robin@nmtvax.UUCP (07/13/83)
Hello net world,
I recently received the following net mail:
I (and probably others) would appreciate it if you'd post
more about Baha'i. I learned a fair amount about it from
a friend, but am always anxious to learn more (about
everything); others might be surprised at the emphasis on
the harmony of religion and science.
--Steve
So, unless I get lots of objection, every so often I am going to post
an article about the religion I practice, that is, the Baha'i Faith and
maybe fit it in with current discussion on the news group. If there
are any questions about the Baha'i Faith, I am at 'nmtvax!robin'.
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The Baha'i Faith.
We believe that it is impossible to know God Himself( that
is, His thoughts, His reasoning, how He spends His day). Why
can't we know this? How can a finite being(man) understand an
infinite being(God)? We can only speculate about what God does.
We are not left totally without help, though.
From time to time, God sends a messenger( also called a
Manifestation of God) to bring mankind spiritual and social
teachings to help man advance civilization(time to time is about
a thousand years). This is the idea of progressive revelation. Some
of the messengers of past dispensations include Moses, Zoroaster,
Christ, and Mohammed. In the late 1800's in Iran, Baha'u'llah
brought his teachings for the current age. Baha'u'llah is the
founder of the Baha'i Faith. This means that all the world's
major religions all worship the same God. The mission of
Baha'u'llah is to establish the unity of mankind.
Some of the basic ideas that the Faith promotes include:
1) Unity of mankind
2) Compulsory Education
3) Equality between men and women
4) Establishment of a auxilary universal language
5) Harmony between science and religion
6) Limitation on extremes of poverty and wealth
7) Establishment of a World government
8) Individual search after the truth
9) Elimination of prejudice of all kinds
In the Baha'i Faith, there is no clergy. We believe that man is
advanced enough that he can figure things out for himself(that is, the
clergy(priests and the like) are left over from a time when most of
mankind could not read and, thus, needed someone to explain the writings).
While there is no clergy, there is the Spiritual Assemblies around to
handle the affairs of the Baha'i comuunities. This is a body of nine
believers elected by the community to take care of business. Also,
Baha'is gather every Baha'i month(19 days) at what is called 'feast', so
the entire community can discuss what is going on.
Being a Baha'i is an individual action. Only you and God really
know if you are doing as you should. The Spiritual Assemblies don't
go around checking up on you. It is all up to you.
Next article, I will discuss what God expects of individual Baha'is.
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Once, again, if there are any questions or you want to flame or something,
I can be reached at:
From the net: ...!nmtvax!robin
From U.S. Post Office:
Allan F. Perry
P.O. Box 3437 C/S
Socorro, NM 87801
Until later,
Allan F. Perry