use_your_brain
Active Member
Is bahai a true religion?
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Confused With My Own Beliefs
- Thread starter NeoTribalism
- Start date
Depends on your definition of true religion. I would personally call every religion a true religion because I don't believe I have the authority to judge.
NeoTribalism
Member
You very succinctly put my thoughts into a nice and neat sentence. Basically, what my first post was trying to say.
Funny enough, I was just reading about that when I read this. Thank you for the suggestion! I will continue my reading.
Wow, from once being a staunch atheist - I never thought I'd be searching for faith and beliefs like this.
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use_your_brain
Active Member
true religion, first, has to be claimed by its religion itself. does the bahai claim it is a true religion? why would someone spend their whole time to practice the religion that they themself do not know it is a true religion or not? what the bahai promise?
The Baha'i believe that there is only one religion and one God. Anyone who believes in God belongs to the religion.
use_your_brain
Active Member
which religion they mean?
The religion of God. The religion that has always existed and will always exist.
use_your_brain
Active Member
which religion are they?
The religion of God. Bahai isn't a religion as much as it is a collection of people who belong to the one eternal religion of God who are under the covenant of Bahaullah. Everyone else who claims to believe in God is part of the same exact religion they just haven't entered into the covenant.
use_your_brain
Active Member
then why would the people practice the Bahai to begin with if they already belong to the alleged true religion?
I can only speak for myself. But I believe that Bahaullah has brought forth a new revelation of God that better elucidates the future of humanity. I believe that if I follow Bahaullah then not only will there be more joy in my life personally but I will be helping humanity as a whole progress. We don't have a concept of heaven or hell so there is no fear of hell if one does not accept Bahaullah. Although we believe it is spiritually advantageous to do so.
I could be totally wrong, but when I first read your OP I saw visions of Lord of the Rings.
So it is clear, that good verse evil is a great incentive to get out of bed in the morning. There sure is a lot of adventure there.
My view is, if going down that path, there are two genres.
The whole devil thing usually fits well in a PERSONAL (good, hopefully) individual soul struggle with a PERSONAL (bad, if wanting to make you "not good") individual DEVIL ... meaning a self-conscious (and in my opinion, could be selfish, to me often could be also boring) individual "struggle".
Verse ...
ARMIES of Good verse ARMIES of Not-Very-Good or even Monsters or Knuckled-Heads perhaps led by an evil Demonic but essentially an EPIC struggle of huge armies and between "worlds" and such. Lord of the Rings essentially, less individual centric and more epic.
I hope that makes sense, hopefully I am explaining it a bit from my point of view.
In the "individual" struggle, the good You Soul is trying to "break free" from the bad Devil, the bad can be somewhat complex.
The good verse bad in EPIC battles of vast ARMIES can also be complex, but it is sort of easier to figure out who is the bad guys and they also typically utilize ugly knuckle draggers as Their "shock troopers" and perhaps slobbering beasts as well. Less complex to identify the "bad guys" even if they are led by an Evil Genius. The good armies usually have "light" as their weapons, throw in angelic types, they tend to be more "disciplined" and "pretty" both at the same time. Ok, not always pretty, but good soldiers and good hearts, even if looking like a monkey, a bear, or even dark. The march of the light brigade is still the spirit.
To me, the EPIC style Good verse Bad wars are more fun. And I like the "feel" - to be one soldier of an army un an epic battle. Sure, you can throw in INDIVIDUAL soul wrenching battles ("I AM YOUR FATHER!" stuff, or whatever), AND have the huge epic battles raging about you, then you get the magic death wand or whatever in the "individual" one on one but then back to the Valley of Death and Fire In The Sky and all.
So I think, while it sounds more "sophisticated" to be into the "individualistic" type religion and good verse bad soul wrenching one on one struggles, my gut is you might be like me and prefer the EPIC battles and join a VAST ARMY of one side or the other and LET'S HAVE GLORY.
But I could be wrong about you. I prefer to be, for example, a monkey in Rama's army, or a pointed eared Elf with arrows in the "good" army, instead of a guy in the desert talking to an evil cactus tree and struggling over a soul wrenching struggle of fear of death or something. But that's just me.
So where do you stand on INDIVIDUAL struggle verse EPIC struggle of good verse bad? That would go a long way. Even WITHIN a single religion, you have sects, one that leans INDIVIDUAL and another EPIC.
So it is clear, that good verse evil is a great incentive to get out of bed in the morning. There sure is a lot of adventure there.
My view is, if going down that path, there are two genres.
The whole devil thing usually fits well in a PERSONAL (good, hopefully) individual soul struggle with a PERSONAL (bad, if wanting to make you "not good") individual DEVIL ... meaning a self-conscious (and in my opinion, could be selfish, to me often could be also boring) individual "struggle".
Verse ...
