It is from the spiritual hierarchy that come all the religions of the
world. There the question may arise, "Then why do they differ so
greatly?" Because the peoples to whom they are given differ greatly. The
difference of temperament and viewpoint between the Orient and the
Occident is enormous. We are evolving along the outer, the objective,
and our civilization represents the material conquest of nature. They
are evolving the inner, the subjective. In the Orient the common trend
of conversation is philosophical, just as in the Occident it is
commercial. Such different types of mind require somewhat different
statements of ethics, but the fundamental principles of all religions
are identical.
When a new era in human evolution begins a World Teacher comes into
voluntary incarnation and founds a religion that is suited to the
requirements of the new era. Humanity is never left to grope along
alone. All that it can comprehend and utilize is taught it in the
various religions. World Teachers, the Christs and saviours of the race,
have been appearing at propitious times since humanity began existence.
Most readers will probably agree that a World Teacher known as the
Christ did come and found a religion nearly two thousand years ago. Why
do they think so? They reply that God so loved the world that he sent
his Son, the Christ, to bring it light and life. If that is true how can
we avoid the conclusion that He, or his predecessors, must have come
many a time before? The belief that He came but once is consistent only
with the erroneous notion that Genesis is history instead of allegory,
and that the earth is about six thousand years old! Science has not
determined its age but we know that it is very old, indeed. Many eminent
scientists have made rough estimates, taking into consideration all that
we have learned from astronomy, geology and archeology. Phillips, the
geologist, basing his calculations upon the time required for the
depositions of the stratified rocks, put the minimum age at thirty-eight
million years and the maximum age at ninety-six million years. Sir
George Darwin, basing his calculation wholly upon astronomical data,
puts the earth's age at a minimum of fifty-six million years. Joly
arrived at his estimate by a calculation of the time required to produce
the sodium content of the ocean, and concluded that the age of the earth
is between eighty million and one hundred million years. Sollas is said
to have made careful study of the matter and he finds the minimum to be
eighty million, and the maximum age to be one hundred and fifty million
years. But perhaps the most exhaustive study of the matter, and that
made by the use of the later scientific knowledge, was by Bosler, of the
French scientists. He bases his calculations upon the radio-activity of
rocks and arrives at a minimum earth age of seven hundred and ten
millions of years. Thus it will be observed that as our knowledge grows
the estimated age of the earth increases.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account