Nothing lasts forever in this life

[Spirit of Light]

No, but @KWED speaks for you.

Dang it....He can read my mind

 

[YoursTrue]

If you accept that it is possible that your beliefs are not true, and one of those beliefs is that god exists, then you therefore accept that it is possible that god does not exist.
QED.

Because you are in denial and suffering from cognitive dissonance.

So, how do you know that your beliefs are true? (Remember, "know" not "believe")

So, what are the "implications" of there boing an afterlife of some kind?
And are they different for you, me, Hindus, etc?

We all make choices. In israel, according to Biblical history, there was one (true) God that spoke to Moses, and the Israelites were bound to follow him by agreeing to the Law. But there were other gods from the nations around the people, and sometimes the Israelites themselves worshipped other gods, not the one they had agreed to stick to.

 

[CG Didymus]

What you may think is neither here nor there.
I asked a simple question [not to you] .. do you believe in God?

God with a capital 'g' refers to the monotheistic God in the Bible and Qur'an.
End of !
Anybody who claims that the Creator belongs solely to them, is either narrow-minded or uninformed.

I wonder.... Do Jews feel that Muslims and Christians believe in the God of the Bible? And do Jews and Muslims believe in the trinitarian God that many Christians believe in? Maybe from your view of things it is the same God.

 

[CG Didymus]

But Bahais claim that Hindus are wrong, so in a Bahai afterlife they won't actually be reincarnated.

So, speaking of jokes, the joke is on all the people that believed what their religion told them. I can't imagine how those Muslims that died for the Cause and were promised 70 virgins must have felt.

And there's got to be some Christians that believe in Jesus and obey all the commandments the best they could. They could have had sex, drugs and alcohol but no. They stayed home and prayed and read the Bible. Then they die, go to the Baha'i version of the afterlife and they see all those party animals up there with them and not burning in hell.

 

[CG Didymus]

Before you established that these words were accurate and truthful, how could you know any of it was accurate and truthful. What independent sources and evidence did you consult which verified his claims?

What "independent" sources would there be? Who, other than Baha'is, are going to say they believe in Baha'u'llah?

 

[CG Didymus]

So although he is supposed to have had magical knowledge of all the world's religions, he really only knew about what he had been exposed to growing up.
Yeah, that makes more sense.

That's the thing... He didn't show enough "magical" powers when it came to those types of things. I keep asking why he didn't mention much if anything about Hinduism and Buddhism. Yet, he was supposed to be both the return of Krishna and the Buddha.

 

[CG Didymus]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this before, but it's pretty important, so - this is a religious debate forum. It's where people with an interest in religious debate come to debate religion. Once you grasp this basic concept, you should be less confused.

Yes, a religion whose founder claims to be the return of Christ and of everyone else ever promised in every other religion, then yes, it's pretty important. And it might be wise to check it out. If it's true, it is the greatest thing to have ever happened. But... if it's not true, then it's one of the biggest frauds. And how would we know? Thank God for skeptics.

 

[CG Didymus]

So you admit that god wants to be known, but then claim that he deliberately makes it difficult, even impossible for most people to know him because the "evidence" he provides looks like nonsense to most people.

If the Bible were accepted as being true, then God did make himself known. But most of us don't believe those stories about what God did in the Bible are true, even Baha'is apparently.

 

[Truthseeker]

So although he is supposed to have had magical knowledge of all the world's religions, he really only knew about what he had been exposed to growing up.
Yeah, that makes more sense.

That's not what I said. Never mind.

edit: Now I see that @Trailblazer answered this too. Nevertheless I do not want to discuss this anymore. She can if she wants to.

 

[CG Didymus]

Jesus is not "universally recognised" and the Bahai version of Jesus. Even the Christian version is not universally recognised.
And the reason that Christianity and Islam became so widespread was mainly through empire and conquest.

Yeah, wasn't it Constantine that helped Christianity accepted? But some of the stuff Jesus got known for, Baha'is says isn't true, especially that he was God. And being told that without hm a person is going to spend eternity in hell, might have influenced people's decision to recognize him.

 

[idea]

I did not read all 34 pages...

So - the oldest religion and oldest religious text "wins" if it's to be a belief in a never-changing always present God?

What is the oldest text again? India?

 

[CG Didymus]

I did not read all 34 pages...

So - the oldest religion and oldest religious text "wins" if it's to be a belief in a never-changing always present God?

What is the oldest text again?

I think it's the other way around. The Baha'i Faith has the newest information. They say most of the older religious texts aren't 100% accurate.

Here's a quote about the Bible...

The Bible is not wholly authentic, and in this respect is not to be compared with the Qur'an, and should be wholly subordinated to the authentic writings of Bahá’u’lláh...

