{"id":31801,"date":"2025-07-18T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/?p=31801"},"modified":"2025-07-18T01:09:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T08:09:55","slug":"force-releases-worlds-animating-energies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/force-releases-worlds-animating-energies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Force that Releases the World\u2019s Animating Energies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter. \u2013 Max Planck<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in anything I can\u2019t perceive,\u201d a friend told me the other day.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReally?\u201d I asked him. \u201cNot anything?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This important subject came up during a deep discussion between my friend and I about the nature of belief and faith, sparked when we both read a wonderful novel named <\/span>Lila<\/span><\/i>. In the book, part of a trilogy of novels by the great American writer Marilynne Robinson, one of the main characters questions some of the dogmas of his faith. An aging Christian clergyman, he has come to doubt the existence of hell and its supposed punishments\u2014but still believes in the numinous and mystical rewards of heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend took the character\u2019s doubts to heart when he read the book, and thought we should extend those doubts to whatever we can\u2019t perceive with our five senses. Essentially, he was espousing the reductive materialistic philosophy\u2014that nothing exists beyond matter. I thought he might be missing the point, so I asked him about radiation. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s invisible, but it can kill you. Do you believe in radiation?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOK, do you believe in the penetrating influence of ideas?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSure,\u201d he said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t read books if I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere do ideas come from, then?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe human mind.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re sure about that? Every idea we have, every artistic inspiration, every one of our thoughts?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He considered that question for a while. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he said slowly. \u201cActually, I\u2019m not so sure about that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMe neither,\u201d I agreed. \u201cEveryone who has ever discovered anything, any artist looking for a creative impetus, has felt inspiration from some source outside themselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s true,\u201d my friend said. Then I showed him this powerful passage from the Baha\u2019i<\/a> teachings:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God is endowed with such potency as can instill new life into every human frame, if ye be of them that comprehend this truth. All the wondrous works ye behold in this world have been manifested through the operation of His supreme and most exalted Will, His wondrous and inflexible Purpose. Through the mere revelation of the word “Fashioner,” issuing forth from His lips and proclaiming His attribute to mankind, such power is released as can generate, through successive ages, all the manifold arts which the hands of man can produce. This, verily, is a certain truth. No sooner is this resplendent word uttered, than its animating energies, stirring within all created things, give birth to the means and instruments whereby such arts can be produced and perfected. All the wondrous achievements ye now witness are the direct consequences of the Revelation of this Name. In the days to come, ye will, verily, behold things of which ye have never heard before. Thus hath it been decreed in the Tablets of God, and none can comprehend it except them whose sight is sharp. – Baha\u2019u\u2019llah<\/a>, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha\u2019u\u2019llah<\/em>, pp. 141-142.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This essentially mystical concept\u2014that all of humanity\u2019s creative energies originally come from the animating influence of the Word of God\u2014has enormous resonance with the modern science of quantum physics. The father of quantum physics, Max Planck, found that everything our senses perceive as real comes from the force of a \u201cconscious and intelligent Mind,\u201d which he called \u201cthe matrix of all matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power of the Word of God, from a Baha\u2019i<\/a> perspective, actually creates reality. It forms the generative force necessary to set new ideas into motion, much like the unknown force that \u201cbrings the particle of an atom to vibration,\u201d as Planck put it. You can\u2019t touch it, but you can certainly see it in the holy scriptures of all the great Faiths, and you can read it directly from the source in the Baha\u2019i writings.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you read the creative Word, try to understand it as more than mere words. Instead, try to see it as the underlying architecture of reality itself:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Every thing must needs have an origin and every building a builder. Verily, the Word of God is the Cause which hath preceded the contingent world — a world which is adorned with the splendours of the Ancient of Days, yet is being renewed and regenerated at all times. Immeasurably exalted is the God of Wisdom Who hath raised this sublime structure. – Baha\u2019u\u2019llah<\/a>, Tablets of Baha\u2019u\u2019llah<\/em>, p. 141.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Next: Two Calls to Success and Prosperity<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":87849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[3241],"series":[518],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31801"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87850,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31801\/revisions\/87850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31801"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaiteachings.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=31801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}