Within Every Atom, the Most Great Light

In the atomic structure, electrons circle the nucleus at tremendous speeds.

And if Newton and Einstein were both right, and perpetual motion really doesn’t exist, those electrons should behave very differently than they do. They should quickly radiate all their energy away and fall, exhausted and spent, into the nucleus. Like a satellite circling the earth or water circling the drain, eventually those electrons would run out of gas and slow down and descend, the victims of entropy and gravity and time.

But that does not happen. Thankfully, an unknown and invisible energy source powers every atom. Without that energy, nothing could exist:

Albert Einstein

We declare that love is the cause of the existence of all phenomena and that the absence of love is the cause of disintegration or nonexistence. Love is the conscious bestowal of God, the bond of affiliation in all phenomena. We will first consider the proof of this through sense perception. As we look upon the universe, we observe that all composite beings or existing phenomena are made up primarily of single elements bound together by a power of attraction. Through this power of attraction cohesion has become manifest between atoms of these composing elements. The resultant being is a phenomenon of the lower contingent type. The power of cohesion expressed in the mineral kingdom is in reality love or affinity manifested in a low degree according to the exigencies of the mineral world. We take a step higher into the vegetable kingdom where we find an increased power of attraction has become manifest among the composing elements which form phenomena. Through this degree of attraction a cellular admixture is produced among these elements which make up the body of a plant. Therefore, in the degree of the vegetable kingdom there is love. We enter the animal kingdom and find the attractive power binding together single elements as in the mineral, plus the cellular admixture as in the vegetable, plus the phenomena of feelings or susceptibilities. We observe that the animals are susceptible to certain affiliation and fellowship and that they exercise natural selection. This elemental attraction, this admixture and selective affinity is love manifest in the degree of the animal kingdom.

Finally, we come to the kingdom of man. As this is the superior kingdom, the light of love is more resplendent. In man we find the power of attraction among the elements which compose his material body, plus the attraction which produces cellular admixture or augmentative power, plus the attraction which characterizes the sensibilities of the animal kingdom, but still beyond and above all these lower powers we discover in the being of man the attraction of heart, the susceptibilities and affinities which bind men together, enabling them to live and associate in friendship and solidarity. It is, therefore, evident that in the world of humanity the greatest king and sovereign is love. If love were extinguished, the power of attraction dispelled, the affinity of human hearts destroyed, the phenomena of human life would disappear. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 255-256.

This concept, which unites spirituality and science, has enormous importance for every human being. It explains our creation and our continuation. It tells us that we owe everything to love. Our heartbeats, our minds, our entire beings come into existence; receive their energy and their sustenance and their impetus for life, from the energy of love. That power of attraction and affinity literally glues us together. Without it we could not take one breath.

Every great Faith tells us that we were created in the image of God; that we are the result of God’s love; that God’s love is literally in us all. The Baha’i teachings reprise that eternal wisdom:

In the Old Testament we read that God said, ’Let us make man in Our own image’. In the Gospel, Christ said, ’I am in the Father, and the Father in Me’. In the Qur’án, God says, ’Man is my Mystery and I am his’. Baha’u’llah writes that God says, ’Thy heart is My home; purify it for My descent. Thy spirit is My place of revelation; cleanse it for My manifestation’.

All these sacred words show us that man is made in God’s image: yet the Essence of God is incomprehensible to the human mind, for the finite understanding cannot be applied to this infinite Mystery. – Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 23.

O Son of Man! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty. – Baha’u’llah, The Hidden Words, p. 4.

Could this ancient spiritual concept—that God created all human beings in His image—actually describe the physical and scientific reality of our atomic structure?

Yes, it certainly could:

Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth is a direct evidence of the revelation within it of the attributes and names of God, inasmuch as within every atom are enshrined the signs that bear eloquent testimony to the revelation of that Most Great Light. – Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 177.