We cannot be sure how much or how little of the four Gospels are accurate and include the words of Christ and His undiluted teachings, all we can be sure of, as Bahá’ís, is that what has been quoted by Bahá’u’lláh and the Master must be absolutely authentic. As many times passages in the Gospel of St. John are quoted we may assume that it is his Gospel and much of it accurate.

Shoghi Effendi, Extracts From The Bahá’í Writings And From Letters Of The Guardian And The Universal House Of Justice On The Old And New Testaments​

 

[Trailblazer]

Yes, a religion whose founder claims to be the return of Christ and of everyone else ever promised in every other religion, then yes, it's pretty important. And it might be wise to check it out. If it's true, it is the greatest thing to have ever happened. But... if it's not true, then it's one of the biggest frauds. And how would we know? Thank God for skeptics.

Yes, it would be the greatest thing that ever happened if it's true. You just reminded me of this website:

“Each of the world's major religions contains Messianic prophecies.

Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, the Zoroastrian religion and even the Native American religions all foretell the coming of a Promised One. Each of the Founders of these great religions either promised to personally return himself, to send another like himself or in some instances.... the Founder promised to do both.......

If Baha'u'llah truly is the Promised One then His appearance is one of the greatest events of human history. Are Baha'u'llah's claim true? How can we know for certain? Just take a look at some of the proofs and prophecies... and then decide for yourself.”

Prophecy Fulfilled Webpage

 

[KWED]

Did i say that?

Well, as is often the case your post was somewhat garbled. However, you seemed to make considerable effort to avoid condemning or even criticising the homophobia, sexual discrimination and barbaric punishments in Bahai teachings - which you earlier said you follow and make you a better person.

So, be clear.
Do you find those things in mentioned acceptable or unacceptable?
(This is where you perform another dance around the issue to avoid the old religious rock and a had place )

 

[Spirit of Light]

Well, as is often the case your post was somewhat garbled. However, you seemed to make considerable effort to avoid condemning or even criticising the homophobia, sexual discrimination and barbaric punishments in Bahai teachings - which you earlier said you follow and make you a better person.

So, be clear.
Do you find those things in mentioned acceptable or unacceptable?
(This is where you perform another dance around the issue to avoid the old religious rock and a had place )

Read the answers i gave in my new OP about your question to me yesterday

 

[KWED]

Just because it seems as a irrational belief to you....does not mean it is irrational to me or other believers.

Well, duh! If you realised it is irrational, you would not follow it.
However, we both know that people genuinely belief irrational stuff and are convinced it is true (eg. The Big Steal, Hindu reincarnation, Jesus' resurrection). So given that, why are you so convinced that your Bahai beliefs are not irrational? Remember that the classic circular logic of Bahaullah/messenger/god/proof is itself clearly irrational. And simply believing that your beliefs are rational do not make them so.

 

[KWED]

Read the answers i gave in my new OP about your question to me yesterday

How's the foot? Hopefully the bullet passed clean through.

 

[KWED]

You can't even get that far..
You deny there is a Creator .. full stop!

I have seen no evidence or rational argument to support the claim for a supernatural "creator", so why would I assume that there is one?

..so why you go on about "versions", is just a distraction.

If you ask "do you believe in god", I want to know which version of god you are talking about.
Obviously I don't believe in any of the ones I am aware of, but there are still many different versions claimed by people who do believe.

So just to be clear, whenever you talk about "god" you are referring specifically to the one described in the Quran and sunnah, and not any other version. Yes?

 

[KWED]

The latest Revelation from God is the one that is most accurate since it was revealed for the current age and it corrects all the misconceptions people have about what was taught in the older religions. Those misconceptions are due to the fact that the older religions have been corrupted by men over the course of time.

However, the spiritual teachings of all the older religions are true, and they are just as true as they ever were, since those teachings are eternal.

So that would be Ahmadiyya then. It is some 35 years later than Bahaism, and it has more followers and it builds on earlier religions.

So, can we expect your conversion? Or will you come up with some excuse for why it is wrong?

 

[KWED]

@Truthseeker did not say that Baha'u'llah did not know about all the world's religions.
@Truthseeker said that Baha'u'llah did not say anything about certain ones, and he explained why that was the case.

"It means he said nothing about Mormonism to be precise. After all, He lived in a Moslem country, and almost all His Tablets addressed to Muslims, Babis and Baha'is. The scope where what it was known what He would have said was limited at that time. There were no Western Baha'is at that time."

So you are claiming that Bahaism was designed for Middle Eastern ex-Muslims? Bahaullah did not realise that it would expand beyond the Ottoman Empire?

Given the vast quantity of his writings and the fact that they were communicated to him by an omni-everything, infallible god, seems a bit odd that he didn't even make one mention of the other religions in the world beyond his own experience.
It's almost as if we was only writing from his own experience!