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Author Topic:   Creationist theory
Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 121 of 151 (331465)
07-13-2006 11:38 AM
Reply to: Message 120 by Sandor Szabados
07-12-2006 10:56 PM


The Origin of Life
From The URANTIA Book, a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
"Life does not originate spontaneously. Life is constructed according to plans formulated by the (unrevealed) Architects of Being and appears on the inhabited planets either by direct importation or as a result of the operations of the Life Carriers of the local universes. These carriers of life are among the most interesting and versatile of the diverse family of universe Sons. They are intrusted with designing and carrying creature life to the planetary spheres. And after planting this life on such new worlds, they remain there for long periods to foster its development." (p. 397)
"There are over one million fundamental or cosmic chemical formulas which constitute the parent patterns and the numerous basic functional variations of life manifestations. Satellite number one of the life-planning sphere is the realm of the universe physicists and electrochemists who serve as technical assistants to the Life Carriers in the work of capturing, organizing, and manipulating the essential units of energy which are employed in building up the material vehicles of life transmission, the so-called germ plasm.
The original life plasm of an evolutionary world must contain the full potential for all future developmental variations and for all subsequent evolutionary changes and modifications. The provision for such far-reaching projects of life metamorphosis may require the appearance of many apparently useless forms of animal and vegetable life. Such by-products of planetary evolution, foreseen or unforeseen, appear upon the stage of action only to disappear, but in and through all this long process there runs the thread of the wise and intelligent formulations of the original designers of the planetary life plan and species scheme." (p. 398)
[The facts in the previously quoted last paragraph are validated by Dr. John A. Davison's Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis.]
"The vital spark--the mystery of life--is bestowed through the Life Carriers, not by them. They do indeed supervise such transactions, they formulate the life plasm itself, but it is the Universe Mother Spirit who supplies the essential factor of the living plasm. From the Creative Daughter of the Infinite Spirit comes that energy spark which enlivens the body and presages the mind.
In the bestowal of life the Life Carriers transmit nothing of their personal natures, not even on those spheres where new orders of life are projected. At such times they simply initiate and transmit the spark of life, start the required revolutions of matter in accordance with the physical, chemical, and electrical specifications of the ordained plans and patterns. Life Carriers are living catalytic presences which agitate, organize, and vitalize the otherwise inert elements of the material order of existence. (p. 399)
Religion without science has no foundation, science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Changed message mood.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 120 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-12-2006 10:56 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 122 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-13-2006 2:23 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 122 of 151 (331526)
07-13-2006 2:23 PM
Reply to: Message 121 by Sandor Szabados
07-13-2006 11:38 AM


The Origin of Life
"Life is both mechanistic and vitalistic--material and spiritual. Ever will Urantia physicists and chemists progress in their understanding of the protoplasmic forms of vegetable and animal life, but never will they be able to produce living organisms. Life is something different from all energy manifestations; even the material life of physical creatures is not inherent in matter.
Things material may enjoy an independent existence, but life springs only from life. Mind can be derived only from pre-existent mind. Spirit takes origin only from spirit ancestors. The creature may produce the forms of life, but only a creator personality or a creative force can supply the activating living spark.
Life Carriers can organize the material forms, or physical patterns, of living beings, but the Spirit provides the initial spark of life and bestows the endowment of mind. When the life formulas and the vital patterns are correctly assembled and properly organized, the presence of a Life Carrier is sufficient to initiate life, but all such living organisms are lacking in two essential attributes--mind endowment and reproductive powers.
When the Life Carriers have designed the patterns of life, after they have organized the energy systems, there must occur an additional phenomenon; the "breath of life" must be imparted to these lifeless forms. The Sons of God can construct the forms of life, but it is the Spirit of God who really contributes the vital spark. And when the life thus imparted is spent, then again the remaining material body becomes dead matter. When the bestowed life is exhausted, the body returns to the bosom of the material universe from which it was borrowed by the Life Carriers to serve as a transient vehicle for that life endowment which they conveyed to such a visible association of energy-matter.
The life bestowed upon plants and animals by the Life Carriers does not return to the Life Carriers upon the death of plant or animal. The departing life of such a living thing possesses neither identity nor personality; it does not individually survive death. During its existence and the time of its sojourn in the body of matter, it has undergone a change; it has undergone energy evolution and survives only as a part of the cosmic forces of the universe; it does not survive as individual life. The survival of mortal creatures is wholly predicated on the evolvement of an immortal soul within the mortal mind." (p. 403-04)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 121 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-13-2006 11:38 AM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 123 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-13-2006 4:38 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 123 of 151 (331574)
07-13-2006 4:38 PM
Reply to: Message 122 by Sandor Szabados
07-13-2006 2:23 PM


