Reflections on Infallibility
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: William S. Hatcher, Reflections on Infallibility, bahai-library.com.
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Published in the Journal of Bahá’í Studies Vol. 17, number 1-4 (2007)
© Association for Bahá’í Studies 2007

Reflections on Infallibility
William S. Hatcher

Abstract
The historical claim to possess infallible authority has often been associated with ideological dogmatism and/or
attempts to buttress political power on behalf of a certain thought system. In modern times, the notion of infallibility
has been regarded with suspicion, and viewed as antithetical to rational inquiry, which by its very nature
acknowledges its limitations and relativity. This paper advances the following theses: (1) The degree of social and
intellectual progress exhibited in human history would have been impossible without the existence of periodic
external truth referents (i.e., points of infallible authority). (2) Far from being antithetical to reason, true infallibility
is the main source of rationality in history, consistently preventing humanity from losing itself totally in superstition
and fanaticism. (3) The positive contribution to history of infallible sources of authority (e.g., the Manifestations of
God) does not depend on general recognition of their infallibility. (4) Infallibility (freedom from error) is often
confounded with omniscience, thereby undermining our understanding of the different grades of conferred
infallibility. (5) Religious dogmatism and fanaticism do not result from the Prophet’s claim to infallibility (“what my
Prophet says is true”) but rather from the exclusivist ideological claim made by the Prophet’s followers (“nothing
else but what my Prophet says is true”).

Résumé
De tout temps, le fait d’affirmer détenir une autorité infaillible a souvent été associé au dogmatisme idéologique ou à
une tentative de soutenir le pouvoir politique au nom d’un certain système de pensée. À l’époque moderne, le
concept d’infaillibilité a été considéré avec suspicion, comme contraire à l’investigation rationnelle qui, de par sa
nature même, reconnaît ses limites et sa relativité. Dans le présent article, l’auteur expose les thèses suivantes: 1) Le
niveau de progrès social et intellectual qui a été atteint dans l’histoire de l’humanité aurait été impossible sans
l’existence de référents périodiques à une vérité extérieure (c. à d. des référents d’autorité infaillible). 2) Loin de
s’opposer à la raison, la véritable infaillibilité est la principale source de rationalité dans l’histoire; sans cesse
empêche-t-elle l’humanité de sombrer totalement dans la superstition et le fanatisme. 3) La contribution apportée à
l’histoire par des sources infaillibles d’autorité (p. ex. les Manifestations de Dieu) ne dépend pas d’une
reconnaissance généralisée de leur infaillibilité. 4) L’infaillibilité (affranchissement de toute erreur) est souvent
confondue avec l’omniscience, ce qui nous empêche de bien comprendre les différents degrés d’infaillibilité
conférée. 5) Le dogmatisme et le fanatisme religieux ne sont pas attribuables à la pretention du Prophète à
l’infaillibilité (« ce que dit mon Prophète est vrai ») mais plutôt à une revendication idéologique exclusiviste
formulée par les disciples du Prophète (« rien d’autre que ce que dit mon Prophète est vrai »).

Resumen
La afirmación histórica de poseer autoridad infalible con frecuencia se asocia con el dogmatismo ideológico,
acompañado de vez en cuando de intentos de apoyar al poder político en respaldo de algún sistema particular de
pensamiento. En tiempos modernos, la noción de infalibilidad se contempla con desconfianza, suponiéndose ser
contraria a la investigación inteligente la cual, por su propia naturaleza, reconoce sus limitaciones y relatividad. Esta
disertación adelanta las siguientes tesis: (1) El grado de progreso social e intelectual que exhibe la historia humana
hubiera sido imposible sin la existencia de aquellos informadores de la verdad, externos a la humanidad, que
aparecen por etapas (v.g., puntos de autoridad infalible). (2) Lejos de ser contraria a la razón, la verdadera
infalibilidad es la fuente principal de la racionalidad en la historia, impidiendo con firmeza que la humanidad se
pierda totalmente en la selvatiquez de la superstición y el fanatismo. (3) La contribución positiva a la historia por
fuentes de autoridad infalibles (v.g., las Manifestaciones de Dios) no depende del reconocimiento generalizado de su
infalibilidad. (4) La infalibilidad (condición de ser inerrable) con frecuencia se confunde con la omnisciencia,
debilitando paulatinamente nuestra comprensión de los diferentes grados de infalibilidad otorgada. (5) El
dogmatismo y fanatismo religioso no son resultados de la afirmación del Profeta de su infalibilidad (“lo que dice mi
Profeta es la verdad”) sino mas bien la afirmación ideológica exclusivista suscitada por los seguidores del Profeta
(“nada más es verdad sino lo dicho por mi Profeta”).
