Did we as humans have a say in creation?

I wonder what the purpose is for ticks, fleas, black flies and mosquitos, but my dislikes didn’t affect them evolving. Another take on evolution versus God creating all things is a fusion of the best elements of the two opposing theories.

In Baha’i writings, it is taught that creation of this earth did start with the forming of the sun and planets as science believes. Then in the matrix of the waters that covered the earth existed all the potential forms of life. The human form was there, even if looking like an embryo or a mitochondria, it was there but always potentially human. The animal forms were there too, but always potentially animal.

Just as an appleseed will always produce apple trees and fruit, and orange seeds oranges, so too did the human always evolve along human lines, and the animals always along animal lines. This was God’s purpose, Baha’is believe. So these two lines of creation are once again like the two wings of a birds: The scientific and the religious. The scientific being the evolutionary process, and the religious being the purpose of God.

Then just as we didn’t have a say in creation, we also haven’t had a say in the revelations that have come down to the Prophets from the Creator.

The tablets of Moses were directly from God we believe, and no human had a say in them. The teachings of Christ are the same. Likewise, Muhammad didn’t consult anyone when God sent down the Quran. When Baha’u’llah came and wrote one hundred volumes of divine revelation He never asked anyone what to write.

Another way science and religion complement each other is the domains they teach about.

Science’s realm is the physical domain, dealing with all physical things of the Universe. The Prophets rarely talked about the material universe but have left this up to scientists. At least this is how it is in the Baha’i Faith. Baha’u’llah did write about basic scientific teachings to a greater degree than any of the Prophets gone before Him, and His successors did the same, but mostly this physical realm is left up to scientists.

What religious teachings focus on is the spiritual realm. So what all the messengers of God talked about was mostly spiritual and how it interacts with the material in such things as justice, love and compassion among other virtues, along with the eternal soul and how it evolves through all the worlds of God.

I say “worlds” of God because Baha’u’’llah says the next world is a neverending sequence of worlds we evolve through eternally: All spiritual. And just as in the matrix of the mother’s womb we develop eyes to see, ears to hear, and limbs to move about in this world, in the womb of this world we are here primarily to develop spiritual eyes, ears and limbs to see and hear and move about in the next world.

These spiritual faculties being such crucial attributes as love, truthfulness, trustworthiness, self-sacrifice and service to humanity among others. So important is truthfulness that in Baha’i writings it says, “Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues. Without truthfulness, progress and success in all the worlds of God is impossible for a soul. When this holy attribute is established in man, all the other divine qualities will be realized.”

So there is a science to the soul, and the Prophets are the chief spiritual scientists.

Tim Wilson lives in Harpswell.