The Origin of Life
" It should be made clear that Life Carriers cannot initiate life until a sphere is ripe for the inauguration of the evolutionary cycle. Neither can we provide for a more rapid life development than can be supported and accommodated by the physical progress of the planet.
All ancestral life--vegetable and animal--evolved in a salt-solution habitat. And even the more highly organized land animals could not continue to live did not this same essential salt solution circulate throughout their bodies in the blood stream which freely bathes, literally submerses, every tiny living cell in this "briny deep."
Your primitive ancestors freely circulated about in the salty ocean; today, this same oceanlike salty solution freely circulates about in your bodies, bathing each individual cell with a chemical liquid in all essentials comparable to the salt water which stimulated the first protoplasmic reactions of the first living cells to function on the planet." (p. 664)
"On a planet where life has a marine origin the ideal conditions for life implantation are provided by a large number of inland seas, by an extensive shore line of shallow waters and sheltered bays; and just such a distribution of the earth's waters was rapidly developing. These ancient inland seas were seldom over five or six hundred feet deep, and sunlight can penetrate ocean water for more than six hundred feet.
And it was from such seashores of the mild and equable climes of a later age that primitive plant life found its way onto the land. There the high degree of carbon in the atmosphere afforded the new land varieties of life opportunity for speedy and luxuriant growth. Though this atmosphere was then ideal for plant growth, it contained such a high degree of carbon dioxide that no animal, much less man, could have lived on the face of the earth." (p. 665)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction."
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 122 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-13-2006 2:23 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 124 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-13-2006 6:10 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 124 of 151 (331600)
07-13-2006 6:10 PM
Reply to: Message 123 by Sandor Szabados
07-13-2006 4:38 PM


The Origin of Life
" 550,000,000 years ago the Life Carrier corps returned to Urantia. In co-operation with spiritual powers and superphysical forces we organized and initiated the original life patterns of this world and planted them in the hospitable waters of the realm. All planetary life... had its origin in our three original, identical, and simultaneous marine-life implantations. These three life implantations have been designated as: the central or Eurasian-African, the eastern or Australasian, and the western, embracing Greenland and the Americas.
500,000,000 years ago primitive marine vegetable life was well established on Urantia. Greenland and the arctic land mass, together with North and South America, were beginning their long and slow westward drift. Africa moved slightly south, creating an east and west trough, the Mediterranean basin, between itself and the mother body. Antarctica, Australia, and the land indicated by the islands of the Pacific broke away on the south and east and have drifted far away since that day.
We had planted the primitive form of marine life in the sheltered tropic bays of the central seas of the east-west cleavage of the breaking-up continental land mass. Our purpose in making three marine-life implantations was to insure that each great land mass would carry this life with it, in its warm-water seas, as the land subsequently separated. We foresaw that in the later era of the emergence of land life large oceans of water would separate these drifting continental land masses." (p. 667-68)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Rvelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 123 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-13-2006 4:38 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 125 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-13-2006 8:00 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 125 of 151 (331619)
07-13-2006 8:00 PM
Reply to: Message 124 by Sandor Szabados
07-13-2006 6:10 PM


The Evolution of Life
Continued from post 120
"Among the land animals the frogs reached their climax in the preceding age and rapidly declined, but they survived because they could long live even in the drying-up pools and ponds of these far-distant and extremely trying times. During this declining frog age, in Africa, the first step in the evolution of the frog into the reptile occurred. And since the land masses were still connected, this prereptilian creature, an air breather, spread over all the world. By this time the atmosphere had been so changed that it served admirably to support animal respiration. It was soon after the arrival of these prereptilian frogs that North America was temporarily isolated, cut off from Europe, Asia, and South America.
The gradual cooling of the ocean waters contributed much to the destruction of oceanic life. The marine animals of those ages took temporary refuge in three favorable retreats: the present Gulf of Mexico region, the Ganges Bay of India, and the Sicilian Bay of the Mediterranean basin. And it was from these three regions that the new marine species, born to adversity, later went forth to replenish the seas.
160,000,000 years ago the land was largely covered with vegetation adapted to support land-animal life, and the atmosphere had become ideal for animal respiration. Thus ends the period of marine-life curtailment and those testing times of biologic adversity which eliminated all forms of life except such as had survival value, and which were therefore entitled to function as the ancestors of the more rapidly developing and highly differentiated life of the ensuing ages of planetary evolution." (p. 683)
"The ending of this period of biologic tribulation, known to your students as the 'Permian', also marks the end of the long 'Paleozoic' era, which covers one quarter of the planetary history, two hundred and fifty million years.
The vast oceanic nursery of life on Urantia has served its purpose. During the long ages when the land was unsuited to support life, before the atmosphere contained sufficient oxygen to sustain the higher land animals, the sea mothered and nurtured the early life of the realm. Now the biologic importance of the sea progressively diminishes as the second stage of evolution begins to unfold on the land.
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
[Presented by a Life Carrier of Nebadon, one of the original corps assigned to Urantia.]" (p. 684)
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 124 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-13-2006 6:10 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 126 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-14-2006 11:34 AM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 126 of 151 (331730)
07-14-2006 11:34 AM
Reply to: Message 125 by Sandor Szabados
07-13-2006 8:00 PM


