Og

This is from the son of the founder of the bahai faith.
The central tenets of baha'i are unity of all of humanity and unity of religions.

I was curious if anyone has first hand experience with baha'i and what their take on it is.

__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
The self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships
You & I, no distinction. - Tat Tvam Asi
Become Who You Are

phidelis07

I find it interesting that bahai believes in both science and religion to reach one goal, as this is a sentiment i can get behind; however, to say there is unity in all religions um..... I don't see the unity. Love maybe be a common factor among most religions, but there are some religions where love is not practiced. i heard of a tribe where deceit was a virtue. Deceit is not love. Among the doctrines of religions they can be as different as night and day, where is the unity ? The fact that religions are so different is one of the main factors that leads me either to deism or agnosticism

mary

i know the answer to this and its actually quite interesting

the bahais believe that in any religion from god, its laws can only be categorised into two headings: spiritual laws and social laws.

SPIRITUAL LAWS are things like: dont steal, dont kill, etc... the most common spiritual law that people usually think of is the "golden rule" (do unto others)

the 2nd category of religious law is the SOCIAL LAW.
if you look at religions, you will notice that there is around 1000 years or so between them (when they were first brought/born). the state of the world right now in the 21st century is very different to say, 100 years ago, so imagine it was REALLY different thousands of years ago. bahais say that in every religion, the social laws are always different from eachother, to adapt to the time when the religion was born. for example, women having to wear a headscarf in islam is a social law because back in those days in the middle east, women were being badly treated, being raped etc, and were hit etc if they didnt give birth to a baby boy. So by wearing a headscarf was a way of hiding the fact that you are a woman, so it was a form of protection in a way. but nowadays that law is essentially obsolete, because those kind of things no longer happen and times have changed.

sooooo.... loads of peole always say that all religions are different, but thats because they are focusing on the social laws. bahais believe that all religions have come from only one god and that if u look at the essence of what all religions are saying, you will see that all religions are saying the same thing - to love your neighbour etc and to be good with one another etc, and this is why bahais say all religions are in essence saying the same thing because they have been inspired by the same thing (god).

sorry if it was a long-winded response!

sisterX

How can you hide they fact that you are a women under a 'headscarf' when only women wear it?????
And that does not explain why many FREE and educated women (like myself) CHOOSE to wear a headscarf/hijab. I have never been beaten or raped (this that happens more in societies where women do not cover up) but I still choose to wear it.

What does not happen anymore? Women are no longer beated or raped? uuh yeah they are, all over the world. Or do you mean baby boys are no longer prefered to baby girls? Well since these men now know that it is THEIR sperm that determines the sex of a baby, they just get the woman to have an abortion when they find out it's a girls, so not much has changed in certain parts of the world.
Did you know that Islam stopped the killing of baby girls at birth? Yes, in arabia they used to bury their baby girls alive.

But welcome to the forum!

__________________
"But as for me (I believe) that He is Allah, my Lord, and I shall associate none as partner with my Lord." Surah Al-Kahf verse 38. Holy Quran

mary

well hello there ! an immediate response lol. i take it you're muslim so im sure you know this - muslim women are meant to cover their hair because it says something about 'rays' coming from womens hair (i have relatives in the middle east so i know a little about islam) sorry for being vague.

anyway, please lets not side-track. let us keep to the topic of conversation .
we can open another thread and talk about that, (actually i am always interested in learning) but lets not clutter this one.

phidelis07

I wish myself to be agnostic theist in that If i were to believe in God i would hope that it is a benevolent personal God; however, not all religions are monotheistic. Some have no deity at all i.e Buddhism. And of all the religions not all of the God(s) are benevolent. Look at Aries the god of war, or Hades God of the underworld. It is because of these contradictions to "one god" which leads me to be more of an agnostic deist.

There is a way to explain this apart from spirituality, and that being the traits of altruism and love were obtained during the evolution of humans. If you ever get a chance read " the selfish gene" by Richard Dawkins. In the book Mr. Dawkins talks about altruism was bred into the human race because it was beneficial to survival. The golden rule was more to keep yourself safe in that, if you were nice to other people they would be nice to you and inturn it kept you alive. Plus this rule brought about a cohesiveness that allowed people to live in tribes, and because they lived together they could protect each other.
I am still not certain whether a deity caused such " spiritual laws" to be put in place to protect its creation, or whether it was just a product of evolution apart from anything supernatural

Gettin' In Tune

Here is a little more information on Baha'i Faith.

Source: http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/se/GPB/gpb-9.html#gr26

To answer you question, my first impression is seems 'ok' for a religion. It still assigns god too many attributes based on faith, such as omniscient and omnipresent. Though inaccessible directly, God is nevertheless seen as conscious of his creation, with a will and purpose.

These attributes of god are too faith based for me.

Gettin' In Tune

Again you are mistaken correlation for causation. Correlation does not imply causation.

Please provide me some domestic violence and rape statistics in nudist societies before you make your claim.

mary

please can you continue this discussion in the 'Islam' board, because the wearing of headscarves and associated issues it is not relevant to the Bahai faith and is cluttering up this thread.

thanks for understanding

mary

but in my opinion thats what all religions do. All religious/spiritual people worship God, thats the whole point of religion - so naturally, they will associate God with divine attributes...