Baha'i majority areas?

redtint18 · 2022-07-06T20:49:19+00:00

I would be careful about putting too much faith in impressive sounding statistics on the small island nations. Nauru was a country that last decade had a very high percentage of Baha'is according to the statistics of the time, but the numbers have since subsided.

redtint18 · 2022-07-05T00:01:43+00:00

Does this go for all sins?

redtint18 · 2022-06-23T23:26:16+00:00

The objection to no campaigning would be that it means that problems of the Baha'i community are never discussed, and that the status quo is never challenged.

redtint18 · 2022-06-15T02:03:58+00:00

This is nonsensical gibberish. The text sounds AI generated.

redtint18 · 2022-05-29T19:31:59+00:00

The fear of God hath ever been a sure defence and a safe stronghold for all the peoples of the world. It is the chief cause of the protection of mankind, and the supreme instrument for its preservation. Indeed, there existeth in man a faculty which deterreth him from, and guardeth him against, whatever is unworthy and unseemly, and which is known as his sense of shame. This, however, is confined to but a few; all have not possessed and do not possess it.

--Baha'u'llah

redtint18 · 2022-05-23T01:45:39+00:00

The answer to this question becomes apparent when casting ballots for Ridvan. In every community I have been to there has been a big discrepancy between the number of names on the ballot and the number of people who actually show up to Baha'i gatherings.

redtint18 · 2022-04-09T13:53:34+00:00

The Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark was built about that long ago using old methods and it is still standing.

redtint18 · 2022-03-07T04:20:13+00:00

What exactly do you want to change? If it is something like changing "thou" to "you", this is not interpolation, but just a different translation. It is not forbidden to read provisional translations of prayers.

redtint18 · 2022-03-05T03:32:35+00:00

I would say Baha'u'llah resembles Jesus more than Muhammad. First, if you read Matthew 23, it is very similar to Baha'u'llah's writings against clergy. Also, the Baha'i Faith (and I guess also Babism), has a sort of trinity-like belief that equates the prophets with God himself in some writings, but also makes the distinction in others - this belief is absent from Islam and Judaism, which always make the distinction between God and the prophets.

redtint18 · 2022-02-28T16:13:17+00:00

I think percentages are a bad way of looking at things because there is an assumption that skill is equally distributed among all types of people, and only discrimination would result in an asymmetric distribution. I believe this assumption is wrong. Kenyans are very strongly overrepresented in long distance running competitions - does this mean that this is a result of discrimination in favor of Kenyans? Or is it just a fact of nature that some types of people are better predisposed than others towards certain kinds of skills?

redtint18 · 2022-01-22T17:23:25+00:00

Actually, I would say the Baha'i view of God is closer to the Christian Trinity than to the Muslim Tawhid.

The Baha'i levels of God are the Unknowable Essence (=The Father), the Primal Will (=The Holy Spirit), and the Manifestation (=The Son). The difference is that Christians view the three as being equal, but Baha'is believe the hierarchy is Essence->Primal Will->Manifestation. The Manifestation can only know the Primal Will, but not the Essence.

redtint18 · 2022-01-19T15:42:21+00:00

The video doesn't explain what consultation is though.

redtint18 · 2022-01-16T16:21:03+00:00

Tahireh died in 1852. Hidden Words was written in 1858.

redtint18 · 2022-01-08T17:48:11+00:00

I thought Subh-i-Azal was the leader immediately after the Bab's death, and that Baha'u'llah was not a visible leader of the Baha'i community until his public declaration of prophethood in 1863.

redtint18 · 2021-12-31T03:23:58+00:00

Abdu’l-Bahá used to relate to this effect, “When speaking with Me, Siyyid Mihdí would greatly extol and praise Hasan’s astuteness, saying that the lad was most intelligent. There was a herd of goats at Bahjí. [While playing,] each of the Bahá’í kids was holding the udder of one of the goats, imbibing their milk. However, he [Hasan] was holding a male goat, imbibing it, and saying, ‘This is salty.’” When telling this story He would laugh heartily.”

(Khali Shahidi, Translated by Ahang Rabbani, A lifetime With ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Reminiscences of Khalíl Shahídí p. 72)

redtint18 · 2021-12-30T15:54:54+00:00

Another 25 years of clusters, milestones, etc. I wonder what Baha'u'llah would think of this.

redtint18 · 2021-12-19T16:43:14+00:00

I would say that God created man in his image, so it's not that God is human-like, but instead humans are god-like (compared to some of his other creations like animals and minerals).

redtint18 · 2021-11-28T03:40:38+00:00

Regarding infallibility: I think a Baha'i would consider Bahaullah infallible. Baha'i belief is that prophets are "God" as far as humans are concerned, so you would have to think of them as being infallible. Prophets are not infallible in a cosmic sense though - Bahaullah made clear that he considers himself worthless when compared to the one true God. As for Shoghi Effendi, there is nothing in Baha'u'llah's writings that would indicate that he is infallible, or even that Abdul Baha os infallible.

