The irony in the Baha'i faith

[Jim]

We have all read the Baha'i quote that says the Bible is not totally authentic. And how could it? Various writers that nobody really knows who they are. Nobody knows if Moses really wrote the first five books. But we do know Jesus wrote nothing. And that every accepted and canonized gospel has variations in it. Then, like in Daniel, when was it really written and who wrote it? If it isn't perfectly accurate, then how can we trust those prophecies in it? But, then can we trust it when it says Daniel's friends were thrown into a furnace and didn't die or even get burned? That certainly isn't true is it?

But, the intent of most religions is generally to give rules to live by. Those rules have changed, progressed, over time. So Baha'is are kind of right. All religions are similar and have progressed when it comes to social laws. But, they have also changed with how they see spiritual things too. And that don't fit with what Baha'is say. One God, no God, many Gods? Incarnations, reincarnations? Devils and demon gods? For me, religion seems like just reasonable guesses at what a spiritual world would be like. And, the laws fit really well into what each culture needed to keep order in their society. And, as society changed, those laws changed. But the easiest thing to do was to say those laws came from a God, so you better obey them. So I almost agree with the Baha'i Faith, just a few minor adjustments in interpretation.

I almost agree with you, with just a few minor adjustments.

 

[Jim]

It was the Prophecy given in that book that confirmed what my heart has accepted.

That’s good for me to know about you.

... the common Foundations of Faith, the Oneness of God and the Oneness of the Messengers.

I saw the oneness of God and of His Manifestations in a flash, once when I was reading some words of Bahá’u’lláh. That removed my last doubts about becoming a member of the worldwide Baha’i community.

 

[Jim]

I’m wondering now how I would answer the questions that I’ve been asking Tony. All I can think of is, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. It looks to me like Bahá’u’lláh is exalting His Revelation, and maybe His true followers, above all others, In my mind that doesn’t make the Baha’is and their beliefs any better than any other people and their beliefs. I see part of what Baha’i communities are doing around the world as being on the leading edge of human progress and world community service, but it isn’t all Baha’is, or only Baha’is, doing that work. I see a growing number of people learning to trust and follow Bahá’u’lláh and the Universal House of Justice as an indispensable part of human progress and at its heart and center, but for me that doesn’t make Baha’is and their beliefs any better than other people and their beliefs. I don’t say that all religions are one, because I think that confuses people. I think that I see what Abdul-Baha might mean by saying that the foundation of all the religions is one, but for me it does not mean that the religions as they are today are equal, that their beliefs can be reconciled or that there can possibly be any universal common ground between them.

 

[CG Didymus]

I’m wondering now how I would answer the questions that I’ve been asking Tony. All I can think of is, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. It looks to me like Bahá’u’lláh is exalting His Revelation, and maybe His true followers, above all others, In my mind that doesn’t make the Baha’is and their beliefs any better than any other people and their beliefs. I see part of what Baha’i communities are doing around the world as being on the leading edge of human progress and world community service, but it isn’t all Baha’is, or only Baha’is, doing that work. I see a growing number of people learning to trust and follow Bahá’u’lláh and the Universal House of Justice as an indispensable part of human progress and at its heart and center, but for me that doesn’t make Baha’is and their beliefs any better than other people and their beliefs. I don’t say that all religions are one, because I think that confuses people. I think that I see what Abdul-Baha might mean by saying that the foundation of all the religions is one, but for me it does not mean that the religions as they are today are equal, that their beliefs can be reconciled or that there can possibly be any universal common ground between them.

The Baha'i answer I always get is that all the religions today have misinterpreted their own Scriptures. When used against Christians it usually means they take it too literal. The other thing I hear from Baha'is that there has been traditions added in that weren't in the original message. The one thing I bring up all the time is that Baha'is belief that Ishmael, and not Isaac, was the one taken to be sacrificed. I don't see how or why that would happen. Isaac is central to the progression for the Jews. Ishmael isn't. Plus, it is assuming the story is true... what if Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael are all based on legends and not real, historical people? So talk about taking ancient writings too literal. If is just a story, like one Baha'i likes to say about the Bible, then Isaac is the one that best fits the story. Ishmael doesn't matter to anyone until Islam and the Baha'is came around.

 

[Jim]

This is about what Baha’is say and do in Internet discussions, and I’m a Baha’i, so I want to say more about what I do in Internet discussions.

First I’ll say that Bahá’u’lláh says that His mission is to seize and possess people’s hearts, and Shoghi Effendi says explicitly that one of the aims of our goals and plans is to recruit members. That doesn’t mean that any Baha’is in the forums are trying to convince anyone else in the forums to become members of the Baha’i Faith. I haven’t seen anything that looks like that to me. I have sometimes seen Baha’is continually pushing things into people’s faces that that they don’t want to see, sometimes in ways that look devious to me, which to me seems contrary to the spirit of forum rules, and to Bahá’u’lláh’s purposes and prescriptions.

I personally have never seen Internet forums as a Baha’i place for me to try to promote or defend my beliefs or my view of Baha’i teachings. Sometimes I’ve tried to counteract what looks to me like misunderstandings about Bahá’u’lláh’s purposes and about the worldwide Baha’i Faith community, being spread by Baha’is, but that has never been a reason for me to be posting in Internet discussions.

I’ll give some examples of what I’ve done in Internet discussions, with Bahá’u’lláh’s purposes in mind:
- Trying to free myself from any prejudices and delusions that I might have without being aware of them.
- Trying to be a friend to some of the people I saw being stigmatized and marginalized the most.
- Trying to be a counter example to what people think about Baha’is from what they see them doing in Internet discussions.
- Trying to practice and promote some kinds of behavior that I’d like to see more in Internet discussions.
- Trying to practice and promote a kind of community development in Internet neighborhoods like what I see the House of Justice promoting offline.