(June 30, 2014 at 8:58 am)Bibliofagus Wrote: Thnx. The thing is: I've often wondered how christians decide which parts of their bible are true. I've seen many answers and they all seem arbitrary to me.
In your faith this problem would multiply. You have to somehow decide
-which books are holy
- which parts of these books supercede other parts that are internally inconsistent
- and which fragments of holy books supercede the fragments of other books that are at odds.
Is there a mechanism? You were confident answering Frodo on the divinity of jesus issue, so I'm guessing there is.
On a related note I'm Also curious if Dianetics and the book of mormon count as a holy book. And why they do or don't.
Is there a mechanism? I suppose. If something from another holy book isn't absolutely stated to be fact in Baha'u'llah's Writings, or the writings of another one of the Central Figures, then it is open to be seen as metaphorical. From there, it's kind of a common sense game. Is it pretty obvious it didn't happen? It's metaphorical.
But that doesn't really answer your question. So, let's focus on those three up there:
Which books are holy? That would be the books written by a Manifestation of God (Messenger of God. I can explain this more if you wish), or that are the recorded oral account of what a Manifestaiton has said. This brings up the question: how do we know Who's a Manifestation and who isn't. That one's harder. You see, we don't. At least, not all of them. We do, however, have a list of confirmed Manifestations. This would be (in reverse order) Baha'u'llah, the Bab, Muhammad, Jesus, the Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses, Abraham, Krishna, (there's another one here, but I can't remember His name), Hud, Noah, and Adam. So, anything by any of those Figures is holy to Baha'is. We're told that there are many more, but we have no record of them, or they weren't confirmed as Manifestations in the Writings.
Which parts of these books supersede other parts that are internally inconsistent? That would usually be the most recent ones. So, in the Bible, Jesus' statements supersede those of Moses. Muhammad's statements in the Quran supersede those of Jesus. And so on. Where there's an inconsistency, the most recent one holds. Unless stated otherwise by a Manifestation. In which case, what the Manifestation said holds, holds.
And which fragments of holy books supersede the fragments of other books that are at odds? I believe I answered this one while answering the previous question.
As for Dianetics and the Book of Mormon: No. Here's why:
Joseph Smith was not a Manifestation, and he didn't make a separate religion (Mormons consider themselves Christians).
L. Ron Hubburd was also not a Manifestation. While he did end up founding a religion (Scientology), he came after Baha'u'llah. While we do believe another Manifestation WILL come after Baha'u'llah, we are specifically told that it won't be until after 1'000 years after His dispensation has begun. Besides that, L. Ron Hubburd claimed that Dianetics was a science, and that Scientology was a religion based on his scientific findings. Not a revelation.
I hope I answered your questions satisfactorily?
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