Dear Ron,
Your recent post was thought-provoking; I enjoyed it
very much. Here are my responses to some of your points:
>We, as a community, seem to me to be rejecting science,
>insisting on literal infallibility of our Writings in all domains,
> and trumping all other evidence, logic, and science.
As I see it, there is the Baha'i Faith, comprised of the
teachings of Baha'u'llah and His successors, then there is
the Baha'i community, made up of people who have varying
degrees of understanding of what the Baha'i writings mean.
As you know, of course, the Baha'i teachings protect
us from rejecting science, and from interpreting the Writings
too literally. But there is the question of how well does the
Baha'i community understand and follow those teachings.
Admittedly we all struggle with these issues, but as the
Baha'is mature in their understanding of the Writings,
we will gain a better understanding of the importance
of science and rationality, and of the symbolic, metaphorical
nature of the sacred texts. The Ruhi study courses,
for all their flaws, have the great benefit of getting masses
of Baha'is to actually pay attention to what Baha'u'llah
and Abdu'l Baha and Shoghi Effendi wrote.
>the teaching of our Faith includes the concept of not advancing or
promoting religion by the sword, we are therefore immune to any
danger of “jihad”. In order to dispel this sense of comfort, I simply
point out that the religion founded by the Prince of Peace was equally,
... against the use of violence of any kind; and yet how many millions
have been killed, tortured and persecuted in His name?<
The Gospels imply that Jesus used force to evict the money-changers
from the Temple.
The Christian religion has no clear, inviolable covenant
to protect its community from following a wrong course of action.
The Baha'i faith has explicit writings forbidding holy war, and
the Universal House of Justice to bring us back onto the straight path
if we start to go the wrong way.
Tim Nolan
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