Subject: What We Studied At Ralph's Home Today.         Jan. 7, 2011.

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Dear Folks: Here is part of the Urantia Book Paper 73.

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PAPER 73:
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
http://urantiabook.org/audio/uversa_press_dvd/p073_00.m3u
Audio Version
http://urantiabook.org/newbook/papers/synopsis/a_soe_73.html
73:0.1 The cultural decadence and s-iritual poverty resulting
from the Caligastia downfall and consequent social confusion
had little effect on the physical or biologic status of the Urantia
peoples. E-olution proceeded apace, quite regardless of the
cultural and moral setback which so swiftly followed the
disaffection of Caligastia and Daligastia.
And there came a time in the planetary history, almost forty
thousand years ago, when the Life Carriers on duty took note
that, from a purely biologic standpoint, the developmental
progress of the Urantia r-ces was nearing its apex. The
Melchizedek receivers, concurring in this opinion, readily
agreed to join the Life Carriers in a petition to the Most
Highs of Edentia asking that Urantia be inspected with a view to
authorizing the dispatch of biologic uplifters, a Material Son
and Daughter.
This request was addressed to the Most Highs of Edentia
because they had exercised direct jurisdiction over many of
Urantia's affairs ever since Caligastia's downfall and the temporary
vacation of authority on Jerusem.
Tabamantia, sovereign supervisor of the series of decimal or
experimental worlds, came to inspect the planet and, after his
survey of ra-ial progress, duly recommended that Urantia be
granted Material Sons. In a little less than one hundred years
from the time of this inspection, Adam and Eve, a Material Son
and Daughter of the local system, arrived and began the difficult
task of attempting to untangle the confused affairs of a planet
retarded by rebellion and resting under the ban of s-iritual
isolation.

73:1 THE NODITES AND THE AMADONITES

On a normal planet the arrival of the Material Son would ordinarily
herald the approach of a great age of invention, material progress,
and intellectual enlightenment. The post-Adamic era is the great
scientific age of most worlds, but not so on Urantia.
Though the planet was peopled by ra-es physically fit, the tribes
languished in the depths of savagery and moral stagnation.
Ten thousand years after the rebellion practically all the gains of
the Prince's administration had been effaced; the rac-s of the
world were little better off than if this misguided Son had never
come to Urantia. Only among the Nodites and the Amadonites
was there persistence of the traditions of Dalamatia and the
culture of the Planetary Prince.
The Nodites were the descendants of the rebel members of the
Prince's staff, their name deriving from their first leader, Nod,
onetime chairman of the Dalamatia commission on industry and
trade. The Amadonites were the descendants of those Andonites
who chose to remain loyal with Van and Amadon. " Amadonite "
is more of a cultural and r-ligious designation than a rac-al term;
raci-lly considered the Amadonites were essentially Andonites.
" Nodite " is both a cultural and raci-l term, for the Nodites
themselves constituted the eighth race of Urantia.
There existed a traditional enmity between the Nodites and the
Amadonites. This feud was constantly coming to the surface
whenever the offspring of these two groups would try to engage
in some common enterprise. Even later, in the affairs of Eden, it
was exceedingly difficult for them to work together in peace.

73:1.5 Shortly after the destruction of Dalamatia the followers of
Nod became divided into three major groups.
The central group remained in the immediate vicinity of their original
home near the headwaters of the Persian Gulf. The eastern group
migrated to the highland regions of Elam just east of the Euphrates
valley. The western group was situated on the northeastern Syrian
shores of the Mediterranean and in adjacent territory.

