Hello Ron,
>many, if not most, Baha'i's, understanding of statements by the Central Figures is that They (and the Universal House of Justice) are infallible, so as to mean that they can't make a mistake, literally.<
Here is how I see this. The Bab, Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l Baha to a lesser degree, are so far exalted above our capacity to understand, that the only proper and sensible attitude toward them is lowliness and submissiveness and reverence.
Therefore, to say that any statement of Theirs is "wrong" indicates a profound misunderstanding of Who They are. If I believe that a statement of Abdu'l Baha, for example, is wrong, that is, if I regard Him as just another person Who could be mistaken like anyone else, if I have that attitude, then I deprive myself of the opportunity to learn from His wisdom and spiritual depth. On the other hand, as the House
has pointed out, it is equally in error to fanatically try to twist things to make it appear that a statement conforms to the facts or to science, when it obviously does not.
If a statement of Abdu'l Baha seems to conflict with scientific findings, the useful thing is to meditate on what Abdu'l Baha really meant, what wisdom there is in His words.
Take, for example the matter of evolution. Abdu'l Baha says clearly that humans have always been humans, we have never been animals. Science has determined that
humans and primate apes are descended from a common ancestor. How is it possible to find harmony between these ideas, without diminishing the integrity of either? There are two bad ways to answer this apparent conflict, and at least one good answer. The two bad answers are:
1. Abdu'l Baha was wrong; in fact we used to be animals.
2. Science is wrong; the validity of the Covenant depends on Abdu'l Baha's
statement being literally, materially true.
One good answer is that the physical body is not the reality of a human being; it is only a house we live in for a brief time, then we leave it. The reality of a human being is the soul, that intangible, invisible "substance" which is the essence of a person, and which lives forever. When Abdu'l Baha said we have always been human, never animals, He was talking about the essence, the soul of human beings, not the body, which, after all, is ephemeral. Science has nothing to say about the soul, therefore nothing in evolution theory denies the spiritual reality of humans.
If our bodies developed from an an ancestor we share with gorillas, so what?
That is only our bodies, not our real
essence. Therefore, there is no conflict between Abdu'l Baha's words and the scientific consensus.
Abdu'l Baha made a statement of profound importance, but I will miss that wisdom if I insist either that Abdu'l Baha was just "wrong", or if I insist that science must be wrong because it contradicts what Abdu'l Baha said. Either extreme leads me astray, as extremes usually do.
With good wishes,
Tim Nolan
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