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Religion as Light and Darkness |
Bahá’u’lláh’s severest condemnation is reserved for the barriers which,
throughout history, organized religion has erected between humanity and the
Revelations of God. Dogmas, inspired by popular superstition and perfected by
misspent intelligence, have repeatedly been imposed on a Divine process whose
purpose has at all times been spiritual and moral. Laws of social interaction,
revealed for the purpose of consolidating community life, have been made the
basis for structures of arcane doctrine and practice which have burdened the
masses whose benefit they were supposed to serve. Even the exercise of
intellect, the chief tool possessed by the human race, has been deliberately
hampered, producing an eventual breakdown in the dialogue between faith and
science upon which civilized life depends.
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The consequence of this sorry record is the worldwide disrepute into which
religion has fallen. Worse, organized religion has become itself a most virulent
cause of hatred and warfare among the peoples of the world. “Religious
fanaticism and hatred,” Bahá’u’lláh warned over a century ago, “are a world-devouring
fire, whose violence none can quench. The Hand of Divine power can,
alone, deliver mankind from this desolating affliction.”
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Those whom God will hold responsible for this tragedy, Bahá’u’lláh says,
are humanity’s religious leaders, who have presumed to speak for Him throughout
history. Their attempts to make the Word of God a private preserve, and its
exposition a means for personal aggrandizement, have been the greatest single
handicap against which the advancement of civilization has struggled. In the
pursuit of their ends, many of them have not hesitated to raise their hands
against the Messengers of God themselves, at their advent:
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Leaders of religion, in every age, have hindered their people
from attaining the shores of eternal salvation, inasmuch as they held
the reins of authority in their mighty grasp. Some for the lust of
leadership, others through want of knowledge and understanding, have
been the cause of the deprivation of the people. By their sanction
and authority, every Prophet of God hath drunk from the chalice of
sacrifice…
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Ye are even as a spring. If it be changed, so will the streams that
branch out from it be changed. Fear God, and be numbered with the godly.
In like manner, if the heart of man be corrupted, his limbs will also be
corrupted. And similarly, if the root of a tree be corrupted, its
branches, and its offshoots, and its leaves, and its fruits, will be
corrupted.
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These same statements, revealed at a time when religious orthodoxy was one
of the major powers throughout the world, declared that this power had effectively
ended, and that the ecclesiastical caste has no further social role in
world history: “O concourse of divines! Ye shall not henceforward behold
yourselves possessed of any power…”
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To a particularly vindictive opponent
among the Muslim clergy, Bahá’u’lláh said: “Thou art even as the last trace
of sunlight upon the mountaintop. Soon will it fade away as decreed by God,
the All-Possessing, the Most High. Thy glory and the glory of such as are like
thee have been taken away…”
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It is not the organization of religious activity which these statements
address, but the misuse of such resources. Bahá’u’lláh’s writings are generous
in their appreciation not only of the great contribution which organized religion
has brought to civilization, but also of the benefits which the world has
derived from the self-sacrifice and love of humanity that have characterized
clergymen and religious orders of all faiths:
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Those divines … who are truly adorned with the ornament of knowledge
and of a goodly character are, verily, as a head to the body of the
world, and as eyes to the nations….
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Rather, the challenge to all people, believers and unbelievers, clergy and
laymen alike, is to recognize the consequences now being visited upon the world
as the result of the universal corruption of the religious impulse. In the
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prevailing alienation of humanity from God over the past century, a relationship
on which the fabric of moral life itself depends has broken down. Natural
faculties of the rational soul, vital to the development and maintenance of
human values, have become universally discounted:
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The vitality of men’s belief in God is dying out in every land;
nothing short of His wholesome medicine can ever restore it. The
corrosion of ungodliness is eating into the vitals of human society;
what else but the Elixir of His potent Revelation can cleanse and
revive it?… The Word of God, alone, can claim the distinction of
being endowed with the capacity required for so great and far-reaching
a change.
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1. | Epistle, p. 14. [ Back To Reference] |
2. | Certitude, p. 15. [ Back To Reference] |
3. | Cited in Promised Day, p. 83. [ Back To Reference] |
4. | Cited in Promised Day, p. 81. [ Back To Reference] |
5. | Epistle, p. 99. [ Back To Reference] |
6. | Cited in Promised Day, pp. 110–11. [ Back To Reference] |
7. | Gleanings, p. 200. [ Back To Reference] |