The Urantia Book

All human institutions are the accumulated mores of the past as they have been conserved by taboos and dignified by religion. Such legacies become traditions and traditions ultimately become established institutions. Human institutions are of three general classes: 1. Institutions of self-maintenance, which grows out of the instinct for self-preservation. It includes food hunger, war and the machinery of society. 2. The institutions of self-perpetuation, which involves the social safeguards of the home and school, family life and religion. 3. The institutions of self-gratification. These three form a tangled web on Urantia.

Early in Human existance a lesson was taken from the animals, which collected food for the winter. But competition-gravity pushes man down toward the beast level; poverty is his natural and tyrannical state. Wealth is not a natural gift; it results from labor, knowledge and organization. Adam was a gardener; the God of the Hebrews labored–he was the creator and upholder of all things. The Hebrews were the first tribe to put a supreme premium on industry; they were the first people to decree that “he who does not work shall not eat.” The first human foresight was directed toward the preservation of fire, water and food. Specialization in labor was first according to sex; the woman took care of the babies and home and the man went out hunting for food. The next division of labor was consequent on age and disease; the ill and old did sedentary work of making tools and weapons. The next division of labor was based on religion. The medicine men were the first humans to be exempt from physical labor. Smiths enjoyed a special status, but later they became the first men to open roadhouses outside villages. The next division is between master and slave, and there were divisions among the various craftsmen and women.

On an evolutionary world, antagonisms are natural; peace is secured only by some sort of social regulative system. Social regulation is inseparable from social organization; association implies some controlling authority. Government compels the coordination of the antagonisms of the tribes, clans, families and individuals. Government is an unconscious development; it evolves by trial and error. It does have survival value, therefore, it becomes traditional. Anarchy augmented misery; therefore, government, comparative law and order, slowly emerged. The coercive demands of the struggle for existence literally drove the human race along the progressive road to civilization.