BahÃĄâ•Žuâ•ŽllÃĄh and the New Era - Knowledge Rush

Conflict Due to ErrorOne of the fundamental teachings of Bahá’u’lláh is that truescience and true religion must always be in harmony. Truth isone, and whenever conflict appears it is due, not to truth, butto error. Between so-called science and so-called religion therehave been fierce conflicts all down the ages, but looking back onthese conflicts in the light of fuller truth we can trace them everytime to ignorance, prejudice, vanity, greed, narrow-mindedness,intolerance, obstinacy or something of the kind—somethingforeign to the true spirit of both science and religion, for thespirit of both is one. As Huxley tells us, “The great deeds ofphilosophers have been less the fruit of their intellect than thedirection of that intellect by an eminently religious tone of mind.Truth has yielded herself rather to their patience, their love, theirsingle-heartedness and self-denial than to their logical acumen.”Boole, the mathematician, assures us that “geometric inductionis essentially a process of prayer—an appeal from the finite mindto the Infinite for light on finite concerns.” The great prophets ofreligion and science have never denounced each other. It is theunworthy followers of these great world teachers—worshipersof the letter but not of the spirit of their teaching—who havealways been the persecutors of the later prophets and the bitterestopponents of progress. They have studied the light of theparticular revelation which they hold sacred, and have definedits properties and peculiarities as seen by their limited vision,with the utmost care and precision. That is for them the one truelight. If God in His infinite bounty sends fuller light from anotherquarter, and the torch of inspiration burns brighter than beforefrom a new torchholder, instead of welcoming the new lightsthey are angry and alarmed. This new light does not correspondwith their definitions. It has not the orthodox color, and doesnot shine from the orthodox place, therefore it must at all costsbe extinguished lest it lead men astray into the paths of heresy!