Those E words

Month, Day: Dominion, Knowledge (Perfection)

There are several words that cover topics of interest to true knowledge, yet they are problematic to the scientific view. Just looking at the ones beginning in 'e' is sufficient to motivate interminable discussion, such as eternal, existence, evolution, ether, ethics and much more.

Take 'existence'; `Abdu'l-Bahá described how "this endless " universe "has no beginning" so that existence is "eternal and perpetual" (these are hard concepts for science to handle). At the same time, we can take 'evolution' and it's propensity to foster arguments that descend into a quagmire of creationism (as if what we see was placed in full-up maturity) versus materialism (as if dust to dust, quantumly speaking, was the total picture).

Well, we have had evolution, meaning, of course, the human race (all Creation, to boot) and changes through time, respectively. In that same discussion, `Abdu'l-Bahá said that "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, from one shape to another, until he appeared with this beauty and perfection, this force and this power" with no explanation as to dynamics or the amount of time involved. Though, we know that Manifestations have always been.

The mechanics may very well be amenable to an insightful scientific view, which implies that intuition necessarily gets back into the equation.

While declaring that man has evolved, there was discussion that man differs from the animal in several ways despite the fact that man has evolved. The discussion used "ether" as an example of things not seen yet deducible from observation of effect.

Of course, the modern view scoffs at a lot of this. Even, the application of the principle of the harmony of science and religion dances around the subject. But, one could argue that "ethics" would lead to a basis that supports the notion that the Master knew what He was talking about, allowing for issues of translation and cultural differences between His time and ours.

This will be looked at further. The underlying theme is that Creation and the Kingdom are intertwined. And, 'ether' is one of the concepts that can be used to characterize the properties of the interplaying scheme (yes, Light is one of the Attributes of God).

Further, a scientific view based upon the Faith would allow introduction and application of these, the 'e' beginning and other, concepts that would explain and found a more full knowledge than we have seen (been allowed to see) to date.

Remarks:

08/01/2012 --Ether, in a manner that is unavoidably true. Our task? Show how to handle the matter from a scientific (the wise interpretation, okay?) framework. And, audacity is not necessary.

01/25/2012 -- Yes, still at it. Ready to be more audacious. What we're looking for has to do with mind; at some point, it will be allowed by science that we can observe effects (actually, predict, to boot - one step forward will be a more insightful mathematics).

10/04/2010 -- Friction can beget progress.

09/12/2009 -- Economics requires additional attention.

08/16/2009 -- Science, again.

Modified: 08/01/2012