O     ur initial experience of reality conveys a bewildering diversity of constantly changing systems, impinging on all
our senses. Our natural response to this primal experience is to look for patterns and regularities underlying the
shifting stuff of the world. Such patterns, whenever we succeed in finding them, enable us to correlate countless
factual details and establish principles of relationship between and among them. These relational principles are
called laws in science and universals (or universal relations)
in philosophy. Universal relations and laws are usually articulated as propositions, for example, as statements that
make certain assertions about the way reality is configured.1
The search for universal relations is the search for meaning—a meaning that does not and cannot inhere in
mere facts. Meaning arises rather from a second-order experience, an experience of experience, in which isolated or
seemingly unrelated first-order experiences of concrete reality coalesce into an intelligible whole. Whenever this
happens we may say (with a certain degree of conscious oversimplification) that we have discovered a general truth
about reality, in contrast to facts, which are particular truths about reality. The collection of all the propositions that
we currently hold to be true, whether general or particular, articulates our personal belief system or inner model of
reality.
Our personal belief system is parametered by time in that it reflects only our current understanding. We
may be wrong in our initial perception that a certain relationship is truly universal (that a certain law is universally
valid). Our experience of the world is always limited at best, and the facts available to test the universality of a
relationship are always finite in number. A theorem of mathematical logic tells us that there are, generally speaking,
an infinite number of mutually logically incompatible relationships that are consistent with any given finite set of
facts. Simply put: there are always several different reasonable ways of generalizing from a given finite set of facts,
and we can never be sure we have found the ultimately right generalization.2
It is important here to distinguish between belief and truth. A relationship is true (a law holds) if what the
relationship asserts (if the causal relationship described by the law) is objectively accurate, i.e., accurate regardless
of our subjective desires or perceptions. A relationship can be true according to this definition without our knowing
it to be so. Truth is a question of the validity of the correspondence between a given inner model of reality and some
portion of reality itself. Such a correspondence may well exist without our ever knowing it to exist.3
Truth is thus a relationship between propositions and reality, whereas belief is a relationship between
propositions and a human subject, who either believes or disbelieves in a given proposition. If the preponderance of
evidence at any given moment is clearly in support of the truth of a given proposition, we can do no better than to
maintain belief in the truth of the relationship described by the proposition unless and until we encounter convincing
contrary evidence.
Such is the essence of rationality: always to choose the most plausible belief in the light of known evidence
(including coherence with previously verified beliefs). Thus, when we sometimes say that truth is relative, we mean
not so much that universal relationships change (though that cannot be a priori ruled out) but rather that our
knowledge of what is or is not true is constantly changing.

Barriers to Rationality
The above may be taken as a reasonably accurate account of the existential position of the individual, taken in
isolation. However, we do not live in isolation. Though our personal belief system is our own, and no one else’s, its
content is certainly not just the fruit of our persistent, logical analysis of relative plausibilities and of careful choices
that follow from such an analysis. Indeed, conscious rationality, even as we have broadly conceived it, is very rare.
The rational pursuit of truth described above may be regarded as an ideal that is only occasionally perceived, much
less approximated or attained by most human beings.4
One of the reasons that attaining rationality in our everyday life is so difficult is that we are needful
participants in the world and not just disinterested observers of it. Reality imposes its structure on us, but we also
have inner needs that we project onto reality. We want reality to be a certain way, and are rarely content with simply
finding out how reality in fact is, especially when the answer goes against our wishes or desires. This process of
projecting our wishes onto reality undermines rationality and distorts our inner model. Let us call these need-
generated distortions of our inner model.