ARMIES of Good verse ARMIES of Not-Very-Good or even Monsters or Knuckled-Heads perhaps led by an evil Demonic but essentially an EPIC struggle of huge armies and between "worlds" and such. Lord of the Rings essentially, less individual centric and more epic.
I hope that makes sense, hopefully I am explaining it a bit from my point of view.
In the "individual" struggle, the good You Soul is trying to "break free" from the bad Devil, the bad can be somewhat complex.
The good verse bad in EPIC battles of vast ARMIES can also be complex, but it is sort of easier to figure out who is the bad guys and they also typically utilize ugly knuckle draggers as Their "shock troopers" and perhaps slobbering beasts as well. Less complex to identify the "bad guys" even if they are led by an Evil Genius. The good armies usually have "light" as their weapons, throw in angelic types, they tend to be more "disciplined" and "pretty" both at the same time. Ok, not always pretty, but good soldiers and good hearts, even if looking like a monkey, a bear, or even dark. The march of the light brigade is still the spirit.
To me, the EPIC style Good verse Bad wars are more fun. And I like the "feel" - to be one soldier of an army un an epic battle. Sure, you can throw in INDIVIDUAL soul wrenching battles ("I AM YOUR FATHER!" stuff, or whatever), AND have the huge epic battles raging about you, then you get the magic death wand or whatever in the "individual" one on one but then back to the Valley of Death and Fire In The Sky and all.
So I think, while it sounds more "sophisticated" to be into the "individualistic" type religion and good verse bad soul wrenching one on one struggles, my gut is you might be like me and prefer the EPIC battles and join a VAST ARMY of one side or the other and LET'S HAVE GLORY.
But I could be wrong about you. I prefer to be, for example, a monkey in Rama's army, or a pointed eared Elf with arrows in the "good" army, instead of a guy in the desert talking to an evil cactus tree and struggling over a soul wrenching struggle of fear of death or something. But that's just me.
So where do you stand on INDIVIDUAL struggle verse EPIC struggle of good verse bad? That would go a long way. Even WITHIN a single religion, you have sects, one that leans INDIVIDUAL and another EPIC.
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use_your_brain
Active Member
so following the bahaullah just because people want the joy in life? what does the bahaullah promise to be exact? what if the people don't follow it? what will be the risk?
The risk is that one will miss a great opportunity to grow their spiritual capacity. We don't try to get people to convert by scaring them with hell. People who convert are people who recognize Bahaullah as the manifestation of God in this age and are excited to follow him and bring about his message.
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use_your_brain
Active Member
what does the spiritual capacity stand for to begin with? if the people of non bahai will not go to hell so why would they bother to follow the bahai?
how do they validate the manifestation of God?
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Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Maybe it's not you, but rather the form of the mold itself. Sometimes beliefs themselves should be unfettered and simply allowed to fly free unhindered so as to garner some contrast between what your actually envisioning , as it compares with the actuality of the overall landscape.My apologies advance - this might be bit of a ramble as I'm trying to feel around and get some kind of point of my beliefs.
I've always leaned towards the Panentheistic spectrum of my beliefs, but I feel as if there is more (or less?) to it.
I was born and raised Catholic, although I learned very little about Catholicism as a whole. I basically went because my family did and I thought it was the good thing to do. Just going through the motions. That all faded away when I hit my later teens and moved out on my own. It became too hard for me to blindly follow rules of a god that has had its word perverted and twisted by man for the purposes of control, greed, and power.
Now, I just turned 30 a few months ago, been married for a few years and recently been thinking of religion and my beliefs again. I managed to find this forum, which has been an amazing and eye-opening experience. Almost a little overwhelming at times, with all the information, haha.
Even though I may feel like I'm more of a panentheist, I still can't shake this feeling that there is some higher power that really does play a direct role in life.
I don't know if this sounds petty or not; But I think for me, it ultimately comes down to a sense of evil being punished and good being rewarded in the end - a punishment/reward system. I find it so hard to convince myself that people who murder, rape, or cause genocide can just die, be cast off into nothingness, and have their energy recycled into another form without any sort of repercussions.
I like to believe those who are "good" and generally aren't a huge @$%hole throughout life get some kind of reward in the end. Not that you have to live a squeaky-clean, pious life; But, you know - do the easy stuff - don't murder, rape, or steal.
I do realize that doesn't fit in with panentheistic belief systems, but I'm kinda torn.
Has anyone had similar conflicting feelings? The same ones?
Looking for some kind of advice.
Spiritual capacity is a term bahais use to describe the souls ability to serve God. They follow Bahaullah because they feel it is the right thing to do. Validation of the manifestations is tough. The manifestations are usually rejected. One has to engage in independent investigation of truth to determine them. However Bahaullah says a new one will not come for another 1000 years.
use_your_brain
Active Member
what do you mean the souls serve the God?
what is souls? who is the God per bahaism?
why do they think bahai is the right thing to follow?
what is the truth according to the bahai?