The Baha'i Faith

[zanOTK]

You'e not prying too much at all.

So, to answer your first question, which oneness are you referring to? Oneness of God, Oneness of Humanity, or Oneness of Religion? By Oneness of God is meant there is only One God. By Oneness of Humanity is meant that we are all one race, the human race. By Oneness of Religion is meant that all religions are part of the ever evolving One Religion of God, which grows and reveals more as we mature as a species.

As for your second question, obviously Oneness of God requires a belief in God, lol. Oneness of Humanity doesn't, however. Oneness of Religion, as understood by Baha'is, does, though, since it relies on the concept that God is revealing more to us as we mature.

And yes, I was raised to believe in God. Just, not the way I believe now. I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian home. So, the kind of things I'm talking about now were not only not believed, they were believed to be things of the devil. I became disillusioned with the Christian church at 17 (for reasons I would rather not divulge here), and started looking at other paths. Nothing really worked for me, and I was considering just giving up on religion and becoming agnostic/atheist. Then I started reading about the Baha'i Faith, it made sense (to me), and I decided to give it a go. So far, it's working.

All fundamentalist religions represent what is worst about religions. I'm happy for you that you found your way 'up the ladder' to a more reasonable faith position. Joseph Campbell, from his study of religions past and present, would have agree with you about the oneness of religions .. albeit not for the same reason. However his conclusions could be seen as corroborating those of your new faith.

All in all it seems you have found a way to throw out the dirty bath water while keeping the baby. I hope your new church continues to satisfy and fulfill you.

Oh and I do have more questions for you. These concern your new religion's stance toward science. I imagine this may have come up already since I last posted so I need to catch up here. My guess is that your church's stance toward science would be pretty accepting.

Question #3: Do you believe God had a hand in creating/designing the universe? Is he still seen as pulling it all out of nothing by magic? Does every scientific discovery therefore reveal still more details of divine creation, God's brushstrokes if you like? Or better yet, do they simply drop 'creator' from God's resume. Even if God and people, along with the rest of the universe, were co-evolving from the same mysterious beginnings, He could still play a pretty significant role in people's lives, couldn't He?

Question #4: Are souls still seen as something apart from the body which are eternal? Does your new religion still believe in an afterlife? Does reincarnation play a part? Perhaps these souls just keep getting recycled and perfected until .. what? Is there a goal for souls? (I'm guessing oneness with God. But if so, does oneness mean absorption and dissolution or is personal identity maintained?)

Thanks again.

Q#3: We do believe God had a hand in creating the universe. What exactly the nature of this is, to my knowledge, is not elaborated on. But we pretty much accept everything science says about the physical world. 'Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'u'llah's son, is actually quoted somewhere saying that if science and religion disagree, religion is wrong. We do not, however, believe that God is evolving Himself. Only our understanding (or total lack of understanding, however you like to look at it) is evolving. But God Himself is without beginning or end, Eternal, Unchanging.

Q#4: We do believe in the soul as being separate from the body and eternal. We also believe in an afterlife (we do not, however, believe in Heaven and Hell (or their counterparts in various religions) as literal places. They are states of being). We do not believe in reincarnation, we believe that the soul comes in to being at conception (this does not mean that abortion is out of the question, however), and that it has come into being in our world in order to develop spiritual qualities that will be used in the afterlife (kind of like our physical bodies develop in our mother's womb), and that these will be used in the afterlife to continuously serve God and draw nearer to Him. We do not believe that the soul will ever become one with God, but its goal instead is to attain the presence of God.

Hopefully I provided satisfactory answers to your questions.

Pickup_shonuff, I'm going to have to answer your questions later. I'm about to meet up with a friend for the USA vs Germany match today.