The Baha'i Faith: A Future-Oriented Religion
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Arthur Lyon Dahl, The Baha'i Faith: A Future-Oriented Religion, bahai-library.com.
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The Baha'i Faith:

A Future-Oriented Religion

Arthur Lyon Dahl
published in Future Generations22:1, pp. 15-17

Geneva, Switzerland: 1997

The Bahá'í Faith, founded in Persia in the mid-nineteenth
century but now established around the world as the second most geographically
widespread religion after Christianity, is remarkable among the major religious
traditions for the emphasis it places on future society and the influence
of present actions on future generations. It explicitly appeals to those
who care for the future of the human race, and aims to build a new world
fit for our descendants. (1)
The concept of an evolutionary progression over time is fundamental
to the Bahá'í perspective. For example, all the major religions
are seen as steps in a progressive revelation of Divine Will, with each
renewing the fundamental spiritual truths of all religion, while bringing
social teachings adapted to the needs of its particular time and place.
The teachings of Bahá'u'lláh are seen as the most recent
step in this progression, providing guidance to resolve the particular
challenges of today and to lay the spiritual foundations for a coming world
civilization. Thus for Bahá'ís, there is no exclusivity or
finality in religion, and further Divine teachers are expected, at intervals
of roughly one thousand years, as necessary for our continuing social and
spiritual evolution.
In the Bahá'í view, just as nature is marked by many cyclical
phenomena, such as seasons and life cycles, so has society seen the rise
and fall of many past civilizations, accompanying the gradually increasing
scales of social organization and unity from the family to the nation.
Today, we are experience the difficult transition from a world of sovereign
nation states to a unified world society. Our suffering is like the birth-pangs
of a new civilization. Bahá'u'lláh wrote over a hundred years
ago: "Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread
out in its stead." (2) The world is in fact experiencing
the end of a long cycle of religious prophecy about the future and the
beginning of a cycle of fulfilment, which the Christians refer to as the
coming of God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. This cycle, the fruit
of the physical unity of the human race, which Bahá'u'lláh
anticipated and which science and technology are now making possible, will
extend for at least 500,000 years. We are, in a sense, in the final stages
of the turbulent adolescence of the human race, on the verge of our collective
adulthood and maturity. As the institutions of a divided world collapse,
and the material philosophies that have dominated our century demonstrate
their failure to bring happiness and well-being to the majority of humanity,
Bahá'ís see it as essential to lay new moral and spiritual
foundations for the civilization that will inevitably be born out of this
period of turmoil, and that will guarantee a better life of justice and
peace for future generations.
The Bahá'í community condemns in no uncertain terms the
short-sightedness and moral bankruptcy of our present society, referring
to our callously abandoning "starving millions to the operations of a market
system that all too clearly is aggravating the plight of the majority of
mankind" and our "inability... to exorcise the spectre of war, the threatened
collapse of the international economic order, the spread of anarchy and
terrorism, and the intense suffering which these and other afflictions
are causing to increased millions", and calling to account "those who preach
the dogmas of materialism, whether of the east of the west, whether of
capitalism or socialism." (1)
There is also in the Bahá'í teachings a clear vision of
the future society that is already taking embryonic form even as the old
order collapses. "Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark
of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of
tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully
established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity
is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in
state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity,
must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human
relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate
this fundamental principle of its life." (3) To achieve
this, a series of evolutionary steps are envisaged, from the relatively
rapid agreement on a political peace between nations, through the gradual
spiritualization of societies around the world, to the achievement of a
world commonwealth and the flowering in centuries to come of a rich and
diverse world civilization in a golden age, before the continuing development
of new potentials and the inevitable loss of momentum and deterioration
in any human system require another process of spiritual renewal.
There are too many concrete proposals in the Bahá'í Writings
concerning the pattern for future society to be able to cite more than
a few here. Bahá'u'lláh called for a federated world government
with the means of collective security and decision-making necessary to
prevent war between nations and to manage the resources of the planet for
the benefit of all peoples. This would be balanced against a decentralized,
organic social and administrative structure that would encourage human
diversity, responsibility and individual initiative. He said the nations
should agree on an international auxiliary language to facilitate communications
and understanding between all peoples. He called for a spiritual solution
to economic problems, with the elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty,
equality of men and women, and the harmony of science and religion. He
emphasized the importance of marriage and the family, because it is within
