P1044:4, 95:2.5 For centuries the Egyptians placed their faith in tombs as the safeguard of the body and of consequent pleasurable survival after death. The later evolution of magical practices, while burdensome to life from the cradle to the grave, most effectually delivered them from the religion of the tombs. The priests would inscribe the coffins with charm texts which were believed to be protection against a "man's having his heart taken away from him in the nether world." Presently a diverse assortment of these magical texts was collected and preserved as The Book of the Dead. But in the Nile valley magical ritual early became involved with the realms of conscience and character to a degree not often attained by the rituals of those days. And subsequently these ethical and moral ideals, rather than elaborate tombs, were depended upon for salvation.

P1044:5, 95:2.6 The superstitions of these times are well illustrated by the general belief in the efficacy of spittle as a healing agent, an idea which had its origin in Egypt and spread therefrom to Arabia and Mesopotamia. In the legendary battle of Horus with Set the young god lost his eye, but after Set was vanquished, this eye was restored by the wise god Thoth, who spat upon the wound and healed it.

P1044:6, 95:2.7 The Egyptians long believed that the stars twinkling in the night sky represented the survival of the souls of the worthy dead; other survivors they thought were absorbed into the sun. During a certain period, solar veneration became a species of ancestor worship. The sloping entrance passage of the great pyramid pointed directly toward the Pole Star so that the soul of the king, when emerging from the tomb, could go straight to the stationary and established constellations of the fixed stars, the supposed abode of the kings.

P1045:1, 95:2.8 When the oblique rays of the sun were observed penetrating earthward through an aperture in the clouds, it was believed that they betokened the letting down of a celestial stairway whereon the king and other righteous souls might ascend. "King Pepi has put down his radiance as a stairway under his feet whereon to ascend to his mother."

>>4764938

ok my mom lived in Los Angeles the city of Angels…she died when she was 36…i currently reside in NC….read the last of this…..King Pepi….stairway whereon to ascend to his mother…

say what?! and the big Q……that's some shit….folks….

P801:13, 71:2.1 Democracy, while an ideal, is a product of civilization, not of evolution. Go slowly! select carefully! for the dangers of democracy are:

Glorification of mediocrity.

Choice of base and ignorant rulers.

Failure to recognize the basic facts of social evolution.

Danger of universal suffrage in the hands of uneducated and indolent majorities.

Slavery to public opinion; the majority is not always right.

P802:1, 71:2.2 Public opinion, common opinion, has always delayed society; nevertheless, it is valuable, for, while retarding social evolution, it does preserve civilization. Education of public opinion is the only safe and true method of accelerating civilization; force is only a temporary expedient, and cultural growth will increasingly accelerate as bullets give way to ballots. Public opinion, the mores, is the basic and elemental energy in social evolution and state development, but to be of state value it must be nonviolent in expression.

P802:2, 71:2.3 The measure of the advance of society is directly determined by the degree to which public opinion can control personal behavior and state regulation through nonviolent expression. The really civilized government had arrived when public opinion was clothed with the powers of personal franchise. Popular elections may not always decide things rightly, but they represent the right way even to do a wrong thing. Evolution does not at once produce superlative perfection but rather comparative and advancing practical adjustment.

P802:1, 71:2.2 Public opinion, common opinion, has always delayed society; nevertheless, it is valuable, for, while retarding social evolution, it does preserve civilization. Education of public opinion is the only safe and true method of accelerating civilization; force is only a temporary expedient, and cultural growth will increasingly accelerate as bullets give way to ballots. Public opinion, the mores, is the basic and elemental energy in social evolution and state development, but to be of state value it must be nonviolent in expression.

P802:2, 71:2.3 The measure of the advance of society is directly determined by the degree to which public opinion can control personal behavior and state regulation through nonviolent expression. The really civilized government had arrived when public opinion was clothed with the powers of personal franchise. Popular elections may not always decide things rightly, but they represent the right way even to do a wrong thing. Evolution does not at once produce superlative perfection but rather comparative and advancing practical adjustment.

P802:3, 71:2.4 There are ten steps, or stages, to the evolution of a practical and efficient form of representative government, and these are:

P802:4, 71:2.5 1. Freedom of the person. Slavery, serfdom, and all forms of human bondage must disappear.

P802:5, 71:2.6 2. Freedom of the mind. Unless a free people are educated – taught to think intelligently and plan wisely – freedom usually does more harm than good.

P802:6, 71:2.7 3. The reign of law. Liberty can be enjoyed only when the will and whims of human rulers are replaced by legislative enactments in accordance with accepted fundamental law.

P802:7, 71:2.8 4. Freedom of speech. Representative government is unthinkable without freedom of all forms of expression for human aspirations and opinions.

P802:8, 71:2.9 5. Security of property. No government can long endure if it fails to provide for the right to enjoy personal property in some form. Man craves the right to use, control, bestow, sell, lease, and bequeath his personal property.

