Paper 100 Overview: Religion in Human Experience

The dynamic experience of authentic religious living functions as a transformative mechanism, elevating mediocre individuals into personalities manifesting idealistic power and spiritual potency. Religion operates through a reciprocal enhancement mechanism wherein the progress of each individual contributes to collective advancement, while collective achievement simultaneously augments individual growth potential. This symbiotic relationship between personal and communal spiritual development creates an accelerating cycle of mutual enhancement, facilitated by intimate association among religionists who stimulate one another's spiritual capacity. Love constitutes the fertile medium for religious growth, providing both an objective transcendent motivation and supreme subjective satisfaction, while religion itself ennobles the commonplace obligations and routines of quotidian existence.

The paper systematically examines multiple dimensions of religious experience including the psychological processes of growth, the characteristics of spiritual development, the conceptualization of supreme values, the inevitable challenges inherent in spiritual progression, the nature of conversion experiences and their distinction from mysticism, the observable manifestations of authentic religious living, and the culmination of religious living exemplified in the life of Jesus. This comprehensive analysis reveals how religion, properly understood and experienced, represents not merely a belief system but a transformative mode of existence that coordinates physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of personality into a unified, balanced expression of divine ideals in human form. The Supreme exemplification of this integrated religious living was Jesus of Nazareth, whose extraordinary character demonstrated perfect symmetry and exquisitely balanced unification rather than merely isolated perfections.

The experience of dynamic religious living transforms mediocre individuals into personalities of idealistic power, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of spiritual development that benefits both the individual and the collective. Religion ministers to collective progress through fostering individual advancement, while each person's progress is amplified through the achievements of the whole community of believers, creating a synergistic relationship between personal and communal spiritual development. This interrelationship between individual and collective religious growth establishes a pattern of mutual enhancement that accelerates spiritual progress beyond what could be achieved in isolation, demonstrating religion's capacity to function as a social catalyst for evolutionary advancement.

Spiritual growth receives its primary stimulation through intimate association with other religionists, creating communities of belief that cultivate development beyond individual capacity. Love provides the essential soil for religious growth, functioning simultaneously as an objective transcendent lure that draws the believer beyond self-interest and as the source of supreme subjective satisfaction that fulfills the deepest human yearnings. Religion performs the crucial function of ennobling the commonplace responsibilities and routine activities of daily existence, transforming mundane necessities into opportunities for spiritual expression and meaning-making. This capacity to infuse ordinary experience with extraordinary significance represents one of religion's most profound contributions to human existence.

While religion produces growth of meanings and enhancement of values, evil always results when purely personal evaluations are elevated to the levels of absolute principles. The childlike evaluation of experience according to pleasure content represents an immature approach, whereas maturity is proportional to the successful substitution of higher meanings for personal pleasure, including the development of loyalties to elevated concepts applicable across diverse life situations and cosmic relationships. Some individuals become excessively preoccupied with temporal demands to experience adequate spiritual growth, thus placing themselves in jeopardy of spiritual fixation or developmental arrest. The primary impediments to genuine spiritual growth are prejudice, which closes the mind to new truth, and ignorance, which deprives the individual of the conceptual framework necessary for spiritual advancement.

Every developing child deserves the opportunity to cultivate an authentic personal religious experience rather than having adult religious patterns imposed prematurely upon their developing consciousness. Year-by-year progression through established educational regimes does not necessarily indicate intellectual advancement or spiritual growth, as the mere expansion of vocabulary fails to guarantee corresponding character development. Genuine educational growth manifests through enhanced ideals, increased appreciation of values, new meanings attributed to values, and strengthened loyalty to supreme values—all reflecting internal transformation rather than external acquisition. Children are permanently influenced not by the rules or examples of adults but by the demonstrated loyalties of their adult associates, as loyal persons are intrinsically growing persons who inspire through their consistent development. The most effective developmental path resembles organic growth; living loyally each moment in one's present state rather than artificially attempting to accelerate the natural progression of spiritual unfoldment.

