VI
STATEMENTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

These statements extracted from letters to individuals are not found
elsewhere in this compilation and are taken from letters written by the
Guardian's secretaries at his specific direction. The arrangement is
according to subject matter.

ALCOHOL (74)

You had asked in connection with the subject of prohibition. Of course in
every country one must take into consideration the exact conditions as to
whether by force of legislation people can be stopped from drinking, but
as a principle the Baha'i teachings are quite against drinking
intoxicating liquors and from the Baha'i point of view every thing that
helps to stop drinking is welcome.

(Extract, letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, December 30th, 1925)

EVOLUTION (75)

We cannot prove man was always man for this is a fundamental doctrine, but
it is based on the assertion that nothing can exceed its own
potentialities, that everything, a stone, a tree, an animal and a human
being existed in plan, potentially, from the very "beginning" of creation.
We don't believe man has always had the form of man, but rather that from
the outset he was going to evolve into the human form and species and not
be a haphazard branch of the ape family.

You see our whole approach to each matter is based on the belief that God
sends us divinely inspired Educators; what they tell us is fundamentally
true, what science tells us today is true; tomorrow may be entirely
changed to better explain a new set of facts.

When 'Abdu'l-Baha says man breaks the laws of nature, He means we shape
nature to meet our own needs, as no animal does. Animals adapt themselves
to better fit in with and benefit from their environment. But men both
surmount and change environment. Likewise when He says nature is devoid of
memory He means memory as we have it, not the strange memory of inherited
habits which animals so strikingly possess.

These various statements must be taken in conjunction with all the Baha'i
teachings; we cannot get a correct picture by concentrating on just one
phrase.

(Extract, letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, June 7th, 1946

"HERALD OF THE SOUTH"--(76)

Persevere I shall pray from all my heart for the steady development and
the growing influence of the "Herald of the South". May its voice grow in
strength and power, and may its pages increasingly reflect the dynamic
spirit of the Faith and mirror