Yes like chapters of a book.
-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
How are these Great Beings explained?
- Thread starter loverofhumanity
- Start date
Yes like chapters of a book.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
What you believe is not christianity. Christianity is a superiority religion. The love, compassion, and "turn the other cheek" that Christ taught were for brothers and sisters in christ. Correct brothers and sisters. But if he were not superior he would not refer to anyone as his enemy. "Love your enemies" as they say. However, he does. He makes a separation of who is from god and who is not.
That is christianity. What you believe may help you but to say it's christianity is completely disrespectful.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Different books not one book, right?
We're on a website called 'religious forum' in the general debate section. Debate about religious ideas is entirely appropriate. People such as yourself can criticise the Baha'i faith just as I can criticise Christianity. This seems useful to me, because we have an opportunity to learn from each other. If the Baha'i faith can not be defended then so be it.
Clearly each of us believes our own faith to be the best, otherwise why would we continue?
Who is better or worse, none can say. I could apply none of the Baha'i teachings, and you could apply just one teaching of Hinduism and excel me in every way.
I have little experience of Hinduism so it would be hollow, but I have a great deal of experience with Christianity.
What about the Christians who don't believe in the resurrection and feel disempowered to say anything because they risk being thrown out of their religion?
I certainly am critical of this belief and I make no apology for it.
I have never pointed out any faults with any religion. We believe in the truth of all of them. You must be misunderstanding or reading something into my posts that are simply not there.
We believe in the truth of all Faiths as set down by the Founder. Not the traditions, dogmas or anything added afterwards by the followers or clergy.
So we make a clear distinction between what the Founders say and what the followers have added. We only follow and believe in what the Founders originally taught.
Yes you could say that. Like different books in a Library.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
How so you follow a faith from the founders when (unless you are using your own or an outsiders interpretation) you are not any practitioner of any of these faiths?
You can't have Christianity without the body of christ. Christ emphasis followers. Your best bet to know christianity and scripture from a christian perspective not your own as a bahai is to actually find what each differing christian has in common. Attend bible study at different churches and actually see christianity through their eyes. They believe in the resurrection, try to believe that too. They believe jesus IS god not a manifestation of him. Try to believe that. Also, you'd have understand communion.
Communion is one of the greatest tenants in the christian faith. You cannot follow christianity if you are not a brother or sister in christ.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
You're trying hard. Different libraries not one.
I don't have to be a member of any church to believe in Jesus and the Bible. God gave us all our own minds for a very good reason otherwise He would have made just one collective mind.
“O Son of Spirit!
The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.”
Excerpt From: Bahá'u'lláh. “The Hidden Words.”
We have been endowed with talents and faculties with which to know truth from falsehood. We don't need a collective mind (there isn't one) to dictate to us when we have our own independent minds.
Your portraying each religion like one collective where we must all comply with the collective excet humanity is not a collective but single entities with individual minds and consciousnesses to investigate truth for ourselves.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
No, not different books in a library. Different libraries in totally different cities in totally different countries.
Different libraries in a university.
Fact: There are over 100 libraries within the University of Cambridge.
The Kilted Heathen
Crow FreyjasmaðR
The question is (for everyone): do you believe your faith is the best for everyone, or just for yourself?
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
If you want to believe in christianity, you do have to be a member (if you like) of the body of christ. You have to have like-minds. You have to throw away Bahaullah's writings as a authoritative text.
Many religions believe in god
But you are not following christianity without being part of the body of christ.
I'm treating each religion as it's own expression and it's own truth.
By doing so, I am respecting individual religions and if I wanted to follow a said religion, I would not go to a Hindu to know what Christians teach, I'd go to a Christian. I would not go to a Pagan to interpret Hindu sacred text, I would go to a Hindu.
I'm polytheist. Many truth. Many libraries. Many books. Stop making them all under one umbrella then you won't oppress religions who, like me, who would not rather for people like Bahai, Christians, and Muslims (among others) to either disregard, misinterpret, incorporate, or bluntly kill people rather than understanding their beliefs or leaving it alone.
Last edited:
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Many libraries in Howard, Mary Washington, Duke University, Library of Congress, and so forth.
You can't fit all libraries under one university. That's doing the Bahai thing. Fitting all selective religions under one religious truth. It does not work.
It doesn't mean they lose their identity though. You can have a collective and still have unity and diversity.
The United States of America is a typical example where diversity of thought exist yet it is one collective but it is ruled by a Constitution not peoples feelings.
The Baha'i System doesn't mean you lose you identity. You don't.
The Baha'i Faith is the best faith for me. Its up to each of us to consider what works and what doesn't.
Making a decision about what faith to belong to is hugely important and I strongly encourage anyone to thoroughly investigate any new faith they might consider joining including the Baha'i Faith.
The Kilted Heathen
Crow FreyjasmaðR
No it's not. For that, it's a terrible example.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
You are literally misinterpreting another person's belief (say Hinduism) and saying it is Hinduism, saying you respect Hinduis, then saying you don't know much about Hindu, then say Bahaullah says that the Hindu scripture predicts the coming of Bahaullah, then you say that Hindu believe in the same god, and then disregard their culture and form as if these things don't shape their belief system.
This is there identity. Yes, you/bahai are making Hindu loose their identity when interpreted through Bahaullah. It would be same ol' same ol' if you don't say that you have unity among them.
Since you say you do, they must agree with you. They dont.
You know how I love to quote.
However we can examine our beliefs and understand why we believe them and to what extent they are helpful in our lives.
I'm entirely comfortable with myth, reality, and uncertainty. I've often heard this criticism that we need to go to extreme measures to fit other religions into our belief system. We don't. I'm good with Moses, Jesus and the bible. Its about understanding the scriptures differently. Those 'new' understandings aren't really new anyhow and are actually held by many Christians regardless.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
You know how I love to quote.
However we can examine our beliefs and understand why we believe them and to what extent they are helpful in our lives.
I'm entirely comfortable with myth, reality, and uncertainty. I've often heard this criticism that we need to go to extreme measures to fit other religions into our belief system. We don't. I'm good with Moses, Jesus and the bible. Its about understanding the scriptures differently. Those 'new' understandings aren't really new anyhow and are actually held by many Christians regardless.
Do you understand what I am saying?
Expression=Truth
Truth=religion
Many expressions is many truths
Many truths exist because of different religions
Expressions/truth is the source
There are different sources/truths
I am not you and you are not me
Because we are not each other, no matter how much we have in common, we are different people. Our truth is different.
Unless you say yours is right and mine is wrong, Bahai religion doesn't make sense. Univeralist Uniterianism does invite multiple religions to congregate. They foster community, community work and the like. What they differ is that they don't say everything comes from one source. They value individuality. They value that one person's source is from self and another from god. Self and god are two totally different things. You can't unite them like paint and make them one color. It is still two colors regardless of what your eyes see.