The Baha'i Faith
OP - January 10, 2013, 01:43 PM
I've been reading about the Baha'i Faith today and I find it quite interesting although very bizarre. I think the advent of new faiths truly illustrates how ridiculous religions (especially the abrahamic ones) are in general. For those less familiar with Baha'i I'll try to give a short summary of it. It began as a movement within Shia Islam called Babism. This dude who called himself the Bab declared himself the prophesied Twelfth Imam or the Madhi (some sort of messianic figure from what I gather, I'm not well versed in Shia Islam, I'm sure some of the people here can fill in the gaps) which I guess put him on par with Muhammad. That didn't go over very well and he was publicly executed (much like another messianic figure). But he foretold the appearance of another who would be a manifestation of god which is a prophet or something. One of his followers who called himself Bahá'u'llah said he was visited by an angel and that he was the one to which the Bab prophesied and from there the followers of Bahá'u'llah began calling themselves Baha'is.
The religion is truly odd because it accepts Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Zoroaster, Buddha, Krishna, the Bab, and Bahá'u'llah as messengers of god. Baha'is argue that there is one religion and one god and as humanity matures god sends a new messenger to teach humanity more. I find the claim a bit ridiculous because some of these people mentioned as prophets taught contradicting things i.e. Krishna is a god (more precisely an avatar of a god named Vishnu) in a polytheistic religion and Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad taught there is one god, and last I checked he is never called Vishnu haha. Jesus declared himself the Son of God (according to the Bible) whilst Muhammad taught that God has no children. Buddha taught that the gods don't matter and that the ultimate goal is enlightenment and Nirvana where you cease to exist. Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad taught of a heaven that guaranteed eternal happiness free from pain and suffering. On this foundation alone the faith already discredits itself. Though trying to be inclusive I think is something I have to give credit for.
Anyways, the Baha'i claim of the prophethood of the Bab and Bahá'u'llah contradict the Islamic claim that Muhammad is the seal of the prophet, something that doesn't go over too well with Muslims. From what I read Baha'is are subject to intense persecution in Iran. I find this chain of Abrahamic Religions to be truly amusing in how they behave; the newer ones lend some validity to the older ones while the older ones denounce any and all Abrahamic Religions newer than themselves as heretical. Example: Judaism the oldest denounces the claims of Christianity, Islam, and Baha'i. Christianity acknowledges Judaism but denounces Islam and Baha'i. Islam acknowledges Judaism and Christianity but denounces Baha'i, and Baha'i acknowledges all of them which is something I consider to be a glaring flaw in Abrahamic Religions as a whole that you can bring up without the "prove your god" argument. Part of the interesting bit of Baha'i though is unlike the other Abrahamic Religions, the Bab nor Bahá'u'llah declared themselves the last prophet, in fact they foretold the coming of more messengers unlike the religions that came before. Perhaps they learned a lesson from previous religions. Anyways it was an interesting read, thought I'd share and open it for discussion.
"Knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal." - Carl Sagan
Topic: The Baha'i Faith