Changes and more

Month, Day: Intercalary, 3 of 5 (Majesty)

Given the time, we see lots of talk about change and hope. Well, one difference with a Baha'i view of evolution and the secular is how hope plays with the changes found through time.

`Abdu'l-Bahá covered this topic in several places, but let's take one from the SAQ. First we see that the universe has always been as a Creation of God. Now, for the earth in particular (and that would pertain to the solar system, galaxy, and more, one would suppose), there was a gradual development to what we see now as we look at ourselves and at what's outside the window.

The main theme is that God is (El es Dios). We know that man always was, despite what the status of the physical being might have been through time. That the Manifestations always were is a central idea. How the spiritual helped direct the physical is something to ponder. How far can we push this?

Well, we know that there are limits to what we can know; the quasi-empirical notions seem to point to a situation such that our means of knowing are constraints themselves, including that gift we call mathematics.

A columnist recently noted that one difference between science and religion is that the latter acknowledges the mystery (that those who ponder correctly will see as never ending); that is, what we know is within a bounded sphere within something much larger (no matter now far we push the boundary of the sphere, what is outside remains as large - the sphere does not subsume the whole, this is one error of the secular view).

There are topological ideas needed here. `Abdu'l-Bahá touched upon that, too, in the SAQ ("If the attributes are not identical with the Essence, there must also be a multiplicity of preexistences, and differences between the attributes and the Essence must also exist; and as Preexistence is necessary, therefore, the sequence of preexistences would become infinite. This is an evident error.").

These intercalary times, and the Fast, can help us consider those.

Remarks:

12/07/2009 -- Motivational musings, especially topology.

08/16/2009 -- Science, again.

Modified: 12/07/2009