The Great Satanic Mystery

William Sadler

Martin Gardner's "Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery" could have been interesting, but unfortunately the book is very badly edited. The author constantly jumps back and forth between the subjects, incorporates a lot of irrelevant material, and occasionally cracks strange jokes at the expense of the reader (his famous friend Dr. Matrix doesn't really exist).

Gardner is something as unusual as a non-Christian theist who is also a debunker of paranormal phenomena and virtually all organized religions. His most well known book is "Facts and fallacies in the name of science", published over 50 years ago but still considered a classic of the sceptic movement. Apparently, Gardner was also a founding member of CSICOP (now renamed CSI) and a regular contributor to their magazine "Sceptical Enquirer". In his youth, Gardner for a short period considered joining the Seventh Day Adventists, and although he never did, he has retained a life long fascination and obsession with this particular Christian group. Which finally brings us to the subject matter of the present work, "Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery".

Urantia is the real name of Earth according to the Urantia Book (UB), an extensive scripture supposedly written under the guidance of superhuman intelligences from other planets. UB was published in 1955 by the Urantia Foundation, and followers are known as Urantians. This new religious movement is small (it's usually only mentioned in passing in books on alternative religion), but still surprisingly active. UB has been translated into many different languages, and scores of Urantia-related websites exist. Today, there are also the inevitable breakaway groups, which combine the UB with their own channelled messages, also supposedly from sources in outer space. The original Urantia Foundation recently lost the copyright to UB after a protracted (and absurd) court battle. The UB is now in the public domain, enabling "heretics" to publish their own editions. What made Gardner interested in the Urantians is that their founders were defectors from the Seventh Day Adventists.

According to its devotees, the Urantia Book was channelled by a sleeping human over a period of decades. Extraterrestrials were speaking through his mouth as he would enter trance states. The identity of this person has never been revealed, but Gardner (and many others) suspect it was Wilfred Custer Kellogg, a relative of the famous ex-Adventist John Kellogg. Both men were also related to Will Keith Kellogg, the founder of the corn flakes company (!). The real leader of the Urantians, however, was Dr. William Sadler, a disaffected Adventist who organized a movement based on the "revelations" given to Wilfred. Why he never disclosed Wilfred's identity is unclear. Gardner also suspects that large portions of the UB were written by Sadler himself, and that other portions may have been concocted by his closest aides. Eventually, the UB swelled to a lengthy document of over 2000 pages, many of them of absurd complexity.

Gardner points out that two central doctrines of Adventism were taken over by the Urantians, no doubt because of Sadler and Wilfred. One is the denial of Hell, the other is the notion of "soul sleep", which implies that contact with the spirits of departed humans is impossible. (But apparently contact with extraterrestrials is alright!) Gardner further shows that the scientific information contained in the UB is badly out of date. For instance, the UB denies the big bang. Today, of course, the big bang theory is scientific orthodoxy. The UB also believes in an extreme form of mutationism, no doubt inspired by Hugo De Vries, without noticing the Neo-Darwinian synthesis. In UB's scenario, the first humans were born to ape parents! Gardner also points out that many sections of the UB sound very similar to what Sadler has written in his own books, and that other sections are more or less plagiarized from a wide variety of sources. This is richly ironic, since Sadler's former mentor, Adventist leader Ellen White, plagiarized large portions of her own writings. That many of Sadler's opinions found their way into the UB seem obvious, including a strong belief in eugenics and a racist hatred for Blacks. Indeed, after reading "Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery", I wonder why on earth Sadler was using Wilfred as a trance medium in the first place? The new religion seems to have been Sadler's own creation! Also ironic is the fact that Sadler had previously written a competent book exposing Spiritualist mediums. Yet, the Urantia cult was based on something similar, and so was Adventism. To an outsider, there is no obvious difference between claiming contact with the spirits of the dead, and claiming contact with celestial beings or God himself.

Of course, most of the Urantia Book is completely absurd from a scientific viewpoint. Gardner pokes a lot of fun at the "fandors": large, intelligent passenger birds contemporary with Adam and Eve. Personally, I found the fandors pretty cute. And yes, they are obviously based on condors. Another bizarre notion found in the UB is that each electron consists of 100 "ultimatons". The existence of this sensational new particle has not been confirmed by science. Personally, I find the UB so ridiculous, that I'm seriously intrigued by the fact that anyone can take it even remotely seriously (see my review of The Urantia Book elsewhere on Amazon). I'm also appalled by its obvious racism and fixation with genetic purity.

The most entertaining piece of information in Gardner's book comes from his imaginary friend Dr. Matrix. The UB claims that Earth's assigned number in the grand universe registry is 5,342,482,337,666. Could this number mean something? Gardner proposes that the numbers be reversed and partitioned like this: 666-73-328-42435. The first three digits (666) are pretty obvious. If 7 and 3 are added, we get 10. There are ten letters in the word "Revelation". If 3,2 and 8 are added, we get 13. If 4,2,4,3 and 5 are added, we get 18. And Revelation 13:18 is the exact verse which mentions...the number of the Beast!

I agree with Dr. Matrix. This can't be a coincidence. But why is a coded Satanic message included in the Urantia Book? There are two possible interpretations. One: The Urantia Book actually is a Satanic revelation. This would be the logical inference if you are a Christian fundamentalist. Two: Somebody is pulling our leg. Did the sleeping Wilfred Kellogg have a sick sense of humour?

Gardner also points out that another number assigned to Earth in the UB, 606, is identical to the number of Chicago's postal zone. And the Urantia Foundation has always been headquartered in Chicago...

It's a pity that "Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery" wasn't heavily edited before publication. In its present state, it's almost as tedious and difficult to read as the Urantia Book itself! It only deserves two stars, but since I agree with Gardner's sceptical attitude and have a certain obsession with obscure subjects myself, I will give it three.

And yes, the "Satanic" revelation was worth the price of the entire book...

;-)