There are also other-generated distortions of our inner model, which result from biased or false information
that we receive from other subjects like ourselves, and which we uncritically assimilate into our personal belief
system.
Generally speaking, there are two ways that our inner model can be inaccurate. On one hand, there may be
features of reality which have no counterpart in our inner model. In such a case, our belief system is inadequate in
the precise sense that it under represents reality as it is. On the other hand, an individual’s model may contain
elements which have no counterpart in reality. We say that such a model is false. We should suspect our model of
inadequacy if we frequently encounter phenomena we do not expect. We should suspect falsity when we frequently
expect phenomena we do not encounter.
The combination of need-generated and other-generated distortions in our belief system leads to many
inadequacies and falsities. To the extent that these distortions dominate our mental and emotional life, they defeat
our capacity for rationality and for the generation of an inner model based on conscious knowledge and rational
choice. The mechanism of these distortions can enslave us to untruth.
Freedom is sometimes conceived as the freedom to believe whatever one wants and to do whatever one
chooses. But, wherein lies the freedom in believing what is false? Our beliefs, and more particularly our actions
based on our beliefs, have objective consequences. If our beliefs are false, our actions will be unrealistic and will
usually lead to negative or unhappy consequences for ourselves and for others. If our beliefs are largely true, our
actions will be based on knowledge instead of ignorance and will, on the whole, be more positive than negative.
The above-mentioned mechanisms of belief distortion render the individual’s achievement of rationality
extremely difficult even in the best of circumstances, and most certainly in unfavorable circumstances (as in early
abuse, neglect, trauma). Moreover, irrationality tends to breed more irrationality—a sort of entropy law of human
psychology.5 The exceptional individual may achieve and even sustain rationality within an unfavorable context, but
the vast majority will succumb to the prevailing atmosphere of unreasoning emotionality. What, then, can or does
prevent humanity from degenerating into a prerational barbarism, a state which appears inevitable if man is left to
his own devices? Humankind stands in need of an external source or force capable of liberating and unleashing the
innate human potential for rationality—a potential that simply cannot be actualized spontaneously by the unaided
individual.

External Truth Referents
In spite of its ups and downs, highs and lows, history does show a progression toward the organization of society on
ever-higher levels of unity: the family, the tribe, the city-state, the nation. This gradual complexification of society
would be literally impossible without a corresponding increase in the individual’s capacity to actualize her or his
potential for rationality. This suggests that social progression has been driven by some external force or forces that
have counteracted the natural entropic tendency of unaided humans to degenerate into irrationality. In order to
increase rationality, such an external force would have to serve in some manner as a truth referent, that is, as a
standard that enabled people generally to clear out distortions from their personal belief systems and hence attain a
higher degree of rationality in their beliefs and actions. Indeed, such a truth referent would have to be a source of
truth, perhaps even an incarnation of truth that would serve as an educative example of true rationality for humanity.
The fact is that human history presents us with a negentropic social evolution, which requires explanation.
This much is beyond any rational doubt. However, discovering the true explanation for the upward movement of
social evolution is quite another matter.

Refining Our Inner Model
A person’s inner model represents reality for that person. Indeed, for the individual, his or her inner model is reality.
We may know abstractly that our belief system is bound to contain some false propositions, but we do not know
which propositions are in fact false, for as soon as we recognize the falsity of a certain proposition, we no longer
believe in (hold as true) that proposition. For example, it would not be possible for me to know that grass is green
but still believe it to be red, because knowledge implies belief. To believe a proposition is to perceive that
proposition to be true. If our inner model of reality contains a certain feature, it is because we perceive that feature to
be part of reality.
Thus, by the very nature of the role our inner model plays in our life, we have no spontaneous insight into
dissonances between our model and reality. When our model changes in fact, we will simply perceive reality
differently, in a new way. We will not usually say: “Oh, I see, my inner model previously incorporated certain false
propositions and now, in the light of new information, I have replaced this proposition with a true one.” Such a
statement would represent a more sophisticated second-order knowledge about knowledge (what we might call
process knowledge) whereas the spontaneous change in our inner model is a first-order experience of reality itself
(“fact” knowledge), which may or may not be accompanied by the relevant process insight.
