“SCIENCE AND RELIGION”
COMPILED FROM BAHÁ’Í SCRIPTURES AND MODERN SCIENCE
BY LOULIE A. MATHEWS
PREFACE
THE vitality of a religion lies no less in the dynamic power of its founder than in the Message that he brings.
For the appearance of a Prophet cannot be likened to that of any other human being, no matter how great or gifted that being may be, for with the Prophet comes a spiritual Springtime that revivifies all things upon the earth, according to the nature of each; and in the heart of man springs up a love of God and a belief in His messenger that makes him forsake personal aims and ambitions and willingly endure every hardship even to the giving of life itself that humanity may be reborn through the Word of the Prophet.
By the power of God revealed to pure hearts, man receives the impetus to press forward to new goals—could he reach such a realization unaided, there would be no need for the coming of a Prophet, but fettered by tradition, unable to prove even a simple premise without a long process of trial and error, he cannot vision the plan of Almighty God for this plane. Progress and civilization are dependent upon the revealed Word of the Prophet.
The direct rays of Bahá’u’lláh have been focussed upon humanity for a hundred years with a resultant quickening of scientific and philosophic thought. A few quotations point the trend of consciousness which will be more and more in accordance with the principles of the Bahá’í Revelation.
STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE CREATOR
“The Divine Reality is Unthinkable, Limitless, Eternal, Immortal and Invisible.
“The World of Creation is bound by natural Law, finite and mortal.
“The Infinite Reality cannot be said to ascend or descend. It is beyond the understanding of man, and cannot be described in terms which apply to the phenomenal sphere of the created world.”
“Man, then, is in extreme need of the only Power by which he is able to receive help from the Divine Reality, that Power alone bringing him into contact with the Source of all life.”
“God alone should be realized as the one Power which animates and dominates all things, which are but the manifestations of its energy.”
“The Divine Essence surrounds all things. Verily that which surrounds is greater than the surrounded, and the surrounded cannot contain that by which it is surrounded, nor comprehend its reality. However far mind may progress, though it reach to the final degree of comprehension, the limit of understanding, it beholds the divine signs and attributes in the world of creation, and not in the world of God.”
“God, the unknowable Essence, the Divine Being,
is immensely exalted beyond
every human attribute. He is and hath ever
been veiled in the ancient eternity of His
Essence, and will remain in His Reality
everlastingly hidden from the sight of men
. . . No sign can indicate His presence or His
absence; insomuch as by a word of His
command all that are in heaven and
on[Page 495]
earth
have come to exist, and by His wish,
which is the Primal Will itself, all have
stepped out of utter nothingness into the
realm of being, the world of the visible.”
“God is pure Essence, and cannot be said to be anywhere or in any place.
“God is infinite; and as terms are finite, the nature of God cannot be expressed in terms, but as man desires to express God in some way, he calls God ‘love’ and ‘truth’ because these are the highest things he knows. Life is eternal; so man, in order to express God’s infinity, calls God ‘life.’ But these things in themselves are not God. God is the source of all, and all things that are, are mirrors reflecting His Glory.”
“The Essence of the Divine Entity is holy above imagination and beyond thought. Consciousness does not reach It. Within the capacity of comprehension of a created reality that ancient (uncreated) Reality cannot be contained. It is a different world; from it there is no information.
“All the philosophers and sages knew that it is, but they were perplexed in the comprehension of its existence, and were at last discouraged and left this world in great despair.”
“God singly and alone abideth in His own place which is holy above space and time, mention and utterance, sign, description, and definition, height and depth. And no one knows this save Him and whosoever has knowledge of the Book.”
Herbert Spencer:
“Man finds that force, space, and time pass all understanding. In all directions his investigations eventually bring him face to face with an insoluble enigma. He learns at once the greatness of the human intellect. . . its impotence in dealing with all that transcends experience. In its ultimate nature nothing can be known . . . the unconditionally, unlimited or the Infinite, cannot positively be construed to the mind. The First Cause, the Infinite, the Absolute, to be known at all, must be classed, to be positively thought of, it must be thought of . . . as this or that kind. Can it be like in kind to anything of which we have experienced? Obviously not. Between the creating and the created, there must be a distinction transcending any of the distinctions between different divisions of the created . . . The infinite cannot be grouped along with something finite; since in being so grouped, it must be regarded as not-infinite. It is impossible to put the Absolute in the same category with anything relative, so long as the Absolute is defined as that of which no necessary relation can be predicated . . . There cannot be more than one First Cause. . . . How self destructive is the assumption of two or more Infinites, is manifest on remembering that such Infinites, by limiting each other, would become finite . . . Thus, from the very nature of the thought it is to admit that the First Cause is unknowable. The relativity of our knowledge is inferable in three ways, as we find by analyzing it. And as we see it objectively displayed in every proposition, involving relations, difference, likeness. Whatever does not present each of these does not admit of cognition. And hence we may say that the Unconditioned as presenting none of them, is trebly unthinkable.”
STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE CELESTIAL UNIVERSE
THE DURATION OF THE UNIVERSE
“The universe has never had a beginning. From the point of view of essence it transforms itself. God is eternal in essence and in time. He is his own existence and cause. This is why the material world is eternal in essence, for the power of God is eternal.”
[Page 496]
Prof. J. Arthur Thompson:
“Our solar system was once represented by a nebula, it has been the same material throughout, that has merely changed its distribution and form . . . When we speak the language of science we cannot say, ‘In the beginning,’ for we do not know of and cannot think of any condition of things that did not arise from something that went before.”
EXTENT OF UNIVERSE
“Consider the creation of the infinite universe. This globe of ours is one of the smallest planets. Those stupendous bodies revolving in yonder immeasurable space, the infinite blue canopy of God, are many times greater than our small earth. To our eyes this globe appears spacious; yet when we look upon it with diving eyes, it is reduced to the tiniest atom.”
“Gaze upward through immeasurable space to the majestic order of the colossal suns. These luminous bodies are numberless. Behind our solar system there are unfathomable stellar systems; above these, are the remote aggregations of the milky way. Extend your vision beyond the fixed stars and again you shall behold many spheres of light. Indeed, the creation of the Almighty is beyond the grasp of the human intellect.”
“The world of creation has had no beginning and will have no end, because it is the arena upon which the attributes and qualities of the spirit are being manifested. Can we limit God and His power? In the same manner we cannot limit His creations and attributes. Just as the reality of divinity is limitless, likewise His grace and bounties are limitless.”
“After centuries of scientific deduction it is proved that there is no fixed heaven; that which we see is an infinite space; these stars are hung like luminous lamps in this immeasurable atmosphere. There are neither eight nor nine nor ninety spheres, and the stars are numberless.”
ON THE POSITION AND NUMBER OF THE STARS: SCIENTIFIC STATEMENT
“To enable us to realize, to some extent, what position man holds with reference to the Universe, let us leave our earth for a short time, and hasten away, in the Chariot of Imagination, to a point in space halfway between our Sun and Alpha Centauri, the nearest of the other stars. . . Let us now imagine that our eyes improve in lightgrasping power till they equal the most powerful telescope in existence. What is now to be seen from our point of vantage? . . .
“The Sun that ruled our Solar System with such undisputed sway is visible still, but it rules no more. It was a Sun that reigned supreme among a thousand little twinkling stars. It is now but a star among a hundred million fellow-stars.
“But though we have lost our Earth and its Sun, we have gained more than we have lost. For we have revealed before us a goodly portion of the Universe itself. And though we see no more a panoramic succession of days and nights, seasons and years, we do not miss these earthly phenomena. For in their stead we see the stately evolutions of countless squadrons of heavenly orbs, circling through never-ending time in an ocean of limitless space.
“We have no need of the Sun, neither of the Moon; for the everlasting glory of the Great Cosmos enlightens us, and the iridescent mantle of Universal Nature enfolds us.”
STATEMENT CONCERNING THE DESCENT OF MAN
“Man in the beginning of his existence
and in the womb of the earth, like the
embryo in the womb of the mother,
gradually[Page 497]
grew
and developed, and passed from one
form to another, until he appeared with this
beauty and perfection, this force and power.
It is certain that in the beginning he had
not this loveliness and grace and elegance,
and that, only by degrees, did he attain
this shape, this form, this beauty and this
grace—Man’s existence on this earth, from
the beginning until it reaches this stage,
form and condition, necessarily lasts a long
time—but from the beginning of man’s existence
he is a distinct species—— Admitting that the
traces of organs which have
disappeared actually exist (in the human
body) this is not a proof of the impermanence
and the non-originality of the species. At
the most it proves that the form
and fashion and organs of man have
progressed. Man was always a distinct species,
a man, not an animal.”
“When we look upon the world of creation from the analytic standpoint we observe that everything is the result of composition of many single atoms which through the law of affiliation have adhered and according to the form, order and position of these atoms, a given being steps forth into the court of objectivity. Every single atom of these aggregate atoms has its myriad transferences as has been proved by science. For instance that which enters into the composition of a human being was at one time in the mineral kingdom. In the vegetable kingdom, it again partook of many experiences and through each experience became adorned with added attributes. In the animal kingdom it was incarnated throughout multitudes of animal forms and finally, in the human kingdom the atoms traversed endless forms of humanity, in each form of composition showing forth a particular aspect of the One Power.”
“Bahá’u’lláh confirms the biologist who finds for the body of man a history reaching back in the development of the species through millions of years. Starting from a very simple, apparently insignificant form, the human body is pictured as developing stage by stage, in the course of untold generations, becoming more and more complex, and better and better organized until the man of the present day is reached.”
Prof. Osborn:
“Does the living world also conform to law in its most important aspect, namely, that of fitness or adaptation, or does law emerge from chance? In other words, in the origin and evolution of living things, does nature make a departure from its previously orderly procedure and institute chance for law?
“Let us first make clear what we mean by the distinction between law and chance.
“Astronomers have described the orderly development of the stars, and geologists the orderly development of the earth: is there also an orderly development of life? Are life forms, like celestial forms, the result of law or are they the result of chance?