The Evolution of Life
"URANTIA DURING THE EARLY LAND-LIFE ERA
The era of exclusive marine life has ended. Land elevation, cooling crust and cooling oceans, sea restriction and consequent deepening, together with a great increase of land in northern latitudes, all conspired greatly to change the world's climate in all regions far removed from the equatorial zone.
The closing epochs of the preceding era were indeed the age of frogs, but these ancestors of the land vertebrates were no longer dominant, having survived in greatly reduced numbers. Very few types outlived the rigorous trials of the preceding period of biologic tribulation. Even the spore-bearing plants were nearly extinct.
THE EARLY REPTILIAN AGE
The erosion deposits of this period were mostly conglomerates, shale, and sandstone. The gypsum and red layers throughout these sedimentations over both America and Europe indicate that the climate of these continents was arid. These arid districts were subjected to great erosion from the violent and periodic cloudbursts on the surrounding highlands.
Few fossils are to be found in these layers, but numerous sandstone footprints of the land reptiles may be observed. In many regions the one thousand feet of red sandstone deposit of this period contains no fossils. The life of land animals was continuous only in certain parts of Africa.
These deposits vary in thickness from 3,000 to 10,000 feet, even being 18,000 on the Pacific coast. Lava was later forced in between many of these layers. The Palisades of the Hudson River were formed by the extrusion of basalt lava between these Triassic strata. Volcanic action was extensive in different parts of the world.
Over Europe, especially Germany and Russia, may be found deposits of this period. In England the New Red Sandstone belongs to this epoch. Limestone was laid down in the southern Alps as the result of a sea invasion and may now be seen as the peculiar dolomite limestone walls, peaks, and pillars of those regions. This layer is to be found all over Africa and Australia. The Carrara marble comes from such modified limestone. Nothing of this period will be found in the southern regions of South America as that part of the continent remained down and hence presents only a water or marine deposit continuous with the preceding and succeeding epochs."
(p. 685)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Rvelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 125 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-13-2006 8:00 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 127 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-14-2006 12:28 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 127 of 151 (331745)
07-14-2006 12:28 PM
Reply to: Message 126 by Sandor Szabados
07-14-2006 11:34 AM


The Evolution of Life
"150,000,000 years ago the early land-life periods of the world's history began. Life, in general, did not fare well but did better than at the strenuous and hostile close of the marine-life era.
As this era opens, the eastern and central parts of North America, the northern half of South America, most of Europe, and all of Asia are well above water. North America for the first time is geographically isolated, but not for long as the Bering Strait land bridge soon again emerges, connecting the continent with Asia.
Great troughs developed in North America, paralleling the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. The great eastern-Connecticut fault appeared, one side eventually sinking two miles. Many of these North American troughs were later filled with erosion deposits, as also were many of the basins of the fresh- and salt-water lakes of the mountain regions. Later on, these filled land depressions were greatly elevated by lava flows which occurred underground. The petrified forests of many regions belong to this epoch.
The Pacific coast, usually above water during the continental submergences, went down excepting the southern part of California and a large island which then existed in what is now the Pacific Ocean. This ancient California sea was rich in marine life and extended eastward to connect with the old sea basin of the midwestern region.
140,000,000 years ago, suddenly and with only the hint of the two prereptilian ancestors that developed in Africa during the preceding epoch, the reptiles appeared in full-fledged form. They developed rapidly, soon yielding crocodiles, scaled reptiles, and eventually both sea serpents and flying reptiles. Their transition ancestors speedily disappeared.
These rapidly evolving reptilian dinosaurs soon became the monarchs of this age. They were egg layers and are distinguished from all animals by their small brains, having brains weighing less than one pound to control bodies later weighing as much as forty tons. But earlier reptiles were smaller, carnivorous, and walked kangaroolike on their hind legs. They had hollow avian bones and subsequently developed only three toes on their hind feet, and many of their fossil footprints have been mistaken for those of giant birds. Later on, the herbivorous dinosaurs evolved. They walked on all fours, and one branch of this group developed a protective armor.
Several million years later the first mammals appeared. They were nonplacental and proved a speedy failure; none survived. This was an experimental effort to improve mammalian types, but it did not succeed on Urantia.
The marine life of this period was meager but improved rapidly with the new invasion of the sea, which again produced extensive coast lines of shallow waters. Since there was more shallow water around Europe and Asia, the richest fossil beds are to be found about these continents. Today, if you would study the life of this age, examine the Himalayan, Siberian, and Mediterranean regions, as well as India and the islands of the southern Pacific basin. A prominent feature of the marine life was the presence of hosts of the beautiful ammonites, whose fossil remains are found all over the world." (p.686)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 126 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-14-2006 11:34 AM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 128 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-14-2006 2:09 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 128 of 151 (331760)
07-14-2006 2:09 PM
Reply to: Message 127 by Sandor Szabados
07-14-2006 12:28 PM


