Thanks, but it doesn't get down to the roots of ancient religious beliefs. Was there a point where all religions believed many Gods and Goddesses? Did they have good Gods vs. evil Gods? How many different flood and creation stories were there? How many religious beliefs are not believed to be "God-made" but "man-made" myth?
I believe religions have progressed and are still progressing, just not like the Baha'is believe... That one supreme God sent messengers approximately every 1000 years. And that "true" message got distorted every single time. Since all people in all tribes and cultures have a religion, then did each have their own messenger? I don't think so. It would take more than one coming every 1000 years I would think.
Another problem is Baha'is don't include any one other than Krishna from Hinduism. Another problem is that great empires had religions, like China, Egypt, Greece and Rome, but those religions aren't in the "progression"? Oh, and others like the Mayans and Aztecs... But the modern world has moved away from the things in the religions of those empires. And we see them as no than myth and superstition. Even now Baha'is are pushing to get rid of mythical and superstitious beliefs like a dying and rising God/man and incarnations of God.
Sure religious thoughts and beliefs are progressing. But, show me how the Baha'is really believe it works. Since the "school grade" analogy doesn't work for me, show me how you can go from Hinduism to Judaism or Zoroastrianism to Buddhism than to Christianity? And all the while ignoring all the other religious beliefs in the world at the time? But thanks Tony, but since od19g6 started this thread, I hope od19g6 can be the one to answer these questions.
Oh, and the tree analogy doesn't work either. In a real tree, all the roots are drawing the same stuff out of the ground to nourish the tree. And all the branches are made out of the same material. And all the leaves are all very much the same and do the same job. In a progressive revelation tree, all the roots would have started pure, but then all got distorted. All the distorted roots rebelled against themselves, claiming to be trying to get back to the original but actually causing more distortions. Some distorted roots reached the ground and sprouted up into distorted trees, not one tree. The branches of one tree tried to choke off the other branches on their own tree and also reach over and kill off the branches and even the trunk of the other trees, saying that they are false trees.
Then the Baha'i tree comes along and tells that the "originally", they were all meant to be one tree and all had the same one "pure" root. But where is that original one pure root? The roots of all the trees were too distorted and tangled to figure out where they even came from.
