New age: Details about 'The Genesis According To Spiritism'
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The Genesis, Miracles and Premonition According to Spiritism (La Genése, les Miracles et les Preditions selon le Spiritisme in the original French) was the last book published by Allan Kardec, just before his death. It tries to reconcile science and religion, taking Spiritism — the philosophy Kardec had been developing — one step further. It is divided into three parts, each one unrelated to the others. The first part, the longest, tries to reconcile religious tradition about the creation with the recent discoveries of science regarding the universe and the origin of life (see big bang, evolution). The convergence proposed by Kardec is not far fom Intelligent Design, though Kardec never claimed that any actual "signature" of the Creator had been or could ever be found. Unfortunately for Spiritism, this part has not aged well, given the preponderance of obsolete scientific theories in its pages (especially in the essay attributed to Galileo, which seem to present an heliocentric universe and states that all celestial bodies are inhabited). Its strong points are many, however; Spiritists like to quote Kardec's use of a reasoning (not unlike Occam's Razor) when dismissing most deliriant variations of science and spiritism from his time. The second part explains what a Miracle is and discusses under which conditions it should happen. Further on, it is made clear that actual miracles don't exist in the way people normally understand them, as anything that happens is a phenomenon, even when it is still unknown. It concedes that some events reported as miraculous were the by-product of hallucination or delusion, while others were misunderstood natural phenomena. In this view, spirits are "natural" instead of supernatural and their manifestations are not miracles. This part also discusses why should God interfere with our lives and concludes that He seldom does, as we are in this world to learn from our tribulations and conquer our obstacles. The third and shortest part deals with the possibility of foretelling the future, its possible consequences for mankind, and why God would allow it to happen. The conclusion is that actual foretelling is impossible because man has free will and therefore the future is open. Analysing the prophecies found in the Bible, Kardec argues that they were either mere logical extrapolations of the present (something that is not miraculous and only needs intelligence) or allegories intended to show a higher truth to people not yet ready to receive it. The book suggests a large amount of research effort on the part of Kardec and is generally considered the best written of his books, despite being dated in a number of places. Although considered one of the five fundamental works of spiritism, it is the least popular of them.
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