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Bahá’ís believe that ours is not the only planet to carry life. Bahá’u’lláh stated that, “…every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own creatures, whose number no man can compute”. What is more, there will have been at least one “Prophet, bearing a Message…in each of the worlds whose number God, alone…can reckon”.
Bahá’u’lláh’s Son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, gave a talk in Paris, in 1913, stressing that it was time to start making efforts to reach other planets. Of course, at the time, man had only just succeeded in flying an aircraft over the English Channel! But in the mind of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá space travel was the next step. It is a great pity that the powers of the time did not work together on this, but instead directed their efforts towards war.
While the astronauts are floating along the corridors of the
space station, living and working together in friendship, the politicians down
on the Earth’s surface, coming from the same countries, are still engrossed in
conflict, instead of urgently tackling the planet’s many problems. It must be
very obvious to the astronauts on the space station, as they look down, that
the earth is one entity. Perhaps if the world’s leaders could be up there too, then
they might understand things differently and be prompted to make greater
efforts towards uniting the world and preserving the planet’s ecosystem.
Clearly, the ability of the major powers to suspend their rivalry and send Russian, American and British astronauts off together in the same capsule is in itself a positive sign. However, for all the co-operation in space, we are still lacking solutions to problems such as warfare, racism, starvation, disease, gender inequality, political boundaries, universal education, religious rivalry, etc, etc. But once we do begin to see mankind as one human family, and the whole earth as our home, we will be able to make exciting discoveries on the “final frontier”. As Bahá’u’lláh explained, “Know…of a truth that the worlds of God are countless in their number, and infinite in their range.”
Clearly, the ability of the major powers to suspend their rivalry and send Russian, American and British astronauts off together in the same capsule is in itself a positive sign. However, for all the co-operation in space, we are still lacking solutions to problems such as warfare, racism, starvation, disease, gender inequality, political boundaries, universal education, religious rivalry, etc, etc. But once we do begin to see mankind as one human family, and the whole earth as our home, we will be able to make exciting discoveries on the “final frontier”. As Bahá’u’lláh explained, “Know…of a truth that the worlds of God are countless in their number, and infinite in their range.”
Let’s see what’s out there!
I uploaded another blog post on a related point back in July, 2015, entitled "To Pluto - And Beyond".
ReplyDeleteIn March, 2017, I wrote a blog post entitled "It can't come soon enough". Although this one starts off with completely different subject matter, it again ends up discussing the need for politicians and world leaders to take more action.
ReplyDelete