The Lamp of Religion

Alkyd on Board

Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue and the lights of fairness and  justice, of tranquility and peace cease to shine.

                             - Baha’u’llah

The light of religion has throughout history caused great civilizations to emerge. But after a time superficial interpretations and attachments to the form of a religion and not its reality causes the disintegration of society.

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Climate Change and Emission Trading Schemes

Climate Change and Emissions Trading Schemes

This is another attempt (actually it was my first) to defuse the “bomb” of a contentious issue in our society, by viewing it from a wider perspective. It is hard to write a simple outline of the matter as it touches on so many aspects of human society.

Many refuse to accept that human civilisation is capable of causing worldwide climate change. It is accepted that forces within and without the planet can make huge changes, but usually over a very long time scale. However, human activity on earth has changed much of the surface of the earth over the millennia, yet never so much and so rapidly as in the last 200 years, with the exponential growth of science and technology over the decades of this period, not to mention the vast growth of human population.

 Photo from Biopact

 As for the more topical and even more controversial Emission Trading Schemes, which many countries are considering, whether they turn out to be good constructs, or detrimental to our community, and our environment, is yet to be seen, but we are very likely to be feeling their effects soon.  Perhaps the usefulness of these schemes will be determined by whether people engage in them to genuinely enhance the environment, or in order to make undue profit. Any potentially useful construct can be undermined by false motivation, as was proved in the US where so many people’s savings were “made off” with recently.

"We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions."

                                                            (Shoghi Effendi)

Whether we believe the world needs to cut down on its carbon emissions or not, it can be seen that trading of ephemeral products for the sake of ever-increasing trade and consumption is not possible in a finite world. This trade, which has some positive aspects in uniting countries around the world, has brought us to the limits of our ability to exploit fossil fuel at this time, and also now of fresh water.

We may be awaiting our scientists to make new discoveries to rectify our problems. There is no doubt that there are unthought of resources within this earth, within creation itself. But every new scientific discovery brings its own problems, and every discovery can be used for good or for ill in the world. So once again we come to the prime importance of motivation, and the negative results of greed.

Most evident in the world is the effect of greed on distribution of the earth’s resources to the populations of the earth. Most of the resources, the energy, the world’s wealth, is in the hands of a few. By some ways of measuring, we of the western world could be considered to be that few, even if we do not consider ourselves wealthy, compared to the grinding poverty experienced by the majority of people on this earth. And yet, when we start to feel ourselves constrained, having to cut back slightly in our lifestyle, how much we protest!

And why should we care about all these people? If we understand that they are no different to us, except by accident of birth, and if for no other reason than:

“The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established”.

            (Baha'u'llah)

Black and White Thinking (Racism)

Black and White Thinking (Racism)

None of us are racist, are we?

Have you ever said, “I’m not racist but…”?

Actually there is a tendency to gravitate towards those who think, act, and to an extent look like us. Generally the term racism is used when a larger group favours their own kind, automatically discriminating against a smaller group.

“Cleanse ye your eyes, so that ye behold no man as different from yourselves. See ye no strangers; rather see all men as friends, for love and unity come hard when ye fix your gaze on otherness”

                                                (Abdu'l-Baha)

Of course, we see differences in skin colour and in culture, but surely the difference being referred to here, is the inner essence of a human being.

We need to take this further, to a new concept - unity in diversity. If we learn to appreciate the differences between people and cultures, rather than resort to assimilation, we will have a much more interesting world.

“Humanity may be likened unto the vari-colored flowers of one garden. There is unity in diversity. Each sets off and enhances the other's beauty.”

            (Abdu'l-Baha)

If a garden has only a few special flowers, it is natural for a gardener to nurture, encourage, and safeguard these plants, but in the garden of society when the minority or indigenous culture is favoured, many people view this as reverse racism. Remember that, according to an earlier statement, the minority is automatically discriminated against, so surely some encouragement is appropriate.

