Pleasures
From Urantia Wiki, the encyclopedia of The Urantia Book
Also: amusement.
Maturity substitutes higher meanings for personal pleasure, elevating loyalties to the utmost concepts of life situations and cosmic relations, while evil arises from making personal evaluations absolutes. 100:1.1
In the morontia world, there are countless spiritual realities that surpass and enhance the material pleasures familiar to mortals. 44:3.1
Recalling past experiences provides pleasures, allowing for the enjoyment of celestial humor and spiritual amusement throughout our ascending lives. (48:4.10,20)
The desirability of pleasure (the satisfaction of happiness) requires man to navigate a world filled with the potential for pain and suffering. 3:5.14
In the Urantia Book
Physical pleasures
- Amusement madness was a reason for Roman decline, along with overtaxation, unbalanced trade, and the degradation of woman. 195:3.9
- The soul's hunger for satisfaction cannot be fulfilled by the pursuit of physical pleasure; true elevation and nourishment lie beyond the confines of vanity and fashion. 84:8.4
- The insidious pursuit of vanity threatens to undermine a highly specialized civilization, as the desire for pleasures now overshadows the basic need of hunger. 68:2.11
- Experiential meaning adds value to pleasures; isolated and purely selfish pleasures can lead to a meaningless enjoyment bordering on relative evil. 100:3.4
- Man is entitled to enjoy physical pleasures, but the goal of human self-realization should be spiritual and eternal, transcending mortal associations and institutions. 100:2.6
- The modern pleasure mania poses a great threat to family life, as self-gratification becomes the primary focus over traditional incentives for marriage and societal institutions. 84:8.1-2
- Self-deception in enslaving pleasures arises from being led astray by one's own natural tendencies. 143:2.5
- Jesus of Nazareth demonstrated the folly and sin of using divine talents for selfish gain, similar to Lucifer and Caligastia. 136:6.9
- Enjoy life's pleasures in all forms, but beware of the fatal consequences if they harm property, marriage, or home. 84:8.6
Bible parallels
Passages that the paragraphs cited above parallel, quote or reinterpret, from Duane Faw’s Paramony cross-references. Hover a reference to read it.
- Builder & maker is God 44:3.1 — 2 Co 5:1; Heb 11:10.
- Human heart is wicked 143:2.5 — Jer 17:9.