“That life forms have reached their present stage through the operations of chance has been the opinion held by a great line of natural philosophers. . . .
“That life forms have arisen through law has been the opinion of another school of natural philosophers, headed by Aristotle . . . This opinion has fewer scientific and philosophical adherents, yet Eucken, following Schopenhauer, has recently expressed it as follows: ‘From the very beginning the predominant philosophical tendency has been against the idea that all forms, we see around us, have come into existence solely through an accumulation of accidental individual variations, by the blind occurrences of these variations and their actual survival, without the operation of any inner law.
“ ‘Natural science, too, has more and more demonstrated its inadequacy.’
“. . . This question of law versus chance
in the evolution of life is no longer a matter
of opinion, but of direct observation so far
as law is concerned, we observe that the
evolution of life forms is like that of the
stars: their origin and evolution as revealed
through paleontology (the remains of ancient
life forms) go to prove
that[Page 498]
Aristotle
was essentially right when he said that
‘Nature produces those things which, being
continually moved by a certain principle
contained in themselves, arrive at a certain
end.’ ”
STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE GARDEN OF EDEN
“If we take this story in its apparent meaning, according to the interpretation of the masses, it is indeed extraordinary. The intelligence cannot accept it, affirm it, or imagine it; for such arrangements, such details, such speeches and reproaches are far from being those of an intelligent man, how much less of the Divinity—that Divinity who has organized this infinite universe in the most perfect form, and its innumerable inhabitants with absolute system, strength and perfection.
“Therefore the story of Adam and Eve who ate from the tree, and their expulsion from Paradise, must be thought of simply as a symbol. It contains divine mysteries and universal meanings, and is capable of marvelous explanations. We will explain one of them: Adam is the spirit of Adam, and Eve is his soul; the tree is the human world, and the serpent is that attachment to this world which constitutes sin. The sin in Adam is relative to his position. Attachment to the earthly world, in relation to attachment to the spiritual world, is considered as a sin. The good deeds of the faithful are the sins of the Near Ones.”
Dr. Gugau:
“The great resource of Christianity and of most religions is the idea of a Fall. But this explanation of evil by a primitive failure comes to explaining evil by itself; necessarily there must, before the fall, have been some defect in the supposed freedom of the will or in the circumstances which caused it to weaken; no fault is really primal. A man who is perfect and walks under God’s eye does not fall when there are no stones on the road. There is hesitation only in matters concerning which there is no complete evidence to the understanding —one cannot err in the light and against the light—— But if God and His work had been really perfect, the opposition between personal and general good would have been impossible. Even to the best human minds this opposition appears merely temporary and provisional.
“To know God is to participate in a measure in the supreme Truth—the Divine Consciousness—to have all knowledge would be to be able to reflect the very consciousness of God; how then could a satanic mentality emanate from the all-divine?”
- DR. GUGAU,
- From “Irreligion del’ Avenir.”
STATEMENTS CONCERNING EVIL
“According to Bahá’í philosophy it follows from the doctrine of the unity of God that there can be no such thing as positive evil. If there were any other power in the universe outside of or opposed to the One, then the One would not be infinite. Just as darkness is but the absence or lesser degree of light, so evil is but the absence or lesser degree of good—an undeveloped state. A bad man is a man with the higher side of his nature still undeveloped.”
“As to thy remark, that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá hath said that evil never exists, nay rather, it is a non-existent thing, this is but truth, inasmuch as the greatest evil is man’s going astray and being veiled from truth. Error is lack of guidance; darkness is absence of light; ignorance is lack of knowledge; falsehood is lack of truthfulness; blindness is lack of sight; and deafness is lack of hearing. Therefore, error, blindness, deafness and ignorance are non-existent things.”
“Every human being is primarily pure,
for God-created qualities are deposited in
him. Personality is obtained through
the[Page 499]
conscious
effort of man by training and education.”
“The intellectual realities, such as all the qualities and admirable perfections of man, are purely good, and exist. Evil is simply their non-existence. So ignorance is the want of knowledge, error is the want of guidance, forgetfulness is the want of memory, stupidity is the want of good sense. All these things have no real existence.
“In the same way, the sensible realities are absolutely good, and evil is due to their non-existence, that is to say, blindness is the want of sight, deafness is the want of hearing, poverty is the want of wealth, illness is the want of health, death is the want of life, and weakness is the want of strength.
“A scorpion is evil in relation to man; a serpent is evil in relation to man; but in relation to themselves they are not evil, for their poison is their weapon, and by their sting they defend themselves.
“One thing in relation to another may be evil, and at the same time within the limits of its proper being it may not be evil.”
“Everything in existence is good, and only lack of goodness makes a thing evil. The being is created good, but when the lack of good is to be found, then it becomes bad. Evil is not created by God. Light is created by God, but when you put away the light from a room that room becomes dark.”
