''The Genesis, Miracles and Premonition According to Spiritism'' (''La Genèse, les Miracles et les Preditions selon le Spiritisme'' in the original French) was the last book published (1868) by

Allan Kardec Allan Kardec () is the pen name of the French educator, translator, and author Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (; 3 October 1804 – 31 March 1869). He is the author of the five books known as the Spiritist Codification, and the founder of S ...

, just before his death. It tries to reconcile

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

and develops a series of important

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

and

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

topics, relating them to

Spiritism Spiritism (French: ''spiritisme''; Portuguese: ''espiritismo'') is a spiritualist, religious, and philosophical doctrine established in France in the 1850s by the French teacher, educational writer, and translator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Riva ...

''The Genesis'' contains diverse articles on

the creation of the universe ''The Creation of the Universe'' is an album by Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio. The trio was formed in 2008 with Ulrich Krieger and Sarth Calhoun to play music inspired by Reed's 1975 album ''Metal Machine Music''. The first concerts of the group ...

, the formation of the world, the origins of spirits and the role of

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine

intervention in the order of nature.

Chapter I: Character of the Spiritist Revelation

Kardec argues that

is a "third revelation", the first being that of God to

Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...

and the second, the coming of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

). This first chapter is a thorough rationalisation of the Spiritist theory and an attempt to justify it in face of harsh criticism:

Chapter II: God

The Spiritist view of

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

Chapter III: The Good and the Evil

Good and evil are seen as inherent to human nature because they are both manifestations of our pursuit of perfection. "Good" things come from the use of

intellect In the study of the human mind, intellect refers to, describes, and identifies the ability of the human mind to reach correct conclusions about what is true and what is false in reality; and how to solve problems. Derived from the Ancient Gree ...

while "bad" things come from the prevalence of

instinct Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing both innate (inborn) and learned elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a v ...

Chapter IV: The Scientific Note in Genesis

Argues that scientific advancement is ultimately a human attempt to understand God and that the conflict between religion and science exists because most religions have surrendered to the will of power while science is blind to the spirituality of man. Approves a harmony of science and religion.

Chapter V: Systems of the Ancient and Modern Worlds

Explains that the (mis)conceptions about the world originated from the scarcity of information available to man in the past and that, as science advances, our worldview will change dramatically, affected by it.

Chapter VI: General Uranography

An essay, attributed to the spirit of

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

and signed by "C.F." (probably

Camille Flammarion Nicolas Camille Flammarion FRAS (; 26 February 1842 – 3 June 1925) was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction ...

) presents a description of the universe as understood at the time. Contains some interesting insights which were either original or very novel: * that there are regions in space that are empty of stars (the space between the galaxies, which is called "deserts of space"), * that countless of other planets existed beyond the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

, * that the

Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...

was only one of many other galaxies, * that most planets, if not all, were inhabited; * that planets are not immutable, but change over long periods of time and eventually disappear.

Chapter VII: Geological Outline of the Earth

Attempts to reconcile the then recent science of geology with legends from the Bible and from other ancient peoples. Accepts the

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

as fact and ignores

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

s, attributing phenomena that are now known to have been caused by the later as evidences of the former.

Chapter VIII: Theories of the Earth

Challenges, debunks or doubts many other oddball theories that circulated among

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

ists of the time. An entire section is dedicated to explain that the Earth does not have a "soul".

Chapter IX: Revolutions of the Globe

Describes cataclysms that affected life overall, failing to mention any that were not already known at the time.

Chapter X: Organic Genesis

Describes how life on Earth could have formed. This chapter accepts

spontaneous generation Spontaneous generation is a superseded scientific theory that held that living creatures could arise from nonliving matter and that such processes were commonplace and regular. It was hypothesized that certain forms, such as fleas, could arise fr ...

as fact: a phenomenon that took place every day (which was according to mainstream scientific thinking of that time, only to be displaced decades later by the work of

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

Chapter XI: Spiritual Genesis

Explains how spirits were (and are) created and to what purpose.

Chapter XII: Mosaic Genesis

Explains why the tale of the creation found in the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning") ...

is contradicted by

Chapter XIII: Miracles According to Spiritism

The second part explains what a

miracle A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...

is and discusses under which conditions it should happen.

Character of a Miracle

After describing what a

should be (both according to the popular conception and the

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, Kardec argues (with the Spirits on his side) that such a thing does not and cannot exist: :"...considering that God does not do anything for fancy, we are inclined to the following opinion: As miracles are not necessary for the glory of God, nothing in the Universe ever goes against the laws of nature. God does not work miracles because, as His laws are perfect, He has no reason to derogate or suspend them. If facts are found that we cannot understand, it is just because we are in want of the knowledge necessary to understand them." Regarding miraculous cures, Kardec wisely states that these, if frequent enough, would have been a hindrance to the development of mankind. If people could be miraculously cured man would not pursue knowledge. Therefore, as man is steadily progressing towards more and more knowledge, Kardec infers that these miracles are rare indeed (as they are not affecting the march of scientific progress). This reasoning is used as an explanation for the observed scarcity of true miracles. Finally, Kardec argues that most people claiming to work miraculous cures are charlatans.

Chapter XIV: Fluids

According to contemporary science, there was a third nature, besides matter and energy, that was both immaterial, undetectable and capable of acting upon both matter and energy; as energy is capable of acting on matter and matter, of affecting energy. Such third kind was the basis for most religious theories and this theory was the bond that still allowed science and religion to have some common ground. In this chapter, Kardec explains "fluids" according to Spiritism and uses them to explain how spiritual phenomena worked.

Chapter XV: The Miracles of the Gospel

Why and how did Jesus work wonders. This chapter states that most of the "miracles" narrated by the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

s were either natural phenomena or manifestations of spirits.

Chapter XVI: The Prophecies in the Light of Spiritism

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.

Chapter XVII: Predictions of the Gospels

Chapter XVIII: The Time Has Arrived

The final chapter, one of the last things Kardec published in life, is in itself a prophecy about the future of Spiritism, containing the following claims: * The world was going to suffer the most dramatic change it ever experienced, and that this change would not be a cataclysm but the complete disruption of the beliefs of man, prompting the establishment of a new faith, capable of harmonizing with science, to prevent science "alone" from leading mankind to madness. * The changes would affect the world as a whole and blur the borders between nations and peoples. * The crisis would lead to great advancement of mankind, eliminating most causes of suffering and turning our planet into a higher type of world (most Spiritists believe our world is one of punishment for

morally Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...

debased, but intelligent spirits). * The crisis will prompt a redefinition of many keystones of man's political organizations in terms of

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

. * After the crisis, or as a consequence of it, man will be bodily different from its current shape. * After the crisis there will not be any organized religions left, people will be all either free-thinkers or

theists Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with ''deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred to ...

and most will believe the central tenets of Spiritism. * We won't be able to detect the changes while they happen because they will be deep, but slow, and will take centuries to fully develop. Future generations will look unto us as an era of permanent turmoil, but not all of us will live realizing this. * Most of the push for the change will not come from scientific improvement, but from moral progress.

Overall merit

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, especially where it accepts as final truth the established scientific knowledge of its time. Spiritists tend to regard ''The Genesis'' as the most complex of Kardec's works, and the one most demanding from the reader. Its popularity is a matter of dispute, as some publishers do not include it in their catalogs.

References

External links

''The Genesis According to Spiritism''
by Allan Kardec (PDF file, use Adobe Reader) {{DEFAULTSORT:Genesis According To Spiritism, The Spiritism Religious texts

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