A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
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Creation |
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Bahá’u’lláh teaches that the universe is without beginning
in time. It is a perpetual emanation from the Great First Cause.
The Creator always had His creation and always will have.
Worlds and systems may come and go, but the universe remains.
All things that undergo composition, in time undergo
decomposition, but the component elements remain. The creation
of a world, a daisy or a human body is not “making
something out of nothing”; it is rather a bringing together of
elements which before were scattered, a making visible of
something which before was hidden. By and by the elements
will again be scattered, the form will disappear, but nothing is
really lost or annihilated; ever new combinations and forms
arise from the ruins of the old. Bahá’u’lláh confirms the scientists
who claim, not six thousand, but millions and billions of
years for the history of the earth’s creation. The evolution
theory does not deny creative power. It only tries to describe
the method of its manifestation; and the wonderful story of the
material universe which the astronomer, the geologist, the
physicist and the biologist are gradually unfolding to our gaze
is, rightly appreciated, far more capable of evoking the deepest
reverence and worship than the crude and bald account of
creation given in the Hebrew Scriptures. The old account in
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the Book of Genesis had, however, the advantage of indicating
by a few bold strokes of symbolism the essential spiritual meanings
of the story, as a master painter may, by a few strokes of
the brush, convey expressions which the mere plodder with the
most laborious attention to details may utterly fail to portray.
If the material details blind us to the spiritual meaning, then
we should be better without them; but if we have once firmly
grasped the essential meaning of the whole scheme, then
knowledge of the details will give our conception a wonderful
added richness and splendor and make it a magnificent picture
instead of a mere sketch plan.
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Know that it is one of the most abstruse spiritual truths
that the world of existence, that is to say this endless
universe, has no beginning. … … Know that … a creator without a creature is impossible, a provider without those provided for cannot be conceived; for all the divine names and attributes demand the existence of beings. If we could imagine a time when no beings existed, this imagination would be the denial of the Divinity of God. Moreover, absolute non-existence cannot become existence. If the beings were absolutely non-existent, existence would not have come into being. Therefore, as the Essence of Unity, that is the existence of God, is everlasting and eternal—that is to say, it has neither beginning nor end—it is certain that this world of existence … has neither beginning nor end. … it may be that one of the parts of the universe, one of the globes, for example, may come into existence, or may be disintegrated, but the other endless globes are still existing. … As each globe has a beginning, necessarily it has an end, because every composition, collective or particular, must of necessity be decomposed; the only difference is that some are quickly decomposed, and others more slowly, but it is impossible that a composed thing should not eventually be decomposed.—Some Answered Questions, pp. 209–210. 206 |
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