beauty, there developed an increasing
tendency for certain types of men to turn away from the abstract and
dissociated concept of isolated goodness. The overstressed
and isolated morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion
and loyalty of many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in
addition to its moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the
truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties
of the physical creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of
genuine character achievement. The religious
challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women
of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing
philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern
concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new
and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of
man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. Truth, beauty,
and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual
living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly
coordinated and unified in God, who is love. All
truth--material, philosophic, or spiritual--is both beautiful and good. All
real beauty--material art or spiritual symmetry--is both true and good. All
genuine goodness--whether personal morality, social equity, or divine
ministry--is equally true and beautiful. Health, sanity, and happiness are
integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human
experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the
unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems. Truth is
coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when these values of
that which is real are coordinated in personality experience, the result is a
high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by loyalty. The real
purpose of all universe education is to effect the better co-ordination of
the isolated child of the worlds with the larger realities of his expanding
experience. Reality is finite on the human level, infinite and eternal on the
higher and divine levels. Reference: The Urantia
Book, Paper 2, Section 7, The Urantia Foundation (edit/modif.)
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