The Evolution of Life
"130,000,000 years ago the seas had changed very little. Siberia and North America were connected by the Bering Strait land bridge. A rich and unique marine life appeared on the Californian Pacific coast, where over one thousand species of ammonites developed from the higher types of cephalopods. The life changes of this period were indeed revolutionary notwithstanding that they were transitional and gradual.
This period extended over twenty-five million years and is known as the 'Triassic'. (p. 686)
THE LATER REPTILIAN AGE
120,000,000 years ago a new phase of the reptilian age began. The great event of this period was the evolution and decline of the dinosaurs. Land-animal life reached its greatest development, in point of size, and had virtually perished from the face of the earth by the end of this age. The dinosaurs evolved in all sizes from a species less than two feet long up to the huge noncarnivorous dinosaurs, seventy-five feet long, that have never since been equaled in bulk by any living creature.
The largest of the dinosaurs originated in western North America. These monstrous reptiles are buried throughout the Rocky Mountain regions, along the whole of the Atlantic coast of North America, over western Europe, South Africa, and India, but not in Australia.
These massive creatures became less active and strong as they grew larger and larger; but they required such an enormous amount of food and the land was so overrun by them that they literally starved to death and became extinct--they lacked the intelligence to cope with the situation.
By this time most of the eastern part of North America, which had long been elevated, had been leveled down and washed into the Atlantic Ocean so that the coast extended several hundred miles farther out than now. The western part of the continent was still up, but even these regions were later invaded by both the northern sea and the Pacific, which extended eastward to the Dakota Black Hills region.
This was a fresh-water age characterized by many inland lakes, as is shown by the abundant fresh-water fossils of the so-called Morrison beds of Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming. The thickness of these combined salt- and fresh-water deposits varies from 2,000 to 5,000 feet; but very little limestone is present in these layers.
The same polar sea that extended so far down over North America likewise covered all of South America except the soon appearing Andes Mountains. Most of China and Russia was inundated, but the water invasion was greatest in Europe. It was during this submergence that the beautiful lithographic stone of southern Germany was laid down, those strata in which fossils, such as the most delicate wings of olden insects, are preserved as of but yesterday.
The flora of this age was much like that of the preceding. Ferns persisted, while conifers and pines became more and more like the present-day varieties. Some coal was still being formed along the northern Mediterranean shores.
The return of the seas improved the weather. Corals spread to European waters, testifying that the climate was still mild and even, but they never again appeared in the slowly cooling polar seas. The marine life of these times improved and developed greatly, especially in European waters. Both corals and crinoids temporarily appeared in larger numbers than heretofore, but the ammonites dominated the invertebrate life of the oceans, their average size ranging from three to four inches, though one species attained a diameter of eight feet. Sponges were everywhere, and both cuttlefish and oysters continued to evolve." (p.686-87)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 127 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-14-2006 12:28 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 129 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-14-2006 5:11 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 129 of 151 (331799)
07-14-2006 5:11 PM
Reply to: Message 128 by Sandor Szabados
07-14-2006 2:09 PM


