Questions
A. How does Spiritism explain the doctrine of the "fallen angels" and the “paradise lost"?
B. Since the Mosaic Genesis and science are not in complete agreement with each other, what is the cause of manifest errors existing in the Mosaic Genesis?
C. What is the meaning of the allegory that the woman was formed from Adam's rib?
Text for reading
685. The understanding brought by Spiritism concerning the relations of the spiritual principle and the material principle, the nature of the soul, its creation in a state of simplicity and unawareness, its union with the body, its unending evolutionary march through successive existences and through worlds, have been necessary to shed light on all the parts of the spiritual Genesis.
686. Thanks to this light, men and women can know henceforth where they have come from, where they are going, why they are on the earth, and why they suffer. They know that the future is in their own hands and that the duration of their captivity on this world depends on them. Rid of restrictive and trivial allegory, Genesis appears grand and worthy of the majesty, the goodness, and the justice of the Creator.
687. Miracles in the theological sense - etymologically, the word miracle (from mirari, to admire) means admirable, something extraordinary, surprising. The Academy defines this word as an act of divine power contrary to the known laws of nature.
688. One of the characteristics of a miracle per se is that it is inexplicable for the very fact it occurs outside natural laws; this is so much the idea that has been associated to it that if a miraculous event can be explained, it is no longer a miracle, no matter how amazing it is. What, for the Church, gives value to miracles is precisely the supernatural surprising it may have been at first. What gives credit to miracles in the eyes of the Church is precisely their supernatural origin and the impossibility of explaining them; the Church is so set on this point that any likening of miracles to the phenomena of nature is considered heresy, an attack against the faith. The Church has excommunicated and even burned people at the stake for not having wanted to believe in certain miracles.
689. Another characteristic of the miracle of nature is that it is unusual, isolated and exceptional. The moment the phenomenon is reproduced, whether spontaneously or intentionally, it shows that it is subject to a law, and since then, whether or not that law is known; it is no longer a miracle.
690. Science performs miracles every day in the eyes of the unlearned. If a man who was really dead were called back to life through divine intervention, it would be a true miracle because it is an event contrary to the laws of nature. However, if the man only appears to be dead, if there is still within him a vestige of latent vitality, and if science or a magnetic action manages to reanimate him, then to knowledgeable persons it is a natural phenomenon, whereas in the eyes of unlearned folk the event will pass as miraculous.
691. Having been expelled from the domain of materiality by science, the extraordinary took refuge in that of spirituality, which has been its last sanctuary. By demonstrating that the spirit element is one of the living forces of nature — a force incessantly acting concurrently with the material force – Spiritism brings the phenomena that result from its workings back into the realm of natural effects, because like the others, they too are subject to the laws of nature. When the extraordinary is expelled from spirituality, it will have no more reason to exist, and only then will it be said that the time of miracles has passed.
692. Spiritism has come to do in its own turn what each science has done when it first appeared: to reveal new laws and, consequently, to explain the phenomena that are within the jurisdiction of such laws. Of course, these phenomena are attached to the existence of spirits and their intervention in the material world; well, it is said, that is precisely what is supernatural about them. However, it would have to be proven that the spirits and their manifestations are contrary to the laws of nature; that, in this case, there is not, nor can there be an application of one of those laws.
693. The Spirit is merely the surviving soul to the body; is the main being, since it does not die, while simple accessory body is subject to destruction. Its existence, therefore, is as natural as later during the incarnation; he is subject to the laws governing the spiritual principle, as the body is the principle governing the material; but as these two principles are necessary affinity, how they react incessantly upon each other, as the simultaneous action of them result the movement and the harmony of the whole, it follows that spirituality and materiality are two parts of the same whole, as natural one and the other, not being therefore the first exception, an anomaly in the order of things.
694. During its incarnation, the spirit acts on matter by means of its fluidic body or perispirit; the same happens outside incarnation. As a spirit and according to its capabilities, it does what it used to do as a man or woman; however, since it no longer has the corporeal body as its instrument, it uses, when necessary, the physical organs of an incarnate, who then becomes what is called a medium. It is like someone who cannot write by himself and thus employs the hand of a secretary, or someone who does not know a particular language and thus makes use of an interpreter. A secretary and an interpreter are mediums for an incarnate, just as a medium is the secretary or interpreter for a spirit.