“From the beginning of man’s life you may see even in a nursing child the signs of desire, of anger and of temper. Then it may be said that good and evil are innate in the reality of man, and that this is contrary to the goodness of nature and creation. The answer is that desire which is to ask for something more, is a praiseworthy quality if used suitably. If a man has a desire to acquire science and knowledge, or to become compassionate, generous and just, it is most praiseworthy. If he exercises anger and wrath against bloodthirsty tyrants who are like ferocious beasts it is very praiseworthy, if he does not use these qualities in a right way, it is blameworthy. So it is with all the natural qualities of man, which constitute the capital of life; if they are used in an unlawful way then they become blameworthy.”
Dr. Gustav Geley:
“Henceforth the cause and the function of evil is perfectly understandable. Evil does not arise from the will, nor the impotence nor the want of foresight of a responsible Creator. Nor is it the result of a Fall. It is the inevitable accompaniment of waking consciousness. The effort required for the transition from unconsciousness (of lower forms) to consciousness—cannot but be painful. Chaos, gropings, struggle, suffering —all are the consequences of primitive ignorance and the effort to leave it behind. Evolutionary theory is only the statement of these gropings, these struggles, and these sufferings—in ignorance, and in evil, its summit is in light, in knowledge, and in happiness. Evil, in short, is but the measure of inferiority; alike for worlds and the living beings they contain. In the lower phases of evolution it is the price of this supreme good—the acquisition of consciousness.”
STATEMENTS CONCERNING PHENOMENA
“Praise be to God that this century is the century of sciences! This cycle is the cycle of reality! The minds have developed; the thoughts have taken a wider range of vision; the intellects have become keener; the emotions have become more sensitized; the inventions have transformed the face of the earth, and this age has acquired a glorious capability for the majestic revelation of the oneness of the world of humanity.”
“In short every single primordial atom has had its journeys through every stage of life, and in every stage it was endowed with a special and particular virtue or characteristic.
“Consequently, the great divine philosophers have had the following epigram: All things are involved in all things. For every single phenomenon has enjoyed the postulates of God, and in every form of these infinite electrons it has had its characteristics of perfection.”
“Nature is the manifestation of the will of God in the apparent world. Verily it is the preordination on the part of One, the predestinor and omniscient. Should it be said that nature is the Divine Primal Will, manifested in the created world, no one has the right to object, for a great power is ordained therein of which the limit and essence could not be comprehended by the people of the world.”
“Until now it has been said that all religions were composed of tenets that had to be accepted, even if they seemed contrary to science. Thanks be God, that in this new cycle the admonition of Bahá’u’lláh is that in the search for truth man must weigh religious questions in the balance of science and reason.
“Composition is subject ever to decomposition or disintegrations; that is to say, existence means that certain elements have become composite and from that composition a being is formed—inasmuch as these elements have gone into the formation of endless forms of genesis we have the variegated expressions of life.”
“The founders of the material, practical civilization are the scientists and investigators and the establishers of divine civilization are the celestial universal teachers.”
“That which is in existence was before but not in the condition wherein it is seen today. The worlds were formed through the force emanating from the reaction of the active and passive principles; although the worlds are always the same, nevertheless they change constantly. Thus doth this Instructor who is greater than this great structure the creation inform thee.”
“For transformation is an essential necessity to every contingent reality, and this is what the mature wisdom has deemed advisable.”
“All things of the world arise through man and are manifest in him, through whom they find life and development; and man is dependent for his (spiritual existence) upon the Sun of the Word of God.”
“Matter, reflecting the negative aspect of God, is self sufficient, eternal and fills all space. Spirit, flowing out from God, permeates all matter. This spirit—love, reflecting the positive and active aspect of God, impresses its nature upon the atoms and the elements. By its power they are attracted to each other under certain ordered relations and thus, uniting and continuing to unite give birth to worlds and to systems of worlds.”
“Spirit in the human world is the discoverer of the realities of existence. All the inventions, all the sciences, all the hidden mysteries are brought to light through the activity of the spirit on the plane of life.”
[Page 501]
“All
these sciences which we enjoy were
hidden and recondite secrets of nature,
unknowable to nature, but man was enabled to
discover these mysteries, and out of the
plane of the unseen, he brought them into
the plane of the seen. Thus while man’s
physical reality is captive to nature, man is
the governor of nature through this intellectual power.”
Prof. J. Arthur Thomson:
“The bricks of the cosmos are atoms. Every atom of matter, of whatever kind throughout the whole universe is built up of electrons in conjunction with a nucleus. The electron and its nucleus are particles of electricity. All matter, therefore, is nothing but a manifestation of electricity (or, in other words, light). No one has ever seen an atom. Even the wonderful new microscope which has just been invented cannot show us particles of matter which are a million times smaller than the breadth of a hair; for that is the size of an atom. . . . Yet the structure of an atom is not solid in the popular sense of the word. If you put a piece of solid gold in a little pool of mercury, the gold will take in the mercury, between its molecules (groups of atoms) as if it were a porous sponge. The hardest solid is more like lattice-work than what we usually mean by solid. If we could see into the heart of the hardest steel, we should see billions of separate molecules, at some distance from each other all rapidly moving to and fro . . . They are always in a violent state of motion and vibrate about equilibrium positions. . . .
