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The Agnosticism
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Pages 201-202
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The Agnosticism
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The Bahá'í teaching is at one with science and philosophy
in declaring the essential nature of God to be entirely beyond
human comprehension. As emphatically as Thomas Huxley
and Herbert Spencer teach that the nature of the Great First
Cause is unknowable, does Bahá'u'lláh teach that "God comprehends
all; He cannot be comprehended." To knowledge of
the Divine essence "the way is barred and road is impassable,"
for how can the finite comprehend the Infinite; how
can a drop contain the ocean or a mote dancing in the sunbeam
embrace the universe? Yet the whole universe is eloquent of
God. In each drop of water are hidden oceans of meaning,
and in each mote is concealed a whole universe of significances,
reaching far beyond the ken of the most learned scientist. The
chemist and physicist pursuing their researches into the nature
of matter have passed from masses to molecules, from molecules
to atoms, from atoms to electrons and ether, but at every
step the difficulties of the research increase till the most profound
intellect can penetrate no farther, and can but bow in
silent awe before the unknown Infinite which remains ever
shrouded in inscrutable mystery.
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Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies.
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I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower -- but if I could understand
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What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is. -- TENNYSON.
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If the flower in the crannied wall, if even a single atom of
matter, present mysteries which the most profound intellect
cannot solve, how is it possible for man to comprehend the
universe? How dare he pretend to define or describe the Infinite
cause of all things? All theological speculations about the
nature of God's essence are thus swept aside as foolish and futile.
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