These Nodites had freely mated with the Sangik ra-es and had left
behind an able progeny. And some of the descendants of the
rebellious Dalamatians subsequently joined Van and his loyal
followers in the lands north of Mesopotamia. Here, in the vicinity of
Lake Van and the southern Caspian Sea region, the Nodites mingled
and mixed with the Amadonites, and they were numbered among
the " mighty men of old. "

73:1.7 Prior to the arrival of Adam and Eve these groups Nodites and
Amadonites were the most advanced and cultured r-ces on earth.
B-ble References

73:2 PLANNING FOR THE GARDEN
http://urantiabook.org/audio/uversa_press_dvd/p073_02.m3u
Audio Version
For almost one hundred years prior to Tabamantia's inspection, Van
and his associates, from their highland headquarters of world ethics
and culture, had been preaching the advent of a promised Son of
G-, a ra-ial uplifter, a teacher of truth, and the worthy successor
of the traitorous Caligastia.
Though the majority of the world's inhabitants of those days exhibited
little or no interest in such a prediction, those who were in immediate
contact with Van and Amadon took such teaching seriously and began
to plan for the actual reception of the promised Son.

73:2.2 Van told his nearest associates the story of the Material Sons
on Jerusem; what he had known of them before ever he came to
Urantia. He well knew that these Adamic Sons always lived in simple
but charming garden homes and proposed, eighty-three years before
the arrival of Adam and Eve, that they devote themselves to the
proclamation of their advent and to the preparation of a garden home
for their reception.

73:2.3 From their highland headquarters and from sixty-one far-scattered
settlements, Van and Amadon recruited a corps of over three thousand
willing and enthusiastic workers who, in solemn assembly, dedicated
themselves to this mission of preparing for the promised at least
expected Son.

73:2.4 Van divided his volunteers into one hundred companies with a
captain over each and an associate who served on his personal staff
as a liaison officer, keeping Amadon as his own associate.
These commissions all began in earnest their preliminary work, and the
committee on location for the Garden sallied forth in search of the ideal
spot.

73:2.5 Although Caligastia and Daligastia had been deprived of much of
their power for e-il, they did everything possible to frustrate and hamper
the work of preparing the Garden. But their ev-l machinations were
largely offset by the faithful activities of the almost ten thousand loyal
midway creatures who so tirelessly labored to advance the enterprise.

73:3.1 The committee on location was absent for almost three years.
It reported favorably concerning three possible locations: The first was
an island in the Persian Gulf; the second, the river location subsequently
occupied as the second garden the third, a long narrow peninsulaalmost an
island projecting westward from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean
Sea.
The committee almost unanimously favored the third selection. This
site was chosen, and two years were occupied in transferring the world's
cultural headquarters, including the tree of life, to this Mediterranean
peninsula. All but a single group of the peninsula dwellers peaceably
vacated when Van and his company arrived.

This Mediterranean peninsula had a salubrious climate and an equable
temperature; this stabilized weather was due to the encircling
mountains and to the fact that this area was virtually an island in an
inland sea. While it rained copiously on the surrounding highlands,
it seldom rained in Eden proper. But each night, from the extensive
network of artificial irrigation channels, a " mist would go up " to refresh
the vegetation of the Garden.

The coast line of this land mass was considerably elevated, and the
neck connecting with the mainland was only twenty-seven miles wide
at the narrowest point. The great river that watered the Garden came
down from the higher lands of the peninsula and flowed east through
the peninsular neck to the mainland and thence across the lowlands of
Mesopotamia to the sea beyond. It was fed by four tributaries which took
origin in the coastal hills of the Edenic peninsula, and these are the " 
four
heads " of the river which " went out of Eden, " and which later became
confused with the branches of the rivers surrounding the second garden.
The mountains surrounding the Garden abounded in precious stones and
metals, though these received very little attention. The dominant idea
was to be the glorification of horticulture and the exaltation of
agriculture.

The site chosen for the Garden was probably the most beautiful spot
of its kind in all the world, and the climate was then ideal. Nowhere else
was there a location which could have lent itself so perfectly to
becoming such a paradise of botanic expression. In this rendezvous
the cream of the civilization of Urantia was forgathering.

Part 1.

John Winston.  johnfw@mlode.com