In 1970, Thomas Kuhn, an historian of science, published a book called “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” that ultimately had an enormous impact on how we think about scientific progress.  Kuhn explained that people used various scientific “paradigms” to make coherent sense of the physical world. At one time, the idea that the world was flat was such a paradigm, and it worked ok for building maps and helping people get from here to there, which was mostly local travel.  As people turned their eyes towards the heavens, and began to sail the open seas, they noticed certain “anomalies”, observations that didn’t make sense under the paradigm that the world was flat.  At first, people try to fit the theory to the new observations, add on corollaries to the theory, modify this or that element, but ultimately someone starts to think outside the box and comes up with a completely new paradigm and a “paradigm shift” results- a new theory is born that explains the broad reality with more clarity and comprehensiveness than the previous theory.  In the case of the shape of the earth, it was that it was actually round and not flat.

A major attraction of new theories is their “coherence”- their ability to explain a broad range of phenomena under one umbrella.  A new theory can be further confirmed in people’s minds when it predicts events and findings that are subsequently confirmed by experience and observation.  Many of the great scientific theories are accepted primarily because of their coherence. Darwin’s theory of evolution is a prominent example of this, as it explains a range of phenomena in a coherent way, even though it is hard to test because the time scales are so long.

In a related approach, scientific theories can be seen as “maps of reality”, lenses through which we come to see and understand the physical world.  They may not be perfect, and will almost certainly be superseded by a more comprehensive understanding, but they work for us in understanding the world for our time in history and our current level of knowledge.

What is not often appreciated is that Kuhn’s approach is equally true of religion, particularly as it relates to the concept of progressive revelation.  A revelation- and the religion it forms- becomes a map for spiritual reality- a way for humans to see themselves within the grand scheme of the universe and live happy, productive, and meaningful lives consistent with their highest values. But as human understanding evolves, certain “anomalies” are noted that don’t fit with their spiritual paradigm.  At first there is the temptation to double down on the current paradigm, make it fit the new observations, or just ignore the new observations entirely, but eventually the questions reach a sufficient pitch that people begin to abandon the religious paradigm they had previously professed, often jumping off into the unknown.  Some stick with it, contenting themselves with the fact that they don’t understand everything but still feel spiritually fed by the faith.

Baha’u’llah descrbes this as a time spiritual oppression-

What “oppression” is more grievous than that a soul seeking the truth, and wishing to attain unto the knowledge of God, should know not where to go for it and from whom to seek it? For opinions have sorely differed, and the ways unto the attainment of God have multiplied. This “oppression” is the essential feature of every Revelation. Unless it cometh to pass, the Sun of Truth will not be made manifest.

Such has been the situation in our world for the last few centuries, as the older revelations have been challenged by the unfolding vistas of new human knowledge. 

The point is that the natural evolution of human knowledge and understanding is going to profoundly impact how we see the world spiritually, just as it does scientifically. If divine revelation is a real thing, it must be progressive, because the nature of the world and humans understanding of it is naturally progressive. As ‘Abdu’l-Baha’ stated so clearly- “Religion is the outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore, it must be living, vitalized, moving and progressive. If it be without motion and non-progressive, it is without the divine life; it is dead. The divine institutes are continuously active and evolutionary; therefore, the revelation of them must be progressive and continuous.”

When a new revelation comes, it is like a “paradigm shift”, a new map of reality through which we see the spiritual universe, one that eliminates the previous anomalies and re-creates a coherent religious worldview. It is a great bounty to live in an era when a new revelation has come into the world. 

God is very kind, and a great Teacher. As any good teacher, He frames His message within the context of our understanding, how we perceive the world at that time in history, and His message is therefore adapted to how we understand the world.  Particularly for religion, which deals almost exclusively with non-material, non-sensible realities- God, life after death, the soul- teachings have to be framed within the metaphysical framework of the people at that time in history, within their map of spiritual reality.  

While the Manifestations of God need to speak within the framework understood by the people, they also have to induce a full and complete paradigm shift that leads them into new truths and understanding.  They have to create a new way of seeing the spiritual universe, one that is more consistent with their time in history.  Such a transformation does not happen easily, and often involves rejection and persecution, as people tend to be pretty invested in their current understanding, but ultimately the Manifestations win out and humanity is weaned from their old paradigm and embrace the new one. 

“…Every time the Prophets of God have illumined the world with the resplendent radiance of the Daystar of Divine knowledge, they have invariably summoned its peoples to embrace the light of God through such means as best befitted the exigencies of the age in which they appeared. They were thus able to scatter the darkness of ignorance, and to shed upon the world the glory of their own knowledge. It is towards the inmost essence of these Prophets, therefore, that the eye of every man of discernment must be directed, inasmuch as their one and only purpose hath always been to guide the erring, and give peace to the afflicted.”

Baha’u’llah gives several examples to explain the reason for the differences between the revelations of God.  In one, He describes them as similar to doctors prescribing a remedy-

The Prophets of God should be regarded as physicians whose task is to foster the well-being of the world and its peoples, that, through the spirit of oneness, they may heal the sickness of a divided humanity. To none is given the right to question their words or disparage their conduct, for they are the only ones who can claim to have understood the patient and to have correctly diagnosed its ailments. No man, however acute his perception, can ever hope to reach the heights which the wisdom and understanding of the Divine Physician have attained. Little wonder, then, if the treatment prescribed by the physician in this day should not be found to be identical with that which he prescribed before. How could it be otherwise when the ills affecting the sufferer necessitate at every stage of his sickness a special remedy?

We see these principles play out in the revelations of the past. 

