One can analyze in the tumultuous evolution of the life of humankind one thread, among others, that has been present and steadily advancing for thousands and tens of thousands of years. Perhaps human history can even be conceptualized as a … Continue reading A Final Step in Humanity’s Evolution
For thousands of years, beginning with the birth of the family – the smallest unit in the scale of human organization – humanity’s evolution has been characterized by a process of integration, which although far less spectacular than the parallel … Continue reading The Power of Truth
The Baha’i world has been learning how to use an education program to raise capacity in individuals and populations to take charge of their own spiritual, social, and intellectual development and to build communities that understand the dynamic coherence of … Continue reading Pedagogy of the Empowered
For decades, the Universal House of Justice has been nurturing the development of the Baha’i community in Iran, guiding them through their persecution and assisting them to recognize the significance of their sacrifice and their opportunities to serve. A few … Continue reading Framework that Shapes the Baha’i Approach to Political Involvement
One hundred years ago today, a sixty-six year old traveler from the East, an exile and prisoner since the age of nine, with no formal education, in broken and failing health, having never faced a public audience, and unfamiliar with … Continue reading America’s 1912 Election
Decades have come and gone and our busy lives, cluttered with diverse daily drives and enjoyments, have advanced in age, irreparable choices have been made, courses set, and moral decisions cast in the stone of opportunity cost. Billions have come … Continue reading Shadows of the Mind: Disorganized Activism, Conducive to Change?
The choice to adopt assumptions with the intention of operationalizing them does indeed entail challenges – overcoming habits of mind, resisting corrosive social forces, understanding the dynamics of change, etc – however, the journey hardly stops there. These assumptions need … Continue reading A Culture of Learning
Currently, there are some who resist the reconceptualization of science and religion. They fragment science and religion, and dismiss one for the other, claiming that only one or the other has led to humanity’s successes. How often is it that we hear religion caricatured … Continue reading Fanaticism and Ridicule: Science and Religion
Developing our latent capacities requires self-knowledge about our nature and purpose – both individually and collectively. Knowledge of self and of civilization cannot be separated, as each individual exits in a social context and influences their environment, while it is … Continue reading Truth and Beauty
Knowledge of human nature is essential in championing the cause of justice. Ontologically, human beings are dual-natured – there is capacity for egoism and altruism, competition and cooperation; in short, there is a lower/animal nature, and a higher/spiritual nature. Self-interested … Continue reading Champion of Justice
Current society, quite understandably so, has a fear of imposed conformity in the name of unity. History has repeatedly given examples of oppressive systems under the disguise of unity – feudalism, castes, communism, fascism, theocracy, nationalism, and authoritarianism. This legitimate … Continue reading Fear of Uniformity
Justice is the ruling principle of social organization, and the advancement of civilization depends upon its universal application. Conceptions of justice have been explored for centuries, and today, are highly numerous and variable. In our current crisis of civilization, confusion … Continue reading Justice in the Context of Oneness
The concept of the oneness of humankind provides an ideological foundation upon which humanity can understand its own reality in a way that conduces to its prosperity and harmony. It is an ontological truth of reality, a teleological end and … Continue reading Freedom
Humanity’s social life is evolving towards fruition of a world civilization. This process is propelled by two complementary systems of knowledge and practice – religion and science. Both of these systems advance human insights into the same reality. Both use … Continue reading History of the World, Part 4
That certain evolutionary processes are teleological in nature, meaning they are driven by an intrinsic purpose, brings up to the concept of latency. The characteristic of latent potential is common to all organic bodies – plants, the human body, and … Continue reading Latency
The next point regarding our perspective of history is that there is purpose in creation; in other words, evolution is understood as a teleological process. Characterizing evolutionary processes with this word – meaning that it is directed by an intrinsic … Continue reading History of the World, Part 3
All things evolve and develop along a path, unfolding towards maturity along a spiritual journey. The richest repository of this potential is human civilization progressing from ancient times until the modern age. The present era has seen the emergence of … Continue reading History of the World, Part 2
In previous posts, we read about various fragmented and incoherent conceptions of the individual and her or his relationship to society. We also looked at an example of the evolution of conceptions of the individual over a historical perspective. The … Continue reading History of the World, Part 1
Oneness reconceptualized across spatial and intergenerational dimensions informs social policy and institutions. Re-structuring according to principles of reciprocity, cooperation and interconnectedness engenders profound ramifications for the relationship binding the individual and society. All humans are molded by their environment, some … Continue reading Collective Transformation and the Individual
Following the last post’s foundational conviction that society should be organized according to the principles of reciprocity, cooperation, and interconnectedness, that oneness is the operating principle of civilization – as well as following a previous post’s idea that oneness is … Continue reading Oneness through Time and Space
The analogy of the human body to the body of humanity provides important insights to the nature of human society and the relationship between the individual and the collective, as well as into the principle of oneness itself. Yet, the … Continue reading Oneness as an Ontological Truth
Beyond emotions of levity, what does it mean in practicality to generate policy based on our conception of the entire human species as a unified organic whole? As some readers have pointed out, the analogy of the human body as … Continue reading Questions on Oneness
Universal scope and jurisdiction must be afforded any institutions necessary for the construction of a planetary civilization that deems for itself laws and order conducive to global prosperity. Educational systems and mass communication media must become conduits for the dissemination … Continue reading Oneness and Order
The bedrock of a strategy that can subsume the world’s population in assuming responsibility for our collective destiny is the consciousness of the absolute oneness of humankind. Deceptively simple though it may be, the concept that humanity constitutes a single … Continue reading Consciousness
At this critical moment in the history of humanity’s social evolution, the diverse people’s of the world need a more coherent vision of society that can guide the advancement of civilization. This need can only be met through the voluntary … Continue reading Oneness
achieving coherence 