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Atheist looking for religious debate. Any religion. Let's see if I can be convinced.

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
You've used the Bible many times to support the Baha'i position.
Do you mean the prophecies? What I said still applies. The Bible does not have to come into a discussion of the Baha’i Faith. It comes into the discussion only because it is brought into the discussion. If people bring up the prophecies or ask me how they were fulfilled by Baha'u'llah I will tell them but I do not need the prophecies to support the Bahai position because it stands on its own two feet.
So then, Mr B wasn't a messenger from God. He was a messenger of God's proxy.
No, Baha'u'llah was a Messenger of God that God spoke to through the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus did.
The Holy Spirit is not God's proxy because the Holy Spirit is not a Person. :rolleyes:
The Messengers of God act as God's proxy, although they do more than that.
How so? Why is their method of reading something, feeling in their minds that it is true, and then counting that as "verification" of their beliefs any less valid than your method of reading something, feeling in your mind that it is true, and then counting that as "verification" of your beliefs?
I did not say it was less valid. I said they have not verified their faith in the same way I have verified my faith since all people verify their faith differently.
And shall we also agree on this: If something is based on an interpretation of some old text, and that text can be interpreted in more than one way, we should conclude that one particular interpretation is correct just because there was an event that can fit that interpretation?
No, we should not conclude one particular interpretation is true because we have an event that fits our interpretation, but if we know how all the events (prophecies) are tied together then we can assume that event (prophecy) is part of the bigger picture.
What a surprise. A person of a particular faith says that their faith is the only correct faith and all other faiths have made mistakes somewhere.
That is a straw man because I never said that the Baha'i Faith is the 'only correct faith' although I did say that all other faiths have made mistakes somewhere.
It's not like there are people of EVERY SINGLE faith on the planet making the same claim or anything...
I don't know of any other religion that makes that claim.
 
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Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Then if you agreed with what I said, why the attempt to make excuses?
Who is making excuses? I don't need to make excuses for what is not my fault.
So, that shows that you are making a deliberate attempt to keep the religious belief unfalsifiable. I suspect it's because you know that once it is in a state where it can be falsified, it WILL be falsified.
We already covered this. I am not making a deliberate attempt to keep the religious belief unfalsifiable because I have no control over that since I did not write the scriptures that cannot be falsified. Now are we square?
And what is this difference? That's just the same as saying, "Believers will testify that the Toaster answers some prayers although they could never prove it."
But believers don't pray to a toaster. If they did I can guarantee they'd get no answers but they might get answers if they prayed to God, even if they cannot prove that God answered their prayers, since what happened as a result of the prayer might have happened anyway. But to take this a step further, if everything is firmly in the grasp of God's will, whatever happened was God's will whether it was the result of the prayer or not. But to take this a step further, we can influence God's will by praying, so that is why people pray.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
You don't really expect me to think they remain unchanged though, do you? Science, by using peer review, is able to reduce and/or eliminate any personal biases that may be brought by one person. This happens because when other people run the same tests, they will not share the same biases as the first person, and also the more people examine the work, the more people there are who can spot situations where someone's bias may have inadvertently been introduced, and thus it can be corrected for.
But science is not religion as I have said before so the methods of verification are different. Peer review and testing cannot be used with religion so we have to do an individual investigation of truth and try to just look at the facts surrounding the religion and focus on those and not what we want to be true.
I would say that if it is unfalsifiable it can't be verified. How can anything unfalsifiable be verified?
Just because it cannot he verified to be false that does not mean it cannot be verified to be true.
Meaningless doubletalk.

Crew of the starship Enterprise can only be explained by the existence of the starship Enterprise because "crew of the starship Enterprise" cannot exist unless there is a starship Enterprise.

Look, I just proved that Star Trek is real.
What I said before was clumsy so let me restate that: Messengers of God can only be explained by the existence of God IF Messengers of God were sent by God because there has to be a God IF God sends Messengers.

