What is you opinion of this Baha'i Faith thing? Is world government/peace a reason/in
I have nothing against peace so long as it is not an imposed peace, it should be a united decision, in my view.
Your opinion...
I am not a theist; though I like considering its ideas philosophically anyway.
I'll keep all this in mind.
Even if I held the same as the Baha'i, I would not label myself, for question is ever my liberty.
To follow something is to remain silent to some measure; vocally and individually.
I am my function (in my view for now).
Please also remember, that quality/value is not owned by any religion (my present affirmative).
My opinion is that the Baha'i faith is as legitimate as any other religion and that its practitioners are free to worship as they wish without interference from government or other religions.
It seems oddly political and nonspiritual at first. But you have to remember that Baha'i grew from Islam, a political system of subjugation devised by the warlord Muhammad. It is not surprising that there are some decent and caring people in Islamic countries, and they would want peace and tolerance between faiths. Being used to a religion intertwined with politics they would naturally assume that this would be the answer.
I offer no real opinion on the Baha'i Faith other than they are an updated blending of Islam and Christianity through their founder, Baha'ullah. I like aspects of their faith, but they have some interesting inconsistencies, such as believing men and women are equal but women cannot serve in their senior leadership council and their propensity for secrecy, but all that is beyond this post. The idea of world government has been around a long time and, in principle, I like the idea. That being said, how it would be done is everything. One such proposal, which I like, is called world federalism. One such model for that is, the USA or the European Union. Each society runs most of its own affairs, but some things are elevated to the international level. Establishing a uniform currency might be one such goal. War might be outlawed and perhaps there would be better coordination to address terrorism, whether the terrorism is done for ideological reasons or money, as in narc-terrorism. There might also be ways to address global pollution through coordinated actions rather than each society going it alone, or not at all. It might also help in the realm of human rights. No you don't get to kill members of that tribe because Fear-less Leader tells you to do so.
As far as belief in God, that will always vary. First, the concept of God will vary from religion to religion, culture to culture and, frankly, the level of understanding at to what makes the universe operate. For example, we know more now than we did at the time of Sir Issac Newton. Secondly, if a religion can help us understand our connectedness biologically, chemically and atomically, then that is a good thing. But remember, there are people who are not theistic who can sign on to that idea as well.
Please, if you will, keep this open for a while. unable to answer right now but have a very few comments to add to (mostly) Bobbee who did a decent job overall.
Thanks, I am back.
Bobber did a pretty decent job for someone who is not a Baha?i. This is not to denigrate in any way at all, just my views of some of his comments.
updated blending of Islam and Christianity: Updated yes, but not a ?blending.? Was your eighth grade math a blending of sixth and seventh grade math classes, or simply building on principles and skills learned earlier, with all having the same ?source?? The Baha?i Faith is the next stage but not the final. In fact, this process recurs as needed and will keep recurring as long as there are people. Just this next ?Age? will be 500,000 years long, and if there is a new one about every 1,000 years, there will be many more just in this age, and then what about the age to follow?
As far as women not being eligible for election to the Universal House of Justice, that only appears to be an inconsistency, and on a closer and more profound examination is not an inconsistency at all. The scope of answering that is, as he stated, beyond this post. I would very much like to understand his claim of our ?propensity for secrecy,? especially since I would claim we are anything but secret and there have been a number of non-Baha?is who have made note of how transparent and open we are as a group. As for the remainder of his first paragraph, the idea of world government has been around a long time, in fact, since Baha?u?ll ah first stated there would eventually come a time when there would be a need for it. ?World federalism? is exactly how Baha?u?ll ah describe it, with every single positive aspect also initiated and firmly grounded in Baha?i Principles. I find it amusing the large if not vast number of principles and goals that are supported by various groups, Atheists included, and with none of them aware they are supporting the teachings and proposals of no one other than Baha?u?llah.