695. Since the environment in which spirits act and their means of doing so are not the same as in the state of incarnation, the effects are different. Such effects seem supernatural only because they are produced with the help of agents that are not the same as the ones that serve us. However, since these agents are to be found in nature, and since the manifestations occur due to certain laws, there is nothing supernatural or extraordinary about them.
696. Nonetheless, it will be said, you believe that a spirit can raise a table and hold it up in the air without any point of support; is that not a derogation from the law of gravity? Yes, from the law that is known; but do we know every law? Before experiments were performed entailing the lifting power of certain gases, who would have said that a heavy apparatus carrying several people could overcome the power of gravity? In the eyes of the common folk, would that not have seemed extraordinary, evil?
697. A century ago, if anyone had proposed transmitting a message 500 leagues and receiving a response within a few minutes, that person would have been regarded as insane; and if it had been done, people would have believed that the Devil was at the person’s command, because back then only the Devil was capable of traveling so quickly. Nowadays, however, not only is such a thing acknowledged as being possible, but it seems most natural. Why then could not an unknown fluid in certain circumstances have the property of counterbalancing the effect of gravity, just as hydrogen counterbalances the weight of a balloon? Actually, that is exactly what happens in the case of the table.
698. Because they exist as part of nature, spirit phenomena have been produced throughout time; but precisely because they could not be studied through the material means available to ordinary science, they remained for a much longer time than other phenomena within the realm of the supernatural, whence Spiritism has now extracted them. Far from extending the realm of the supernatural, Spiritism restricts it to its farthest limits and takes away its last refuge.
699. Spirit phenomena consist in the different modes of manifestation of the soul, or spirit, whether during incarnation or in the errant state. It is through its manifestations that the soul reveals its existence, its survival after death, and its individuality. It is judged by its effects; and since the cause is natural, the effect is also natural. It is these effects that comprise the special object of Spiritist research and study so as to arrive at as complete an understanding as possible concerning the nature and attributes of the soul, as well as the laws that govern the spiritual principle.
700. To those who deny the existence of the independent spiritual principle and, consequently, that of the individual and surviving soul, all nature is limited to tangible matter; all phenomena that are connected with spirituality are, from their point of view, supernatural and, consequently, chimerical. By not accepting the cause, they cannot accept the effect, and when the effects are patent, they attribute them to imagination, illusion and hallucination, and refuse to delve into them; hence among them the preconceived opinion that renders them incapable of judiciously appraising Spiritism because they start from the principle of denying everything that is not matter.
701. From the fact that Spiritism accepts the effects that are the consequence of the existence of the soul, it does not follow that it accepts all the effects qualified as being extraordinary or that it proposes to justify them and give them credibility; or that it is the champion of all dreamers, utopias, theoretical eccentricities or miraculous legends. One would have to know very little about it to think this way. It is not liable for the extravagances committed in its name any more than science is liable for the abuses of ignorance, or true religion for the excesses of fanaticism.
Answer Key
A. How does Spiritism explain the doctrine of the "fallen angels" and the “paradise lost"?
They are allegories, which have their origin in the collective emigration of spirits to worlds inferior to those where they lived, as was the case with the so-called Adamic race. What could they be among such new (from their point of view) peoples that are still in the infancy of barbarism but fallen angels or spirits sent in expiation? The world from which they were expelled, would it not be for them a paradise lost? Would it not be for them a place of delight in comparison with the harsh environment to which they have been relegated? (Genesis, chap. XI, items 43 to 49)
B. Since the Mosaic Genesis and science are not in complete agreement with each other, what is the cause of manifest errors existing in the Mosaic Genesis?
The main cause of these errors is just one: Mosaic Genesis reflects the thinking of the author, which of course was based on the cosmogonist ideas of his times. Science though, taking advantage of the experimental method is not based on preconceived ideas but rather on evidence. (Genesis, chap. XII, items 3, 4, 9 and 10)
C. What is the meaning of the allegory that the woman was formed from Adam's rib?
This allegory is apparently childish if taken literally, but is deep in meaning It aims to show that the woman is of the same nature as man and which is therefore his equal before God, and not a creature apart, made to be enslaved and treated like a pariah. Made from his flesh, the image of equality is far more significant than if it had been regarded as formed separately from the same clay. It intends to tell the man that she is his equal and not his slave, which he must love as part of himself. (Genesis, chap. XII, item 11)
