From: rick@helix.nih.gov (Rick Troxel)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.bahai
Subject: Re: Unity between Science and Religion
Date: 8 Nov 92 15:01:23 GMT
Article-I.D.: ogicse.45676
Organization: -

In article <45460@ogicse.ogi.edu> mpimfhd!vkitzing@oneworld.wa.com
(Eberhard von Kitzing - MPImF - Heidelberg - FRG) wrote:

EvK> My personal interpretation of this statement and similar one is
EvK> that any apparent contradiction between the Baha'i-Faith and
EvK> science must be due to my personal misunderstanding of at least
EvK> one of the two.

To which, in article <???>, arromdee@jyusenkyou.cs.jhu.edu (Ken
KA> Arromdee) responded:

KA> The question is: _which_one_ has been misunderstood?

I don't think this question has an answer in the abstract; it depends
on the particular case.

KA> And what if it's something so clear that it cannot be
KA> misunderstood?  Your holy scriptures were quoted as saying that if
KA> the human body is cremated, its atoms spread so fast that they
KA> cannot become parts of other organisms.  There doesn't appear to
KA> be much room to read the passage as saying anything else, and it
KA> clearly contradicts science.

In this case (for reference, the cited quotation is included below), I
would respectfully submit that it's probably the Writings that have
been misunderstood.  My personal understanding of the passage is
twofold and does seem to contrast with the interpretation offered
above (perhaps I have considered the appearances of the term
"gradually" to be of greater significance):

1. That the body's chemical dissolution is faster when it is cremated
   (perhaps there is also an implication of qualitative difference)

2. That such is not desirable

IMHO, assertion 2 is religious, not scientific, hence cannot conflict
with scientific beliefs.  Assertion 1, while scientific, does not
conflict with my own sense of science, and I'd be surprised if others
would find the assertion arguable.

BTW, for Baha'is there is another aspect of the cremation question
that is not presented in the quoted passage -- namely, that it is a
_commandment_ that one arrange for one's body not to be cremated
(Synopsis and Codification of the Laws and Ordinances of the
Kitab-i-Aqdas, n. 30, pp. 62-63).  The issue of obedience is perhaps
orthagonal to that of understanding.

Rick Troxel                 rick@helix.nih.gov                 301/496-4823
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"The body of man, which has been formed gradually, must similarly
decompose gradually.  This is according to the real and natural order
and Divine Law.  If it had been better for it to be burned after
death, in its very creation it would have been so planned that the
body would automatically become ignited after death, be consumed and
turned into ashes.  But the divine order formulated by the divine
ordinance is that after death this body shall be transferred from one
stage to another different from the preceding one, so that according
to the relations which exist in the world, it may gradually combine
and mix with other elements, thus going through stages until it
arrives in the vegetable kingdom, there turning to plants and flowers,
developing into trees of the highest paradise, becoming perfumed and
attaining the beauty of color.

"Cremation suppresses it speedily from attainment to these
transformations, the elements becoming so quickly decomposed that
transformation to these various stages is checked."

				Star of the West vol 11, No. 19, p. 317