I think I am going to pick on one thing by way of example. To quote: ?There might also be ways to address global pollution through coordinated actions rather than each society going it alone, or not at all.? What bobber did was describe what has been called ?Sustained Development.? Within the last few years I have read headlines calling Sustained Development ?The Most Exciting Development to Have Appeared in Decades If Not Centuries!? It is generally believed that Sustained Development dates to 1992 and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, but in fact it was first enunciated by Baha?u?llah over one hundred years earlier. I am not going to list what would be a considerable number of separate instances, but the fact is, had it not been for Baha?is that UN conference almost certainly would have never taken place, nor would there have been the very first Delhi Sustainable Development Summit or any since then. I would be quite surprised to find there is any significant group or movement toward Sustained Development that does not have a significant number of Baha?is involved.
I will state this and then move on, after studying it in depth, try as I might, I can think of not even one current social, scientific or political problem that was not addressed first by Baha?u?llah, and in many cases decades before society at large ever recognized it was a problem. Moving on, bobber mentioned that the concept of God will vary from religion to religion, but the Baha?i Faith shows every sign of fairly soon becoming the world?s largest. When all but a few have embraced the Baha?i Faith, what then? The Baha?i definition is God is an ?Unknowable Essence.? I think I would not be amiss to state there are as many personal concepts of God in the Baha?i Faith as there are Baha?is. Looks as though I am running out of room again, so I will simply state that the Baha?i Faith in its scripture claims to represent not just all religions but very specifically claims to represent the interests of the Atheists. Need I say more? Just wish I had the room to do so!
The Baha'i Faith teaches that God is unknowable in His essence and that it is only through studying the lives and teachings of His Manifestations that we can begin to know something about God. Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i Faith, and the latest of God's Divine Teachers or Manifestations, states: "The knowledge of Him, Who is the Origin of all things, and attainment unto Him, are impossible save through knowledge of, and attainment unto, these luminous Beings who proceed from the Sun of Truth." (the metaphor of the sun is often used in the Baha'i writings to "describe" God, because the sun is the source of all life on this earth, but it never descends to the earth and nor can we approach it)
"Men and women have been and will always be equal in the sight of God" (Baha'u'llah). This means, then, that the fact that women do not serve on the Universal House of Justice is for another reason - not an equality reason. The Baha'i teachings state that the reason for this will become as clear as the noon-day sun in the future.
Baha'is don't believe in God because it will bring about World Peace. Like those of other religions (at their best) we believe in God because at some point we experienced His Presence. Brother Tucker is right about this. The Christian who said the only doctrine he ever heard from Baha'is is what is found in Psalm 86:2 apparently knows no Baha'i doctrines whatsoever. We are neither pantheists or polytheists. We belong to the same Abrahamic family of religions as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The impression that we are somehow a 'blend' of Christianity and Islam probably comes from this shared background, but Baha'u'llah had very little contact with Christians that He might have been influenced by them. In fact the Baha'i Faith has the same relationship to Islam that Christianity has to Judaism. Baha'is believe that God has continually sent Figures we call Manifestations throughout history to guide people. These Figures include the Founders of most religions. We call them Manifestations because we believe They manifest in their own Persons everything we can understand about God humanly speaking. What distinguishes us from Christianity is that we do not believe the essence of God can be incarnated, nor do we believe that what Jesus did was something that could be done once and never again. We believe God is more than capable of forgiving sins any way He chooses. We differ from Islam in that we do not believe that Revelation ended with Muhammad. This is what every religion wants to say. As the Qur'an itself points out:
'And Joseph came to you before with manifest signs, but ye ceased not to doubt concerning what he brought you, until, when he perished, ye said, God will not send after him an apostle;" thus does God lead astray him who is extravagant, a doubter.
(The Qur'an (E.H. Palmer tr), Sura 40 - The Believer)
In any case, the peace which Baha'is seek will never be an imposed one. World government is something we believe will come by evolution, not revolution.
What is you opinion of this Baha'i Faith thing? Is world government/peace a reason/in
