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The Baha'i Faith's concept of "progressive" revelation

oldbadger

Skanky Old Mongrel!
But the world is still so sick. And a big part of it is because of religion. So instead of a progression of religion, do we need surgery to remove religious cancer cells?
Hi .. Didymus. This question interested me. The world is sick, mostly because of man. Nature has its own way of surgical remedy. If man was eliminated for the better of the world, would it matter?
 

Muffled

Jesus in me
Unfortunately, I like and dislike parts of all religions. So I question all of them. But, because I've been part of several religions and seen them from the inside, I know they work and appear true for the believer. What is difficult for me is that I don't believe enough in any of them to give myself over to believing one over another right now.

Wouldn't you be able to trust someone willing to die for you?
 

Triumphant_Loser

Libertarian Egalitarian
Wouldn't you be able to trust someone willing to die for you?

Religious martyrdom is not unique to Christianity. The Bab was a martyr for the Bahai faith. Guru Arjan Dev was a martyr for the Sikh faith. Husayn ibn Ali was a martyr for the Muslim faith. Aseret Harugei Malchut (The ten Jewish martyrs) were martyred by the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple.

Are we supposed to trust in all of these people despite them teaching radically different and contradicting faith systems? I mean, they did die for their faith after all.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Hi .. Didymus. This question interested me. The world is sick, mostly because of man. Nature has its own way of surgical remedy. If man was eliminated for the better of the world, would it matter?
Well in the late 60's, earlly 70's, I thought and tried the "back to nature" method. I enjoyed too many of societies things to really believe that was a sensible thing to continue doing. I think all religions do address the problem of man and his tendency to exploit the Earth and other people. I think the Baha'i Faith has some good answers that would help humans evolve a better society.

If man was eliminated, the Earth and the animals probably wouldn't notice. It's almost like we are aliens put here as a test. Will we learn to get along with each other? Will we learn how to strike a balance between what we can do and what is best for the planet and nature? I think the questions go deeper than any religion really answers. But, definitely, I do see humanity progressing. But sometimes, in spite of religion. And sometimes, to get away from religious ideas that hold us back.

So is the "progression" from religion to religion? I don't think so. It's seems more like we get tired of the myths and traditions and dump religion and then religion has to reinvent itself to fit in with society. What do you think? Do you see a progression from religion to religion the way it's explained in the Baha'i Faith?
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Wouldn't you be able to trust someone willing to die for you?
What Triumphant_Loser said. Plus the guy in Jonestown, and the guy in Texas and those people waiting for a comet or something.

I know the Jesus story is huge for all of us. It is so simple to "just" believe. But so many of us can't do it. There's to many if's and but's. There's too many questionable things in all religions. Like why aren't you a Buddhist or a Muslim? You have questions. You have doubts. Well, I have my doubts about the whole Jesus story.

But, for sure, I have a gigantic problem believing the Biblical Jesus story somehow fits into a progression that moved from Christianity to Islam and now the Baha'i Faith. If the Biblical Jesus story is true, no other religion would be necessary. He paid the price. We go to heaven. The Earth is going to be burnt up and all the evil things will be destroyed. With the Baha'i Faith, it's still us trying to make things work by spiritual rules and regulations. Spiritually, that's not progress. That's going back to "works of the Law". If, however, all that stuff about Jesus is all myth, then we need a practical up to date religions that can help us move on to the next level. The Baha'i Faith would do that.
 

oldbadger

Skanky Old Mongrel!
So is the "progression" from religion to religion? I don't think so.
I agree. There has not been a progression.
It could be proposed that as Christian evangelistic editing of the NT is discovered, so some Christians are either falling back to or defending at the 'it's all spiritual (or even mythical)' breaches.
Where I live there is a tiredness about religions that cause hatred, attacks on civilians and attacks on family members who want more freedom to make personal life choices.
As the Bahai translations were released, so it seemed (to me) that human development had advanced ahead of the Bahai standard, such as working towards even more elimination of as much prejudice as possible. I don't like the idea of crimes carrying sentences of execution, either. I don't like theocracies.
It's seems more like we get tired of the myths and traditions and dump religion and then religion has to reinvent itself to fit in with society. What do you think?
Religion is showing itself to have less value than, say, 'Loving and living with Nature'.... yes.... the Natural ways of life..... And I suspect that Buddhism may well be the natural way, not that I know ought about it. I ought to read more threads about it.
Do you see a progression from religion to religion the way it's explained in the Baha'i Faith?
No. Sadly not. Sadly, because when I was a silly youth, and when the vast majority of followers that I knew were determined to 'make' it the most beautiful faith on Earth, built from (mostly) their own dreams..... I was in love with it...... before the translations caught up with us.

Peace
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
I agree. There has not been a progression.
Yet, we are progressing. What is going on? And where are we going? There seems to be a Yin/Yang balancing act going on. Too much of one thing creates a problem somewhere else. And nothing seems to be 100% good, there is always somebody getting the short end of the stick. Oh well, we'll see how things play out. I was just hoping they would have played out by now.
 
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