FOS S1D INTO BEING EXERCISE

"That which hath been in existence had existed before, only not in the form thou seest today. The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different. Thus doth the Great Announcement inform thee about this glorious structure. Such as communicate the generating influence and such as receive its impact are indeed created through the irresistible Word of God which is the Cause of the entire creation, while all else besides His Word are but the creatures and the effects thereof. Verily thy Lord is the Expounder, the All-Wise."

 

Above is the paragraph from the Lawh-i-Hikmat in its entirety. The first sentence was treated in an earlier fireside, but I wanted to present the whole context for you.

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READ AND DEBATE THE POSSIBILITIES

1.     The most current science describes the earliest moments of existence, prior to .00000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds, as undifferentiated heat energy. This is the span before which there was no matter. As the tiny, rapidly expanding universe cooled, however, things began to drop out of this system. I rather like the language they use. And the first “things” that dropped out were quarks and electrons.

 

Could this be what Baha’u’llah is referring to, “These two are the same, yet they are different.”? Electrons and quarks are the smallest, known components of atoms. Electrons and quarks both have electrical charge. Electrons are always negative, but quarks can be either positive or negative depending on their type (flavour). Quarks combine to form protons and neutrons, and together electrons, protons and neutrons form atoms.

 

2.     If we visit the CERN website, we read that matter and antimatter always appear in pairs, and that if an antimatter particle comes in contact with a particle of matter, they annihilate one another leaving behind pure energy. The first minute moments of the world of existence witnessed matter and antimatter particles appearing, colliding, annihilating and creating unthinkable energy. We might imagine that all the should be left after matter/antimatter annihilation is pure energy, but some matter particles managed to survive; about one in one billion. These leftovers comprise all matter in the universe. Could this be what Baha’u’llah is referring to when he says, “These two are the same, yet they are different.”

 

3.     The third possibility is friction. However, friction does not become an important player until almost 1 billion years have passed. It was at this time, when the universe had cooled significantly from its estimated 1,000 trillion degrees Celsius high that centres of gravity formed amidst more densely clumped hydrogen and helium atoms. These gravitational centres drew more matter towards them, and as more atoms gathered, their gravitational force accelerated until the atoms found themselves in a crush. This crushing together of matter caused friction. The friction generated increasing heat. At some point a critical juncture was reached where the increasing mass, increasing gravity, increasing crush, increasing friction and increasing heat cause atoms to fuse together. Nuclear fusion began.

 

In the process of fusion, there are also leftovers, about .0032 of the matter, which annihilates into pure energy, the heat and light of suns! 

 

Could Baha’u’llah be referring to thermodynamics when He says, “The world of existence came into being through the heat formed from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different.”

 

We can only conjecture, and we ask these questions not to arrive at a definitive answer, but because asking questions is at the crux of learning. Certainly many of you will have your own view. Perhaps you are a particle physicist and have a deeper understanding. Or perhaps there is another way of viewing this paragraph altogether. We are here to explore and learn, so have at it!