Here now are some interesting quotes that are used in the
talk on Physical Creation and Divine Revelation; the notes are about a dozen
pages with even more pages of references from other scientific books. Use any of
this material as you wish.
Opening words
The greatest attainment in the world of humanity has ever
been scientific in nature. It is the discovery of the reality of things. The
highest praise is due to men who devote their energies to science, and the
noblest center is a center wherein the sciences and arts are taught. Science
ever tends to the illumination of the world of humanity. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
Stanford University, 8 October 1912
An epigraph from Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and
mathematician and 1939 graduate of the University of Cambridge: "I have
always thought it curious that, while most scientist claim to eschew religion,
it actually dominates their thoughts more than it does the clergy."
Einstein: Science without religion is lame, religion
without science is blind.
Bahá’u’lláh wrote about 75 years earlier:
Religion
without science is superstition, science without religion is ignorance.
Scientists now report that the universe came into existence
from nothing and had no beginning in time. A sampling from the Baha'i Writings
say:
All praise to the unity of God, and all-honor to Him, the
sovereign Lord, the incomparable and all-glorious Ruler of the universe, Who,
out of utter nothingness, hath created the reality of all things, Who,
from naught, hath brought into being the most refined and subtle elements of His
creation . . . GWB, p. 65
A sprinkling from the unfathomed deep of His sovereign and
all-Pervasive Will that, out of utter nothingness, called into being a creation
which is infinite in its range and deathless in its duration. The wonders of His
bounty can never cease, and the stream of His merciful grace can never be
arrested. The process of His creation hath had no beginning, and
can have no end. GWB, p. 61
A few of the awesome "numbers" of God's creation -
micro and macro
An atom is so small that a single drop of water contains more
than a million million billion atoms.
Yet an atom is mostly space. If we were to equate one
hydrogen atom to the size of the city of Rome, its one proton would be the size
of a person standing in the city and its quark the size of a freckle on the face
of that person.
The dimensions of the String Theory is even greater : The
scale on which these strings operate is as much smaller than an atom as an atom
is smaller than the Solar System. "Q is for Quantum",
p.385
Distance from the Earth to the Sun = 93 million miles. 7
years to fly there in a Concorde.
Only discovered Pluto at the beginning of the 20th
century and verified with an announcement in the 1930’s. Pluto is 3.6 billion
miles from the sun.
Hubble Space Telescope = one photo shows 1500 galaxies with
billions of suns in each one. One photographed galaxy is 473 billion miles long.
The elemental atom - the building block of creation
If the atoms which compose the kingdom of the minerals
were without affinity for each other, the earth would never have been formed,
the universe could not have been created. Because they have affinity for each
other, the power of life is able to manifest itself, and the organisms of the
phenomenal world become possible. PUP, p. 4
Scientists have discovered and broken down the atom but are
asking "how?" and "is there a Creator?".
That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not
in the form thou seest today. The world of existence came into being through the
heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is
its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different . . . . Such as
communicate the generating influence and such as receive its impact are indeed create
through the irresistible Word of God which is the Cause of the entire
creation, while all else besides His Word are but the creatures and the
effects thereof. TB, p. 140
His Word above and different from His creation
Know thou, moreover, that the Word of God – exalted
be His glory – is higher and far superior to that which the senses can
perceive, for it is sanctified from any property or substance. It transcendeth the limitations of known elements and is exalted above all the essential
and recognized substance. TB, pp. 140-41
And the big answer scientists are searching for - WHY?
Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth
therein, He, through the direct operation of His unconstrained and sovereign
Will, chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him
and to love Him – a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating
impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation.
GWB, p. 65
The Purpose of the one true God, exalted by His glory, in
revealing Himself unto men is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the
mine of their true and inmost selves. GWB, p.287
GWB = Gleanings from the Writings of
Baha'u'llah
TB = Tablets of Baha'u'llah
PUP = Promulgation of Universal Peace