The Evolution of Life
"110,000,000 years ago the potentials of marine life were continuing to unfold. The sea urchin was one of the outstanding mutations of this epoch. Crabs, lobsters, and the modern types of crustaceans matured. Marked changes occurred in the fish family, a sturgeon type first appearing, but the ferocious sea serpents, descended from the land reptiles, still infested all the seas, and they threatened the destruction of the entire fish family.
This continued to be, pre-eminently, the age of the dinosaurs. They so overran the land that two species had taken to the water for sustenance during the preceding period of sea encroachment. These sea serpents represent a backward step in evolution. While some new species are progressing, certain strains remain stationary and others gravitate backward, reverting to a former state. And this is what happened when these two types of reptiles forsook the land.
As time passed, the sea serpents grew to such size that they became very sluggish and eventually perished because they did not have brains large enough to afford protection for their immense bodies. Their brains weighed less than two ounces notwithstanding the fact that these huge ichthyosaurs sometimes grew to be fifty feet long, the majority being over thirty-five feet in length. The marine crocodilians were also a reversion from the land type of reptile, but unlike the sea serpents, these animals always returned to the land to lay their eggs.
Soon after two species of dinosaurs migrated to the water in a futile attempt at self-preservation, two other types were driven to the air by the bitter competition of life on land. But these flying pterosaurs were not the ancestors of the true birds of subsequent ages. They evolved from the hollow-boned leaping dinosaurs, and their wings were of batlike formation with a spread of twenty to twenty-five feet. These ancient flying reptiles grew to be ten feet long, and they had separable jaws much like those of modern snakes. For a time these flying reptiles appeared to be a success, but they failed to evolve along lines which would enable them to survive as air navigators. They represent the nonsurviving strains of bird ancestry.
Turtles increased during this period, first appearing in North America. Their ancestors came over from Asia by way of the northern land bridge.
One hundred million years ago the reptilian age was drawing to a close. The dinosaurs, for all their enormous mass, were all but brainless animals, lacking the intelligence to provide sufficient food to nourish such enormous bodies. And so did these sluggish land reptiles perish in ever-increasing numbers. Henceforth, evolution will follow the growth of brains, not physical bulk, and the development of brains will characterize each succeeding epoch of animal evolution and planetary progress.
This period, embracing the height and the beginning decline of the reptiles, extended nearly twenty-five million years and is known as the 'Jurassic'. (p.688)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 128 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-14-2006 2:09 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 130 by John A. Davison, posted 07-15-2006 1:13 AM Sandor Szabados has not replied
 Message 131 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-15-2006 6:30 AM Sandor Szabados has not replied

John A. Davison 
Inactive Member


Message 130 of 151 (331894)
07-15-2006 1:13 AM
Reply to: Message 129 by Sandor Szabados
07-14-2006 5:11 PM


Re: The Evolution of Life
It is hard to believe isn't it?
I love it so!

"A past evolution is undeniable, a present evolution undemonstrable."

This message is a reply to:
 Message 129 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-14-2006 5:11 PM Sandor Szabados has not replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 131 of 151 (331914)
07-15-2006 6:30 AM
Reply to: Message 129 by Sandor Szabados
07-14-2006 5:11 PM


The Evolution of Life
"THE CRETACEOUS STAGE
THE FLOWERING-PLANT PERIOD
THE AGE OF BIRDS
The great Cretaceous period derives its name from the predominance of the prolific chalk-making foraminifers in the seas. This period brings Urantia to near the end of the long reptilian dominance and witnesses the appearance of flowering plants and bird life on land. These are also the times of the termination of the westward and southward drift of the continents, accompanied by tremendous crustal deformations and concomitant widespread lava flows and great volcanic activities.
Near the close of the preceding geologic period much of the continental land was up above water, although as yet there were no mountain peaks. But as the continental land drift continued, it met with the first great obstruction on the deep floor of the Pacific. This contention of geologic forces gave impetus to the formation of the whole vast north and south mountain range extending from Alaska down through Mexico to Cape Horn.
This period thus becomes the modern mountain-building stage of geologic history. Prior to this time there were few mountain peaks, merely elevated land ridges of great width. Now the Pacific coast range was beginning to elevate, but it was located seven hundred miles west of the present shore line. The Sierras were beginning to form, their gold-bearing quartz strata being the product of lava flows of this epoch. In the eastern part of North America, Atlantic sea pressure was also working to cause land elevation.
100,000,000 years ago the North American continent and a part of Europe were well above water. The warping of the American continents continued, resulting in the metamorphosing of the South American Andes and in the gradual elevation of the western plains of North America. Most of Mexico sank beneath the sea, and the southern Atlantic encroached on the eastern coast of South America, eventually reaching the present shore line. The Atlantic and Indian Oceans were then about as they are today.
95,000,000 years ago the American and European land masses again began to sink. The southern seas commenced the invasion of North America and gradually extended northward to connect with the Arctic Ocean, constituting the second greatest submergence of the continent. When this sea finally withdrew, it left the continent about as it now is. Before this great submergence began, the eastern Appalachian highlands had been almost completely worn down to the water's level. The many colored layers of pure clay now used for the manufacture of earthenware were laid down over the Atlantic coast regions during this age, their average thickness being about 2,000 feet.
Great volcanic actions occurred south of the Alps and along the line of the present California coast-range mountains. The greatest crustal deformations in millions upon millions of years took place in Mexico. Great changes also occurred in Europe, Russia, Japan, and southern South America. The climate became increasingly diversified.
90,000,000 years ago the angiosperms emerged from these early Cretaceous seas and soon overran the continents. These land plants 'suddenly' appeared along with fig trees, magnolias, and tulip trees. Soon after this time fig trees, breadfruit trees, and palms overspread Europe and the western plains of North America. No new land animals appeared." (p.689)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Making post shorter.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 129 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-14-2006 5:11 PM Sandor Szabados has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 132 by John A. Davison, posted 07-15-2006 10:34 AM Sandor Szabados has replied

