RE: Baha'i Faith?
(As usual, all that follows is my personal opinion, and is not meant to be any official position/dogma.)
I suppose I should address the controversial aspects of the Bahai faith brought up in this thread. (Please note: I'm not bringing anything up to start a debate. I'm not willing to engage in divisive religious debates - I'm just sharing my personal opinions and some information so that you can make your own opinions on some matters brought up in this thread.)
It is no secret that the current Bahai administration aspires to eventually be the ruling government of the whole planet, and with that to create one global currency, language and culture. Some Bahais also interpret this goal to mean the eventual creation of one race, although I have not yet come across this concept in the actual scriptures, so it seems to be more of a made-up thing by Bahais who don't actually read the texts of their own religion (every religion seems to have those kind of people). What the texts do imply is that God created many races because, like a gardener planting different coloured roses, it was pleasing to Him, so presumable a multitude of races will continue to exist the variety pleases Him).
To achieve this end of world domination, Bahais tend to work with organizations, such as the UN, that may be able to assist towards that ultimate goal.
The Bahai administration is somewhat opposed to current globalization trends, in so much as they are driven by secular interests rather than Bahai interests.
That said, a lot of Bahais believe that the world must undergo systemic massive collapse in the near future, and that the current globalisation trend is an unstoppable inertia to a general worldwide civilizational collapse. There is a lot of fatalism regarding this in my Bahai community.
Like the Catholic Church in the aftermath of the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Bahai administration is positioning itself to be the preserver of communication, administration skills, and knowledge in a post-collapse world. And like the Catholic Church in post-Roman Europe, the Bahai faith hopes to become a dominant force in the post-collapse world.
Therefore, globalism is seen as the fire that will destroy the world and prepare it for the Bahai government, and some Bahais seem to welcome it. Indeed, globalism is seen as fulfilling the prophecies of Revelations, that the world must be destroyed before the Heavenly Kingdom can be established on earth. (Bahaullah, by the way, is considered to be the returned form of Jesus Christ, effectively marking the end of the 'old world' and the centuries of tribulation preceding the new world).
So yes, the Bahais are interested in ruling the world, abolishing all borders and languages, and creating one world government, one world culture, one world language. This is not a secret, as I said, and I personally don't see anything wrong with it. I look forward to possibly being part of the ruling elite, although I doubt any substantial power is going to be amassed by the Bahai faith in my lifetime. There is also a lack of enthusiasm to opposing globalism, given the fatalistic streak running through Bahai thought.
With regards to the idea that 'religions are equal'...
Here the problem is that Bahai law makes it compulsory to be nice to people and not offend them, and as such there is an 'outer' face of Bahai propaganda and and 'inner' aspect of the Bahai faith that is shielded from outsiders (this is why some Bahai meetings are closed to non-Bahais).
The Bahai faith's stance is that religion is an individual's personal choice that cannot be interfered with. Therefore, all religions are equal in the sense that they are to be equally tolerated as an individual's choice.
In private, the stance is that there is only one religion that is allowed to be organized - and that is the Bahai faith. In a Bahai country, all priesthoods and monasteries would be forbidden. Basically, no religion outside of the Bahai faith is allowed to be formally organized, by Bahai law. So in a Bahai theocratic state, you could be allowed to be Catholic or Muslim as you personally wish, but you would not be allowed to practice as a priest or an imam.
So in public, the Bahai faith is hippy liberal; in private, the Bahai faith is as conservatively dogmatic in its assertion of truth as any other faith, and as dogmatic that all the other religions are currently wrong, although there are protections in place for individual freedom of belief. Even Bahais are somewhat free in their interpretation of the faith, although once a Bahai starts participating in administrative structures, there is a lot of pressure to follow official dogma.
Another way this public and private face can contradict itself is with regards to gender. Publically, the Bahai faith proclaims complete gender equality. Privately, the Bahai faith remains a patriarchy, albeit with some concessions to women that were introduced by Abdul Baha, Bahaullah's son - he allowed greater participation by women in the structures of the faith, reserving only the top echelons for men but otherwise allowing women to participate. The equality of the genders is more a spiritual equality, that male and female are equal important in the eyes of God and that neither role is more important than the other - men must lead, women must breed, and both are required for the continued existence of the human race. This does put men in position to create laws that amount to an abuse of power, and this the Bahai faith openly and publicly condemns. (If you want to be cynical, that basically means that only Bahai-inspired gender discrimination is to be allowed, and that all other forms of gender discrimination, most especially that based on non-Bahai religions or cultures, must be abolished).
As for the assertion that the Bahai faith is merely an offshoot of Sufism, I can easily also accuse of Christianity of merely being an offshoot of Judaism - does a religious movement become invalid merely because it is an 'offshoot'? It's up to you to decide. Bahaism is clearly inspired by many things, especially Sufism, but it is something very, very different, just as Christianity is very different from Judaism although the one clearly comes from the other. I personally don't feel that originality is a requirement for a religion, therefore the offshoot thing doesn't bother me.
As for the number of Manifestations - the Bahai faith teaches that there are innumerable worlds with innumerable Manifestations, and that the majority of Manifestations in the world have been lost to history; but there have been Manifestations and prophets since people have been capable of worship and prayer. Bahaullah did not create a definitive list of Manifestations, he merely mentioned a few of the big ones, so if your chosen religious founder is not in His list, that's okay, the list wasn't meant to be comprehensive, it was meant to just have some illustrative examples pertinent to the time.
The next Manifestation is due sometime after the year 2844 AD (or the year 1000 in the Bahai calendar), although whether the next Manifestation will arrive exactly at that time or will only arrive centuries or ages after that is not known. Any new religion founded between 1844 AD and 2844 AD (i.e between 1 - 1000 in the Bahai Era calendar) is to be considered a fraud.
I'm just sharing stuff, I'm not trying to convert or convince anyone and I'm not going to engage in any arguments or goal-orientated discussions, but I will share more of my opinions/information if requested.
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