I never said that proves that the alleged Messengers of God were sent by God. That is for you to prove to yourself should you accept that task.
You are using your conclusion as one of your premises, namely, that God exists.
Again, what I said before was clumsy so allow me to restate it:
What was on Baha'u'llah's agenda were the following:
  1. represent God, and
  2. carry out His mission/serve the Cause of God, and
  3. write scriptures
By carrying out His agenda items 1-3, Baha'u'llah provided evidence that:

(a) He was a Messenger of God, and
(b) God exists.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
If it has not been established as a fact, how can they justifiably claim to know it? Remember, the term "know" carries with it the implication that what is being claimed to be known is true.
They should not claim to know it since it cannot be proven as a fact (it is not established) but they can still believe that they know it in the following sense: 2a: to be aware of the truth or factuality of : be convinced or certain of

Definition of know

1a(1): to perceive directly : have direct cognition of (2): to have understanding of importance of knowing oneself(3): to recognize the nature of : discernb(1): to recognize as being the same as something previously known(2): to be acquainted or familiar with (3): to have experience of

2a: to be aware of the truth or factuality of : be convinced or certain of b: to have a practical understanding of knows how to write

Definition of KNOW
You don't have proper evidence when it comes to Mr B being a reincarnation of Jesus.
Baha'u'llah was not a reincarnation of Jesus! Baha'is do not believe in reincarnation.

Baha'u'llah was the return of Christ, the Comforter and the Spirit of truth who brought the Holy Spirit just as Jesus had brought the Holy Spirit.
Baha'u'llah was a different man in a different body with a different soul but He brought the SAME Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.

Look at what Jesus said in John 14, which flows from one verse to the next verse.

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; -- Jesus says that the Father (God) will give us another Comforter. Jesus was the first Comforter and Baha’u’llah was the second Comforter.

17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for hedwelleth with you, and shall be in you. – Jesus says that the world cannot see or receive the Spirit of truth (Baha’u’llah) because we do not know him yet, since he has not come yet; but the disciples know the Spirit of truth because it is the same Holy Spirit that resides in them as a result of Jesus. Iows, the Holy Spirit Baha’u’llah will bring is the same Holy Spirit that Jesus brought, since it is the Bounty of God which never changes.

18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. – Jesus said He would come but if you tie that together to the two verses above, we can see Jesus did not mean He would come in the same body, but rather the same Spirit would come (another Comforter). Moreover, he could not have addressing only the disciples, because neither Jesus nor Baha’u’llah came during their lifetimes.

19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.– Finally, Jesus made it perfectly clear that the world would not see Him again after He left; but we will see Him because His spirit lives on forever. As a result of believing in Jesus we will gain eternal life (because I live, ye shall live also).
Starting with your conclusion and then trying to find evidence that supports it is a terrible way to get to the truth. It's like you are TRYING to introduce biases into it!
That is not what I did, I was suggesting you do it. I meant that an atheist has to entertain the possibility that a God exists before he is going to look for evidence of a God existing. I did not do it that way. I first believed in Baha'u'llah and later came to believe in God. I assumed that a God must exist if Baha'u'llah was a Messenger of God, but I did not really 'believe in God' until much later.
Yeah, I don't see how that is anything more than reading a claim and "feeling" it to be true.
It is nothing like that. It is reading the claims so you will know what the claims are and then looking at the evidence that supports those claims. Feelings should not enter in because then you might only see what you want to see. It should be a purely intellectual exercise.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
The simple act of touching makes a nueral connection, same with all the senses.

I mean after all, trees in a forests are connected and communicate which each other. Imagine the vision if we were to see all those electrical Impulses, that would radically alter our perception of a tree and a forest.

Regards Tony
Hey Tony, This was a fictional story right? And what was the point? That if you can't see the bigger picture, you're going to make some wrong assumptions about reality. Someone who wasn't blind wouldn't have had the same problem. They would have seen the whole elephant.