John A. Davison 
Inactive Member


Message 132 of 151 (331936)
07-15-2006 10:34 AM
Reply to: Message 131 by Sandor Szabados
07-15-2006 6:30 AM


Re: The Evolution of Life
You see what I mean?

"A past evolution is undeniable, a present evolution undemonstrable."

This message is a reply to:
 Message 131 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-15-2006 6:30 AM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 133 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-15-2006 11:23 AM John A. Davison has not replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 133 of 151 (331944)
07-15-2006 11:23 AM
Reply to: Message 132 by John A. Davison
07-15-2006 10:34 AM


The Evolution of Life
85,000,000 years ago the Bering Strait closed, shutting off the cooling waters of the northern seas. Theretofore the marine life of the Atlantic-Gulf waters and that of the Pacific Ocean had differed greatly, owing to the temperature variations of these two bodies of water, which now became uniform.
The deposits of chalk and greensand marl give name to this period. The sedimentations of these times are variegated, consisting of chalk, shale, sandstone, and small amounts of limestone, together with inferior coal or lignite, and in many regions they contain oil. These layers vary in thickness from 200 feet in some places to 10,000 feet in western North America and numerous European localities. Along the eastern borders of the Rocky Mountains these deposits may be observed in the uptilted foothills.
All over the world these strata are permeated with chalk, and these layers of porous semirock pick up water at upturned outcrops and convey it downward to furnish the water supply of much of the earth's present arid regions.
80,000,000 years ago great disturbances occurred in the earth's crust. The western advance of the continental drift was coming to a standstill, and the enormous energy of the sluggish momentum of the hinter continental mass upcrumpled the Pacific shore line of both North and South America and initiated profound repercussional changes along the Pacific shores of Asia. This circumpacific land elevation, which culminated in present-day mountain ranges, is more than twenty-five thousand miles long. And the upheavals attendant upon its birth were the greatest surface distortions to take place since life appeared on Urantia. The lava flows, both above and below ground, were extensive and widespread.
75,000,000 years ago marks the end of the continental drift. From Alaska to Cape Horn the long Pacific coast mountain ranges were completed, but there were as yet few peaks.
The backthrust of the halted continental drift continued the elevation of the western plains of North America, while in the east the worn-down Appalachian Mountains of the Atlantic coast region were projected straight up, with little or no tilting.
70,000,000 years ago the crustal distortions connected with the maximum elevation of the Rocky Mountain region took place. A large segment of rock was overthrust fifteen miles at the surface in British Columbia; here the Cambrian rocks are obliquely thrust out over the Cretaceous layers. On the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, near the Canadian border, there was another spectacular overthrust; here may be found the prelife stone layers shoved out over the then recent Cretaceous deposits.
This was an age of volcanic activity all over the world, giving rise to numerous small isolated volcanic cones. Submarine volcanoes broke out in the submerged Himalayan region. Much of the rest of Asia, including Siberia, was also still under water.
65,000,000 years ago there occurred one of the greatest lava flows of all time. The deposition layers of these and preceding lava flows are to be found all over the Americas, North and South Africa, Australia, and parts of Europe.
The land animals were little changed, but because of greater continental emergence, especially in North America, they rapidly multiplied. North America was the great field of the land-animal evolution of these times, most of Europe being under water.
The climate was still warm and uniform. The arctic regions were enjoying weather much like that of the present climate in central and southern North America.
Great plant-life evolution was taking place. Among the land plants the angiosperms predominated, and many present-day trees first appeared, including beech, birch, oak, walnut, sycamore, maple, and modern palms. Fruits, grasses, and cereals were abundant, and these seed-bearing grasses and trees were to the plant world what the ancestors of man were to the animal world--they were second in evolutionary importance only to the appearance of man himself. 'Suddenly' and without previous gradation, the great family of flowering plants mutated. And this new flora soon overspread the entire world.
60,000,000 years ago, though the land reptiles were on the decline, the dinosaurs continued as monarchs of the land, the lead now being taken by the more agile and active types of the smaller leaping kangaroo varieties of the carnivorous dinosaurs. But some time previously there had appeared new types of the herbivorous dinosaurs, whose rapid increase was due to the appearance of the grass family of land plants. One of these new grass-eating dinosaurs was a true quadruped having two horns and a capelike shoulder flange. The land type of turtle, twenty feet across, appeared as did also the modern crocodile and true snakes of the modern type. Great changes were also occurring among the fishes and other forms of marine life.
The wading and swimming prebirds of earlier ages had not been a success in the air, nor had the flying dinosaurs. They were a short-lived species, soon becoming extinct. They, too, were subject to the dinosaur doom, destruction, because of having too little brain substance in comparison with body size. This second attempt to produce animals that could navigate the atmosphere failed, as did the abortive attempt to produce mammals during this and a preceding age.
55,000,000 years ago the evolutionary march was marked by the 'sudden' appearance of the first of the 'true birds', a small pigeonlike creature which was the ancestor of all bird life. This was the third type of flying creature to appear on earth, and it sprang directly from the reptilian group, not from the contemporary flying dinosaurs nor from the earlier types of toothed land birds. And so this becomes known as the 'age of birds' as well as the declining age of reptiles." (p.690-91)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
The origin of birds from a reptile egg was later hypothesized by the German paleontologist Otto Heinrich Schindewolf. (1896-1971)
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : correct punctuation
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : add def. art.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 132 by John A. Davison, posted 07-15-2006 10:34 AM John A. Davison has not replied