The people at the time of Muhammad were warring tribespeople with no structured government in their midst.  The tribes were so frequently at war that they had to define a month where you could not war, just to give them all a break!  The tribespeople were not literate, had no philosophical or theological heritage, no commitment to the rule of law, and no scientific activity of any form.  To these people, Muhammad revealed the Quran- speaking a language they could understand, with laws that fit that time in history- and within 100 years they were well on their way to creating the greatest civilization on earth. Islamic civilization was extraordinarily philosophically and theologically rich, with a progressive scientific enterprise, and a united culture despite a tremendous variety of previously antagonistic races and peoples.  And that was all because Muhammad understood the remedy the people of that time needed- the spiritual framework and laws that could pull them all together as a unified community.  The Arab peoples later described their life before Muhammad and the Quran as the “days of ignorance”.

Buddhism is a religion without a strong theological concept of God, and for that reason is often set apart from the other religions.  But the oneness of God had not yet been worked out in Buddha’s time, and the Buddha felt that peoples theological musings were keeping them from actually doing what they needed to do to attain salvation.  For that reason, he refused to answer theological questions, instead focusing on a path of spiritual liberation that had people turn inward, away from the transitory and fleeting nature of the world, to that which is more permanent, giving up their egos and selfish attachments to attain a spiritually developed state known as Nirvana.  In a famous parable, the Buddha described a man who had been shot by a poison arrow. Rather than dealing with the issue at hand, the man was obsessed with who had shot the arrow, what caste he may have come from or other irrelevant facts to his condition. The Buddha said his mission was to get people to stop asking irrelevant questions to their salvation and to remove the arrow. He framed his teachings as being a practical path to liberate a soul from its attachment to transitory realities.  The teachings he outlined are very similar to the ones outlined by Baha’u’llah. Baha’u’llah’s teachings are however framed in a much broader and comprehensive meta-physical world view, as His mission is much broader, but the path for spiritual liberation is very similar.

Both Buddhism and Islam, as well as Christianity, were enormously important and successful spiritual enterprises that laid the foundation for the world we now live in.  In Yuval Harari’s well known book “Sapiens- A Brief History of Humankind”, he comments that only three things have brought human civilizations together- money, empires, and the universal religions of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.  And this was because these religions spoke to people’s conceptions in a way they could understand. 

Baha’u’llah describes that each religion, indeed each Manifestation, has two aspects. The first is the essence, which is eternal and transcendent, and common to each of the revelations of God.  The second is specific and depends on the place of its appearance and the needs of the age in which it appears.  He gives an analogy that the essence is like light-

“Consider the visible sun: Although it shines with the same radiance upon all existence… yet in each place it becomes manifest and sheds its bounty according to the potentialities of that place. For instance, in a mirror it reflects its own disk and shape, and this is due to the clarity of the mirror itself; through a crystal it makes fire to appear; and in other things it shows only the effect of its shining, but not its full disk. And yet, through that effect, by the command of the Creator it trains each thing according to the capacity of that thing, even as thou dost observe….In like manner, colors become visible in each object according to its nature. For instance, in a yellow glass the rays shine yellow; in a white glass they are white; and in a red glass red rays are visible.”

Just as light looks different depending on what reflects it, the differences in the teachings of the Manifestations of God are not due to differences in them, but to the differences in culture, understanding, and spiritual development of the people to whom they come. “The Revelation of which I am the bearer,” Bahá’u’lláh says, “is adapted to humanity’s spiritual receptiveness and capacity; otherwise, the Light that shines within me can neither wax nor wane. Whatever I manifest is nothing more or less than the measure of the Divine glory which God has bidden me reveal.”

Another analogy is that divine revelation is like pure water, but when it comes to humanity it must be received by a vessel from which it is poured and shared with others. That vessel is the community of people who receive the teachings of the Manifestation and therefore the “religion” that results from that pure revelation has the outer qualities of the vessel into which the pure waters of revelation are poured.  But it is the limitations of the people and the community that determine the “form” of the revelation, not its inner essence, which is pure water.  The Bab even said that all waters in the world should never be polluted, because water was the outer symbol of the revelation of God!

Jesus, in describing His revelation said- “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Baha’u’llah refers to water as an analogy for revelation in several passages-

O my servant! Abandon not for that which perisheth an everlasting dominion, and cast not away celestial sovereignty for a worldly desire. This is the river of everlasting life that hath flowed from the well-spring of the pen of the merciful; well is it with them that drink!

O peoples of the earth! God, the Eternal Truth, is My witness that streams of fresh and soft-flowing waters have gushed from the rocks, through the sweetness of the words uttered by your Lord, the Unconstrained; and still ye slumber. Cast away that which ye possess, and, on the wings of detachment, soar beyond all created things. Thus biddeth you the Lord of creation, the movement of Whose Pen hath revolutionized the soul of mankind.

The analogy can be extended to what happens after the revelation comes. Not only is it in a specific form of vessel, unique to each revelation, but as it spreads the followers often add color to the water- theological interpretations, additional laws and principles- that further change the form of the religion. Unfortunately, some can even add dirt to the water, making it almost undrinkable, and even unrecognizable from the pure water that is its essence.  But the universal element of each of the religions is that beautiful pure water that we recognize almost intuitively. 

How do we judge if progressive revelation is a true idea?  How do we judge if a Manifestation of God, like Baha’u’llah, is true?  In many ways, the answer is the same as how we judge scientific theories.  We look for coherence and explanatory power, and ultimately whether the theory is useful in the real world. We can think of this last element as the “fruit” of its teaching and connect it to what Jesus told us about how to distinguish a false prophet from a true one.

“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

In the next essay, we’ll discuss what Baha’u’llah teaches about us, by asking the simple question- What is a human being?.