The Birth of Human Being

The 29th Hasan M. Balyuzi Memorial Lecture The Birth of the Human Being: Beyond Religious Traditionalism and Materialist Modernity

NADER SAIEDI

According to the worldview of the Bahá’í Faith we have arrived at a turning point in the evolution of human history. This turning point is primarily the moment of the birth of the human being . In this paper I will first define what I mean by “the birth of the human being” and its oppo- site concept, namely, the logic of dehumanization. Then I will trace the development of this idea in the Writings of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Human history so far has been primarily a history of dehumanization. We humans have perceived neither others nor ourselves as human beings and therefore we have treated each other as objects and animals. Dehuman- ization is the process through which human beings are reduced to the level of nature, objects, and physical bodies. Humans as humans, however, are defined by their consciousness, their reason, their spiritual powers and perfections. We can begin our discussion by referring to two symbols of the birth of the human being. The first is the ancient symbol of Egyptian culture, the sphinx. This enigmatic symbol has been interpreted in various ways. But from a dialectical perspective, the sphinx represents the meaning and 1 T HE B IRTH OF THE H UMAN B EING