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 Message 134 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-15-2006 4:26 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 134 of 151 (332020)
07-15-2006 4:26 PM
Reply to: Message 133 by Sandor Szabados
07-15-2006 11:23 AM


The Evolution of Life
"THE END OF THE CHALK PERIOD
The great Cretaceous period was drawing to a close, and its termination marks the end of the great sea invasions of the continents. Particularly is this true of North America, where there had been just twenty-four great inundations. And though there were subsequent minor submergences, none of these can be compared with the extensive and lengthy marine invasions of this and previous ages. These alternate periods of land and sea dominance have occurred in million-year cycles. There has been an agelong rhythm associated with this rise and fall of ocean floor and continental land levels. And these same rhythmical crustal movements will continue from this time on throughout the earth's history but with diminishing frequency and extent.
This period also witnesses the end of the continental drift and the building of the modern mountains of Urantia. But the pressure of the continental masses and the thwarted momentum of their agelong drift are not the exclusive influences in mountain building. The chief and underlying factor in determining the location of a mountain range is the pre-existent lowland, or trough, which has become filled up with the comparatively lighter deposits of the land erosions and marine drifts of the preceding ages. These lighter areas of land are sometimes 15,000 to 20,000 feet thick; therefore, when the crust is subjected to pressure from any cause, these lighter areas are the first to crumple up, fold, and rise upward to afford compensatory adjustment for the contending and conflicting forces and pressures at work in the earth's crust or underneath the crust. Sometimes these upthrusts of land occur without folding. But in connection with the rise of the Rocky Mountains, great folding and tilting occurred, coupled with enormous overthrusts of the various layers, both underground and at the surface.
The oldest mountains of the world are located in Asia, Greenland, and northern Europe among those of the older east-west systems. The mid-age mountains are in the circumpacific group and in the second European east-west system, which was born at about the same time. This gigantic uprising is almost ten thousand miles long, extending from Europe over into the West Indies land elevations. The youngest mountains are in the Rocky Mountain system, where, for ages, land elevations had occurred only to be successively covered by the sea, though some of the higher lands remained as islands. Subsequent to the formation of the mid-age mountains, a real mountain highland was elevated which was destined, subsequently, to be carved into the present Rocky Mountains by the combined artistry of nature's elements.
The present North American Rocky Mountain region is not the original elevation of land; that elevation had been long since leveled by erosion and then re-elevated. The present front range of mountains is what is left of the remains of the original range which was re-elevated. Pikes Peak and Longs Peak are outstanding examples of this mountain activity, extending over two or more generations of mountain lives. These two peaks held their heads above water during several of the preceding inundations.
Biologically as well as geologically this was an eventful and active age on land and under water. Sea urchins increased while corals and crinoids decreased. The ammonites, of preponderant influence during a previous age, also rapidly declined. On land the fern forests were largely replaced by pine and other modern trees, including the gigantic redwoods. By the end of this period, while the placental mammal has not yet evolved, the biologic stage is fully set for the appearance, in a subsequent age, of the early ancestors of the future mammalian types.
And thus ends a long era of world evolution, extending from the early appearance of land life down to the more recent times of the immediate ancestors of the human species and its collateral branches. This, the Cretaceous age, covers fifty million years and brings to a close the premammalian era of land life, which extends over a period of one hundred million years and is known as the 'Mesozoic'." (p.691-92)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Delete page #.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : correct page #
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 133 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-15-2006 11:23 AM Sandor Szabados has replied

