Dear Gilberto,
On maturity of humanity: The Bahais believe that a Manifestation of God comes when humanity is at the threshold of a new development. They usher in the New Day (meaning the new era). They do not come when the new development is already a fact.
So no, the world is not yet mature today. Considering the western world, I would say that it is in its teenage years. Hence the focus on sex for example. And the wish to do whatever one wants to do.
The tendency of the world is however a different thing. When Baha'u'llah proclaimed His mission, in 1863, the world was vastly different from now, in social structure. People hardly travelled, for example, and in Britain if you travelled from Edinburgh to Scotland once in your life time, you were considered widely travelled. People hardly knew what happened in the town 10 miles down from them, let alone in other places of the world. Women were allowed far less freedom and ability to put their mark on society than is nowadays the case.
Technology had and still has a huge impact on people. Also on the way they think. A saint who is still of the opinion that women should stay at home and not have the right to make their mark on society other than in raising children up till they are of an age to recieve academic education, may be a saint in that he is very loving and kind and devout to God, but he still is suppressing a group of people. And would find that his way of thinking is unacceptable in many parts of the world.
Two world wars showed western women that they were as capable as men of doing jobs. Of participating in society on a larger scale than they were allowed to before. It showed it also to men. It changed concepts. Men realise more and more that they are incapacitated if they continue to suppress women, that they deprive themselves of a worthy companion and helpmate, that they inhibit their own progress.
I use this example of women making their mark on society because I think it is one of the most important things that happened for society and the one which is still having a lot of impact on society for more than 160 years. After 1863 this change in attitude, and technology being able to bring together the world by making it far easier to travel long distances and convey news from one part of the world to another, has had in my opinion major influence on society.
100 years ago a tsunami wave would not have resulted in so much money and other support being given to the victims. 100 years ago people would not have felt the bond they felt now. The insight that all human beings are equal to God is gaining more and more ground than ever before, is more widely spread than ever before. And it is these insights that will make the world a better place to live.
It is these insights that will make more human beings saintly than ever before. Because before we simply did not have the technology and not enough people had the insight to for example see that slavery was something to be abolished, that women needed to be equal to men. At least you cannot deny that the equality of women has been far more accepted nowadays than say in 1950. And that is only a little more than 50 years ago.
My mother could not get an education after 13 because she was a girl and there was no funding for girls. I on the other hand could get an education up till 18 almost completely free of charge. I consider that a tremendous improvement for society and the world. It is not everywhere the case, but overall we can see that women are gaining more rights and freedoms, and that the idea that women are equal to men is gaining in adherents over the world, though in some parts very slowly. And that will have a tremendous effect on society, just like we can see here. The effect is not always equally positive, and that is why a Manifestation of God appears at the beginning of a new developmental stage and not halfway through or at the end, to give humanity a chance to develop the right channels for the energy given because a new stage of development has come to pass.
After all, you sometimes do introduce your child to a new phase in its development, when it is yet not aware that it can do certain things. If we do not talk to a child or ask it to repeat after us, it will not learn to talk or talk properly. Meaning to say: humanity is like a child growing up and has to sometimes be encouraged to take the next step in its development, otherwise it will not even think of the possibility that it could develop certain things.
much love,
janine van rooij
dublin, ireland.
Gilberto Simpson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Gilberto Simpson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 05:47:03 -0800 (PST), [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote:
> In a message dated 2/3/2005 4:23:38 P.M. Central Standard Time,
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Talking about those other religions as if
> they aren't relevant today and saying that the Bahai faith is superior
> is precisely what I would consider Triumphalistic.
> Gilberto, I don't know if you have children but if you did and you told one
> of them to do something and they said, "No. You told me to do something > else yesterday and that is what I am going to do" what would you say to
> that kid?
I understand the analogy you are making. And in general an analogy is
useful in terms of communicating what you have in mind, but ultimately
an analogy isn't persuasive. Secondly, the real question, the basic
questio! n is whether humanity has fundamentally grown up. Has our
situation as human beings fundamentally changed in a way which
warrants our parents giving us significantly new responsibilities. Can
we stay home without a baby-sitter? Can we take the car out for a
drive? And I would say, looking around the world, at the violence, and
war, and genocide, and racism and intolerance, and lack of empathy in
the world, that our situation hasn't really changed. Not
fundamentally.
There were saintly compassionate people in the past. There are saintly
compassionate people now. There were corrupt selfish people in the
past. There are corrupt selfish people now.
Yes, we've advanced technologically. Yes, there have been some changes
in social organization. And kids today have Xboxes and Sega and I grew
up playing with an Atari 2600 and kids before me were running through
the streets hitting a hoop with a stick. I'm not sure I would call
that mat! urity though.
Peace
Gilberto
--
"pharaoh is just a leaf on a burning bush"
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