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 »
|
The Evolution of Man |
|
Bahá’u’lláh also 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. Each
individual human body develops through such a series of
stages, from a tiny round speck of jelly-like matter to the fully
developed man. If this is true of the individual, as nobody
denies, why should we consider it derogatory to human dignity
to admit a similar development for the species? This is a very
different thing from claiming that man is descended from a
monkey. The human embryo may at one time resemble a fish
with gill-slits and tail, but it is not a fish. It is a human embryo.
So the human species
1
may at various stages of its long development
have resembled to the outward eye various species
of lower animals, but it was still the human species, possessing
the mysterious latent power of developing into man as we know
him today, nay more, of developing in the future, we trust,
into something far higher still.
|
|
… it is clear that this terrestrial globe in its present
form did not come into existence all at once; but …
gradually passed through different phases until it became
adorned with its present perfection. … … man, in the beginning of his existence and in the womb of the earth, like the embryo in the womb of the mother, gradually grew and developed, and passed from one form to another … until he appeared with this beauty and perfection, this force and this power. It is certain that in the beginning he had not this loveliness and 207 grace and elegance, and that he only by degrees attained this shape, this form, this beauty, and this grace. … |
|
… man’s existence on this earth, from the beginning
until it reaches this state, 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 the organs of man have
progressed. Man was always a distinct species, a man, not
an animal.—Some Answered Questions, pp. 211, 212,
213, 214.
|
|
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 must less of the Divinity—that
Divinity who has organised this infinite universe in the
most perfect form, and its innumerable inhabitants with
absolute system, strength, and perfection. … Therefore this 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 it is capable of marvellous explanations.—Some Answered Questions, p. 140 |
| 1. |
The word “species” is used here to explain the distinction which has always existed between men and animals, despite outward appearances. It should not be read with its current specialized biological meaning.
[ Back To Reference] |
Print Selection