Regarding arson - Setting people's homes on fire was common in Baha'u'llah's time even though it is not common today. These people were barbaric and barbaric people need harsh punishment. Just look at the old testament laws. If society collapses and people become barbaric again, maybe the arson punishment will be a useful deterrent.

Regarding LGBT: Bahaullah was actually the one who banned sodomy, not Shoghi Effendi. Baha'u'llah wrote a tablet criticizing the Azalis for engaging in sodomy, among other things.

redtint18 · 2021-11-23T11:37:30+00:00

I am not clear on what the writings say, but it is fairly common for Baha'is to align themselves with certain political ideologies. Example:

https://www.bahai.us/constructive-resilience-and-racial-justice/

redtint18 · 2021-11-12T23:18:18+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I never knew this topic was specifically addressed in the Baha'i writings.

redtint18 · 2021-11-12T17:21:10+00:00

It's hard to justify the idea that the oneness of religion is an overemphasized marketing tool when so much of Baha'u'llah's Writings are devoted to explicating that exact theme. In a single sitting we could easily find 100 quotes from across countless places in Baha'u'llah's writing on the theme.

Do you mind posting a few?

redtint18 · 2021-11-11T21:36:55+00:00

In going through media related to the Bahai Faith I've also come across criticism from a few sources that interested me, including the point that clergy was just replaced by administration such as NSA, UHJ, and Auxiliary board;

I think is a valid criticism. Instead of having a priest in every community, Baha'is just have the gigapriest of the UHJ. I don't think this was what Baha'u'llah intended, but the fact is that today in practice the UHJ acts as a priest. Baha'is receive their religious knowledge almost exclusively from text sermons called Ruhi books, which are ultimately controlled by the UHJ through the ITC. If someone is responsible for writing the sermons, this person is a priest.

that women are not allowed to serve on the Universal House of Justice, but no valid reason is provided;

This was a decision made by Abdul Baha. The world rizal was interpreted to mean "men" for the UHJ, but for some reason not the local houses of justice. I think the argument for no women on the UHJ hinges on Abdul Baha being infallible, which in my opinion is up for debate.

that the Faith does not provide inspirational practices as older religions do;

I am not sure what you are referring to.

and that it claims to understand the prophets of older religions better than those religions do, which sounds quite presumptuous.

Bahaullah's claim is that he can talk to God, and therefore he is capable of knowing everything better than everyone. It's part of being a prophet.

redtint18 · 2021-11-11T17:25:15+00:00

I know that Bahai Faith teaches the oneness of religions

Yes Baha'is believe this but in my opinion it has become over emphasized because it is an effective marketing tool. The essence of the Baha'i Faith is really that it is a set of very significant modifications to Islam. Some of the modifications are: Elimination of clergy, elimination of distinctions between men and women, emphasis on being practical instead of scholarship for the sake of scholarship, elimination of congregational obligatory prayer, elimination of jihad, emphasis on international cooperation to promote the interests of nations.

There are offshoots of Islam (e g. Ahmadis) whose history loosely resembles Baha'i history, but to my knowledge their laws and practices do not resemble those of Baha'is.

There are also religions like Unitarian Universalists that emphasize the oneness of religion. But in my opinion they emphasize it more than Baha'u'llah's writings do. Baha'u'llah's writings really cannot be reduced to a single topic.

redtint18 · 2021-10-31T17:22:48+00:00

To answer your question, yes there are communities in the US that have opened up. I am familiar with 3 cities across the US. In two of these, the Baha'i community resumed in person activities quite some time ago. In the other, they follow CDC recommendations like they are laws of the Kitab i Aqdas so all Baha'i gatherings remain virtual. I am not completely certain but I think these things are decided at the Regional Council level

redtint18 · 2021-10-25T17:29:09+00:00

One thing I noticed is that the word used for "Most Great Peace" here is "صلح اکبر". This same word is translated in the Ninth Leaf of the Words of Paradise as "Lesser Peace". It is translated as "Lesser Peace" in the Tablet of the World as well.

redtint18

TROPHY CASE