The soil essential for authentic religious growth presupposes a progressive life characterized by self-realization, coordination of natural propensities, intellectual curiosity, reasonable adventure, satisfaction, appropriate fear responses that stimulate attention and awareness, wonder-lure, and a normal consciousness of one's relative insignificance. Genuine growth further requires the discovery of selfhood accompanied by the critical faculty of conscience, which functions as self-criticism based on one's own value habits, personal ideals, and highest conceptual standards. This complex interplay of psychological, social, and spiritual factors creates the necessary conditions for sustainable religious development that transcends mere conformity to external standards.

Spiritual development fundamentally depends upon two essential conditions: first, the maintenance of a living spiritual connection with authentic spiritual forces that transcend material existence, and second, the consistent bearing of spiritual fruit through ministering to others what one has received from spiritual benefactors. Genuine spiritual progress is predicated upon the intellectual recognition of spiritual poverty coupled with self-consciousness of perfection-hunger, an intense desire to know God and emulate his nature, and the wholehearted commitment to fulfilling the Father's will. The trajectory of spiritual growth follows a discernible pattern: first awakening to deeper needs beyond material satisfaction, then discerning meaningful patterns in experience, and finally discovering transcendent values that transform perspective and behavior in alignment with divine purposes.

The authentic evidence of spiritual development manifests in a personality motivated predominantly by love, activated through unselfish ministry to others, and dominated by wholehearted worship of divine perfection ideals. This comprehensive transformation constitutes the reality of religion as distinguished from mere theological beliefs or intellectual assent to doctrinal propositions. Religion can progressively develop to a level of experience where it functions as an enlightened and wise technique of spiritual reaction to the universe, operating effectively across three dimensions of human personality: the intellectual level of conscious thought, the morontial level of the evolving soul, and the spiritual level of the indwelling divine presence.

Spirituality functions simultaneously as an indicator of one's proximity to God and as a measure of one's practical value to fellow beings, enhancing the capacity to perceive beauty in physical things, recognize truth in meaningful concepts, and discover goodness in values. Spiritual development is determined by the inherent capacity for such growth and progresses in direct proportion to the successful elimination of the selfish qualities that restrict love's expression. Actual spiritual status represents the measure of Deity attainment and Adjuster attunement, while the achievement of spirituality's fullness equates to attaining maximum reality and optimal Godlikeness—the endless pursuit of infinite values through eternal life.

Religion fundamentally transcends simplistic conceptions as a technique for attaining mental tranquility, functioning instead as a dynamic impulse that organizes the soul for active service in the universe. True religion represents the complete enlistment of the total self in loyal service simultaneously expressing love for God and practical service to humankind, willingly accepting any sacrifice necessary to attain the supreme goal and eternal prize. For the authentic religionist, the concept of God evolves into a symbol signifying approach to supreme reality and recognition of divine value, transcending subjective human preferences in the determination of good and evil through the recognition of objective moral values that exist independently of emotional reactions or wish fulfillment.

In contemplating values, one must carefully distinguish between that which intrinsically is value and that which merely possesses value within certain contexts or relationships, recognizing the essential relationship between pleasurable activities and their meaningful integration into progressively higher levels of human experience. Meaning represents the experiential addition to value; the appreciative consciousness of values that transforms isolated experiences into coherent patterns of significance. Values cannot remain static entities precisely because reality inherently signifies change, growth, and progressive realization; the absence of growth and expansion of meaning and value represents valueless potential or incipient evil rather than authentic value. Values exist simultaneously as actual and potential, creating the dynamic tension necessary for spiritual progress.

The association of actuals and potentials constitutes growth, the experiential realization of values, while progress and growth maintain a distinct relationship wherein progress, though always meaningful, remains relatively valueless without corresponding growth. The supreme value of human existence consists in the growth of values, progress in meanings, and the realization of the cosmic interrelatedness between these experiences, which constitutes God-consciousness or the awareness of divine patterns. Humans cannot directly cause growth—whether physical, intellectual, or spiritual—but can provide favorable conditions for its development, recognizing that love must grow naturally rather than being manufactured or purchased. Evolution represents the cosmic technique of growth, while social growth cannot be secured through legislation alone, and moral growth cannot be achieved merely through improved administration or social engineering.

