Bahá'í Faith

[W.C]

I recently stumbled across the Bahá'í Faith and found it quite interesting; not only for the amount of followers, but also for the apparent influences it has on various organisations around the world.

I thought I might post some information on the Bahá'í here as at least record so that others can view and comment on it if they please.

Bahá'í Faith
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27%C3%AD_Faith
Bahá‘í notions of progressive religious revelation result in their accepting the validity of most of the worlds’ religions, whose founders and central figures are seen as manifestations of God. These include, but are not limited to Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna, Abraham, Moses, and Buddha. Bahá'ís also believe that other religious figures, such as Adam, Noah, Hud, and Zoroaster historically existed and were manifestations of God. Religious history is interpreted as a series of dispensations, where each manifestation brings a somewhat broader and more advanced revelation, suited for the time and place in which it was expressed.

Shoghi Effendi, the appointed head of the Faith from 1921 to 1957, wrote the following summary of what he considered to be the distinguishing principles of Bahá'u’lláh’s teachings, which, he said, together with the laws and ordinances of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas constitute the bed-rock of the Bahá'í Faith:

'The independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition; the oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principle and fundamental doctrine of the Faith; the basic unity of all religions; the condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class or national; the harmony which must exist between religion and science; the equality of men and women, the two wings on which the bird of human kind is able to soar; the introduction of compulsory education; the adoption of a universal auxiliary language; the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty; the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations; the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank of worship; the glorification of justice as the ruling principle in human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protection of all peoples and nations; and the establishment of a permanent and universal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind—these stand out as the essential elements [which Bahá‘u’lláh proclaimed].’

Bahá'u’lláh wrote of the need for world government in this age of humanity’s collective life. Because of this emphasis many Bahá'ís have chosen to support the United Nations since its inception. The Bahá'í International Community, an agency under the direction of the Universal House of Justice in Haifa has consultative status with the following organizations:

* United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
* United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
* World Health Organization (WHO)
* United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
* United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

The Bahá'í International Community has offices at the United Nations in New York and Geneva and representations to United Nations regional commissions and other offices in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Nairobi, Rome, Santiago, and Vienna. In recent years an Office of the Environment and an Office for the Advancement of Women were established as part of its United Nations Office. The Bahá'í Faith has also undertaken joint development programs with various other United Nations agencies. In the 2000 Millennium Forum of the United Nations a Bahá'í was invited as the only non-governmental speaker during the summit.

Cheers.

[Dan1 (Dan~)]

Interesting, but people like Buddha never claimed to be a manifestation of “God”. He was just a human being.

[W.C]

Yeah, I know. Apparently these guys believe that the manifestations adapted themselves to the region and time in which they appeared. I would suppose to serve some kind of purpose, but then, I havn’t yet read their book.

[Xunzian]

I have had several friends who were Baha’i. In the Occident it is a beautiful, non-threatening faith, but in Asia they are as convert hungry as Jehova’s witnesses.

It is actually a pretty cool religion.

[Dan1 (Dan~)]

Once all of these religious leaders amalgumate, many of their ideas will contradict eachother, and who is the person who will do the job of sorting out which of two contradicting statements are “correct”? Also, there will be so many statements/ideas that only a percentage of these ideas will be focused upon & fallowed, so who will select these?

Whoever started this religion – just used other religious leaders as fuel for his or her own ideas. As usual, this is about what people say. God is what they believe ‘Him’ to be.

[Xunzian]

Well, since the Baha’i faith has a leader (I forget the title and name), that person works out the conflicts.

Though there are remarkably few conflicts between religions in terms of what constitutes a good person, ect. As for the specifics, you can explain a lot of those away as, “right idea at the right time, but now . . . .” Similar to why Christians don’t keep kosher.

[Dan1 (Dan~)]

@Xunzian

Well, since the Baha’i faith has a leader (I forget the title and name), that person works out the conflicts.

Though there are remarkably few conflicts between religions in terms of what constitutes a good person, ect. As for the specifics, you can explain a lot of those away as, “right idea at the right time, but now . . . .” Similar to why Christians don’t keep kosher.

So, their morals are liberalistic?

[Xunzian]

As compared to Islam, which it branched off from, very much so.

Plus the Unity of Faith and the extreme humanitarian bent of the religion really sets itself up for that.

[Dan1 (Dan~)]

@Xunzian

As compared to Islam, which it branched off from, very much so.

Plus the Unity of Faith and the extreme humanitarian bent of the religion really sets itself up for that.

Interesting. Someone make that a state-religion and see what happens…