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

Persecution of ProphetsThe great Prophets of religion have always been, at Their coming,despised and rejected of men. Both They and Their earlyfollowers have given their backs to the smiters and sacrificedtheir possessions and their lives in the path of God. Even in ourown times this has been so. Since 1844 A.D., many thousands ofBábís and Bahá’ís in Persia have suffered cruel deaths for theirfaith, and many more have borne imprisonment, exile, povertyand degradation. The latest of the great religions has been “baptizedin blood” more than its predecessors, and martyrdoms havecontinued down to the present day. With the prophets of sciencethe same thing has happened. Giordano Bruno was burned asa heretic in 1600 A.D. for teaching, amongst other things, thatthe earth moved around the sun. A few years later the veteranphilosopher Galileo had to abjure the same doctrine on his kneesin order to escape a similar fate. In later times, Darwin andthe pioneers of modern geology were vehemently denounced fordaring to dispute the teaching of Holy Write that the world wasmade in six days, and less than six thousand years ago! The oppositionto new scientific truth has not all come from the Church,however. The orthodox in science have been just as hostile toprogress as the orthodox in religion. Columbus was laughed toscorn by the so-called scientists of his day, who proved to theirown satisfaction that if ships did succeed in getting down tothe Antipodes over the side of the globe, it would be absolutelyimpossible for them to get up again! Galvani, the pioneer ofelectrical science, was scoffed at by his learned colleagues, andcalled the “frogs’ dancing master.” Harvey, who discovered thecirculation of the blood, was ridiculed and persecuted by hisprofessional brethren on account of his heresy and driven fromhis lecture chair. When Stephenson invented his locomotiveengine, European mathematicians of the time, instead of openingtheir eyes and studying the facts, continued for years to prove to