What if these Christian beliefs are not true?

[YoursTrue]

Yes they are written down but I don't know what books they are in. I am sure @Truthseeker would know.

So you don't read his words? I guess not.

 

[YoursTrue]

Yes, I can look anything up since it is all online....
We were talking specifically about what Abdu'l-Baha said about evolution, and because I am not scientifically inclined that is not easy for me to explain, which is why I asked @Truthseeker to explain it.

Well, when was the last writing of your prophet?

 

[YoursTrue]

Yes, I can look anything up since it is all online....
We were talking specifically about what Abdu'l-Baha said about evolution, and because I am not scientifically inclined that is not easy for me to explain, which is why I asked @Truthseeker to explain it.

I don't think you have to be scientifically inclined to understand or believe the theory of evolution. How about you?

 

[Trailblazer]

So you don't read his words? I guess not.

I do not read 'everything' that is written in the Baha'i Writings because I don't have time and I am not interested in certain subjects.

 

[Trailblazer]

Well, when was the last writing of your prophet?

1892 AD

 

[YoursTrue]

1892 AD

Ok ty. Have you read anything that he has written?

 

[Trailblazer]

I don't think you have to be scientifically inclined to understand or believe the theory of evolution. How about you?

I understand the theory of evolution, but I don't fully understand the Baha'i version, at least not well enough to explain it to other people.

 

[YoursTrue]

I do not read 'everything' that is written in the Baha'i Writings because I don't have time and I am not interested in certain subjects.

Reading the writings of your last purported prophet you believe in should be something you would do, I think.

 

[YoursTrue]

I understand the theory of evolution, but I don't fully understand the Baha'i version, at least not well enough to explain it to other people.

Do you believe in it?

 

[Trailblazer]

Reading the writings of your last purported prophet you believe in should be something you would do, I think.

I read what I have time for. Do you read all of the Bible?

 

[Trailblazer]

Do you believe in it?

Yes

 

[YoursTrue]

I read what I have time for. Do you read all of the Bible?

Yes. Not at one sitting naturally. Right now I am reading in the book of Psalms. After I read that I will read the book of Proverbs. I've read them before and learn wonderful things each time I read them.
Ty.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

William Miller, who is generally credited with the founding of the Adventist Church, predicted that Christ would return sometime between March 1843 and March 1844. As a result, some then expected to be taken away to heaven. like you he did not know what he was talking about

Luckily God did fulfil the promise in AD1844/AH1260 and gave us the Gate to the Glory of the Lord, and yes, it has naught to do with any of my ideas and opinions as God does as God so chooses.

Regards Tony

 

[cataway]

Luckily God did fulfil the promise in AD1844/AH1260 and gave us the Gate to the Glory of the Lord, and yes, it has naught to do with any of my ideas and opinions as God does as God so chooses.

Regards Tony

oh yes the wide open gate and wide easy to travel road leading off to ever lasting heavenly life. piff

 

[YoursTrue]

Do you believe in it?

There is a bahai version of evolution?

 

[Trailblazer]

There is a bahai version of evolution?

Yes.

Bahá'í views on evolution

...from the beginning of man's existence on this planet until he assumed his present shape, form, and condition, a long time must have elapsed, and he must have traversed many stages before reaching his present condition. But from the beginning of his existence man has been a distinct species.
Baháʼí views on science - Wikipedia

 

[Truthseeker]

Yes.

Bahá'í views on evolution

...from the beginning of man's existence on this planet until he assumed his present shape, form, and condition, a long time must have elapsed, and he must have traversed many stages before reaching his present condition. But from the beginning of his existence man has been a distinct species.
Baháʼí views on science - Wikipedia

His teachings were widely interpreted as a kind of parallel evolution, in which humans had a separate line of descent to some primitive form, separate from animals.[59][60] But the emphasis on the harmony of science and religion and the success of the modern evolutionary paradigm resulted in at least 19 books and articles from 16 authors over the period of 1990 to 2009 trying to address how Bahá'ís should view evolution in light of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's statements, the majority of which took universal common ancestry as fact and attempted to reconcile with a new interpretation of the statements.[61] Two articles by Keven Brown and Eberhard von Kitzing,[62] jointly published under the title Evolution and Bahá'í Belief (2001), stand out as the only book-length review of the issue by Bahá'ís during the period, and has been well received.[63][64]