“There are some eighty odd chemical elements on the earth today: they are all the outcome of an inorganic evolution, element giving rise to element, going back and back to some primeval stuff from which they were all derived infinitely long ago. . . . Science is always aiming at simplicity and unity. . . . And the advent of the electronic theory has thrown a flood of light on what before was hidden and not even faintly guessed at. It has given us a new conception of the framework of the universe . . . ‘What a wonder, then, have we here!’ says Prof. R. K. Duncan. An innocent looking pinch of salt and yet possessed of special properties utterly beyond even the fanciful imaginings of men of past time for nowhere in records of thought do we find a hint of the possibilities of things as now regarded today as established facts. This pinch of salt projects from its surface electrons possessing the inconceivable velocity of over one hundred thousand miles a second, a velocity sufficient to carry them, if unimpeded, five times round the earth in a second . . . Furthermore these elements are charged with negative electricity; they pass straight through bodies considered opaque with a sublime indifference to the properties; they cause bodies which they strike to shine out in the dark; they affect a photographic plate; they render the air a conductor of electricity; they cause clouds in moist air; they cause chemical action and have a peculiar physiological action. Who, today, shall predict the ultimate service to humanity of such extraordinary energy?
“Prof. LeBon shows that the smallest French copper coin contains an energy equal to 81 billion horse power. ‘I am of the opinion,’ says Sir William Bragg, ‘that atomic energy will supply all our future needs’. . .
“The three fundamental entities in the physical universe are Matter, Ether and Energy. So far as we know, outside these there is nothing . . . We shall see that just as no particle of matter, however small, may not be created or destroyed, just as there is no such thing as empty space—because ether pervades everything—so there is no such thing as rest, every particle that goes to make up our solid earth is in a state of perpetual vibration—energy is the universal commodity on which all life depends. Separate and distinct as these three fundamental entities—matter, ether and energy—may appear, they are only different and mysterious phases of an essenstial ‘oneness’ of the universe.”
NEED OF SCIENTIFIC TRUTHS
“As this is a cycle of science; there must
be new teachings, a new revelation is
[Page 502]
required
and a new life wanted. The minds
and hearts refute the veracity of ancient
opinions. New ideas are called for and new
principles are urgently demanded which fill
the requirements of this age, be as the spirit
of the century and as the life of this period.
Search, labor, investigate, work and show
extraordinary effort, so that the center of
the light of reality, like unto the witness
of love may be revealed.”
“To acquire knowledge is incumbent on all, but knowledge of those sciences which may profit the people of the earth, and not of such sciences as begin in mere words and end in mere words. The possessors of sciences and the arts have a great right among the people of the world. Whereunto testifies the mother of divine utterance in the Day of Return. Joy unto those who hear!”
“Verily, those who have denied God and adhered unto nature as nature is, are indeed void of both science and wisdom,—are they not of the erring? He who arises with steadfastness to serve the Cause of God must be a manifestation of wisdom, striving to remove ignorance from amongst human beings.”
“Praise be to God that this century is the century of sciences! This cycle is the cycle of reality! The minds have developed; the thoughts have taken a wider range of vision; the intellects have become keener; the inventions have transformed the face of the earth.”
“Spare not any effort within thy power to establish the truth with wisdom and explanation, and destroy falsehood from amidst the creatures, thus does the dawning place of knowledge command you from this brilliant horizon.”
SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS OF THE NEW AGE
I
The Invention of the Spectroscope
“The telescope and spectroscope that are used in modern astronomy are among the finest triumphs of mechanical skill in the world. . . . And without them astronomy, as we know it, would not exist.
“The spectroscope is an instrument for analyzing light. . . . Analyzing light, ‘Means that the light may be broken up into waves of different lengths.’ . . . Each wave length corresponds to a colour of the rainbow. . . . The shortest waves give us sensation of violet . . . and the largest waves, the sensation of red. (The meaning of the rainbow is that the moist-laden air has sorted out these waves, in the sun’s light, according to their length.) . . . Not only sunlight can be analyzed but light from any substance which has been made incandescent may be observed with the spectroscope in the same way; and each element can be thus separated. It is found that each substance (in the same condition of pressure) gives a constant spectrum of its own. Each metal displays its own distinctive colour . . . The spectrum provides the means for identifying a particular substance. It was by this means that we discovered in the sun the presence of such well known elements as sodium, iron, and copper. . . . Whether it is a substance glowing in the laboratory or in a remote star makes no difference to the spectroscope if the light of any substance reaches it, that substance will be recognized. It is thus we have been able to determine what the stars, comets, or nebulæ are made of. Every chemical element known, then, has a distinct spectrum of its own when it is raised to incandescence, and this distinct spectrum is as reliable a means of identification for the element as the human face is for its owner.
“Thus in 1868 Norman Lockyer detected
a light coming from the prominences of the
sun which was not given by any substance
known on earth, and attributed this to an
unknown gas which he named ‘helium.’ In
1895 William Ramsey discovered in
certain[Page 503]
minerals
the same gas identified by the characteristic
set of waves by the spectroscope.