How, then, is it possible for us to gain insight into potential dissonances between our inner model and
reality? The only way is by careful attention to the feedback information we glean from our encounters with reality.
Our inner model represents to us the way we expect reality to behave. If our expectations are persistently unmet,
then we should suspect that part of our inner model is faulty. We can then make guesses (hypotheses) about where
the falsity may lie and devise specific encounters (experiments) that are especially directed toward testing those
propositions we regard as suspect. Such a process of observation, hypothesizing, and testing, will lead gradually to
modifications in our inner model, and hopefully to refinements that render it more accurate and more
comprehensive.
Thus, the refinement of our inner model proceeds (if it does proceed) by gradually replacing false elements
with true ones and by adding novel true propositions to it. But each new step forward opens up new vistas of which
we were previously unaware, and poses new questions we could not even have formulated at an earlier stage. In
other words, it is progress in knowledge itself which makes us aware of the extent of our ignorance and which leads
us to new speculations, some of which will necessarily be false.
So, no matter how successful we may be in undertaking the process of refining our inner model, at any
given stage of development, our personal belief system will nonetheless contain a number of false propositions of
whose falsity we will, of course, be unaware at the time. To say that our knowledge of reality is progressive means
that we do not have to remain forever in doubt about the same propositions. But it does not guarantee that we will
ever arrive at a point where we eliminate all falsity from our belief system.

Fallibility and Infallibility
To say that our personal belief system must, at every stage of its development, contain falsities is another way of
saying that we ordinary humans are fallible. We do not possess in ourselves any absolute measure of truth. We are
liable to error, and (most of us) are aware of that fact. We recognize ourselves as striving for truth but having
continually to deal with the fact of our liability to false belief.
To be infallible is thus to be “not fallible,” in other words, not liable to error. A necessary condition of
infallibility is that the personal belief system of an infallible individual would never contain any false propositions.
An infallible person does not in fact make any mistakes in judgments about the structure of reality.
Notice that fallibility and infallibility, as we have here defined them, are properties of persons, not of
propositions. A proposition is true if it is accurate and is false otherwise. In particular, it makes no sense to say that a
proposition is fallible or infallible. Infallibility, if and when it ever exists—a question we defer for the moment—is
the property of being free from all liability to error, and one of the signs of infallibility is that one never has, in fact,
any false beliefs.
Even though the above notion of infallibility is quite straightforward, it is nonetheless frequently confused
with other notions. The most frequent confusion is to consider that infallibility implies, or is equivalent to,
omniscience (all knowledge). Of course, such a confusion is understandable. How else indeed could a person be
entirely free from error except by having perfect or special knowledge of all things? The answer is that one can be
error-free without knowing very much at all, simply by a radical restriction of one’s belief system. One remains
agnostic about any controversial or nontrivial issue.
Suppose, for example, that during my whole lifetime I choose never to assert anything other than
propositions that are trivially and obviously true (for example, grass is green, fire burns, water flows, good is better
than evil). Then, I will never be liable to error, since I choose only to believe in propositions that are certain because
they are obvious and trivial. This would require, of course, that I deliberately suspend judgment about a host of
propositions that are probably true but not certainly known to be so. I would be infallible, but without having any
knowledge useful to other people whatsoever. You may protest that this is a contrived example, but the logical point
it illustrates is nonetheless significant: that the mere fact of infallibility does not, in itself, necessitate any degree of
useful knowledge.
The converse, of course, is not true. If a person were indeed all-knowing, then that person would be an
infallible authority, providing of course that he or she chose not to lie to others. This latter condition shows that
omniscience, infallibility, and moral behavior are intricately linked.
