The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions. – Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 87.

All of the world’s internecine strife does have a positive side—it shows a deep caring and concern for the future of our countries and peoples. People have passionate ideas and opinions because they care. That means, of course, that opinions will inevitably clash. As you can see from the quotation above, though, the Baha’i teachings don’t shy away from that clash of divergent opinions—they encourage it.

In fact, Baha’is call respectful, careful, considered debate and discourse Consultation. In Baha’i consultation, everyone seeks the truth in an atmosphere of love and trust:

…consultation must have for its object the investigation of truth. He who expresses an opinion should not voice it as correct and right but set it forth as a contribution to the consensus of opinion, for the light of reality becomes apparent when two opinions coincide. A spark is produced when flint and steel come together. Man should weigh his opinions with the utmost serenity, calmness and composure. Before expressing his own views he should carefully consider the views already advanced by others. If he finds that a previously expressed opinion is more true and worthy, he should accept it immediately and not willfully hold to an opinion of his own. By this excellent method he endeavors to arrive at unity and truth. Opposition and division are deplorable… Therefore, true consultation is spiritual conference in the attitude and atmosphere of love. Members must love each other in the spirit of fellowship in order that good results may be forthcoming. Love and fellowship are the foundation. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 72.

The Baha’i teachings say the sole means of solving the world’s problems will come through using the tools of considered discourse and consultation—not global warfare or nuclear weapons or colonizing incursions into other nation’s territories. That means our leaders need to adhere to beliefs and convictions that unite groups of people rather than separate us from each other.

Only through proper and civilized discourse based on evidence and facts, can we even hope to identify the maladies afflicting humankind, prescribe the remedies, and then, through our combined unity of will and purpose administer the proper medicines in doses that will heal the ailing body of humankind.

Abdu’l-Baha proclaimed this principle:

Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed, nor can everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely, nor can every timely utterance be considered as suited to the capacity of those who hear it.” Such is the consummate wisdom to be observed in thy pursuits. Be not oblivious thereof, if thou wishest to be a man of action under all conditions. First diagnose the disease and identify the malady, then prescribe the remedy, for such is the perfect method of the skillful physician. – Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, pp. 268-269.

The Baha’i teachings say that the Divine Physician has appeared once more—a Persian nobleman imprisoned for his social and religious beliefs titled Baha’u’llah, the Glory of God. He asked us many times and in many ways: How long will humanity persist in ignoring his diagnosis and prescriptions for peace, unity and security? He repeatedly stated that these prescriptions were not from himself, but rather from God. Baha’u’llah asks the central question of our era: how long will we persist in our old, outdated, useless ways, and how long do we have before those old ways destroy us?

As long as man waxes proud in his own deficient belief systems, in his own greed and love for power, in his wayward and unjust ways, that is how long it will take for the true unity of the human race to be restored. We need to unite to live, or persist in our separation and perish.

About five miles from my home a metal truss bridge over the Delaware River, originally built in 1835, separates New Jersey from Pennsylvania. A hundred years later the girded letters forming TRENTON MAKES, THE WORLD TAKES were added to the bridge, due to the astounding successes of Trenton’s pottery works and the establishment of John A. Roebling’s factories for turning out the thick cables that built the Brooklyn Bridge and other great spans.

Those thick coiled cables, one strand wound amidst others, remind me of unified consultation and discourse. Sometimes the outer, thinner wires must be peeled back to arrive at the core of truth—and yet, all the wires make up the whole truth, and one wire by itself won’t support the structure. Once the main wire encircled with support wires is set in place correctly, as part of a firm foundation, the bridge will continue to stand indefinitely.

Those coiled wires symbolize the strong aspects of sincere consultation: honest and forthright discussion, unrestrained but respectful sharing of ideas and viewpoints, and uncovering the factual evidence that backs up those viewpoints. All the wires bundled together maintain the strength of the core truth. They support the facts of the matter at hand, so we can apply the prescriptions of the Divine Physician, identify the disease and apply the remedies.

Next: The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Seeking a Spiritual Solution

Every culture has a creation myth, and many of them have striking similarities—they typically feature the story of the first man and woman, and tell us about the symbolism and meaning of their spiritual universe.

Most of the world’s peoples know the Biblical creation story of Adam and Eve from Genesis. In it, after the seventh day, God first creates the body of Adam, breathes into his nostrils the spirit of life, “and man became a living soul.” Then God created a garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God then took one of Adam’s ribs and created the first woman, Eve.

At first all seemed idyllic eastward of Eden, and God gave them every good thing, and one command, “thou shalt not eat” of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. But the subtle serpent tempted Eve into eating the fruit, saying, “For God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” And Eve ate of it and shared it with Adam who ate also. Upon which God was very displeased, and cast them from the Garden into the wilderness. He even placed cherubim and a flaming sword at the garden’s gate, to make sure Adam and Eve stayed out.

As God had told them, the day they ate the forbidden fruit they died. Beguiled by the world, Adam and Eve’s “fall” metaphorically represented human beings putting their own wills before God’s. Genesis explains why God has sent us his prophets and messengers ever since, to teach us respect, humility, kindness once again–all the virtues we symbolically tossed aside to eat the forbidden fruit, with or without knowing the true implications of that action. In my view, the story symbolizes humanity throwing away our original trust in God.

In the Baha’i teachings, Abdu’l-Baha explains the deep symbolism of the Creation story:

Adam signifies the heavenly spirit of Adam, and Eve His human soul. For in some passages in the Holy Books where women are mentioned, they represent the soul of man. The tree of good and evil signifies the human world; for the spiritual and divine world is purely good and absolutely luminous, but in the human world light and darkness, good and evil, exist as opposite conditions.

The meaning of the serpent is attachment to the human world. This attachment of the spirit to the human world led the soul and spirit of Adam from the world of freedom to the world of bondage and caused Him to turn from the Kingdom of Unity to the human world. When the soul and spirit of Adam entered the human world, He came out from the paradise of freedom and fell into the world of bondage. From the height of purity and absolute goodness, He entered into the world of good and evil… – Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, pp. 123-124.

I bring up the Creation story, one I learned so well as a Catholic boy, because of the sequence of Adam’s creation. First God created his body from dust, then breathed the “spirit of the Lord” into him, and subsequently God made Eve. They ate of the tree of knowledge and discovered their nakedness, as well as good and evil.

The philosopher in me can’t help but think those symbols mean that the creation of the human body comes first, forever, infused with spirit, giving the body its life-force. This occurs both scientifically and spiritually when egg meets sperm.

Our binary nature, both the lower animal instincts and our higher spiritual yearnings, may have led to Descartes’ concept of mind and body in dualism.

Progress in the physical sciences, and today in technology, have impelled individual and societal developments of the powers of the mind. Just as Freud, Jung and Adler proved with advances in psychiatry and psychology– giving birth to the modern raft of therapies for individuals, couples, families and even organizations–revelations of the mind will continue indefinitely.

But the search for our inner selves, the discovery of the reality of the self, requires more than just a mind. Without the proper tools, the job of finding one’s self becomes practically impossible if we only rely on one of our human components–body or spirit or mind alone. That spiritual search requires interaction and integration of our reasoning and caring abilities, and the proper balance between all three elements of our nature.

We have entered an era of great expansion in humanity’s mental abilities—and now our greatest task is balancing our intellectual powers with our spiritual development. To truly know ourselves, we need all of our powers.