• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

A worldwide community called “the Baha’i Faith”

Jim

Nets of Wonder
I want to point out that I haven’t seen anything in the goals or plans of any Baha’i communities about debating about Baha’i beliefs in Internet discussions, or trying to use them to teach people about the Baha’i Faith. In fact, I’ve seen some Baha’i leaders discouraging Baha’is from doing that.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
I’m having doubts now about the wisdom of discussing the Baha’i Faith myself, in Internet forums. I’ve seen some Baha’i leaders discouraging it, and I can see some good reasons for that. I won’t be doing everything that I was planning to do in this thread, but I want to outline what I was thinking.

I’ve discussed some parts of Baha’i training that people might object to the most. I was surprised not to see more objections than I’ve seen. Then I would have discussed collaboration of Baha’is with other people in economic and social development at local, national and international levels. Then a detailed, unit-by-unit discussion of Baha’i training of children, junior youth and adults, building a spiritual foundation for that development.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
This thread is part of my response to what looks to me like misunderstandings about the worldwide Baha’i Faith community being spread in Internet discussions by people promoting and defending what they call “Baha’i beliefs.”

In my way of thinking, part of what Baha’i communities all around the world are doing is practicing and promoting economic and social development guided by spiritual values and principles. For people like me who have no God or god beliefs, “spiritual” can be understood in non-theistic ways, for example with the best kind of love for all of nature including all people everywhere.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
In my way of thinking, part of what Baha’i communities all around the world are doing is practicing and promoting economic and social development guided by spiritual values and principles. For people like me who have no God or god beliefs, “spiritual” can be understood in non-theistic ways, for example with the best kind of love for all of nature including all people everywhere.

I think that part of human progress now and far into the future, bringing out the best possibilities in people, in society and in the world around us, will be economic and social development guided by spiritual values and principles that people will learn to practice by learning to trust and follow Bahá’u’lláh, as He seizes and possesses the hearts of more and more people. I see part of the purpose of Baha’i training as building a spiritual foundation for that.

I want to post examples of economic and social development guided by spiritual values and principles, at local and international levels and some levels in between. Then I want to discuss Baha’i training section by section, for people to consider how that might help build a foundation for that kind of development. My first examples will be at the international level, because those are the easiest to find.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
For people like me who have no God or god beliefs, “spiritual” can be understood in non-theistic ways, for example with the best kind of love for all of nature including all people everywhere.
You do not have God belief (That is not what Bahullah said. He cursed such people), but you still believe in Bahaullah being a manifestation, mirror image, exact replica of an Allah. Can you explain the contradiction? Bahai explanations are always difficult to understand.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
You do not have God belief (That is not what Bahullah said. He cursed such people), but you still believe in Bahaullah being a manifestation, mirror image, exact replica of an Allah. Can you explain the contradiction? Bahai explanations are always difficult to understand.
For me it’s all purely metaphorical, like conventional current flow, lines of force, elections orbiting around a nucleus, and trees of life.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
You do not have God belief (That is not what Bahullah said. He cursed such people), but you still believe in Bahaullah being a manifestation, mirror image, exact replica of an Allah.
“Exact replica” is not part of the metaphor in my mind.
 
Last edited:

Jim

Nets of Wonder
Here’s an example of development guided by spiritual values and principles:

What is ARC?
“ARC is a secular body that helps the world's major faiths develop environmental programmes based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices.”

what_is_arc.jpg


Why work with the faiths?
“The faiths are the oldest human organisations on the planet and together make up the biggest element of civil society today.”
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
This thread is part of my response to what looks to me like misrepresenting the Baha’i Faith as nothing more than a belief system competing with other belief systems. That might be what it is to some of its members, but I see that as only a marginal part of the worldwide community called “the Baha’i Faith,” and not any part of the purposes of its founders. Bahá’u’lláh says that His mission is to seize and possess people’s hearts. Maybe to some people that means promoting a belief system competing with other belief systems, but not to me.

