An Agenda For Peace

Almost none of the religions promote a peace on Earth in which our various faiths live in equality, where the rights of all people are protected – including those of the non-religious - and where diverse cultures exist in harmony. Across the planet our young continue to be taught with scriptures that are seeped in fear: rational thought is trumped by the dogma, doctrine, and prejudices of the ancient world. Until changed these teachings will keep us in the cycle of violence that has dominated world history.

While not the foundation for a religion, a document known as the Urantia Revelation provides us an alternative that offers specific suggestions for what we must do to reduce the violence on our planet. It is time we stop being held hostage by the past and begin to meet our responsibility to the future. Regardless of one’s personal faith - or lack of it - given the current state of our world the following ideas deserve consideration.

Foremost is that more people need to understand the parental nature of God: the idea that our Creator is a loving parent, not stern judge. We expect our children to make mistakes as they mature into adults; God also allows us room to grow into more aware spiritual beings. We have nothing to fear when we pass through the portal of death.

Regardless of what religion we choose to adopt, we all stem from the same source, and as such we are all siblings within the greater family of humanity. We are expected to love one another regardless of color, creed, or ethnicity. As we would not want our own children to harm each other, neither does our Creator wish for us to fight with our neighbors. Never can violence be condoned in the name of a God that is understood to be the perfection of eternal truth, divine beauty, and infinite goodness.

Knowing God in this way eliminates religious antagonism, concepts of racial superiority, and the idea that women have less spiritual worth than men. This model imparts to everyone the same degree of love, respect, and spiritual capacity: there are no chosen people. While men and women may be distinct sides of the same race - with each possessing its own strengths and weaknesses - with God there is no difference between the two.

For balance to be achieved, each side must participate in equal measure. We can never consider ourselves free of barbarism until women hold absolute equality with men, nor can we hope to find peace until both genders share similar responsibility in all decision making – from the family level to the global stage. Men have directed the course of most of our history, and today we suffer as a result: a better world requires allowing women a full voice at the table.

For the first time in history we have the communication required for world citizenship. Nationalism is the disease supporting anarchy as our world order. While treaties between nations can work to lessen smaller wars they allow greater conflict between the larger federations: we have witnessed this.

The fair resolution of disputes requires impartial third party intervention. Our hope for peace resides with the formation of a global representative democracy that is constrained by a Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As states relinquish ultimate control to the nation, so must nations now submit to the will of the world. We can remain unique cultures, but to find peace we must first recognize our responsibility to the greater global family of which we belong.