I want to take this moment to celebrate humanity.

We live in times of social inequality, political discord, and great economic disparity. Large segments of humanity are ravaged by hunger, war and environmental disasters fast and slow moving. To take a moment to celebrate is not to discount the great suffering that millions endure or the great collective failures that stare us in the face daily.

A group of friends in 2010.

Yet take a step back. Humans descended from cave dwellers, who gradually learned the merits of agriculture, constructing shelter, and written language. We mastered the elements, learned to navigate the globe, and have used technology to impose our will on nature in ways that our ancestors literally could not have imagined. Even from a purely materialistic standpoint, humans are surely advancing in our ability to think, reason and understand the world.

More than just using our brain to discover new ways to manipulate the universe though, I would propose that humanity is engaged in a collective evolutionary process. The nature of this process is discernible through advances in technology, the arts, and scientific thought, but what I would put forth for the consideration of anyone still reading is that the process is fundamentally spiritual – It has to do with the human spirit.

Arguably the most important part of raising a child, as I have observed, is the character. A child’s ability to perform well in school or make money will always take a back seat to how they interact with their family members, their peers and other members of their community. As mature individuals, how we treat each other is not something that is subordinate to how much money we make or how much we can influence the lives of others, it defines us, professionally and privately.

A watercolour painting from Alaska of The Shrine of Bahaullah

Humanity has always recieved spiritual guidance on how we should treat each other and ourselves. These teachings, in their true essence, have never stood in contradiction to the teachings of science, though they have sometimes fallen outside of whatever conventional wisdom or understanding would dictate at any time. Proponents of such teachings have included Jesus, Christ, Moses, Buddha and Muhammad. The essence of their teachings has been the foundation of the world’s great religions.

I celebrate because today, around the world, millions are recognizing the 200th anniversary of the birth of another such teacher: Baha’u’llah. His teachings were many, his life was one of sacrifice and patient education, and today, his followers all around the world (known as Baha’is) give thanks to God for sending another in whom we have seen the same truth that illumines all of the world’s great religions.

I celebrate the great human evolution that continues pushing us forward. The teachings of Baha’u’llah state clearly that the time of human maturity has come. A world government. The end of war. The end of economic disparity. A global society that is dedicated to the worship of one God, the same God that has sent all of the divine educators. These things are not only possible, they are the inevitable culmination of our incredible collective maturation.

Heaven on earth, promised in The Bible as a time when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” in the Quran as when “they will hear no abusive speech, nor any talk of sin, only the saying, ‘Peace, peace,'” is coming. Peace is coming. The Kingdom of God is coming. It is the next step in our collective evolution. It. Is. Inevitable.

Ya Baha’ul’Abha.