Which questions?
The opening questions starting off this forum thread are too specific for me to comment on. As this Baha'i mythology is new to me.
But from what I've been shown by these Baha'i followers here, is that it's a train wreck to say the least.
I'm currently Non-Bahai, and I wrote a version of my answers to the questions a few posts down or on one of these pages, I answered every single question that I wrote, and I'm pretty much not familiar with Bahai stuff at all, so instead, one can either change the questions slightly to make them answerable or otherwise use it as an opportunity to share your own beliefs and understandings and why you think you might be hesitant to believe anything different or newer or whatever. So that is sort of what I did, I kind of wrote about some of my own ideas and beliefs a little in my answers I think.
So, for me, I'm trying to mainly figure out why the Bahai religion is useful or necessary when it seems like its very similar to Islamic stuff, and saying basically the things that are in the Qur'an, closely enough that I'm not seeing why it needs to be a different religion or considered a different religion. Like, Judaism can't be Christianity because the Jewish people deny this whole Jesus is the Messiah business and especially that Jesus is God, so Christianity really is and has to be its own religion, and Islam isn't Judaism, since Islam makes its own traditions and differs in many places from Judaism as it developed and denies aspects of the Jewish scriptures and traditions maybe, so that is its own thing too but I think it contains the same message of the "One Religion" that the Bahai seem to be all about too, and I think they got that idea maybe from the writings of the Qur'an which basically state it outright.
So Judaism makes sense to me as its own religion that isn't Christianity which has to be its own religion too, and Islam has to be different from both (though might be pretty similar to Judaism even though the Qur'an claims Christians are closer to Muslims, maybe because of their accepting Jesus as the Messiah which Jews don't).
The big religions seem to be Hinduism (and its varying sects), Buddhism(s), Judaism (the tiniest of the big religions), Christianity (the biggest still I think?), and Islam (also very huge) when all the sects are combined for each. Theism is the top basic idea in the world today among people, and even most Buddhists I've encountered are basically pretty darn theistic for the most part when it comes to actually how they live and practice, and Atheistic people are a minority (are they more than the population of Jewish people? I think so, probably).
Zoroastrianism and other stuff is still around too, but I'm pretty sure their numbers are even less than that of the actively practicing Jewish people even.
Then there are two 1800s religions I think that are pretty big, The LDS Church (Mormonism) and the Bahai, and we can through in also the much older Sikh religion (which might actually have a huger population than the LDS and Bahai overall) and the Jehovah's Witnesses (not sure on their numbers in comparison to the LDS or the Bahai).
The Jehovah's Witnesses seemed at first to me to be closer to ordinary Christians than the LDS, but actually their theology might be a little different from the mainstream as well, so requiring them to be their own unique sect, and the Sikh also seem to have some unique developments in their religion which makes them different from Hindus and Muslims, which they sort of seemed like a kind of combination of maybe in some ways.
So, just like an Atheist prefers none of these religions, my personal preference is to modify everything that I can into an Islamic framework of monotheism. I find that, like if we were playing a game or something, the Qur'anic framework and theology as I make it out to be is the easiest, clearest, and most useful for basically tacking on almost any other system and those system's terminologies and making them monotheistic, so I find it pretty easy to take Hindu or Vedic materials or Mahayana or Esoteric Buddhist materials and tacking them onto the Islamic framework, or Ancient stuff called "pagan" like the religions of Greece, Rome, Ancient Egypt, the Celts, the Vikings, Aztecs, Native Americans, Chinese, whatever, just by making it that its all monotheistic, every term is an aspect or power or epithet of one God, and they can be switched out freely, so if you are calling on God for rain, you call on Rain God or whatever, but its the same God you're talking to, just that different term related to rain stuff more, which Islam already sort of gave people the idea for in some ways with all its different names and epithets for Allah and their practice of dhikr (praising and invoking God by various names which people also believed would call upon different attributes or bring about different things).
So, because of that, I basically take on just about most every religion, even fictional ones like those from fictional worlds or games (like Warhammer) or stories (like Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos) without much issue.
The only religions which are beyond my encompassing and covering are basically the ones with very specific official theologies and leadership structures which reject this particular brand of Universal Monotheism that takes every term and name possible, so I can't participate with or be a member of the LDS or Mormonism, I can't really be a mainstream Christian (I can only be a Unitarian type these days, I think that is an offshoot of Calvinism which my beliefs are close to), Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, all of them are fine and can be used though. So the ones that are too far away are Mormonism and The Joy of Satan type beliefs due to their very literal and bodily sort of almost biological polytheism.
I can also say with confidence, and at least for me, that this all seems to "work", and continue to work, I've used names like Hermes and Odin and Tlaloc or referred to Tezcatlipoca or Shangdi or Azathoth or whatever at all, Apollo, Nergal, any of that effectively and with as much seeming success as using the words Allah or YHWH or whatever else, so in my opinion it doesn't seem to matter one bit what word is used, even Lucifer or The Devil, so long as one is meaning to refer to the same One Ultimate Power and has a clear idea about what they are talking about. Even if one does not have a clear idea, or is referring to different things, if those things don't really exist, yet a prayer seems answered or some miraculous thing happens, then its still the same One that is believed by me to be answering it or playing into the request or role, even if it ends up making the people believe whatever other things, like that their particular bodily deity they imagine actually exists individually or something or is in conflict with other things, all beliefs which I find to be cumbersome and not really healthy or useful overall and more anxiety inducing and problematic than the belief in One that encompasses All.
The Bahai religion, due to its closeness to Islam, is mainly compatible also with these beliefs most likely, but the problem might occur in any heavy duty attention given to the writings of Baha'u'llah or the things claimed about him or by him, which I probably don't really fully believe in or accept (or haven't found a way to contort them enough to this system, since I don't believe in any literal idea that the various Prophets or Messengers were all encompassed by him or that he was them (not sure if they claim this exactly), or God or God's Holy Spirit or whatever, but I think they were all ordinary individuals. I can accept that Baha'u'llah was possibly inspired by God, since I don't think that is beyond people and that anyone can be inspired by God at any time with anything at all, and I am confident that God created the Bahai religion, but that is because I believe God creates everything, even Satanism and criminal organizations and whatever, good or evil, everything whatsoever, and leads on and controls everyone involved, for better or for worse.
So, I'm quite satisfied and happy with my "All Religion" freedom, worshipping Amun, Loki, whatever the heck I want to, in a framework or system I find both logical as well as efficient and even very fun, with basically no compromises made about much of anything, so I get to worship whatever without forcing myself into beliefs I consider awkward or unbelievable or difficult.
I don't really know what the Bahai could offer that is better than my beliefs or my religion, which even easily enough encompasses all their materials without sacrificing any other materials and doesn't cut oneself off from most anything.
Could someone, if someone thinks that Bahai or anything else is the way, somehow convince me of how I might be wrong and why their way should be adopted instead?
