True Religion↔True Science

Briefly, the supreme Manifestations of God are aware of the reality of the mysteries of beings. Therefore, They establish laws which are suitable and adapted to the state of the world of man, for religion is the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things. The Manifestation—that is, the Holy Lawgiver—unless He is aware of the realities of beings, will not comprehend the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things, and He will certainly not be able to establish a religion conformable to the facts and suited to the conditions….Religion, then, is the necessary connection which emanates from the reality of things; and as the supreme Manifestations of God are aware of the mysteries of beings, therefore, They understand this essential connection, and by this knowledge establish the Law of God.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 158, 160)

Our conception of both religion and science must expand.  We saw in the last post where intellect and wisdom were the creative powers forming the universe, and I made a rough correlation between intellect as science and religion as wisdom.  But their connections run deeper.

A narrow definition of religion makes it into a collection of beliefs, often shading into rationally unsupported dogmas, about reality.  Such thinking divides humanity into the followers of different religions—Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Baha’i—when they are really the unfolding through history of one religion emanating from God.  The news today is filled with the horrific results of such narrow thinking that morphs into hatred and bigotry.  Such believers are like the blind men touching one part of the elephant and confusing that part with the whole. 

In the opening quote, ‘Abdu’l-Baha greatly expands the idea of true religion, making it into the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things.  True religion, or religia, is, then, the binding together of all parts of the universe, spiritual, mental, and material, by the laws of God revealed by the Manifestation, Who alone can comprehend the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things.  Thus true religion is not allegiance to some ideas, set of beliefs or articles of faith, but understanding and following the laws that structure the universe. These include the material laws.  Thus true religion is true science, if by science we mean rational and empirical investigation into the laws of the universe.  Similarly, science, properly conceived, is religion.  

I say science properly conceived, because science for the last few hundred years has not been properly conceived.  It says only the physical universe is the universe—one more blind man on the elephant.  Our conception of science must expand also.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha says: Scientific knowledge is the highest attainment upon the human plane, for science is the discoverer of realities. It is of two kinds: material and spiritual. Material science is the investigation of natural phenomena; divine science is the discovery and realization of spiritual verities. The world of humanity must acquire both. A bird has two wings; it cannot fly with one. Material and spiritual science are the two wings of human uplift and attainment. Both are necessary—one the natural, the other supernatural; one material, the other divine. By the divine we mean the discovery of the mysteries of God, the comprehension of spiritual realities, the wisdom of God, inner significances of the heavenly religions and foundation of the law. (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 138)

True science is the discoverer of realities.  The fundamental realities that it discovers are the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things.  That is, science discovers the laws of God, i.e. the reality of religion.  So far, what we call science has been limited to the natural laws, and some laws of human behavior.  But with Quantum Mechanics and other initiatives, such as Chaos Theory and Complexity Science, the intellectual foundations of the material universe are being explored scientifically.  This, too, is in line with the Baha’i teachings since “nature, also, in its essence is an intellectual reality…” (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions: 83)

But science is still some way from the discovery of the mysteries of God, the comprehension of spiritual realities, the wisdom of God, inner significances of the heavenly religions and foundation of the law.  Sciences of the spirit are, I believe, the new open horizon for the human intelligence.

The complementarity of science and religion makes them twin, mutually reinforcing, knowledges of one larger divine Reality, which is Revelation.  Indeed, ‘Abdu’l-Baha likens them to the two wings of a bird.

So close are they that He at one time called science “the first emanation from God toward man.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 50)  At another He is reported to have stated: “The first bestowal of God in the world of humanity is religion….(Ella Cooper, Ella Cooper's Notes)

But He is clear that, though science and religion are each emanations and bestowals of God to humanity: “The first emanation from God is the bounty of the Kingdom, which emanates and is reflected in the reality of the creatures, like the light which emanates from the sun and is resplendent in creatures; and this bounty, which is the light, is reflected in infinite forms in the reality of all things, and specifies and individualizes itself according to the capacity, the worthiness and the intrinsic value of things.” (Some Answered Questions: 295)

Let us say, then, that the first emanation—emanation is the origination of the world by a series of hierarchically descending radiations from God through various intermediate stages to matter—of God to humanity is the knowledge of God that pervades the whole creation.  This knowledge is transmitted to humanity in the form of a Revelation.  What true science discovers and what true religion comprehends is the Knowledge of God in its current configuration of the universe.

Linking last post with this one, we can say that the Revelation of the Manifestation of God casts “on the mirror of creation new and wonderful configurations” from the essential connection which proceeds from the realities of things.  The human mind discovers the new configurations of wisdom, while wisdom unfolds into the mental forms of intellect and the material forms of sense.  True science and true religion investigate and reveal both these realities.  To conceive science and religion in this way should end their acrimonious debate over which is true knowledge, and would put out the fires of both scientific and religious prejudice.  More about mind in the next post.