the family that children are first educated. There is such emphasis on
the importance of universal education for future generations that, if there
are insufficient means to educate all the children, then preference should
be given to educating girls, because they will then be able to pass on
their knowledge to their own children, and the progress of future generations
will be more rapid.
Bahá'u'lláh warned a hundred years ago about the hazards
to the planet of too much material development. "The civilization, so often
vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed
to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men...." (4)
Environmental problems and their future consequences are thus of major
concern to Bahá'ís, who appreciate the relationships and
interdependence of all created things and the importance of preserving
the ecological balance of the planet. (5) One of the
major responsibilities of a future world society will be to organize the
economic resources of the world, tap and fully utilize its raw materials,
and regulate the equitable distribution of its products. It is no wonder
that a recent statement of the Bahá'í International Community
calls for a determined campaign to implement Agenda 21, the action plan
for sustainable development adopted at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. (6)
It is natural in this context that Bahá'ís see their individual
efforts as directed towards improving the world that future generations
will inherit. For each Bahá'í, religion is not only a means
to his or her own spiritual perfection and refinement of character, but
also a means of service to others in contributing to an ever-advancing
civilization. The central focus of life is not self-interest, but the good
of the whole, both present and future. In fact, it is the central spiritual
impulse of all religion, turning away from the self in love towards the
unknown outside of us, that provides the real motivation for human progress
(rather than the invisible hand of cumulative self interest so central
to western economics). By learning to love rather than fear the unknown,
an individual is motivated to explore the unknown potential in his or her
own self, to appreciate the unknown possibilities and qualities in others,
and to push forward the frontiers of science, technical invention and social
progress. The golden rule of all religious traditions is extended in the
Bahá'í Faith to preferring others to oneself, in the recognition
that the good of any part depends on the good of the whole. Bahá'u'lláh
likened humanity to a human body, where the suffering of any one member
or organ is the suffering of the whole. This sense of justice and solidarity
with others applies both in space and in time, such that Bahá'ís
will willingly make present sacrifices for the benefit of the future.
The central focus of the Bahá'í teachings is thus on providing
the spiritual foundations for the oneness of humankind, with the abolition
of all forms of prejudice and appreciation of our unity in diversity. This
oneness extends not only to the geographic, racial and cultural diversity
of humanity in space, but to the temporal diversity of our progression
into the future. All peoples are challenged to draw on their collective
inheritance to take up, consciously and systematically, the responsibility
for the design of their future, a future whose beneficiaries must be all
of the planet's inhabitants. (7)
The highest station that an individual can achieve is that of service
to others. As generations are educated in this way, altruism will increasingly
replace the self-centredness of today. The logical implication of this
Bahá'í moral and ethical perspective is that the present
generation, and particularly those individuals and societies that are wealthy,
should voluntarily sacrifice some of their immediate advantages, restrain
their appetites, and share of their wealth to ensure a stable and productive
future for humanity on this planet. This future should be seen as sustainable
over half a million years, equivalent to at least 20,000 future generations.
While it may take centuries to see the full fruits of this fundamental
transformation in human society, those alive at present have a moral and
spiritual obligation to live in ways that advance the realization of this
future vision.

REFERENCES
1. Universal House of Justice, The
Promise of World Peace. Haifa, Israel, Bahá'í World
Centre, 1985.
2. Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the
Writings of Bahá'u'lláh. Wilmette, Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1990. IV, p. 7.
3. Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh.
Wilmette, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1938. p. 202
4. Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the
Writings of Bahá'u'lláh. Wilmette, Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1990. CLXIV, p. 342-343.
5. Conservation of the Earth's Resources, A
compilation of extracts from the Bahá'í Writings prepared
by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, Bahá'í
World Centre. London, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1990.
6. Bahá'í International Community, Turning
Point for All Nations: A Statement of the Bahá'í International
Community on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations.
New York, Bahá'í International Community, 1995.
7. Bahá'í International Community, Office
of Public Information, The Prosperity of Humankind.
Haifa, Bahá'í World Centre, 1995.

* Arthur Lyon Dahl has a Ph.D in Biology from the University
of California, and is presently Deputy Assistant Executive Director, Environmental
Information and Assessment, United Nations Environment Programme. He is
the author of many publications including Unless and Until: A Bahá'í
Focus on the Environment. The views expressed are the author's own
and do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations Environment
Programme.

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-- The Baha'i Faith: A Future-Oriented Religion (Used by permission of the curator)