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.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 7 June, 1946 written on behalf
of Shoghi Effendi; ‘Arohanui: Letters from Shoghi Effendi to New Zealand’)
