World Peace and Religion

[Unity of Mankind]

A problem for Baha'is in bringing peace is that they don't believe in the "oneness" of religion. They believe all the other religions are off track.

I like what Udo Schaefer had to say in his book entitled “the light shineth in darkness”. Sorry but footnotes are excluded since it would simply take too much time I don’t have to include them. The following expresses the principle that religions have their season of springtime, summer, fall, and winter.

“...we cannot perceive what the essence of religion is and what it has the power to achieve if we examine the traditional great religions in their present form. They have achieved much but have reached an end to their road; they were the foundation of great cultures and for thousands of years they were the guiding-star of millions of people in their everyday life and activities. But during the course of history thy have also accumulated large amounts of historical ballast. They have moved a long way from their origin and are burdened with their followers’ misdeeds and cravings for power. They are no pleasant sight today, least of all to young people, who no longer see in these religions the ‘salt of the earth’ as Jesus called his disciples, but rather the ‘opium of the people’ (Karl Marx). And one is easily inclined to pass judgment on religion as a whole, and to see in it an anachronism of past times, long since overcome, like the belief in demons in former times. But a withered plant does not give us the faintest idea of its blossoming time. In reality, religions are the ‘light of the world’ and, according to Baha’u’llah’s teachings, the foundation of human culture. It is important to understand that they are as necessary for mankind as sunlight for the plant. Without divine revelation, there would be neither progress nor culture: “Were this revelation to be withdrawn, all would perish.’ Page 25-26.

The gospel writers all say that people saw the risen Jesus. Did they? Baha'is say they meant the story about Jesus having physically come back to life were meant to be taken figuratively. So for 2000 years Christians that believe Jesus literally rose from the dead have been wrong? I don't blame them. I blame God... if the Baha'is are correct. God "inspired" those writers to write a story down about the resurrection of Jesus that was misleading?

I don’t think God inspiring writers are equivalent to what Jesus Christ, or any other Manifestation of God or Prophet is, Who are empowered to bring forth a Revelation from God. They simply don’t have the same connection to God as Prophets do. If you blame God if Baha’is are correct then how can you be referring to a real God? If a real God exists only blame could be leveled at humans since they are very prone to error or worse.

 

[Ponder This]

Robert Stockman may have adressed this in detail at this link;

Faith and Belief
Bahá’í Definitions of Faith and Belief.

This is an extract I see may be applicable to your thoughts;

"...`Abdu’l-Bahá describes faith as having three progressively more sophisticated forms. The first and simplest He calls objective faith, which is "expressed by the outer [physical] man" and which consists of "obedience of the limbs and senses." The second is subjective faith and consists of "unconscious obedience to the will of God." All created things, whether intelligent or not, are capable of these two types of faith. Only humans, however, are capable of the third type of faith, discerning faith, which `Abdu’l-Bahá defines as "true knowledge of God and the comprehension of divine words" (Bahá’í World Faith, 364). Here `Abdu’l-Bahá appears to be defining faith as a form of conscious knowledge; his definition echoes the biblical description of faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (New Testament, Hebrews 11:1).

But the Bahá’í sacred writings also recognize faith as engagement and response. Bahá’u'lláh defines the "essence of faith" as "fewness of words and abundance of deeds" and warns that "he whose words exceed his deeds, know verily his death is better than his life" ("The Words of Wisdom," in Tablets of Bahá’u'lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas,156). `Abdu’l-Bahá, wishing to correct the impression of a correspondent that deeds are acceptable in and of themselves, defined faith as "first, conscious knowledge, and second, the practice of good deeds" (Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas, vol. III, 549); thus `Abdu’l-Bahá combined both knowledge and action into a definition of faith, but emphasized the priority of conscious knowledge....."

Does that tie into what you were thinking?

Regards Tony

I don't see how this ties into the question of the morality of World Peace.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

and so World Peace must be moral by definition. In other words the morality of something necessitates a subjective judgement.

" The second is subjective faith and consists of "unconscious obedience to the will of God." All created things, whether intelligent or not, are capable of these two types of faith.

I see in the quote postes that Subjective morality is limited to the extent we show obedience to the will of God. Every one is created in God's image and has the potential of all virtue, but to bring out the potential of that virtue, more is needed.

Thus the quote went on to say;

Only humans, however, are capable of the third type of faith, discerning faith, which `Abdu’l-Bahá defines as "true knowledge of God and the comprehension of divine words" (Bahá’í World Faith, 364). Here `Abdu’l-Bahá appears to be defining faith as a form of conscious knowledge; his definition echoes the biblical description of faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (New Testament, Hebrews 11:1).

We can then know what is needed, the path forward is always given by God.

Regards Tony

 

[Ponder This]

I see in the quote postes that Subjective morality is limited to the extent we show obedience to the will of God. Every one is created in God's image and has the potential of all virtue, but to bring out the potential of that virtue, more is needed.

Thus the quote went on to say;



We can then know what is needed, the path forward is always given by God.

Regards Tony

Hmm. So If I remove the word "faith" from the explanation and replace it with the word "morality"?

So... do you mean that people's desires for World Peace are part of their "unconscious obedience to the Will of God"?

But then how do you decide which desires of the people are the unconscious obedience to the Will of God and which are not? Or do you mean that all of a person's desires are an expression of unconscious obedience to the Will of God? How do we "discern" the morality?

Quote:

Only humans, however, are capable of the third type of faith, discerning faith,which `Abdu’l-Bahá defines as "true knowledge of God and the comprehension of divine words" (Bahá’í World Faith, 364). Here `Abdu’l-Bahá appears to be defining faith as a form of conscious knowledge; his definition echoes the biblical description of faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (New Testament, Hebrews 11:1).
-Robert Stockman​

Is it moral because the majority of people seem to desire it?