And isn't that similar to what Baha'is think when people in other religions see only their religion and are blind to the bigger truth? That their religion is just one part of a bigger whole?
 

samtonga43

Well-Known Member
I know what it means because I just posted the definition.
You did? You posted the definition of Argumentum ad verba? Where did you post this?
More words do not 'necessarily' equate to more wisdom / truth / knowledge but Baha'u'llah He did bring more wisdom, truth, and knowledge than had ever been revealed by any other Messenger of God.
I disagree. I believe, having now read quite a lot of the B,man's florid prose, that the wisdom, truth and knowledge contained in the Christian Scriptures, and given by the Holy Spirit, cannot be improved upon.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Nonsense. You continually make the claim that you KNOW it is the truth. Don't you have a burden to prove that either..
1. You know it is the truth.
2. Because you know it is true -- it is true.
You know I've been around Christians and Baha'is when they are "witnessing" and "teaching. With either one the person is trying to give reasons to believe. Any teacher in most any religion knows how and what to say. They know the typical questions that are going to come up. And, "How do you know? What proof do you have?" is like one of the very first ones.
 

samtonga43

Well-Known Member
What was on Baha'u'llah's agenda were the following:
  1. represent God, and
  2. carry out His mission/serve the Cause of God, and
  3. write scriptures
By carrying out His agenda items 1-3, Baha'u'llah provided evidence that:

(a) He was a Messenger of God, and
(b) God exists.

And the B.Man got this agenda from.....?
 

samtonga43

Well-Known Member
You know I've been around Christians and Baha'is when they are "witnessing" and "teaching. With either one the person is trying to give reasons to believe. Any teacher in most any religion knows how and what to say. They know the typical questions that are going to come up. And, "How do you know? What proof do you have?" is like one of the very first ones.
Lol!
I am a Christian who does not 'KNOW' and has no 'PROOF'.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
It is not you who backed me into a corner; it is @CG Didymus, who insists upon talking about the Bible.
You've used the Bible many times to support the Baha'i position.
Yes she has. Simple things like... The gospels have Jesus coming back to life. And in Acts it says that he showed himself to be alive with many proofs. But, TB says "no." He's dead. Then Baha'u'llah said the Ishmael, and not Isaac, was the son taken by Abraham to be sacrificed. She doesn't know when or how the Jews changed the story in Genesis, but she knows they did because Baha'u'llah said so.

In a way I'm fine with all of that. Christianity is a made up, phony religion based on a bunch of fictional stories. I can believe that. But the Baha'is say the "virgin" birth story is true? I said that the verse used as a "prophecy" for the virgin birth was taken out of context. With that the Baha'is agreed with the Christians? That a woman that never had sex with a man gave birth to son?

So are they trustworthy? They "believe" and "disbelieve" every other major religion. No wonder she's "backed" into a corner. Her religion has put her and all the Baha'is into that position by believing what they want to and agree with, and ignoring, downplaying, or saying something was written as if it was a real, literal event was really "allegorical". There's no real proof... only a lot of the same kinds of things most all religions throw out there... "This is the way things are. And we know this because our prophet said so." But wait...

God does not even speak directly to the Messengers; God speaks to them through the Holy Spirit.
So then, Mr B wasn't a messenger from God. He was a messenger of God's proxy.
So what is really going on here? So this Persian guy took the title of "Baha'u'llah" I think they say that means, "The Glory of God" ...Great name... or I mean title... A "Maid of Heaven" told him he was God's guy and from that time on he knew things and could write really, really fast. But the information he was receiving wasn't directly from God. Some spirit, I hope it was the Holy Spirit and not some other kind of not so Holy Spirit, told him things. And told him that those things came from God? And he believed this spirit?

Was the evidence and proof that this spirit was from God Almighty and spoke for him? Or did this Persian guy just "believed"? After all the information was pretty profound. Therefore, it must have come from God. Then this Persian guy takes the title of Baha'u'llah and tells people that the words he is telling them and writing in his books came from God? And some people, not all, believed him, because why? Because he was a nice, very spiritual guy that said and wrote very profound things like, "What I say is the infallible truth from God, because the Holy Spirit said so." Okay, if he says so... that's proof enough... for some.
 
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CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Lol!
I am a Christian who does not 'KNOW' and has no 'PROOF'.
I usually qualify that by saying the "born again" Christians. When they witness to people they might even get into why the Bible can be trusted as the "infallible", "inerrant" Word of God.

