Bahai Story Library
All themes

science-and-religion

5 stories on this theme.

The Tablet of Wisdom: Bahá'u'lláh on the Marriage of Knowledge and Revelation

Late in His life in the Holy Land, Bahá'u'lláh answered a question put to Him by the learned Bábí scholar Nabíl-i-Akbar about the place the philosophy of Greece and Persia should hold among the believers. The reply, the Tablet of Wisdom, surveys the great philosophers by name, traces the lineage of their light, and sets out the proper relation between human inquiry and divine Revelation — a charter for the life of the mind.

10 min

The Doctor Who Read His Way to Certainty: John Esslemont

An Aberdeen physician in failing health, trained to weigh evidence and trust nothing he could not examine, found a small pamphlet about the Bahá'í Faith in a sanatorium. He did not simply believe it. He studied for years, learned Persian late in life to read the Writings in the original, and wrote the careful introduction by which the English-speaking world would come to know the Cause.

5 min

A Letter to a Scientist: 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablet to Auguste Forel

An eminent Swiss scientist, long an unbeliever, sent his deepest questions about God and the soul to 'Abdu'l-Bahá. The reply — one of the last great Tablets of the Master's life — answered him so fully that Auguste Forel, near the end of his days, embraced the Faith whose Word had reached him.

5 min

The Days Are Many, the Sun Is One: At the Church of the Divine Paternity

At the Church of the Divine Paternity on Central Park West on May 19, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told a New York congregation that religion has many forms but one reality: as the days are many but the sun is one, so the Manifestations are many but the Truth they reveal is single. If religion sets itself against science, it becomes mere superstition; if it becomes a cause of hatred and strife, its absence would be preferable.

2 min

Six Principles at the Hotel Schenley: Pittsburgh, 1912

At the Hotel Schenley in Pittsburgh on May 7, 1912, 'Abdu'l-Bahá set out six of Bahá'u'lláh's principles in a single sustained address: independent search after truth, the oneness of humanity, the harmony of religion and science, the abolition of prejudices, the equal education of women, and the necessity of a spiritual rather than merely material foundation for universal peace.

2 min