Religious living constitutes devoted living, which is inherently creative, original, and spontaneous in its expression and development rather than formulaic adherence to external standards. New religious insights emerge organically from conflicts that necessitate choosing improved reaction patterns to replace outdated or inferior responses to life circumstances. These new meanings exclusively emerge amid psychological and spiritual conflict, which persists precisely because individuals refuse to embrace higher values embodied in superior meanings, demonstrating the essential role of constructive conflict in spiritual development. The willingness to engage this conflict rather than avoid it distinguishes progressive religion from stagnant belief systems.

Religious perplexities and challenges represent inevitable aspects of the spiritual journey because growth remains impossible without psychological conflict and spiritual agitation that stimulate development. The organization of a philosophical standard of living necessarily entails considerable commotion in the philosophic realms of the mind as new concepts displace older patterns of thought and behavior. Loyalties to the great, the good, the true, and the noble invariably require struggle and effort, while clarification of spiritual vision and enhancement of cosmic insight demand intellectual exertion that contradicts the natural inertia of the human mind. The paramount challenge of religious living involves unifying the soul's powers through the dominance of love, as health, mental efficiency, and genuine happiness arise from the successful integration of physical, mental, and spiritual systems.

In physical existence, the senses inform us about the presence of things, the mind discovers the reality of meanings, but spiritual experience alone reveals the true values of life, which are attained through supreme love for God and unselfish love for humanity. The most effective method for discovering values in others requires discerning their underlying motivations rather than focusing on external behaviors alone. Understanding another's viewpoint and reasons for objectionable conduct generates tolerance that can evolve into friendship and ultimately ripen into love through the recognition of shared humanity despite different perspectives. Love cannot be manufactured through sheer willpower but emerges naturally from a comprehensive understanding of others' motives and sentiments, creating the potential for a cascading effect of genuine affection that could ultimately transform civilization through the realization of human brotherhood.

The world is filled with lost souls, not lost in the theological sense but in terms of directional meaning, wandering among competing philosophical systems and cults of a frustrated philosophic era. Too few individuals have developed comprehensive personal philosophies of living to replace mere religious authority. Religious development typically progresses from stagnation through conflict to coordination, from insecurity to unwavering faith, from confusion of cosmic consciousness to personality unification, from temporal objectives to eternal purposes, and from the bondage of fear to the liberty of divine sonship.

Professions of loyalty to supreme ideals—the psychic, emotional, and spiritual awareness of God-consciousness—may develop either gradually through natural growth or emerge suddenly during critical moments of decision or revelation. The Apostle Paul experienced a dramatic conversion on the Damascus road, similar to Gautama Siddhartha's experience while seeking ultimate truth, yet many sincere believers progress spiritually without such sudden transformations. Most dramatic phenomena associated with religious conversions are primarily psychological, though genuine spiritual elements emerge when mental mobilization achieves absolute totality on any level of psychic upreach toward spirit attainment and when human motivation manifests perfection of loyalties to the divine idea, creating conditions for the indwelling spirit to synchronize with the concentrated purpose of the superconscious mind.

Emotion alone produces false conversion, as authentic transformation requires faith as well as feeling, integrating intellectual conviction with emotional response. The extent to which psychic mobilization remains partial and human loyalty motivation incomplete determines the degree to which conversion experiences blend intellectual, emotional, and spiritual elements. If one postulates a theoretical subconscious mind as a working hypothesis for understanding the unified intellectual life, consistency demands equal recognition of a corresponding realm of ascending intellectual activity—the superconscious level where immediate contact with the indwelling Thought Adjuster occurs. The primary danger in psychic speculation lies in misinterpreting visions, mystic experiences, and extraordinary dreams as direct divine communications rather than recognizing that authentic divine revelation occurs despite such phenomena rather than because of them.

