Abrahamic Bahai (Jesus Christ, priest, ritual, reject, Moses)

[Victor]

What are some of the major dogmas that Bahai's reject from Christians, Jews, and Muslims?

I know that's sort of broad but I didn't know how else to phrase it without knowing almost zero about Bahai...

[jacquie4000]

I do not know that much either but here is what I found.

Bahaism is said to be the youngest of the world’s independent religions. It was founded in Iran in 1863 and incorporates tenets of both Christianity and Islam.
Bahaism was founded by Mirza Hoseyn ’Ali Nuri who is also known as Baha ’Ullah. Baha ’Ullah claimed that he was a divine manifestation calling himself The Bab (the gate to divine truth).
Participants in the Bahai faith believe in the spiritual unity of all humankind. The Bahai faith is actually quite open and tolerant when it comes to other religions and belief systems.
According to Bahaism the founders and prophets of the prominent religions of the world (Mohammad, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus Christ etc.) were all sent to earth by one God to offer spiritual guidance to humanity. In addition to these prophets Bahaism recognizes the Bab and Baha ’Ullah, seeing them as the most recent spiritual teachers that have walked on earth.
Participants in the Bahai faith believe that the earth will continue to see new and different prophets in the years to come who will continue to offer guidance to humanity.
Bahaism teaches that:
- All forms of prejudice should be abandoned.
- Men and women should be equal.
- All religions are as one.
- Extreme wealth and extreme poverty should be eliminated.
- Education should be compulsory and universal throughout the world.
- Religion should be in harmony with science and reason.
- It is the responsibility of the individual to search independently for truth.
- A world federal system should be established to facilitate collective security.

Bahai·Bahai •Buddhism•Christianity•Confuciansim•Hinduism•Islam•Jainism•Judaism•Rastafarianism•Scientology•Shinto•Sikhism•Taoism•Voodoo•Zoroastrianism

[Booko]

Jacquie: Yup, I'll vouch for the accuracy of the summary you posted.

[lunamoth]

Bahaism was founded by Mirza Hoseyn ’Ali Nuri who is also known as Baha ’Ullah. Baha ’Ullah claimed that he was a divine manifestation calling himself The Bab (the gate to divine truth).

Not sure that particular line is accurate. The Bab and Baha'u'llah were two different people.

[Victor]

So the priesthood is seen as unfair and prejudice?

[Booko]

Originally Posted by Victor

What are some of the major dogmas that Bahai's reject from Christians, Jews, and Muslims?

It's tough to know where to start with that, as I usually think of it more like "here's what we have in common" and "we believe something like that."

The idea of "progressive revelation" may or may not be one of those.

(Please, members of the religions Victor mentioned, if you see me posting something incorrect, please correct me, ok?)

The essential idea behind "progressive revelation" is that God sends us prophets from time to time because:

1. Humanity is ready for some new lessons
2. Uh...we got a few things wrong
3. Some directives that made sense before no longer apply.

In the case of Islam, Muhammad is believed to be the Seal of the Prophets, and the common understanding of this title is: No more prophets, period. Where our belief is common with Muslims is that there will be no more "minor" prophets.

In the case of Christianity, Jesus is regarded as the last prophet, though He will Return again. We agree about the Return, but look beyond that to God continuing revealing Himself to us through His prophets.

In the case of Judaism, they await the Messiah, but there is (to my knowledge) no overarching idea that God will always keep sending us prophets, even after the Messiah.

We believe that God will never leave any of us in darkness, ever, that humanity is still "growing up" (coming out of turbulent adolescence and into young adulthood now, actually), and will continue to need lessons as long as we have physical existence.

[Green Gaia]

Originally Posted by jacquie4000

- Religion should be in harmony with science and reason.
- It is the responsibility of the individual to search independently for truth.

Two things it has in common with UU beliefs.

Off topic, I know, but I come across commonalities so rarely with other religions that I like to point them out when I do.

[Booko]

Hm, another one, and I'm not sure if any other religion has such a belief:

We think of "commandments" as falling into two categories:

1. universal - these are things that never change, such as love your neighbor, be truthful, etc.

2. social - these commandments fit the needs of the time and place where a religion begins. Dietary and marriage laws are a couple of the more obvious examples of this sort of commandment.

We often forsake religions as "outmoded" because, well, it's true: the "social" commandments do get outmoded.

But a Baha'i take on this is: *individuals* do not get to choose what's outmoded or not, because we'll tend to conveniently label anything "outmoded" that we just happen to feel like doing anyway. The human ego is funny that way.

The way the social commandments get changed is when the next Prophet comes -- only he* has the authority to change such things.

*Well, the next one is likely to be a "she" but that's just a guess on my part.