We may say, therefore, that this gas was
discovered in the sun nearly thirty years
before it was found on earth. The light from
the corona of the sun, indicated a gas still
unknown on earth, which has been christened Coronium.”
II
The Discovery of X-Rays
“In the discovery of radio-active elements, a new property of matter was discovered. . . . One day in 1869 Prof. William Crookes noticed a strange colouring was caused when an electric charge was sent through a vacuum tube. . . the walls of the glass tube began to glow with a greenish phosphorescence. . . . What were these rays? Crookes at first thought they corresponded to a ‘new or fourth state of matter.’ Hitherto we had only been familiar with matter in the three conditions of solid, liquid and gaseous. Now Crookes really had a great secret under his eyes. But about twenty years elapsed before the true nature of these rays, finally and independently were established by various experiments . . . In 1895 Roentgen discovered the x-Rays which are now known to every one. Quite accidentally he covered a ‘Crookes Tube’ with some black stuff. To his astonishment a prepared chemical screen which was near the tube began to glow. The rays had gone through the black stuff; and on further experiment it was found that they would go through stone, living flesh, and all sorts of opaque substances. X-Rays were not, as first thought, a fourth property of matter. They were not material particles. They were a new variety of light with a remarkable power of penetration.”
III
The Discovery of Radium
“Now, at the same time Prof. Curie and his Polish wife took up the search (for radiant matter). A substance was found (salt of the metal uranium) which appeared to be producing x-Rays . . . the rays emitted by uranium would also penetrate the same opaque substances as the x-Rays discovered by Roentgen. They decided to find out whether the emission came from the uranium itself, or from something associated with it, and for this purpose they made a chemical analysis of great quantities of minerals. They found a certain kind of pitchblende which was very active, and they analyzed tons of it, concentrating always on the radiant element in it... . In the end they extracted from eight tons of pitchblende about half a teaspoonful of something that was a million times more radiant than Uranium. There was only one name for it . . . Radium.
“That was the starting point of the new development of physics and chemistry . . . As year has followed year, one substance after another was found to possess the power of emitting rays, that is, to be radio-active. We know today that every form of matter can be stimulated to some degree of radioactivity.”
V
Relativity Einstein’s Theory
“The chief characteristic of Einstein’s theory is that it takes us behind our present ideas about space, time, and matter, to the primitive reality out of which we have built up those ideas. . . .
“Newton thought the apple fell because the earth exerts upon it an attractive force. Einstein considers that it falls because wherever there is matter, space itself is curved, just as the space we see in a very slightly concave mirror, where there are no straight lines at all, and where if a body is in motion, it must move along a curve. . . . We are asked to believe that space is curved, and that all things moving through it move in curves—all things including light. Einstein’s theory asserts that the actual reality which underlies all the manifestations we experience in the physical universe is a blend of time, space, and matter. This trinity is comprised in one actual reality.
[Page 504]
“The
more matter is present, the more
space is curved. And so it happens that the
light from a star just behind the sun will
come bending round it, like a train round a
railway curve. . . . It will appear to be
shifted from its true position . . . how far
shifted, Einstein has worked out. At the
last eclipse the stars appeared where he had
predicted . . . Relativity is probably the
most profound and far-reaching application
of mathematics to the phenomena of the
material universe that the world has ever
known . . . Einstein’s theory shows us
that there is something in the nature of an
ultimate entity in the universe, but it is
impossible to say anything very intelligible
about it. But a certain aspect of this entity
has been picked out by the mind as being
what we call matter. The mind, having done
this, also partitions out space and time in
which this matter exists.”
VI
The Overturning of Euclid’s Premise
“Euclid had stated the existence of parallel lines as a postulate that one line and only one parallel to a given straight line can be drawn (he maintained). ‘If a straight line meeting two other straight lines make the interior angles on the same side of it equal to two right angles,—the two straight lines will never meet.’ The Mathematicians during the middle ages did not always agree but none were strong enough to disprove it. . . . There can be no greater evidence of the indomitable nature of the human spirit, or of its manifest destiny to conquer all those limitations which bind it down within the sphere of sense, than the grand assertion of Bolyai, the Hungarian, who in 1853 said ‘I will draw “two” (parallel lines instead of one)’ . . . Man had struggled against the limitations of the body, fought them, despised them, conquered them. But no one had ever thought simply as if all this vast experience of space had never existed. . . . The Hungarian had mastered and he drew his line.”
Statements Concerning the Evolution of the Soul
“Dost thou think thy body a small thing, while in thee is enfolded the universe?”
“Spirit is the life of form, and the form is shaped by the spirit. The evolution of life and form proceeds hand in hand. The powers of spirit are evoluted by the experiences of the form, and the plasticity of the matter of the form is developed by the activity of the spirit.
“Sense perception gives rise to desire, desire to will, will to action, and action again to sense perception . . . and so the powers of thought, memory, reason, and the emotional capacities are evolved in spirit. These powers and capacity of spirit, expressed in individual human being, constitute human characters.
“When in the course of evolution the stage of thought and reason has been reached, the human mind acts as a mirror reflecting the glory of God.”
