Entries by Jim Zigarelli

Summer Solstice and The Seasons

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The Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere is known as the longest day of the year, This year Wed. June 21, explore why this astronomical event is called the summer solstice and how it is used to measure time. Watch Video  

 The Urantia Book says: “Seasons and temperature variations occur on all sunlighted and sun-heated planets. Agriculture is universal on all atmospheric worlds; tilling the soil is the one pursuit that is common to the advancing races of all such planets.”  Read More

Watch the Amazing Masaka Kids Africana

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Watch The Masaka Kids Africana perform HERE. Composed of African children, from the age of 2 and up, many have lost one or both parents through the devastation of war, famine and disease. They represent all the children of a continent and they demonstrate the potential of African children to become strong leaders for a better future in their land. The children melt the hearts of audiences with their charming smiles and delightful African tunes, accompanied by vibrant dance moves.

The Urantia Book says: “Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits. Harmony is the speech of Havona.”  READ MORE

Inspiring Stories About Mothers

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Truthbook features many wonderful stories submitted by readers.

Happy Mother’s Day! From a story about mothers: “I know now what appreciation is. Without my mother, I would not be who I am today. By helping my mother, only now do I realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done on your own. And I have come to appreciate the importance and value of helping one’s family.” Read More

From The Urantia Book: “The presence of a helpless baby determined the early differentiation of male and female activities; the woman had to maintain a settled residence where she could cultivate the soil. And from earliest times, where woman was has always been regarded as the home.”

Does God Have a Plan for Your Life?

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 Some religionists believe that God does not have a plan for our lives, that to be subject to such a plan would mean that we cannot exercise our freewill. This article from patheos.com (a project of beliefnet) states that ‘God Does NOT Have A Plan For Your Life’. Children are born and eventually learn to live. Telling people God has a special plan for them is taking away their free choice before it can be exercised.”  Read More

The Urantia Book teaches us that God DOES have a plan for your life. It is a definite and predetermined plan for your intellectual and spiritual development – model careers, the ideal lives. But does that mean you cannot exercise your free will?    “It is not incumbent upon any human being to accept this plan. You are all subjects of predestination, but it is not foreordained that you must accept this divine predestination; you are at full liberty to reject any part or all of the Thought Adjusters’ program. It is their mission to effect such mind changes and to make such spiritual adjustments as you may willingly and intelligently authorize, to the end that they may gain more influence over the personality directionization; but under no circumstances do these divine Monitors ever take advantage of you or in any way arbitrarily influence you in your choices and decisions.

Webb Finds the Oldest Galaxy in the Universe So Far

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60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley explores images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s most powerful space telescope. Speaking with astrophysicists and astronomers, he reports on the telescope’s discoveries of distant galaxies, including one that’s over 33 billion light years away, and an observation that, if confirmed, could upend the belief on how the universe formed and more. Watch the Segment

From The Urantia Book: “In the not-distant future, new telescopes will reveal to the wondering gaze of Urantian astronomers no less than 375 million new galaxies in the remote stretches of outer space. At the same time these more powerful telescopes will disclose that many island universes formerly believed to be in outer space are really a part of the galactic system of Orvonton.” Read More

Celebrate International Women’s Day & Month

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Join us in celebrating International Women’s Day and Month! Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Read More

In The Urantia Book, Jesus founded The Women’s Evangelistic Corps “Of all the daring things which Jesus did in connection with his earth career, the most amazing was his sudden announcement on the evening of January 16: “On the morrow we will set apart ten women for the ministering work of the kingdom.”  Urantia Book Paper 150:1.1

 

Did Plants Domesticate Humans?

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Click to Watch a Video from Scientific American  “While this provocative question might not be the way we learned about the history of agriculture in high school, it animates the current study of archaeology. What’s at stake is a matter of perspective—how we, as a species, see our place in nature and nature’s place in our own evolution. “…we should pause to consider the lessons from the past. And we should do so with humility over both the power we have to change the world and the limits of our imaginations.”

The Urantia Book teaches, “Work with the soil is not a curse; rather is it the highest blessing to all who are thus permitted to enjoy the most human of all human activities.” Read More

 

Spiritual Ways to Spend Valentine’s Day

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Valentine’s Day is a day to show extra special love to your beloveds but it might also be a day to consider getting in touch with your spiritual self. It can also be a day to honor the divine—God. You can also create magic by getting in touch with your heart center—that is, spend time by yourself and engage in self-love while honoring our wonderful universe. Read How

Love is more than a feeling. All true love comes from God, and the decision to love is the means by which we can actually share that love – let it flow through us to our world. The Urantia Book actually defines love as the “desire to do good to others. Read About Love Here

 Here is one example from The Urantia Book Papers:

 If each day or each week you achieve an understanding of one more of your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability, then you are certainly socializing and truly spiritualizing your personality. Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. Read the Urantia Paper

When Did Humans First Speak?

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Estimates range wildly, from as late as 50,000 years ago to as early as the beginning of the human genus more than 2 million years ago. But words leave no traces in the archaeological record. A team led by Thomas Morgan, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, has attacked the problem in a very different way. Rather than considering toolmaking as a proxy for language ability, he and his colleagues explored the way that language may help modern humans learn to make such tools. Read More
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The Urantia Book teaches about language: Before the extensive dispersion of the Andonic clans a well-developed language had evolved from their early efforts to intercommunicate. This language continued to grow, and almost daily additions were made to it because of the new inventions and adaptations to environment which were developed by these active, restless, and curious people.” Read More

Also consider our Topical Study on Language