But then if a Baha'is tries to "teach" the Baha'i word to that same person what are they going to say? That the Bible is not fully accurate and that many stories in the Bible are fictional? But, of course, their stuff, the Baha'i writings, are the real deal, because Baha'u'llah wrote or dictated exactly what the Holy Spirit told him. So it is the infallible and inerrant Word of God. So what ever the Baha'i Faith says is the truth regardless of what the Bible might say. Or so they tell me. And if you've been following some of the discussions I've been having with the Baha'is, then you've seen how it goes. Basically, the Bible and Christians are wrong if, in any way, they contradict the Baha'i Faith.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
And still, when was that time? And it is not in 457BC with the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. The daily sacrifice was taken away and the abomination was set up. When did that happen?

And is it me bringing up the Bible or is it you? And how will you and the other Baha'is dance around this question?
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Messengers of God can only be explained by the existence of God because “Messengers OF GOD” cannot exist unless there is a God.

Meaningless doubletalk.
As if nobody ever said they were God's prophet but weren't. But even some of the "accepted" "messengers" of God told very different stories about who God is... Like Krishna... And it's questionable if Buddha ever taught about God. And, I'm not sure, but I was told Zoroastrianism is dualistic. But one of the Gods, the bad one, isn't as strong as the good one. And I don't see any problem with people making up stories about their Gods. But, do they have to be true? Even the Baha'is make some of them fictional... Like the dying and rising God/man Jesus. They say he was real, and he really died, but he didn't come back to life and he wasn't God.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
I never claimed that Daniel said "Baha'u'llah came to do the decoding of the Bible."

Daniel did not say "Baha'u'llah came to do the decoding of the Bible" because Baha'u'llah had not even been born at that time.

Isaiah 62:2 And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.

Revelation 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Revelation 3:12-13 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

We were expected to figure out who the NEW Messenger who would unseal the Bible would be, if we wanted to know.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Hmmm? Isn't that you quoting the Bible? Well then, in Revelation who is the Lamb? A long, long time ago you actually said it was Jesus. Do you still think that way? I would be very surprised, because the "Lamb" is a key character and maybe even the returning character. Which, if the Baha'is are right, the Lamb has to be Baha'u'llah. Can you or any of the other Baha'is make Baha'u'llah fit the description given in Revelation about who this Lamb is?
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
No, Baha'u'llah was a Messenger of God that God spoke to through the Holy Spirit, same as Jesus.
Did God speak directly to some of the other "manifestations"? Like Adam and Noah and Abraham and Moses? 'Cause the Bible says that God did. Or is this another example of something written into the Bible but is wrong?
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
You did? You posted the definition of Argumentum ad verba? Where did you post this?
#2788 Trailblazer, Yesterday at 5:13 PM

#2797 Trailblazer, Today at 8:58 AM

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Argumentum+ad+verba
I disagree. I believe, having now read quite a lot of the B,man's florid prose, that the wisdom, truth and knowledge contained in the Christian Scriptures, and given by the Holy Spirit, cannot be improved upon.
That is your opinion, but I have a different opinion.

Having now read quite a lot of the New Testament, the writings of men who never even knew Jesus, I have concluded that the wisdom, truth and knowledge contained in the Writings of Baha'u'llah, a Manifestation of God who either wrote or dictated His own scriptures, given by the Holy Spirit, cannot be improved upon.
 
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TransmutingSoul

One Planet, One People, Please!
Premium Member
No the blind monks and the elephant.

I supplied an answer that was applicable to what was said about this reality being the illusion a construct of our relative state of being.

There is not a yes or no answer that is applicable, nor is it needed.

The blind man will not see the elephant as I do, it's existence in this world is thus perceived by the blind man in his relative state. The elephant I see, is not the one he can see and such is the same for all things. Now if we could see the elephant in the light it is made of, we may consider the entire subject in new frames of reference.

Meanwhile on the other hand we know what we see, exists in our current reality, as ii also does in other realities.

Regards Tony
 
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