Baha’i Faith online and offline, two very different worlds

[Jim]

The Baha’i Faith that I see online looks to me mostly like echo chambers, bulletin boards, information booths, and people promoting their individual personal beliefs. The Baha’i Faith that I see offline is all about working side by side with neighbors, learning to help make local community life healthier, happier and more loving for every person in the community. In each world, the online one and the offline one, I see what looks to me like an aversion to the other.

ETA:

This is about the Baha’i Faith in Internet discussions. The worlds of Baha’i blogs and Web pages, and Baha’is in social networks, might be different.

 

[Jim]

I’ve been dreaming of seeing the Baha’i Faith online becoming more like the Baha’i Faith offline, and helping that happen.

I wonder ... could there be a wisdom in the folly of the online Baha’i Faith, like the wisdom I see sometimes in @PopeADope ’s folly?

 

[Spiderman]

I’ve been dreaming of seeing the Baha’i Faith online becoming more like the Baha’i Faith offline, and helping that happen.

I wonder ... could there be a wisdom in the folly of the online Baha’i Faith, like the wisdom I see sometimes in @PopeADope ’s folly?

It means a lot to me that you see some wisdom in my folly. God has made a lot of good come forth from the mistakes I've made in real life as well.

I'm very attracted to Baha’i Faith. It seems more rational than the Bible or Quran. It seems like the psychopathic verses in each of those books are not encouraged in Bahai theology or philosophy.

And they've been very persecuted so I admire them for being steadfast and enduring or dying for their faith.

 

[Sanzbir]

I’ve been dreaming of seeing the Baha’i Faith online becoming more like the Baha’i Faith offline, and helping that happen.

I wonder ... could there be a wisdom in the folly of the online Baha’i Faith, like the wisdom I see sometimes in @PopeADope ’s folly?

"In ignorance he findeth many a knowledge hidden, and in knowledge a myriad wisdoms manifest." (Valley of Knowledge, Seven Valleys, Baha'u'llah)

 

[Jedster]

"In ignorance he findeth many a knowledge hidden, and in knowledge a myriad wisdoms manifest." (Valley of Knowledge, Seven Valleys, Baha'u'llah)

Indeed.

Blessed are the cracked for they let out the light.

 

[Jim]

If it matters to anyone, the Baha’i Faith that people are seeing in Internet discussions is totally disconnected from the offline Baha’i community. They look like two completely different religions to me. I don’t think that anything that any Baha’is do in Internet discussions is sponsored or endorsed by any Baha’i institution or agency, or even by mutual agreement. What we are doing is all on our own personal initiative.

If anyone has any curiosity or academic interest in the aims, purposes, interests and activities of the Baha’i community in the world around them offline, you won’t learn anything about it in Internet discussions with Baha’is.

 

[arthra]

If anyone has any curiosity or academic interest in the aims, purposes, interests and activities of the Baha’i community in the world around them offline, you won’t learn anything about it in Internet discussions with Baha’is.

I'm not sure I would agree with you Jim.. there have been attempts to offer guidance to Baha'is on the Internet such as

http://bahai-library.com/pdf/b/bia_bahai_participation_internet.pdf

We also have Baha'is active on "QUORA" as well as those opposed to the Faith.

I've also had contact with Baha'is on "twitter" from Ireland, Great Britain, Canada and Tahirih Justice Center:https://www.tahirih.org/

1. Baha'is of the United States (@BahaiUS) | Twitter
   https://twitter.com/BahaiUS
   The latest Tweets from Baha'is of the United States (@BahaiUS). WE ARE ONE - We believe it’s time for humanity to come together as one family, to create a world where everyone can thrive. United States
   
   
   
2. UK Baha'i Community (@UKBahais) | Twitter
   https://twitter.com/UKBahais
   The latest Tweets from UK Baha'i Community (@UKBahais). Official Twitter account of the Baha'i Community of the UK. United Kingdom

The Baha'i International Community has frequent news and documents
Bahá’í International Community

 

[Jim]

@arthra I’m saying that no one will learn anything from Baha’is in Internet discussions, about the aims, purposes, interests and activities of the Baha’i Faith in the world around them, offline. Not that anyone in Internet discussions wants to know anything about it. This is just one of my exercises in futility. What I mean by “Internet discussions” is mainly online forums and discussion groups. What happens on blogs, websites and social networks might be a different story. I don’t really know, but I intend to find out.