Evolutionary religions and revelatory religions may employ substantially different methodologies but share fundamental motivational similarities in their essential purposes and functions. Religion operates not as a compartmentalized activity but as a comprehensive mode of living that permeates all aspects of existence. Authentic religion manifests as wholehearted devotion to some reality the religionist considers supremely valuable both personally and for humanity collectively. The defining characteristics identifying genuine religious expression are unquestioning loyalty and complete devotion to supreme values, observable in traditionally religious contexts but equally evident in the fervent loyalty of nonreligious individuals to espoused causes that command their ultimate allegiance.

The accepted supreme value of the religionist may occasionally be base or even false, yet the religious nature of the commitment remains proportional to the extent that the valued object represents genuine cosmic reality of authentic spiritual worth. The human response to genuine religious impulse displays qualities of nobility and grandeur that distinguish it from mere social conformity or intellectual assent to propositions. The sincere religionist experiences consciousness of universe citizenship and awareness of connection to superhuman power sources, feeling energized by belonging to a superior and ennobled fellowship of divine children. Self-worth becomes augmented through the pursuit of the highest universe objectives and supreme goals that give meaning and purpose to existence.

True religion constitutes a living love expressed through practical service rather than abstract philosophy, adding new dimensions of meaning to all aspects of human experience without diminishing or restricting life's possibilities. The religionist's detachment from temporal and trivial concerns never leads to social isolation or destroys the sense of humor but rather generates new types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage that energize personality. One of the most remarkable indicators of authentic religious living is a dynamic yet sublime peace that transcends human understanding, providing stability that remains unshaken by disappointment or external circumstances. This sense of security resides in the consciousness of the religionist who has grasped the reality of the Supreme and pursues the goal of the Ultimate.

Although average mortals on Urantia cannot realistically aspire to attain the extraordinary perfection of character Jesus demonstrated during his earthly incarnation, every sincere believer possesses the capacity to develop a strong, unified personality patterned after the exemplary template of Jesus' personality structure. The most remarkable feature of Jesus' personality was not merely its perfection in isolated qualities but its extraordinary symmetry, exquisite balance, and comprehensive unification of diverse characteristics that normally appear as opposites in human nature. The most effective presentation of Jesus consists in the simple yet profound statement made as he stood before his accusers: "Behold the man!" which captures the essence of his humanity and divinity in perfect equilibrium.

Jesus manifested unfailing kindness that touched people's hearts while simultaneously demonstrating stalwart strength of character that amazed his followers, combining seemingly contradictory traits into perfect harmony. He embodied complete sincerity without any trace of hypocrisy or pretense, living with refreshing genuineness the truth he taught and maintaining unwavering loyalty to all truth regardless of personal cost. The Master demonstrated remarkable reasonableness and practical approachability, characterized by pragmatic ministry and common sense while remaining entirely free from erratic, eccentric, or extreme tendencies. His every action displayed exquisite discrimination accompanied by an extraordinary sense of propriety that never violated the norms of spiritual dignity while remaining accessible to ordinary people.

Jesus maintained perfect poise as a personality, commanding respect even from enemies who feared his presence despite themselves. He combined divine enthusiasm with emotional stability, imaginative vision with practical application, courageous action with prudent restraint, sympathetic understanding with impartial judgment, and pious devotion without sanctimoniousness. His originality remained unstifled by tradition, yet he recognized valuable truths in the teachings of predecessors and contemporaries, emphasizing love and mercy rather than fear and sacrifice. Jesus demonstrated exceptional breadth in outlook, exhorting followers to preach the gospel universally and remaining free from all narrow-mindedness, while his sympathetic heart embraced all humanity and even the universe itself. Today, as in Galilee, he continues to unify mortal experience, coordinate human endeavors, elevate character, and transform human consciousness, creating authentic individuals through his indwelling spiritual presence.