P802:9, 71:2.10 6. The right of petition. Representative government assumes the right of citizens to be heard. The privilege of petition is inherent in free citizenship.

P802:10, 71:2.11 7. The right to rule. It is not enough to be heard; the power of petition must progress to the actual management of the government.

P802:11, 71:2.12 8. Universal suffrage. Representative government presupposes an intelligent, efficient, and universal electorate. The character of such a government will ever be determined by the character and caliber of those who compose it. As civilization progresses, suffrage, while remaining universal for both sexes, will be effectively modified, regrouped, and otherwise differentiated.

P802:12, 71:2.13 9. Control of public servants. No civil government will be serviceable and effective unless the citizenry possess and use wise techniques of guiding and controlling officeholders and public servants.

P802:13, 71:2.14 10. Intelligent and trained representation. The survival of democracy is dependent on successful representative government; and that is conditioned upon the practice of electing to public offices only those individuals who are technically trained, intellectually competent, socially loyal, and morally fit. Only by such provisions can government of the people, by the people, and for the people be preserved.

The Character of Statehood

P806:14, 71:8.1 The only sacred feature of any human government is the division of statehood into the three domains of executive, legislative, and judicial functions. The universe is administered in accordance with such a plan of segregation of functions and authority. Aside from this divine concept of effective social regulation or civil government, it matters little what form of state a people may elect to have provided the citizenry is ever progressing toward the goal of augmented self-control and increased social service. The intellectual keenness, economic wisdom, social cleverness, and moral stamina of a people are all faithfully reflected in statehood.

P806:15, 71:8.2 The evolution of statehood entails progress from level to level, as follows:

P806:16, 71:8.3 1. The creation of a threefold government of executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

P806:17, 71:8.4 2. The freedom of social, political, and religious activities.

P807:1, 71:8.5 3. The abolition of all forms of slavery and human bondage.

P807:2, 71:8.6 4. The ability of the citizenry to control the levying of taxes.

P807:3, 71:8.7 5. The establishment of universal education – learning extended from the cradle to the grave.

P807:4, 71:8.8 6. The proper adjustment between local and national governments.

P807:5, 71:8.9 7. The fostering of science and the conquest of disease.

P807:6, 71:8.10 8. The due recognition of sex equality and the co-ordinated functioning of men and women in the home, school, and church, with specialized service of women in industry and government.

P807:7, 71:8.11 9. The elimination of toiling slavery by machine invention and the subsequent mastery of the machine age.

P807:8, 71:8.12 10. The conquest of dialects – the triumph of a universal language.

P807:9, 71:8.13 11. The ending of war – international adjudication of national and racial differences by continental courts of nations presided over by a supreme planetary tribunal automatically recruited from the periodically retiring heads of the continental courts. The continental courts are authoritative; the world court is advisory – moral.

P807:10, 71:8.14 12. The world-wide vogue of the pursuit of wisdom – the exaltation of philosophy. The evolution of a world religion, which will presage the entrance of the planet upon the earlier phases of settlement in light and life.

P807:11, 71:8.15 These are the prerequisites of progressive government and the earmarks of ideal statehood. Urantia is far from the realization of these exalted ideals, but the civilized races have made a beginning – mankind is on the march toward higher evolutionary destinies.

P1491:1, 134:6.7 War is not man's great and terrible disease; war is a symptom, a result. The real disease is the virus of national sovereignty.

P1491:2, 134:6.8 Urantia nations have not possessed real sovereignty; they never have had a sovereignty which could protect them from the ravages and devastations of world wars. In the creation of the global government of mankind, the nations are not giving up sovereignty so much as they are actually creating a real, bona fide, and lasting world sovereignty which will henceforth be fully able to protect them from all war. Local affairs will be handled by local governments; national affairs, by national governments; international affairs will be administered by global government.

P1491:3, 134:6.9 World peace cannot be maintained by treaties, diplomacy, foreign policies, alliances, balances of power, or any other type of makeshift juggling with the sovereignties of nationalism. World law must come into being and must be enforced by world government – the sovereignty of all mankind.

P1491:4, 134:6.10 The individual will enjoy far more liberty under world government. Today, the citizens of the great powers are taxed, regulated, and controlled almost oppressively, and much of this present interference with individual liberties will vanish when the national governments are willing to trustee their sovereignty as regards international affairs into the hands of global government.

P1491:5, 134:6.11 Under global government the national groups will be afforded a real opportunity to realize and enjoy the personal liberties of genuine democracy. The fallacy of self-determination will be ended. With global regulation of money and trade will come the new era of world-wide peace. Soon may a global language evolve, and there will be at least some hope of sometime having a global religion – or religions with a global viewpoint.

P1491:6, 134:6.12 Collective security will never afford peace until the collectivity includes all mankind.

P1491:7, 134:6.13 The political sovereignty of representative mankind government will bring lasting peace on earth, and the spiritual brotherhood of man will forever insure good will among all men. And there is no other way whereby peace on earth and good will among men can be realized.