“Through wisdom the station of man is made evident and manifest. It is the knower and the first teacher in the school of existence, and it is the guide, the possessor of a lofty rank. Under the direction of its influence (wisdom), the element earth was endowed with pure soul and made to surpass the firmament.”
“The essence of man is the soul, the soul of the world is the subtle growth of spirituality, heavenly morals, divine favors and sacred powers. Were the physical world not accompanied by the spirit, it could not exist.”
“All beings, whether large or small were created perfect and complete from the first, but their perfections appear in them by degrees.
[Page 505]
“Man
from the beginning possessed capacity
and aptitude for acquiring material
and spiritual perfections and was the manifestation
of the words, ‘We will make man
in our image and likeness.’ ”
“This essence or soul of man, because of its innate purity, and its connection with the unseen Ancient Entity, is old as regards time, but new as regards individuality. This connection is similar to that of the ray of the sun—the effect to the primal Cause. Otherwise the thing generated would have no connection with or relation to the Generator or Creator.
“It is the same reality which is given different names, according to the different conditions wherein it becomes manifest.”
“The soul can act directly without the intermediary (the body). Thus when we sleep the soul sees without the help of the eyes. The auditory nerves are inactive, but the soul hears. Our members are in repose, but the soul is in movement. Our body is in a room; our soul travels through all regions. It is clear, therefore that the soul evolves with and without the intervention of the material body.
“The soul acts in the physical world with the help of the body. When it it is freed from the body it acts without an intermediary.”
“Then came Aristotle, the famous wise man. He was the one who discovered the theory of motion.”
Statement of Prof. Hinton
“Thus we see that Aristotle was not far from the recognition of the fourth-dimensional existence, both without and within man, and the process of adequately realizing the higher dimensional figures to which we shall subsequently come, is a simple reduction of the practise of his hypothesis of a soul. The next step is the unfolding of the drama of the recognition of the soul, as connected with our scientific conception of the world, and at the same time the recognition of that higher plane of which a three dimensional world presents the superficial appearance. If we pass over the intervening time without a word (that is from Aristotle to the year 1853) it is because the soul was occupied with the assertion of itself in other ways than that of knowledge (of itself). When it took up the task in earnest of knowing this material world in which it found itself (in the year 1853) and of then directing the course of inanimate nature, from that most objective aim, came reflected back as in a mirror its knowledge of itself.”
STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF MAN
“But as to evolution; it is true of both body and spirit (of man). Consider how many sciences, arts, discoveries and achievements have come into existence since the day of Moses, till the present time, through the progress of the human soul in knowledge and perfections. Similarly, how much the soul has evolved from a moral point of view. When the body of man is perfected, physical evolution comes to an end since nature does not seek to build a higher form but the evolution of spirit continues until reason, the mental powers, and the emotional capacities are evolved in it (the spirit). There are not entities which pass from body to body, but (progress is made) by the universal spirit of man. The result of each individual life experience goes to the enrichment of humanity. As a hundred lamps may be lit from a single flame, so the one world spirit (is capable of) illumining the minds of countless men. Without this spirit, man’s body, like a lamp unlit, is lifeless clay.”
“Among the results of the manifestation
of the spiritual forces (of this day) will be:
[Page 506]
that
the human world shall take on a new
social form. Therefore this twentieth century
is the beginning or dawn of the spiritual
illumination, and it is evident that
day by day it will advance. It will reach
such a degree that spiritual effulgences
shall overcome the material.”
“But the wise souls who are aware of the essential relationships emanating from the realities of things consider that one single matter cannot, by itself, influence the human reality as it ought and should, for until the minds of men become united, no important matter can be accomplished.”
“Whenever the sun of reality dawns, the lower sphere expresses the virtues of the higher world. Strive day and night; perchance these sleeping ones may be awakened by the celestial strains of the city of melody and hear the soft, delicate music which is streaming down from the kingdom of El-Abhá.”
“Evolution is another word for race history. It means the ceaseless process of Becoming, linking generation to generation of living creatures. The doctrine of Evolution states the fact that the present is the child of the past and the parent of the future. . . . We are keenly aware of rapid changes in mankind, though these concern the social heritage so much more than the flesh and blood natural inheritance, that we find no difficulty in the idea that evolution is going on in mankind. We know the contrast between modern man and primitive man, and we are convinced that in the past at least, progress has been a reality. For although we have been retrogressions in the history of life . . . and although great races, the “Flying Dragons, for instance, have become utterly extinct, leaving no successors whatsoever, we feel sure that there has been, on the whole, a progress towards nobler, more masterful, more emancipated, more intelligent, and better forms of life . . . so we think of evolution going on in mankind, evolution checkered by involution, but on the whole progressive evolution.”
STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE EQUALITY OF THE RACES
“O children of men!
“Do ye know why We have created ye from one clay? That no one should glorify himself over the other. Be ye ever mindful of how ye were created. Since We created ye all from the same substance, ye must be as one soul, walking with the same feet, eating with one mouth and living in one land, that ye may manifest with your being, and by your deeds and actions the signs of unity and the spirit of oneness. This is My Counsel to you, O people of lights! Therefore follow it, that ye may attain the fruits of holiness from the tree of might and power.