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 Message 135 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-16-2006 10:32 AM Sandor Szabados has replied

Sandor Szabados
Inactive Member


Message 135 of 151 (332168)
07-16-2006 10:32 AM
Reply to: Message 134 by Sandor Szabados
07-15-2006 4:26 PM


The Evolution of Life
"THE MAMMALIAN ERA ON URANTIA
The era of mammals extends from the times of the origin of placental mammals to the end of the ice age, covering a little less than fifty million years.
During this Cenozoic age the world's landscape presented an attractive appearance--rolling hills, broad valleys, wide rivers, and great forests. Twice during this sector of time the Panama Isthmus went up and down; three times Bering Strait land bridge did the same. The animal types were both many and varied. The trees swarmed with birds, and the whole world was an animal paradise, notwithstanding the incessant struggle of the evolving animal species for supremacy.
The accumulated deposits of the five periods of this fifty-million-year era contain the fossil records of the successive mammalian dynasties and lead right up through the times of the actual appearance of man himself.
THE NEW CONTINENTAL LAND STAGE
THE AGE OF EARLY MAMMALS
50,000,000 years ago the land areas of the world were very generally above water or only slightly submerged. The formations and deposits of this period are both land and marine, but chiefly land. For a considerable time the land gradually rose but was simultaneously washed down to the lower levels and toward the seas.
Early in this period and in North America the placental type of mammals 'suddenly' appeared, and they constituted the most important evolutionary development up to this time. Previous orders of nonplacental mammals had existed, but this new type sprang directly and suddenly from the pre-existent reptilian ancestor whose descendants had persisted on down through the times of dinosaur decline. The father of the placental mammals was a small, highly active, carnivorous, springing type of dinosaur.
Basic mammalian instincts began to be manifested in these primitive mammalian types. Mammals possess an immense survival advantage over all other forms of animal life in that they can:
1. Bring forth relatively mature and well-developed offspring.
2. Nourish, nurture, and protect their offspring with affectionate regard.
3. Employ their superior brain power in self-perpetuation.
4. Utilize increased agility in escaping from enemies.
5. Apply superior intelligence to environmental adjustment and adaptation.
45,000,000 years ago the continental backbones were elevated in association with a very general sinking of the coast lines. Mammalian life was evolving rapidly. A small reptilian, egg-laying type of mammal flourished, and the ancestors of the later kangaroos roamed Australia. Soon there were small horses, fleet-footed rhinoceroses, tapirs with proboscises, primitive pigs, squirrels, lemurs, opossums, and several tribes of monkeylike animals. They were all small, primitive, and best suited to living among the forests of the mountain regions. A large ostrichlike land bird developed to a height of ten feet and laid an egg nine by thirteen inches. These were the ancestors of the later gigantic passenger birds that were so highly intelligent, and that onetime transported human beings through the air.
The mammals of the early Cenozoic lived on land, under the water, in the air, and among the treetops. They had from one to eleven pairs of mammary glands, and all were covered with considerable hair. In common with the later appearing orders, they developed two successive sets of teeth and possessed large brains in comparison to body size. But among them all no modern forms existed." (p.693-94)
From The URANTIA Book (1955), a Divine Revelation - Just a moment...
Religion without science has no foundation; science without religion has no direction.
Edited by Sandor Szabados, : Add source of quotes.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 134 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-15-2006 4:26 PM Sandor Szabados has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 136 by Sandor Szabados, posted 07-16-2006 11:29 AM Sandor Szabados has replied

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