Truthseeker
Non-debating member when I can help myself
Disclaimer: This is the same post essentially as that which started a debate last week, which was titled "Introduction to the Baha'i Faith", but the entire thread was lost. I am starting this again.
This video starts with the atheist “cosmology”. It talks about the big bang, evolution, humans are different only because we have bigger brains, and then goes on to say that atheists don't see any purpose inherent in the Universe but we can make our own individual purposes. There's no objective moral truth. The perspective offered is a generalized simplified version of the atheist perspective. Everybody is different. He says so explicitly in this video that it's over simplified, so it won't be too long.
The Christian cosmology he presents is also a simplification of the Christian perspective. There were prophets before Jesus, who was His only begotten Son. There was the virgin birth, was baptized, saw the Holy Spirit manifested in a dove, and preached the gospel, performed many miracles and eventually was put to death. The only way to the Father is through Him, and He died for our sins on the cross, and was resurrected three days later, and went back up to be with His Father. Some day He will return and take true believers with Him and/or build the kingdom of God on Earth. The Christian view is that salvation of one's immortal soul comes from believing in Christ, being baptized, and that good Christian eventually go to heaven, and most others go to hell. There's more to it than that. Keep in mind this is only one Baha'is perspective also, as he says in the beginning.
I believe he only showed atheism and Christianity perspectives because he is primarily speaking to the Christian world, which this forum is obviously not limited to.
His perspective of the Baha'i Faith is his also. Point number1 is that He taught that there is one God with many names, and all who worship are praying to the same God. An all-loving, all-knowing creative force in us and around us as well as in an infinite number of other worlds beyond this material one. These worlds are spiritual ones we can go to after we die.
The next point is that there is only one religion. Baha'u'llah taught there is one religion ever unfolding under the agency of God. This one faith is gradually revealed and updated by certain divine teachers, who come along over 500 or 1000 years or so. We need to progress spiritually over time as well as materially, socially, and technologically. Over a long period of time, more Divine Teachers will be sent. There is a great of difference between, for instance Islam and Buddhism, but if you look at what the Prophets taught, what they specifically said, or what they are supposed to have said, keeping in mind that sometimes they didn't write down what they said for hundreds of years, there are way more similarities than differences. These similarities are laid out at the 7:49 mark of the video, which goes on until 9:18 approximately.
He presents the Baha'i perspective that what is most needed in today's world is unity which is point 3. He presents the approximation that one billion people go to bed hungry each night and that must be acted upon if we really are to consider each person as good the next person. Racism is brought up, which is a barrier to unity. Economic injustice is another one. In October 2019 when this video was put online 26 men owned half as much as the rest of the planet, he says, which is unsustainable in the long run. Women being treated as second class citizens is another problem. Science and religion must be in harmony. It's a kind of disunity if they are not. We are supposed to fight for the social justice, and live lives of service. I add my thought that this fight for social justice should be from a nonpartisan perspective.
This is something that should be critically examined, and explored in further investigation, not taken at face value, while also keeping in mind this is not the “official” Baha'i position. He says at the end that this does need further exploration to verify all of this. He enters the plea in any case for us to all to work together, whatever your religion, and also if you are an atheist.
This video starts with the atheist “cosmology”. It talks about the big bang, evolution, humans are different only because we have bigger brains, and then goes on to say that atheists don't see any purpose inherent in the Universe but we can make our own individual purposes. There's no objective moral truth. The perspective offered is a generalized simplified version of the atheist perspective. Everybody is different. He says so explicitly in this video that it's over simplified, so it won't be too long.
The Christian cosmology he presents is also a simplification of the Christian perspective. There were prophets before Jesus, who was His only begotten Son. There was the virgin birth, was baptized, saw the Holy Spirit manifested in a dove, and preached the gospel, performed many miracles and eventually was put to death. The only way to the Father is through Him, and He died for our sins on the cross, and was resurrected three days later, and went back up to be with His Father. Some day He will return and take true believers with Him and/or build the kingdom of God on Earth. The Christian view is that salvation of one's immortal soul comes from believing in Christ, being baptized, and that good Christian eventually go to heaven, and most others go to hell. There's more to it than that. Keep in mind this is only one Baha'is perspective also, as he says in the beginning.
I believe he only showed atheism and Christianity perspectives because he is primarily speaking to the Christian world, which this forum is obviously not limited to.
His perspective of the Baha'i Faith is his also. Point number1 is that He taught that there is one God with many names, and all who worship are praying to the same God. An all-loving, all-knowing creative force in us and around us as well as in an infinite number of other worlds beyond this material one. These worlds are spiritual ones we can go to after we die.
The next point is that there is only one religion. Baha'u'llah taught there is one religion ever unfolding under the agency of God. This one faith is gradually revealed and updated by certain divine teachers, who come along over 500 or 1000 years or so. We need to progress spiritually over time as well as materially, socially, and technologically. Over a long period of time, more Divine Teachers will be sent. There is a great of difference between, for instance Islam and Buddhism, but if you look at what the Prophets taught, what they specifically said, or what they are supposed to have said, keeping in mind that sometimes they didn't write down what they said for hundreds of years, there are way more similarities than differences. These similarities are laid out at the 7:49 mark of the video, which goes on until 9:18 approximately.
He presents the Baha'i perspective that what is most needed in today's world is unity which is point 3. He presents the approximation that one billion people go to bed hungry each night and that must be acted upon if we really are to consider each person as good the next person. Racism is brought up, which is a barrier to unity. Economic injustice is another one. In October 2019 when this video was put online 26 men owned half as much as the rest of the planet, he says, which is unsustainable in the long run. Women being treated as second class citizens is another problem. Science and religion must be in harmony. It's a kind of disunity if they are not. We are supposed to fight for the social justice, and live lives of service. I add my thought that this fight for social justice should be from a nonpartisan perspective.
This is something that should be critically examined, and explored in further investigation, not taken at face value, while also keeping in mind this is not the “official” Baha'i position. He says at the end that this does need further exploration to verify all of this. He enters the plea in any case for us to all to work together, whatever your religion, and also if you are an atheist.