Part of what I think the world needs most, to heal and recover from its illnesses: and to bring out the best possibilities in people, in society and in the world around us, is economic and social development with love for God, revolving around self improvement and guided by spiritual values and principles. I see what thousands of Baha’i communities are doing around the world, in response to what their Universal House of Justice is calling for them to do, as responding to those needs of the world today. I don’t see any beliefs as an obstacle to participating honestly and responsibly in that work. For example, I don’t claim to know, and I don’t care, if there really is any such being as a creator of the universe. I don’t claim to know, and I don’t care, if the earth is billions of years old, or less than 10,000 years old. I don’t claim to know, and I don’t care, if there ever really was such a person as the Jesus of the Christian gospels, or even such a person as Baha’u’llah. None of that keeps me from wanting to participate as a member in what Baha’i communities are doing around the world, and I don’t think that any of that, or anything in my views about homosexuality or Baha’i administration, disqualifies me from being a member or makes me unfaithful to the Baha’i Covenant.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
What I’m calling metaphorically “love of God” is an attitude and some kinds of behavior towards all of nature and all people everywhere, something along the lines of warm feelings and friendly intentions. What I think matters is that attitude and those behaviors, not how people picture them, feel about them and describe them. That’s part of what I mean by “spiritual.”

I think that attitude and those kinds of behaviors are indispensable, for the world to heal and recover from its illnesses, and for human progress. I think that’s only possible by people learning to trust and follow what I’m calling metaphorically the light of God that can be seen in the stories and scriptures of some religions, hidden and obscured by the belief systems that have been wrapped around them.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
What I’m calling metaphorically “love of God” is an attitude and some kinds of behavior towards all of nature and all people everywhere, something along the lines of warm feelings and friendly intentions. What I think matters is that attitude and those behaviors, not how people picture them, feel about them and describe them. That’s part of what I mean by “spiritual.”

I think that attitude and those kinds of behaviors are indispensable, for the world to heal and recover from its illnesses, and for human progress. I think that’s only possible by people learning to trust and follow what I’m calling metaphorically the light of God that can be seen in the stories and scriptures of some religions, hidden and obscured by the belief systems that have been wrapped around them, and some of the attitudes and behavior of their followers.
 

oldbadger

Skanky Old Mongrel!
I want to point out that I haven’t seen anything in the goals or plans of any Baha’i communities about debating about Baha’i beliefs in Internet discussions, or trying to use them to teach people about the Baha’i Faith. In fact, I’ve seen some Baha’i leaders discouraging Baha’is from doing that.
For sure!
The sudden explosion of Bahai Threads on RF over the last three years does not seem to have helped Bahai very much, if at all.

Bahai should take a leaf out of the Watchtower policies. You won't see JW proselyting on RF.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
For sure!
The sudden explosion of Bahai Threads on RF over the last three years does not seem to have helped Bahai very much, if at all.
What Baha’is have learned from their experience here might turn out to be very good for the worldwide Baha’i Faith community. I hadn’t thought of that before. I knew that I was learning a lot, but I didn’t think that any other Baha’is here were learning anything. Now I think that some or all of them might be learning a lot, and that learning might possibly help the whole community.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
The worldwide Baha’i Faith community does not try to influence the actions and policies of governments and institutions by participating in campaigns of denunciation and intimidation. It tries to influence them by bringing spiritual values and principles into discussions with and between them about current issues.
 

oldbadger

Skanky Old Mongrel!
Here’s an example of development guided by spiritual values and principles:

What is ARC?
“ARC is a secular body that helps the world's major faiths develop environmental programmes based on their own core teachings, beliefs and practices.”

what_is_arc.jpg


Why work with the faiths?
“The faiths are the oldest human organisations on the planet and together make up the biggest element of civil society today.”

Why use the word 'spiritual' like that?

A Spirit is a being or entity without form, isn't it?
Spiritual is 'of spirits'?

Why do Bahais keep on about things spiritual when they won't actually acknowledge Spirits?
It seems as if Bahais use the word as an 'It' word, or to impress the unwary.
I don't think that there is anything spiritual about Bahai at all, but that's just my impression.
 

Jim

Nets of Wonder
Why use the word 'spiritual' like that?

A Spirit is a being or entity without form, isn't it?
Spiritual is 'of spirits'?

Why do Bahais keep on about things spiritual when they won't actually acknowledge Spirits?
It seems as if Bahais use the word as an 'It' word, or to impress the unwary.
I don't think that there is anything spiritual about Bahai at all, but that's just my impression.
Seriously? Are you saying all that seriously?
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Part of what I think the world needs most, to heal and recover from its illnesses: and to bring out the best possibilities in people, in society and in the world around us, is economic and social development with love for God, revolving around self improvement and guided by spiritual values and principles.
Do not try to fool a grizzled old man who has 77 winters under his belt. Social work by evangelists is brand-building. Even corporates do it. :D
For me it’s all purely metaphorical, like conventional current flow, lines of force, elections orbiting around a nucleus, and trees of life.
Current flow, lines of force, elections orbiting around a nucleus, and trees of life are not metaphorical, they are facts. :D
 
Last edited:
Top