Ergo my belief is that the Mystery of which St Paul speaks is that the world will endure, but it shall be changed – that whereas now the spirit lives according to the material, that state will be reversed, and the correct hierarchy will be the material appears according to the will of the spiritual.
As you presented it, Paul gives us a strong dichotomy between matter and spirit - as if they are diametrically opposed to any unified and holistic understanding, as if "substantial" change will not take place until some distant and miraculous moment in the future. To me, the thought just lacks
process, and it locks us in a static world where everything must be viewed as the same until "the end" when the dramatic, long-awaited transformation from material substance into divine substance will occur.
Instead of a sudden and complete reversal, what about a harmonious integration of matter and spirit over time? Or perhaps the relationship between matter and spirit are too complex for us to neatly categorize?
"...[Baha’u’llah’s] mission is to proclaim that the ages of the infancy and of the childhood of the human race are past, that the convulsions associated with the present stage of its adolescence are slowly and painfully preparing it to attain the stage of manhood, and are heralding the approach of that Age of Ages when swords will be beaten into plowshares, when the Kingdom promised by Jesus Christ will have been established, and the peace of the planet definitely and permanently ensured. –
Shoghi Effendi,
The Promised Day is Come, p. v.
That can, and has, been said since time began ... but the world remains the same ...
We've seen more positive changes in the past two centuries than in the past 1800 years after Christ.
Think about the massive changes in the standard of living!
The world remains the same?
Look at the dramatic decline in child mortality.
The world remains the same?
Look at the exploding literacy rate!
The world remains the same?
Homicide rates across Western Europe are down - dramatically!
The world remains the same?
Some of Jesus' disciples were fishermen, but incomes from agriculture haven’t been 50% of the world economy for 200 years. This has profound implications!
The world remains the same?
We are now in the exponential age.
The world remains the same?
I could go on and on. But I'm sure you're probably thinking: "You're missing the point."
Exactly. Not changed, just the same thing continued.
It's not a circle; it's an upward spiral.
Does the Baha'i teaching in any way encompass the Pauline message of substantial change, rather than moral and ethical?
I don't accept the premise of the question. It assumes moral and ethical teachings do not lead to substantial change. Emergent properties have something qualitatively different that emerge from the intricate interplay of parts.
One Baha'i writer said it best here:
“Consider how, to this day, the sovereignty of Christ has endured. How can a sovereignty of such greatness be manifested by a non-existent sovereign? How can such waves surge from a non-existent sea? How can such heavenly breezes waft from a non-existent garden? Consider that as soon as the constituent parts of anything, be it mineral, plant, or animal, are disintegrated and its elemental composition is dissolved, all effect, influence, and trace thereof vanish. But it is not so with the human spirit and reality, which continues to manifest its signs, to exert its influence, and to sustain its effects even after the dissociation and decomposition of the various parts and members of the body.” (Some Answered Questions) www.bahai.org/r/243182409
This argument can operate on two levels as I see it. On a metaphysical level I believe it is being argued that the human spirit can still influence and produce effects in the physical world, perhaps mediated by those that are still living. However it can also be understood on a more concrete level, via the collective memory of a given human civilization. Thus the collective has a memory and continual response to the life of its individuals, that the consciousness of each individual doesn’t really die upon the dissolution of their physical bodies. That individual consciousnesses continues to act in the world via the collective. This collective has a memory and performs actions which are based on the memory and perhaps even the structures of civilization configures itself according to the consciousness of each individual.
Interestingly this mirrors somewhat some recent approaches to neuroscience and the properties of emergence. At some scale certain collective entities become imbued with agency. That is, it operates as a causal agent, where the whole system can be described as being a principal cause of some effect. Often for systems at this stage, the macroscopic description becomes more informative and predictive than the microscopic activity. For example in the case of consciousness understanding the psychological state of a person is better and more effective way to predict their behavior than any attempt to model the dynamics of every atom which he is comprised of."
can you acknowledge that the opposite is also the case?
That non-miraculous thinking can be an impediment to understanding unknown phenomena?
Well, it hinges on the definition of miracle (which has already been discussed). If you mean the "suspension of natural laws that opens up space for the impossible," then, no, I cannot acknowledge that such childlike thinking is the case. However, if you mean "a deeper understanding of natural laws that allows for seemingly impossible feats," then, yes, I can acknowledge them.
That non-miraculous thinking is dangerous? Only insofar as I am hostile and intolerant of those that believe in miracles.
