The law of God is one;
the evolution of existence is one;
the divine order is one.
~ Abdu'l-Baha ~
Dear Ones,
What this page gathers is a biocosmology spoken from Revelation: a cosmos that has never been vacant of creatures, an earth that unfolds what it already held, a human being who changes form without losing his destination, and worlds whose dwellers are shaped by their own elements — yet remain able, some of them, to know God. One law, one evolution, one order. Not a smaller universe. An inhabited one, without a first empty hour.
1. Existence was never vacant
Know assuredly that God’s creation hath existed from eternity, and will continue to exist forever. Its beginning hath had no beginning, and its end knoweth no end. His name, the Creator, presupposeth a creation.
~ Baha'u'llah
The process of His creation hath had no beginning and can have no end, otherwise it would necessitate the cessation of His celestial grace.
~ The Bab
Know that it is one of the most abstruse spiritual truths that the world of existence—that is to say, this endless universe—has no beginning. … If we could imagine a time when no beings existed, this imagination would be the denial of the Divinity of God.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
Therefore, as God is Creator, eternal and ancient, there were always creatures and subjects existing and provided for. There is no doubt that divine sovereignty is eternal.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
Baha'u'llah says, “The universe hath neither beginning nor ending.” … Briefly, there were many universal cycles preceding this one in which we are living. They were consummated, completed and their traces obliterated. The divine and creative purpose in them was the evolution of spiritual man, just as it is in this cycle.
~ Abdu'l-Baha… life on this earth is very ancient—not one or two hundred thousand, or even one or two million years old; it is ancient indeed, and the records and traces of ancient times have been entirely obliterated.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
If science reconstructs the earliest measurable state of this universe, the Baha'i Writings answer another question: that existence as such was never empty.
2. A simpler early state, then differentiation over immense time
Then it is evident that in the beginning matter was one, and that one matter appeared in different aspects in each element. Thus various forms were produced, and these various aspects as they were produced became permanent, and each element was specialized. But this permanence was not definite, and did not attain realization and perfect existence until after a very long time.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
Then it is clear that original matter, which is in the embryonic state, and the mingled and composed elements which were its earliest forms, gradually grew and developed during many ages and cycles, passing from one shape and form to another, until they appeared in this perfection, this system, this organization and this establishment, through the supreme wisdom of God.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
Physics specifies nuclei, stars, heavier elements. The Writings name the same movement without the mechanism. Nothing is lost; all is re-created — under one law, through immense time: perfect unity.
3. The kingdoms appear by degrees inside one living order
…the terrestrial globe from the beginning was created with all its elements, substances, minerals, atoms and organisms; but these only appeared by degrees: first the mineral, then the plant, afterward the animal, and finally man. But from the first these kinds and species existed, but were undeveloped in the terrestrial globe, and then appeared only gradually. For the supreme organization of God, and the universal natural system, surround all beings, and all are subject to this rule.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
In the same manner, it is evident that this terrestrial globe, having once found existence, grew and developed in the matrix of the universe, and came forth in different forms and conditions, until gradually it attained this present perfection, and became adorned with innumerable beings, and appeared as a finished organization.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
All beings, whether large or small, were created perfect and complete from the first, but their perfections appear in them by degrees. The organization of God is one; the evolution of existence is one; the divine system is one. Whether they be small or great beings, all are subject to one law and system.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
Geology also sees a long formation and a late appearance of life. In these Writings it is a potential that appears little by little, under one law.
4. Man was always potentially man
In the world of existence man has traversed successive degrees until he has attained the human kingdom. In each degree of his progression he has developed capacity for advancement to the next station and condition. While in the kingdom of the mineral he was attaining the capacity for promotion into the degree of the vegetable. In the kingdom of the vegetable he underwent preparation for the world of the animal, and from thence he has come onward to the human degree, or kingdom. Throughout this journey of progression he has ever and always been potentially man.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
…at one time man was an inmate of the sea, at another period an invertebrate, then a vertebrate and finally a human being standing erect. Though we admit these changes, we cannot say man is an animal. In each one of these stages are signs and evidences of his human existence and destination.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
In the beginning of his formation the mind and spirit also existed, but they were hidden; later they were manifested. … In the same way the embryo possesses from the first all perfections … but they are not visible and become so only by degrees.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
To recapitulate: as man in the womb of the mother passes from form to form … and is still the human species from the beginning of the embryonic period—in the same way man, from the beginning of his existence in the matrix of the world, is also a distinct species, that is, man.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
In these Writings, form changes; kind does not. Biology reads the same forms as other species, then as a hominin branch.
5. The universe is full of life adapted to its local elements, and some of these beings can know God.
The learned men, that have fixed at several thousand years the life of this earth, have failed, throughout the long period of their observation, to consider either the number or the age of the other planets. Consider, moreover, the manifold divergencies that have resulted from the theories propounded by these men. Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own creatures, whose number no man can compute.
~ Baha'u'llah
Know thou of a truth that the worlds of God are countless in their number, and infinite in their range. None can reckon or comprehend them except God. … Verily I say, the creation of God embraceth worlds besides this world, and creatures apart from these creatures. In each of these worlds He hath ordained things which none can search except Himself.
~ Baha'u'llah
…how is it possible to conceive that these stupendous stellar bodies are not inhabited? Verily, they are peopled, but let it be known that the dwellers accord with the elements of their respective spheres. These living beings do not have states of consciousness like unto those who live on the surface of this globe: the power of adaptation and environment molds their bodies and states of consciousness, just as our bodies and minds are suited to our planet…. Beings who inhabit those distant luminous bodies are attuned to the elements that have gone into their composition of their respective spheres.
~ Abdu'l-Baha
Abdu'l-Baha stated there are other worlds than ours which are inhabited by beings capable of knowing God.
~ Shoghi Effendi
It remains for science to discover one day the exact nature of these creatures.
~ Shoghi Effendi
Astronomy has confirmed the planets. It has not confirmed the inhabitants. The Writings give their existence; science may one day describe their nature.
6. Creation has never been without guidance
Through His potency the Trees of Divine Revelation have yielded their fruits, every one of which hath been sent down in the form of a Prophet, bearing a Message to God’s creatures in each of the worlds whose number God, alone, in His all-encompassing knowledge, can reckon.
~ Baha'u'llah
God hath raised up Prophets and revealed Books as numerous as the creatures of the world, and will continue to do so to everlasting.
~ The Bab
God does not ask us to master every fold of an endless universe before we know it is one world — His world. “Knowledge is a single point, but the ignorant have multiplied it.” What He points to is the short road to Him through the intricacy of creation.
Per Shoghi Effendi, that same oneness has a destiny on this earth: the unification of the whole of mankind, "the last and highest stage in the stupendous evolution of man’s collective life on this planet."
Loesha
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