Ask a new Baha'i

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Hi, I was alerted by a poster that having two accounts is against the rules. I didn’t know that, so please feel freei to delete this one, sorry!

Let me answer on person per post right now so I can easily stay more organized while posting on my phone (again, sorry!)

Superfluous Parenthesis:
“What is the baha’i stance towards other religions and non-believers/atheists?”

I believe that most religious people can agree that most religions tend to agree on the basics. There is a concept in the baha’i faith called progressive revelation: when humanity is in need of one, a messenger who can perfectly reflect the glory of God is sent down. These are the manifestations, and they include Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Abraham and almost certainly more we dont know about! The latest of the manifestations was Bahaullah, the founder of the faith, who was born in 1817.

So as far as other religious folk, I am glad they believe in God, but I think that the Baha’i faith is more relevent to our modern needs, and that Bahaullah was sent for us in OUR time! If you mean, can nom-baha’is go to heaven, the answer is certainly! But we believe the earth is meant to build your spiritual body for the next life, so I think following the teachings of the Bab and Bahaullah are the best way to do that.

About atheists, I dont know what the official stance is, or if there is one. I know that the closer the relationship you have with God during life, the more advanced your spirit body will be in death. We do not believe in hell, only absence of God. So in a way, the physical plane of existence is as bad as it gets. After death even atheists will realize that they are God’s creation as well, and they will be saddened they wasted their time on earth not working to be closer to God. Fortunately, they can start even after death. So while it makes me sad that some of my family members and friends dont believe in God, I know eventually they all will reunite with love in God, even if it takes a trillion spirit years (or however it works!)

“Is there anything your faith/you should be doing about them?”

The faith is one of the most widespread geographically on Earth, but small numbers wise for a world religion. So it is considered a duty for all baha’i to spread Bahaullah’s message. We dont have any duty to do door to door or anything like that. For my homework assignment for my Ruhi studybook, to “graduate” and get marked complete, I have to do a presentation on the lives of the Bab and Bahaullah, to anyone.

“Any kind of strategy for implementing a baha’i world government?”

At the grassroots level all baha’i are supposed to be spreading Bahaullah’s message. Above that in the organization I don’t know, sorry. Baha’i wise i am still very much at the micro level, not yet macro! :slight_smile:

I think I misunderstood your wording for dogma and maybe gave the wrong impression: the fauth has HUNDREDS of divinely inspired tablets and manuscripts from the Bab, Bahaullah, Abdul Baha, and more. So if those, and baha’i rules of conduct etc count as ‘dogma’ than i suppose we have a lot? I am only familiar with the word having a very negative connotation of a lack of blind belief. I think baha’is love questions, and free thinking, and would not tend to shun people easily over a difference of opinion.

You guys have great questions and really made me think, I will try to get to more tomorrow!

22

Please forgive all my spelling errors, my touchscreen is pretty bad! The above post took me about 30 minutes to think about and compose. :frowning:

23

Allah’u’abha, Julius. I certainly hope they get that multiple screen name worked out for you! I would suggest you email an admin about it.

Meantime, I think you’re doing a great job at articulating answers to all the questions. I’m going to follow the thread, and if you don’t mind, might even put in my two cents occasionally! :slight_smile:

24

Allah’u’abha, norinew! Tubadiva has helped me merge the two accounts. I’m definitely new at this, so if I post anything that is incorrect or offbase, please let me know! I would rather be corrected than remain ignorant. :slight_smile:

25

Glad you got the two accounts thing worked out. I’d reported to a mod about it, in hopes they might be able to help. If it hadn’t been so late at night, it might have occurred to me to just drop you a PM and say: “Postin’ as a sock: ur doin it rong” :smiley: But it was late, I was ready for bed, and wasn’t thinking straight!

As far as incorrect information, it sounds like you’ve been doing your homework. You’re half-way to heaven already! :wink:

Can I ask what part of the country you’re in? Sounds like you’ve got a gigant-o community there! BTW, I’ve been to the House of Worship in Wilmette, and lemme tell ya, the photos do not do it justice!