The new understanding viewed the apparent meaning of parallel evolution as an unfortunate misunderstanding that should be carefully studied and interpreted in terms that make sense today. Gary Matthews wrote,

...the apparent contradiction is nothing more than a question of semantics: perhaps ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is merely dating man's beginning as a distinct species from the soul's first appearance, to emphasize that we do not derive our higher spiritual nature from our animal forebears."[65]

This understanding was included in the Foreword to the 2014 printing of Some Answered Questions, stating:

...[ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's] concern is not with the mechanisms of evolution but with the philosophical, social, and spiritual implications of the new theory. His use of the term "species", for example, evokes the concept of eternal or permanent archetypes, which is not how the term is defined in contemporary biology. For Baha'is, the science of evolution is accepted..

Baháʼí views on science - Wikipedia

 

[Truthseeker]

Not all Bahá'ís were convinced of the argument that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's statements are in complete alignment with modern evolutionary theory. Salman Oskooi wrote his 2009 thesis on the subject and was unconvinced by the various authors trying to reconcile the issue with modern science, writing that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's statements have an "apparent discord with science", "appear uninterpretable in any sense but their apparent meaning", and the apparent meaning is that "humans have been distinct from other beings since the time of some primitive stage of our evolution."[67] Oskooi concluded that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was fallible on scientific matters, but that the issue does not contradict the fundamental premise of the faith. Also in 2009, Ian Kluge wrote that, "There is no question that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's views on human evolution are in conflict with current scientific thought", but he concluded that religion cannot "uncritically agree with science on all its pronouncements at all times" due to the changing nature of science itself.[68]

In 2023, Bryan Donaldson published On the Originality of Species, attempting to address the issue from the point of view of new research in evolutionary biology that could plausibly support the idea of "independent and parallel growth of many categories of plants and animals out of a network of gene-sharing unicellular roots."[69] Donaldson points to a variety of trends in evolutionary thought since the late 1990s, concluding that,

...it is no longer necessary to conclude that the concept of independent or 'parallel' descent is incompatible with science. In fact, the trend of discovery has clearly been in the direction of agreement... This new understanding appears to me to have only been possible since about 2015.

Baháʼí views on science - Wikipedia

 

[Truthseeker]

Yes.

Bahá'í views on evolution

...from the beginning of man's existence on this planet until he assumed his present shape, form, and condition, a long time must have elapsed, and he must have traversed many stages before reaching his present condition. But from the beginning of his existence man has been a distinct species.
Baháʼí views on science - Wikipedia

I've added more to that in my next posts, and that one short statement can be misleading. Thanks for pointing out that Wikipedia article, though. Just looking for a Wikipedia source would have been better in the first place.

 

[CG Didymus]

Abdu'l-Baha offers from Baha'u'llah, that

"The different religions have one truth underlying them; therefore, their reality is one."

Baha'u'llah offerd

That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith.

That is for the Most Great peace

To obtain the Lesser Peace. Shoghi Effendi quotes Baha'u'llah

"Regard the world as the human body which, though at its creation whole and perfect, hath been afflicted, through various causes, with grave disorders and maladies. Not for one day did it gain ease, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of ignorant physicians, who gave full rein to their personal desires and have erred grievously. And if, at one time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as before.” In other passages, Bahá’u’lláh spells out some of the practical implications. The governments of the world are called upon to convene an international consultative body as the foundation, in the words of the Guardian, of “a world federal system” empowered to safeguard the autonomy and territory of its state members, resolve national and regional disputes and coordinate programmes of global development for the good of the entire human race. Significantly, Bahá’u’lláh attributes to this system, once established, the right to suppress by force acts of aggression by one state against another. Addressing the rulers of His day, He asserts the clear moral authority of such action: “Should any one among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice

Regards Tony

That's over-generalizing religions. And it ignores that some religions have some very strange beliefs and practices. Was the religions of the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Japanese, the Chinese true? But did they have some things in common that were true. We could probably find some.

Sorry, but there's some teachings and beliefs in the Baha'i Faith that I don't agree with. Progressive revelation being the main one. I don't believe any of the Dharmic religions had anything to do with the Abrahamic religions.

So, what's the "one truth" that underlies a religion like Buddhism or Hinduism with Judaism or Christianity? And I'm not so sure that these religions weren't created by the people. Rather than being "revealed" by God through a manifestation of God.

It kind of sounds cool, but I just can't completely agree with it.