What do you think about the Baha`i?

[FreedByte]

Ah, we've been wanting them to give us one. So far, no luck.

Dang

 

[Fascinated With God]

What do you mean by fine? If they want to remain in ignorance, that's their choice. I take issue with them, or anybody, attempting to impose their religious beliefs on others but if they want to be uneducated that's their decision to make.

Now you have contradicted your original statement that I found so dubious and a very shallow mere glance at the study of comparative religion:

Were there an option that said "The same as any other religion that isn't my own", I'd select that one.

 

[LoAmmi]

Now you have contradicted your original statement that I found so dubious and a very shallow mere glance at the study of comparative religion:

I haven't contradicted a thing.

 

[jacknife]

wheres the option for "same as all religions"?

 

[FreedByte]

wheres the option for "same as all religions"?

One of the last three, I imagine.

 

[dlamberth]

wheres the option for "same as all religions"?

I was wondering the same.

.

 

[FreedByte]

I was wondering the same.

.

I think you mean different things by this though. He means they are equally wrong. You mean they're equally right, I assume.

 

[dlamberth]

You mean they're equally right, I assume.

That's correct.

.

 

[Fascinated With God]

I haven't contradicted a thing.

Well it certainly APPEARS to be a contradiction. 1st they are all the same validity, then Fundamentalists take a beating from you. You didn't even attempt to resolve this obvious contradiction, so it would seem that you are incapable of even addressing this obvious contradiction in your views.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Now you have contradicted your original statement that I found so dubious and a very shallow mere glance at the study of comparative religion:

How is this a contradiction?

He said that it's like any other religion that isn't Judaism. That is, being Jewish he practices Judaism and regards Judaism to be right, it follows then that all other religions are, generally speaking wrong. The Baha'i religion has no special place for him as a Jew, it's another religion among other religions.

How is that contradicted by saying that he would let fundamentalists of another religion live and think however they want unless they become invasive or attempt to force their thinking on others or him?

Frankly it seems to me that you have consistently been uninterested in a discussion and only in trying to be combative whenever you can.

Trying to pick fights by weaseling out a word here or there and throwing a tantrum just because you can.

My suggestion? Grow up.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Fascinated With God]

All religions have their strengths and weaknesses and their own personalities. What he said is like saying everyone is the same besides me. It is a narrow minded horse blinder approach to comparative religion.

 

[Fascinated With God]

I have to admit that I have been generally impressed with the arguments of the Baha`i here, but it is all been about what you are against rather than what you are for. I suspect that is we would find substantial differences. All I know is that the Baha`i I met in LA, even the director of the center, were all WAY out there, nothing like what I've seen in this thread so far.

For example one member expressed the belief that evil does not exist. Evil is like AIDS, it tries to destroy your ability to recognize the existence of evil/the virus. If it can do that it has won on the 1st attempt and the person becomes completely unaware dupe of evil.

 

[jacknife]

I think you mean different things by this though. He means they are equally wrong.

correct,

 

[smaneck]

For example one member expressed the belief that evil does not exist.

St. Augustine said pretty much the same thing, that darkness ultimately is the absence of light, that it has no positive existence of its own. But that is perhaps the topic of another thread.

There is a good article on this here:

Stand to Reason | Augustine on Evil

Abdu'l-Baha says pretty much the same thing about evil not having a positive existence as St. Augustine.

 

[jacknife]

One of the last three, I imagine.

i somehow missed this. yeah but that would imply i have negative feelings about them (if i am understanding the OP correctly) i dont have negative feelings about them i just think there wrong.

 

[ViaCrucis]

St. Augustine said pretty much the same thing, that darkness ultimately is the absence of light, that it has no positive existence of its own. But that is perhaps the topic of another thread.

There is a good article on this here:

Stand to Reason | Augustine on Evil

Abdu'l-Baha says pretty much the same thing about evil not having a positive existence as St. Augustine.

My understanding is that this was the standard view of the Church Fathers. Because to grant evil actual existence was to speak of cosmic dualism, that there are two great powers Good and Evil. But the Fathers believed there was only one "great power", that being God. And God was all-good, and the source of actual goodness. Evil, therefore, wasn't a thing with substance, a power that stood as God's opposite, but was the deprivation of the good. That which is evil is evil because it is lacking, because it is the malformation of the good. All that God created is good, as recorded in Genesis.

I'm not an expert on Tolkein's Middle Earth cosmology, but from what I recall hearing and reading about the Simarillion "God" or the equivalent in that cosmology had his "angels" sing a song in perfect harmony. A renegade, Morgoth, sang his own song and brought discord.

Which I think is a pretty good illustration of this idea of evil as a malformation, as discord, of what is good.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Niblo]

I'm not an expert on Tolkein's Middle Earth cosmology, but from what I recall hearing and reading about the Simarillion "God" or the equivalent in that cosmology had his "angels" sing a song in perfect harmony. A renegade, Morgoth, sang his own song and brought discord.

Which I think is a pretty good illustration of this idea of evil as a malformation, as discord, of what is good.

-CryptoLutheran

'In the midst of this strife, whereat the halls of Ilùvatar shook and a tremor ran out into the silence yet unmoved, Ilùvatar arose a third time, and his face was terrible to behold. Then he raised up both his hands, and in one chord, deeper than the Abyss, higher than the Firmament, piercing as the Light of the eye of Ilùvatar, the Music ceased.'

The sower of discord was Melkor.

Have a great day now, and God bless you.

 

[LoAmmi]

Well it certainly APPEARS to be a contradiction. 1st they are all the same validity, then Fundamentalists take a beating from you. You didn't even attempt to resolve this obvious contradiction, so it would seem that you are incapable of even addressing this obvious contradiction in your views.

My position is that I don't view any religions not my own as inherently better or worse than any other religion. I combine that with a view that people should not force their religious views upon others.

The view isn't a contradiction.

 

[carlcockatoo]

If I were to convert to any Abrahamic religion, it would probably be to the Baha'i faith.

That is highly unlikely because there are still many aspects of it that I do not identify with, but overall its theology makes most sense to me and I have had positive experiences with them.

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

It is interesting that good and evil came to be conceived as cosmic forces, instead of mere moral evaluations.

I'd argue that the existence of different moral evaluations has got next to nothing to do with either dualism or monotheism, and that the Abrahamic deity *clearly* does not fall on either end of this spectrum, but operates along the same grey lines as ordinary mortals.

Good and evil are not cosmic forces - they are the extreme ends of a spectrum of judgments we make upon behaviours and motivations, based on universal social instincts as well as culture-specific norms and conventions.

And I'd say that the one religion which shows the most understanding of this is Buddhism, which conceives of negative behaviour as "unskilled" rather than "sinful/evil".