“Verily, the Words which have descended from the heaven of the will of God are the source of unity and harmony for the world. Close your eyes to racial differences and welcome all with the light of oneness. . . . Be the cause of comfort and the promotion of humanity. This handful of dust, the world, is one home: let it be in unity. Forsake pride, it is a cause of discord. Follow that which tends to harmony.”
“Boast not of love to your own people but of love to your fellow creatures. Glory not in loving your homes but in loving the whole world.”
“All prejudices, whether of religion, race,
politics or nation, must be renounced, for
these prejudices have caused the world’s
sickness. It is a grave malady which, unless
arrested, is capable of causing the destruction
of the whole human race. Every ruinous
war, with its terrible bloodshed and
misery,[Page 507]
has
been caused by one or the other of these
prejudices.”
“This span-wide world is but one region and one native land. Abandon that glory which is the cause of discord, and turn unto that which promotes harmony.”
“The Baha’i doctrine of the unity of mankind strikes at the root of another cause of war, namely, racial prejudice. . . . According to the Bahá’í view people of every race are of equal value in the sight of God. All have wonderful innate capacities which only require suitable education for their development.”
“Concerning the prejudice of race; it is an illusion, a superstition pure and simple, for God created all of one race. . . . In the sight of God there is no difference between the various races.”
“The followers of sincerity and faithfulness must consort with all the people of the world with joy and fragrance; for association is always conductive to union and harmony, and union and harmony are the cause of the order of the world and the life of the nations.”
Prof. Franz Boas, of Columbia, President of American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Boas contends that regardless of race prejudices and antipathies, all races are practically equal in their biological attributes. He says, “There is no reason to believe that one race is by nature so much more intelligent, endowed with greater will power, or emotionally more stable than others that the difference would materially influence its culture. Nor is there any good reason to believe that the differences between races are so great that the descendents of mixed marriages would be inferior to their parents. Biologically there is no good reason to object to the intermingling of the principal races. I believe that the present state of our knowledge justifies us to say, that while individuals differ, biological differences between races are small.”
He holds that interbreeding is not the evil that politicians and propagandists maintain, but frequently as in the United States has resulted in increased national vigor.
“There is no known fact of human anatomy or physiology which implies that capacity for culture of civilization or intelligence inheres in this race or that type. How about the Nordics then? How comes it that the Anglo-Saxon is at the top? . . . The answer is to be found in the cultural history of man. What wave did the Anglo-Saxons ride in the days of Tut-ankh-amen, or of Cesar or of William the Conqueror? Are his feet riveted to the crest? Civilization is young; blood is old as salt water. Once there was no Anglo-Saxon; but there was ‘civilization.’ Were there ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ races then? How ‘low’ the savage European must have seemed to the Nile Valley African, looking north from his Pyramid of Cheops.”
“Tt seems to be very difficult for writers on the subject of race to restrain themselves from indulging in speculations as to the mental powers and capacities for civilization of the several existing races of men. We observe that a group of people differing from ourselves in physical characteristics has also different manners and customs and a distinct material culture. We may judge this culture to be inferior to our own. We are then likely to infer that the people who have produced it belong to a race inferior to ours. In so doing we reason fallaciously. . . .
“One frequently hears this sort of an
opinion expressed by educated persons: ‘The
Negro has never built up a great civilization
in Africa; he is responsible for no great
[Page 508]
inventions
or discoveries; . . . he is definitely
inferior to the White.’ This kind of an
argument, although fallacious, is difficult to
meet. One can attack it, however, in the
following way: Archæology has brought to
light on the banks of the Niger in West
Africa, in the upper part of the Nile Valley
and in Rhodesia, extensive monumental remains
of great and extinct ‘civilizations’
which seem to have been Negro or Negroid.
In historical times Negroes have built up
both in East Africa and in West Africa
powerful and well organized kingdoms
which merit the name of ‘civilization’ in
respect to several of their institutions
and cultural aspects. . . . Every civilization
grows up, to a great extent, from
the borrowings and accretions from other
cultures. The more isolated the habitat
of a race or people the more disadvantageous
is their situation from this point
of view. Central Africa is not only a most
remote and inaccessible region, but it is
also peculiarly unfavorable in climate, flora,
and fauna, to the development of human
culture. Mere survival in tropical Africa is
a great human achievement. . . . In North
America sixty-five years of emancipation
under conditions of economic, political, and
social oppression, furnish no fair basis for
estimating the capacity of the Negro for
civilization, nor his individual intelligence.
What possibilities of cultural achievement
would an educated Roman, living in Britain
in the fourth century A. D., have attributed
to the native inhabitants of that island?
How much of ‘racial’ or ethnic ability would
Pericles have granted to contemporary Romans?
How much intelligence and capacity
for culture building would Minos have assigned
to the Athenian? What do you suppose Cheops
thought of the Cretans? How
did Europeans estimate the Japanese fifty
years ago?”
