A:  These are questions that many people ask. The Urantia Book gives us answers, and so I am glad that you wrote.

Why did God create people? Because God is love, and love craves love in return:

(1:0.2) The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually inhabited by many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could know God, receive the divine affection, and love him in return. The universe of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. “God created the heavens and formed the earth; he established the universe and created this world not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited.”

All people have it within their power to know God. God is knowable, and he is not in hiding:

(1:3.3) The Universal Father is not invisible because he is hiding himself away from the lowly creatures of materialistic handicaps and limited spiritual endowments. The situation rather is: “You cannot see my face, for no mortal can see me and live.” No material man could behold the spirit God and preserve his mortal existence …But it is not necessary to see God with the eyes of the flesh in order to discern him by the faith-vision of the spiritualized mind.

So, we see that it is only with “faith-vision” that we can see the Father. But this is entirely possible, because God has sent each mortal being a piece of himself—a “pilot light”—to dwell within their mind, helping each of us through our lives to be successful in finding him, and “seeing” him with our spiritual senses.

But we have to choose to find God. It is our freewill choices that sometimes get in the way of our finding God, and doing his will in our lives. God always respects our freewill and does not interfere with our choices. As a result, we often make mistakes, we do the wrong things and sometimes, we sin.

We are spirit beings at our core, but we live in the world, and the world can make a lot of noise—there are a lot of distractions that we all deal with, so it is important to make times of quietness and try to listen to the “still, small voice” of God that is there for us when we really desire to hear it.

Jesus said:

“You are in this world, but your lives are not to be worldlike…”

So, even though we live in the world, we have to make the effort to go apart from the world on a regular basis—to remember our spiritual identity and to connect with the Source of that identity, which is God. Remember, God is always as near as a thought, for he dwells within your mind.

It can be frustrating to realize that not everyone wants to do the right things, and not everyone desires to know God. We all pay the price for the misdeeds of others at times, but the good news is that each individual person can choose to do good, and to find God within themselves. Sometimes, that is the best any of us can do. And in this way, we can help others by our example. When we, as God’s children, do make that effort to stay close to God, we naturally become more like God, who is our spirit-Father. Like Jesus, we can learn to “go about doing good,” and this is a powerful way to live a happy life in spite of the troubles that we see around us.

And finally, here’s a bit of encouragement From The Urantia Book:

(196:3.33) Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail.

Thanks for this great question. I hope that you will decide to subscribe to our free service—Quote of the Day—which will help you on a daily basis to stay on your own spiritual path. And please feel free to explore the many other features of our Truthbook.com site which will help inspire you to live your best life with God.”