At different times in the world’s history, different races or cultural groups have had the more developed civilisation. Through the empire-building times, those groups have used superior force of arms to take over other communities, often replacing the culture of those vanquished, with their own. The culture of the subjugated community would have evolved from their religious understandings, the firm bedrock their way of life was built on. All around the world we see the apathy and social problems manifest in oppressed communities, due to the loss of their cultural values. But some mistakenly interpret what they see and hear about these subjugated peoples as evidence of a racially weak people. The difference in genetics between any two random individuals is 0.1% and between the races is 8% of that difference.  And it has been proven through recent developments in genetic research that all of us have our origins in Africa.  So differences between communities must be differences of education.

 “Man is the supreme Talisman. Lack of a proper education hath, however, deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess… The Great Being saith: Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.”

                                                                                    (Baha'u'llah)

This statement needs consideration. No matter our race our culture, these are gems inherent in every one of us.  They cannot be forced into us.  Like a diamond, we are in the rough and education is the tool that will reveal our treasures.

The End of the World! Ooh,Scary!

The End of the World

It seems that among many groups in society, and especially amongst young people, there is now a lot of discussion about “the end of the world”. This, not so new, topic of interest, is of course visibly manifest in movies such as “2012” and many of the other disaster movies. A worrying effect of this topic is the negativity towards life and the community that can ensue for those who dwell on problems and disastrous potentialities. The origins are to be found in many diverse sources, such as the Bible, especially the Book of Revelations, and The Koran,

(Thou seest the mountains and thinkest them firmly fixed: but they shall pass away as the clouds pass away.)

                                                                        (The Koran Surah  27)

Then there are Nostradamus’ prophecies, but there are always problems due to interpretation.

The Holy Writings especially, but many other literary works of varying worth, use a lot of symbolism and metaphor. Problems occur when people take such passages and apply them in literal ways. The best way to interpret a prophecy is after the event – which could be difficult after the end of the world!  There have been numerous interpretations of Bible prophecy since about 1800AD, but even within the writer’s lifetime, say about 1970, the protagonists were Christians versus communism, especially the Soviet version.  Of course, the main adversary is now often interpreted as Muslims. Might not the main adversary at this stage of human development actually be the tendencies within ourselves towards materialism, hedonism? Or even literalism? (Not to mention certainty of opinion :) ).

Human civilisation has actually been through many “ends”. As a crisis occurs in our collective development, and sometimes humanity has passed the test and made a great leap to another plateau in the advancement and complexity of our civilisation, and other times been reduced back to simple living such as tribalism or even family communities. Either way, the world as it was known “ended”.  After a time of comparative peace, a civilisation encounters issues and limited resources, which cause crises and impel that community to either make a significant leap forward or suffer a catastrophic collapse.
(for a much greatly detailed explanation go to Giuseppe Robiati's document "Toward a New World Order"

                              (Caption: Spiders retreating from floods in Pakistan, into the trees)

A positive attitude would then be best on the part of that civilisation and its members.

Perhaps this is what Charles Dickens was expressing:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

            (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens)

It is evident that our current civilisation has reached the point of limited resources, such as with energy and water for our current level of knowledge and organisation, and related issues abound. Yet fantastic opportunities lie ahead of us. People do not like change, but we are impelled to make a quantum leap forward.

What lies ahead of us? The next great resource in the development of mankind is knowledge, but knowledge is of two kinds.  The first is intellectual and scientific knowledge, which has grown exponentially since the mid 19^th century. But this same knowledge has made the world a global village, with tensions ever growing between the villagers. In 1844 Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph “What hath God wrought?” 

The other knowledge, which is needed to accompany and balance out the first, is knowledge of the heart, or of the spirit. Every scientific discovery can be used for good or ill, and every invention for right or wrong.  The goal we are forced to reach for is the unity of mankind. This is our Judgement Day, and we must not fail the test.

“All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization”.

            (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 214)

 “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established”.

                                                (Baha'u'llah)