Another logical possibility is that a person is, in fact, infallible but does not know himself to be so. He
would suspend judgment concerning the question of his own infallibility but take into account the possibility of his
fallibility by being so careful and cautious in his judgments that he indeed never makes mistakes. No one would
recognize the infallibility of such a person. All (including the person himself) would consider his judgments as just
one more potentially fallible human opinion among others. In this case, the person would be infallible in fact but
regarded as fallible.
The opposite case is also possible: an individual who is in fact fallible but who sets out to convince others
of his infallibility. An example would be a charming psychopath who attracts a cult of followers having absolute
faith in him. This example is not so contrived and, as we all know, has appeared regularly throughout history and
persists within the modern cultural milieu. For followers of such a charismatic leader, the payoff is the feeling of
security they derive from the sense of absolute certitude, although the price they pay is that of abandoning totally
their own autonomous judgment. They freely regard their own judgments as fallible, except for the particular
judgment that their leader is infallible.
How does a fallible human being convince others of his infallibility? Techniques vary, but usually include
one or more of the following: stating trivial and obvious truths, but in a way that makes them appear deep and
oracular; making ambiguous statements and prophecies which are subject to virtually any interpretation and can
therefore be regarded as confirmed no matter what happens in reality; telling people what they want to hear (for
example, that they can and should freely indulge their sexuality). Charismatic psychopaths develop a keen sense of
who is or is not vulnerable to manipulation. They concentrate on those who are and find mechanisms for excluding
from the group those who are not (e.g., persons who are insincere because they question, who threaten the unity and
coherence of the group, who are an insult to the sacred leader, or who are shallow and unable to perceive the deep
truths being offered by the leader).
Disregarding trivial variations, there are basically two inner models of a person’s self (self-concepts) that
are possible in a case of a false claimant to infallibility. Either he knows himself to be fallible, in which case he is a
liar and an imposter, or else he is himself convinced of his own infallibility, in which case he is self-deluded. The
former would be the case of clever psychopaths, whose success depends on awareness of their fallibility, an
awareness that enables them to take measures to prevent their unmasking. The latter case would be more typical of
some psychotics whose capacity for self-delusion seems virtually infinite. However, in certain cases, such
individuals can be quite successful in attracting a following. One reason is that they appear so certain of their
infallibility. How indeed, some will ask, could a fallible person be so sure of himself ?
Considering all possible claimants for infallibility, there are thus four logical possibilities: the person is
fallible and knows himself to be so (the case of most of us, but also of deceiving psychopaths who may knowingly
advance false claims to infallibility); the person is infallible but does not know himself to be so (perhaps a very
sincere, humble, and careful person); the person is fallible but thinks himself infallible (self-delusion); finally, the
person is infallible and knows himself to be so. This last possibility would be the case of the true Prophets and
Messengers of God. We have left for last the discussion of this latter case, since it is the one that interests us the
most.

The Theory of Progressive Revelation
Bahá’u’lláh (1817–92), the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, has articulated a theory of history that seeks to
explain rationally and scientifically the negentropic upward movement of human history. According to this theory,
the motive force of human social evolution and progress has been the periodic intervention in history of an all-
knowing, morally perfect, intrinsically infallible Prophet or Messenger of God. Being all-knowing, the Prophet is
intrinsically infallible, and being morally perfect, he will not lie or deceive others. The Prophet thus serves as an
external truth referent for the whole of humanity, a perfect pitch pipe which sounds the pure note allowing all who
hear to readjust their inner models to reality. As Shoghi Effendi has said, “. . . the whole theory of Divine Revelation
rests on the infallibility of the Prophet, be He Christ, Muhammad, Bahá’u’lláh, or one of the others. If They are not
infallible then They are not divine, and thus lose that essential link with God which, we believe, is the bond that
educates men and causes all human progress” (qtd. in Universal House of Justice, Issues 6).
Commenting on the inherent infallibility of the Manifestations, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “Since the Sanctified
Realities, the supreme Manifestations of God, surround the essence and qualities of the creatures, transcend and
contain existing realities and understand all things, therefore, Their knowledge is divine knowledge, and not
acquired—that is to say, it is a holy bounty; it is divine revelation” (Some Answered Questions 157–58).