Any time you want to PM me or anything, please feel free!

26

I’m not a member but have been a friend of the Nashville Bahai for several years and preformed at services many times. I also really like the general spirit of this religion.
The local group has a Bahai center that is quite nice with a central auditorium with tiered seating, a sound system and a screen for graphics. I believe they have weekly services but thee are certain recognized occasions that are widely attended while weekly services are sporadic.
Here’s Gary Brown who I’ve played with there once or twice at the Nashville Center
Here is a video of Bahai artists. The song is written and sung by singer song writer Dan Seals.
I like the openness and variety. The Bahai seem to focus on principles of living rather than dogma. The readings at a service can be from any source and usually include Bahai writings as well as Biblical text, the Koran, or anything else that relates well to the topic of discussion. The music varies quite a bit as well. I did a Christmas presentation there that focused on JC but spoke of the principles he taught rather than him as the one and only messiah.
They very much teach and promote peace, equality, social justice, and the oneness of mankind , rather than anything divisive or dogmatic. They believe religion and science must be in harmony because there is one truth.
They are not without problems but in general , because of the focus on the application of principles for living, I’ve found them to be extremely nice people.
People I know in Nashville have relatives in Iran that have been imprisoned and killed just for being a member of this peaceful religion.

Lot’s of information on their website

I like the fact that there is no clergy in the local groups but they do have leaders such as The Universal House of Justice which is an elected 9 member counsel. Staff members are Bahai volunteers who serve for limited periods of time.

Here is the Bahai world Center in Haifa All in all a progressive and inculsive religion.

27

The Dope count as “anyone”? :smiley:

Speaking as a Doper, I think that project fits in well with us and this thread.

28

No, this isn’t my presentation, I’m planning on giving it to my mom since she has been curious about it.

Cosmodan: You better be careful, I started out as a “friend of the baha’i” for two years, and now I am one. :slight_smile:

29

I used the word dogma as I was interested in what “the faith” has to say about those issues. I wasn’t intending it to be a negative term (though I know it holds negative connotations, so I should have been more clear from the start). I meant “dogma” in broadly the same way the Roman Catholic church traditionally uses the term, though I realize that many faiths aren’t as hierarchical as the RCC so the concept of dogma might not be as very “portable” to those religions. Again, sorry for the confusion.

I think you answered my questions well enough, though. Thank you.

30

Sorry, wasn’t clear, but realized I could have been misconstrued. I know this isn’t your presentation, but I was [del]wanting to know if[/del] hoping it could be shared with the Dope, either cut and paste in this thread, or have it available on line, for us to see once your actual presentation is done.

31

rogerbox, hoping you don’t mind if I catch this one!
The Ruhi course is a series of books designed to help deepen new and old Baha’is alike, and to help memorize passages of Scripture. I haven’t looked yet to see if the books are available online; they are really designed to be studied in a group.

Since they are entire (albeit small) books, I’d think it would be pretty difficult to present it online.

However, I will say, from the Ruhi courses I’ve attended, there is no ‘pass or fail’. If you ‘graduate’ one book, you just move on to the next. If you don’t, no one takes away your “Baha’i Achievement Badge” and makes you scrub the latrines! :wink:

32

Hi dhkendall,

I actually am just going to give my mom my presentation verbally. HOWEVER, my presentation is just the narrative of the lives of the Bab and Bahaullahl… in my clumsy way. I was going to answer last night that there was a baha’i follower who wrote the official narrative of the Bab’s and Bahaullah’s lives, but I couldn’t remember what it was called. I asked at Ruhi class today, it’s The Dawn-Breakers, which you can read completely online here:

http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/nz/DB/

(I will be reading it soon too, I have only heard about it).

Also, I really found the wikipedia pages useful when I was not yet a baha’i and I wanted to find out something specific about them. Here are the pages for the Bab and Bahaullah:

I would start off with the wiki links since they are lighter reading. Let me know if you have anymore questions, the more I try to answer the more I learn myself. :slight_smile:

33

rogerbox, The Dawn Breakers is an excellent text. I highly recommend it!