The Prosperity of Humankind

--BY THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE--

"The ideal of world peace is taking on form and substance..."

"....awaken.... a sense of hopefulness..."

"Immense intellectual and Spiritual Energies seeking expression" --must be seized upon and channeled--

"....galvanized by a vision of prosperity in its fullest sense..."

We have come a long way on this planet.

"Now is the time to take up, consciously and systematically, the responsibility for the design of our future."

Where do we start?

BY TAKING STOCK OF WHERE WE ARE NOW.

WHAT ARE THE ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS THAT DRIVE OUR "CURRENT APPROACHES TO SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?"

Why is the gap between rich and poor getting wider?

If this is so, why are we facing a world-wide economic and social crisis?

What do we think it is?Increase in material things: money, jobs, business, industry, etc.

Development

Who are the players in development?

* Government* Religion* The people themselves

--What is humanity's role in planning its own development

Consciousness of the Oneness of Mankind

"the bedrock of a strategy that can engage the world's population in assuming responsibility for its collective destiny..."

How does it work nowadays?"Conflict is accepted as the mainspring of human interaction"

This has to change but how?

Baha'u'llah compared the world to the human body....

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Just as each cell in our body contributes its part to making the body function

So each human being in the world contributes its part to make human society function

Get it?

Just as each cell in the body receives what it needs to live and thrive...

so each person receives from human society what it needs to grow and develop.

Every advance in human society opens up new opportunities for each of its member "cells" to expand its capacity....

...which, in turn, fosters further development in human society! And on it goes....

Fostering this two-way process is the REAL purpose for any strategy for global development!

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Similarly....

JusticeThe "One Power" that will motivate us to start building the kind of society we want on this planet.

How does justice work?

a. At the Individual Level

b. At the Group Level

c. Human Rights--at the heart of any strategy of social and economic development

We need to take another look at them...

Among human beings themselves

Between human beings and nature

Between the individual and society

Between the members of society and its institutions

The Role of Knowledge

The development of a global society calls for "an enormous expansion in access to knowledge on the part of individuals and social organizations alike."

Both science and religion have critical roles to play!

EVERYONE RESPECTS SCIENCE BUT WE NEED RELIGION TOO TO MAKE SURE SCIENCE IS APPLIED PROPERLY.

&

Other Important Features of Development

... is to give people and institutions the means to "lay foundations for a new social order that can cultivate the limitless potentialities latent in human consciousness".

The REAL purpose of development...

This is where a "rigorous dialogue between science and religion" must come into play.

Case in point:

The Problem of Poverty

There's enough on this earth for everyone but still there is poverty.

This is where religion comes in: to inspire us to re-order our priorities so that resources are distributed equitably on the planet.

What else?

Unemployment

WE NEED A NEW WORK ETHIC

...that work done in the spirit of service is worship

What else?

The Environmental Crisis

"Only a breakthrough that is scientific and spiritual in the fullest sense of the term" will give us the tools to enable the human race to "assume the trusteeship towards which history impels it"

What else?

The Equality of the Sexes"Women and men have been and always will be equal in the sight of God"--Baha'u'llah

"...fundamental to all realistic thinking about the future well-being of the earth and its people.

The Question of PowerWHAT POWER WILL IT TAKE TO TRANSFORM HUMAN SOCIETY?

WHO SHOULD HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO EXCERCISE THAT POWER?

We need to re-define power. What is it?Is it all about gaining advantage over others?

It used to be so but no longer works this way.

So what is REAL power?

To surpass?To dominate?

To win?

The Power of Truth

"... an agent of change associated with some of the greatest advances in the philosophical, religious, artistic and scientific experience of the race"

Force of character and the power of example

The Power of Unity

WITH IT WE CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING

"So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth"--Baha'u'llah.

The Authority to Excercise Power...must be in the hands of leaders who have the "evolving interests of a rapidly maturing human society" at heart;

We must find new ways to select our leaders; ways that enable us to truly pick the right ones for the job.

Conclusion

THE OLD WORLD IS DYING...

...but a new one is struggling to be born.

We've all got a part to play in helping that happen; in building this new society which is our destiny.

We must be confident...

...THAT, REGARDLESS OF THE DANGERS, WE'LL GET THERE.

HUMANITY IS COMING OF AGE.

Recognition of our oneness key here

So is Justice

We must re-think old attitudes towards our social and economic life...

We need "a measure of faith and resolve to match the enormous energies God has endowed this spiritual springtime of

the race".

O ye that inhabit the heavens and the earth! There hath appeared that which hath never previously appeared. Be united in counsel; be one in thought. May each morn be better than its eve. Man's merit lieth in service and virtue, not in pageantry of wealth and riches. ...cling unto that which profiteth mankind whether young or old,

whether high or low.

--Baha'u'llah--