Elsewhere, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá affirms both the infallibility and the sinlessness of the Manifestations: “. . . the
supreme Manifestations certainly possess essential infallibility, therefore whatever emanates from Them is identical
with the truth, and conformable to reality. . . . Whatever They say is the word of God, and whatever They perform is
an upright action” (Some Answered Questions 173). The “essential infallibility” spoken of here is uniquely
characteristic of the Manifestation: “. . . this condition is peculiar to that Holy Being, and others have no share of
this essential perfection. . . . the Manifestation arises with perfect wisdom—so that whatever the supreme
Manifestations says and does is absolute wisdom, and is in accordance with reality” (Some Answered Questions
173).
Let us sum up the principal points contained in these passages: (1) the Manifestations of God are endowed
with an essential infallibility which is unique to them; (2) essential infallibility is based on divinely endowed
omniscience and on perfect virtue (sinlessness); (3) the pronouncements of the Manifestations are true in the generic
sense (that we have defined above) of accurately reflecting the structure of reality. (The important point here is that
there is no specially religious form of truth distinct from scientific truth or truth in general.)
Thus, according to the Bahá’í theory of progressive revelation, it is the Manifestations who have served as
the external truth referents for humanity, releasing the latent capacity for rationality inherent in the human soul and
thus allowing for social, intellectual, and spiritual progress throughout our history. Of course, this progress has not
been anything like a constant linear progression. There have been highs and lows, fits and starts, rises and falls. But
that there has been overall progress is beyond any serious doubt.

Conferred Infallibility
According to the theory of progressive revelation, the average time interval between two successive occurrences of
the phenomenon of divine revelation is about one thousand years. If true, the theory of progressive revelation
explains rather well the overall or general evolution of humanity. But one thousand years is a long time, and there is
bound to be change and evolution within the framework of a given dispensation (the term used by Bahá’ís for the
interval between the coming of one Manifestation and the next). Consequently, there is also need for external truth
referents within the dispensation of a given Manifestation.
Of course, there are the texts either written directly or dictated by the Manifestation during his lifetime.
However, the problem of interpretation of the texts can, and usually does, give rise to conflicting views, even
leading eventually to the disintegration of the religious community. The solution to this problem lies in a second,
derivative form of infallibility, called “conferred infallibility” in the Bahá’í writings. Such infallibility is not held to
be inherent or essential, like that of the Manifestation, nor is it based on omniscience. Rather, conferred infallibility
derives from, is conferred by, and is based upon the essential infallibility of the Manifestation.
Since essential infallibility is the conjunction of perfect knowledge and perfect virtue, and is restricted to
the Manifestations, it follows logically that any form of conferred infallibility must derogate either perfect
knowledge, perfect virtue, or both. Thus, in the Bahá’í dispensation, we find the following instances of conferred
infallibility. First, there is Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, upon whom Bahá’u’lláh explicitly and textually
confers infallibility. In commenting upon ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s rank, Shoghi Effendi makes it clear that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has
perfect virtue but not all knowledge (World Order 134 and 139).6 Thus, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s knowledge and
understanding is not inherent in his nature, as is the case with the Manifestation, but rather is conferred upon him or
guaranteed by the Manifestation (Bahá’u’lláh). Put another way, the Manifestation is “omniscient at will” (Shoghi
Effendi, Unfolding Destiny 449), whereas ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s knowledge was dependent not on his will but on the will
of Bahá’u’lláh.
As historians of the Bahá’í Faith are aware, Bahá’u’lláh conferred infallibility upon the Universal House of
Justice (Tablets 68). ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in his Will and Testament, confirmed this, explaining that the House of Justice
and Shoghi Effendi, as the Guardian of the Faith, were “both under the care and protection of the Abhá Beauty,
under the shelter and unerring guidance of the Exalted One” (12). In the latter case, the mantle of infallibility
devolves upon the shoulders of an individual, who is held to have neither all knowledge nor perfect virtue.7 In the
former case, infallibility is conferred upon an elected institution whose individual members are held to be fallible
human beings with no special spiritual endowment either epistemological or moral. We refrain here from entering
into a detailed discussion of the relationship between these two institutions and refer the interested reader to the
author’s companion paper, “Epistemological Implications of the Gradated Claims to Divine Authority in the Bahá’í
Writings.”
