ul study of the friends.

The Universal House of Justice

_Naw-Ruz, 2005_

ONE COMMON FAITH

"There is every reason for confidence that the period of history now..."

There is every reason for confidence that the period of history now
opening will be far more receptive to efforts to spread Baha'u'llah's
message than was the case in the century just ended. All the signs
indicate that a sea change in human consciousness is under way.

Early in the twentieth century, a materialistic interpretation of reality
had consolidated itself so completely as to become the dominant world
faith insofar as the direction of society was concerned. In the process,
the civilizing of human nature had been violently wrenched out of the
orbit it had followed for millennia. For many in the West, the Divine
authority that had functioned as the focal centre of guidance--however
diverse the interpretations of its nature--seemed simply to have dissolved
and vanished. In large measure, the individual was left free to maintain
whatever relationship he believed connected his life to a world
transcending material existence, but society as a whole proceeded with
growing confidence to sever dependence on a conception of the universe
that was judged to be at best a fiction and at worst an opiate, in either
case inhibiting progress. Humanity had taken its destiny into its own
hands. It had solved through rational experimentation and discourse--so
people were given to believe--all of the fundamental issues related to
human governance and development.

This posture was reinforced by the assumption that the values, ideals and
disciplines cultivated over the centuries were now reliably fixed and
enduring features of human nature. They needed merely to be refined by
education and reinforced by legislative action. The moral legacy of the
past was just that: humanity's indefeasible inheritance, requiring no
further religious interventions. Admittedly, undisciplined individuals,
groups or even nations would continue to threaten the stability of the
social order and call for correction. The universal civilization towards
the realization of which all the forces of history had been bearing the
human race, however, was irresistibly emerging, inspired by secular
conceptions of reality. People's happiness would be the natural result of
better health, better food, better education, better living conditions--and
the attainment of these unquestionab