Guest Author - Sandy Mullins

Science and Religion, is in some peoples minds two distinct things. In the Baha’i way of thinking they go hand in hand or shall we use the saying again of the wings of a bird, they work together for flight. We believe that God gave us the ability to investigate and investigation is science. The more we learn about the world around us the more we understand were we came from.

Scientists believe in evolution, where some religions believe that God created us in a moment of time. Who is not to say that, the moment in time lasted thousands of years? In God’s time that could be just a moment in time. If we believe as we do that God is the all supreme being, God has been around forever. If, God has been around forever then why, do we think that God’s time is our time? If you look at the bible (Old Testament) people lived hundreds of years. Why and when did that change? Could it be that the way we tracked time in the earliest religious man was months instead of years? Did mankind mark their years by the change of the moon and not the solar calendar? As mankind has progressed we have changed our calendar more times than most people can think of. We have added and taken away days, changed the names and lengths of the months.

Science and Medicine have changed too. Earliest medicine was, herbs and things like leeches. Science was, things we could only see with the naked eye. With invention we developed microscopes and telescopes and saw things farther and smaller than we had ever seen before. Early religious leaders called these things and ideas heresy, which is usually what happens when new ways of thinking happen. People in control and power are afraid of losing it, they wanted to literally keep people ignorant and in the dark. As man understood and accepted science and medicine as fact most of them changed their attitude about a lot of the principles of science. In the future they will probably look back at us and think we were behind in our way of thinking and understanding.

The following are a few quotes I found interesting:

”In such a world society, science and religion, the two most potent forces in human life, will be reconciled, will co-operate, and will harmoniously develop.”
Baha'u'llah, The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, p. xi

”While the religion of God is the promoter of truth, the founder of science and knowledge, it is full of goodwill for learned men; it is the civilizer of mankind, the discoverer of the secrets of nature, and the enlightener of the horizons of the world. Consequently, how can it be said to oppose knowledge? God forbid! Nay, for God, knowledge is the most glorious gift of man and the most noble of human perfections. To oppose knowledge is ignorant, and he who detests knowledge and science is not a man, but rather an animal without intelligence. For knowledge is light, life, felicity, perfection, beauty and the means of approaching the Threshold of Unity. It is the honor and glory of the world of humanity, and the greatest bounty of God. Knowledge is identical with guidance, and ignorance is real error.”
Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 137

”Religion and Science are inter-twined with each other and cannot be separated. These are the two wings with which humanity must fly. One wing is not enough. Every religion which does not concern itself with Science is mere tradition, and that is not the essential. Therefore science, education and civilization are most important necessities for the full religious life.”
Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 28

”If any religion rejected Science and knowledge, that religion was false. Science and Religion should go forward together; indeed, they should be like two fingers of one hand.”
Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 71)

”Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammad, said: 'That which is in conformity with science is also in conformity with religion'. Whatever the intelligence of man cannot understand, religion ought not to accept. Religion and science walk hand in hand, and any religion contrary to science is not the truth.”
Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 130

”The Bahá'í Faith recognizes the unity of God and of His Prophets, upholds the principle of an unfettered search after truth, condemns all forms of superstition and prejudice, teaches that the fundamental purpose of religion is to promote concord and harmony, that it must go hand-in-hand with science, and that it constitutes the sole and ultimate basis of a peaceful, an ordered and progressive society.”
Shoghi Effendi, Appreciations of the Baha'i Faith, p. 5

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