Firestorm wrote:
"actually that's a fie example of failing to show the Cite.
i been hearing this "the whole Iqan" "alll the Writings of
Baha'u'llah" yadydyydaa for wayyyy longer than i ever wanted to. from
people upholding absolute nonsense, people trying to be reasonable,
and people trying to run.
the actual issue >>on this thread<< is"
and then Firestorm wrote:
"there is a secondary question, free of rhetoric.
:"
>I am more than a little puzzled about explaining Abdul-Baha's errors,
especially related to science, to nonBahais<
What scientific errors did Abdu'l Baha make?"
and i am waiting for the Cite.
I reply:
Dear Firestorm, I did not write the quote you give above. I do not
remember who posted that, but it certainly was not me. Please try to
refrain from posting quotes and attributing them to me when in fact
the post in question was made by someone else. This is the second
different quote that you have falsely attributed to me in this one
thread!
As for me, I don't go around trying to find "errors" in the Writings.
It's only people who believe in literal infallibility who have to
worry about such things anyway. If I did find what I considered to be
an error of fact, I would certainly not go around posting it on the
internet, I would consider that distasteful and disrespectful to the
Writings, and also completely irrelevant. I don't look for new science
or history or such things in the Writings.
What I am concerned about is certainly not the Writings. The Writings
are why I became a Baha'i. If I had a problem with the Writings then I
would not have become a Baha'i!
What I am concerned about is the interpretation of some of the
Writings that quite a few Baha'is have, specifically, and I quote
myself again from my original post in this thread:
"A very common Baha'i attitude is that if one of the Central Figures
wrote something that comes into conflict with scientific knowledge,
then science is wrong because our Central Figures are infallible."
Now, if you ask me to cite examples where I think this seriously leads
us astray, I have already cited the 2 most common examples of this so
far:
1. Many Baha'is believe that some of the Writings expose flaws in the
theory of evolution, and that to believe that people evolved from
common ancestors to other primates is wrong.
and 2. Some Baha'is believe that modern physics is wrong to have
rejected the concept of an ether.
Now, to explain once again, I certainly have no problem with what the
Writings say about those topics, only the interpretations of many
Baha'is as I explain in the two points above. I don't think the
Writings are trying to teach us anything about Physics or Biological
science.
The crux of my point is that, if the literal interpretation of a
passage of the Writings is in conflict with science and/or reason,
then one must look for a symbolic meaning, not a literal one.
Now, if you don't believe that there are passages in the Writings,
such as the two that I mention above, that if interpreted literally,
would conflict with reason or science or both, well, I'm not going to
have that discussion with you.
Life is too short.
Ron
P.S. Please, please, at least try to stop attributing quotes to me
that were posted by someone else, not me. This is the second different
quote that you have improperly attributed to me in this thread. I am
sure you did this accidentally, not intentionally, but it is very
disconcerting and I don't like it.
Also, if you would capitalize and punctuate your posts a little bit
closer to common norms it would help me understand them better.
Ron
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