In his discussion of conferred infallibility in Some Answered Questions, Abdu’l-Bahá suggests that, in
some instances, God will protect a person from error but without any explicit or public designation of this fact:
“Thus many of the holy beings who were not dawning-points of the Most Great Infallibility [i.e., not Manifestations
of God], were yet kept and preserved from error under the shadow of the protection and guardianship of God, for
they were the mediators of grace between God and men. If God did not protect them from error, their error would
cause believing souls to fall into error, and thus the foundation of the Religion of God would be overturned, which
would not be fitting nor worthy of God” (172).
Thus, it would seem there have been other figures in religious history who were in fact protected from
error, but without any public or explicit designation of infallibility. For example, it is an article of Bahá’í belief that
the twelve Imams of Shi‘ah Islam were indeed infallible (Shoghi Effendi, World Order 102), even though there is no
record of any explicit designation of such infallibility, as witnessed by the fact that the larger Sunni Islamic
community does not recognize the legitimacy of the Imamate, much less its infallibility. Be these things as they
may, the main thesis of the present essay seems incontestable: that infallibility is not bizarre and exotic, but has been
intricately woven into the fabric of our lives from the beginnings of history.
Notes
1. A thorough and detailed discussion of the concepts contained in and underlying this compact statement
can be found in the following works by William S. Hatcher: The Science of Religion (1980), Logic and Logos (1990)
Love, Power, and Justice (2002), and Minimalism (2004); and by John S. Hatcher and William S. Hatcher: The Law
of Love Enshrined: Selected Essays (1996).
2. See William S. Hatcher, Minimalism, p. 77, and relevant endnotes for a more detailed exposition of these
results.
3. See William S. Hatcher, Minimalism, for a thorough discussion of these points.
4. The Enlightenment ideal of reason was not so broadly conceived and considered pure reason as a
normative (perhaps even ultimate) expression of the essential human. But pure reason by itself is capable only of
analysis, not synthesis. Without synthesizing and globalizing capacities such as intuition, global gestalt (spontaneous
perception of context), and mystic consciousness, reason is, to paraphrase ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, like a perfect mirror in a
dark room (Minimalism 67): it has the potential to be “enlightened” but can realize this potential only when
illuminated with inner experience. This may help to explain why the Enlightenment ideal, as narrowly defined by its
exponents, has led to so much fragmentation, alienation, extreme individualism, and the competitive seeking of
power. However,
‘Abdu’l-Bahá does clearly view pure reason as a useful and necessary step toward total (synthesized)
knowledge: “If thou wishest the divine knowledge and recognition, purify thy heart from all beside God, be wholly
attracted to the ideal, beloved One; search for and choose Him and apply thyself to rational and authoritative
arguments. For arguments are a guide to the path and by this the heart will be turned unto the Sun of Truth” (Tablets
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá 68). Notice that, according to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the proper use of our rational faculties results in
opening up the heart. Thus, Enlightenment philosophy was not so much wrong in stressing the importance of reason,
but in taking one of the means to knowledge, namely reason, as an end in itself.
5. On one hand, the further we advance in the path of need-generated distortions (projecting our needs onto
reality)—that is, the more elaborate the self-deception—the less willing we become to endure the pain of the
readjustments we intuit will be necessary when we finally face reality. On the other hand, it often takes an
uncommon amount of courage to act decisively against the prevailing social myth, even when we come to see and
know that it is false.
6. At the same time, Shoghi Effendi also makes clear that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was endowed with “superhuman
knowledge” (World Order 134).
7. See Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 150–51.

Works Cited
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Hatcher, John S. and William S. Hatcher. The Law of Love Enshrined. Oxford: George Ronald, 1996.

Hatcher, William S. The Science of Religion. Ottawa: Canadian Association for Studies on the Bahá’í Faith, 1980.
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Universal House of Justice. Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 2000.
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-- Reflections on Infallibility (Used by permission of the curator)