Usually, when you go to church/temple/mosque/etc., you're going there to pray, connect to God/Gods/Spirit and hear a sermon on one thing or another. I also understand that a religious community and place to get together can offer a lot of strength and comfort, and that having that space and group can really help to build appreciation for the religion. However, given the nature of some aspects of the Baha'i faith, I find it kind of weird that they would gravitate to this sort of congregation.
I think a good group to compare it to would be the Unitarian Universalists. UUs get together at least every Sunday to appreciate many things, and none of the members have to have belief in any sort of God or Gods. In fact, many UUs that I know don't believe in a God, or at least not a sentient one. And yet, I can still understand why they get together. There is a very strong Humanitarian streak in much of Unitarian Universalism, and it is plenty satisfying just to be a part of a group that encourages compassion and appreciate humanity and all of it's wonders, even if you aren't looking for any sort of connection to a Greater Force. With the Baha'i, though, they go to temple to pray and hear the words of the prophets, but if their God is as transcendent as they make Him out to be, what good would prayer to Him do? Perhaps the second half of it makes more sense to me, because although you could easily study the words of the prophets on your own, there is probably more satisfaction in it when done in a group spirit. But I can't help but feel that if I were to go to a Baha'i service (?), I wouldn't leave with much spiritual satisfaction, but perhaps that's just because I have a different view of spirituality.
Oliver - You bring up some interesting points I've never really thought about about before. Certainly by streamlining the phrophets' messages over time, that waters down what they have to say; however I think that most of the prophets over history have ahd very similar messages and they tend to coincide with each other. And since each prophet is preaching ideas more relevant to the time, it is important that the new prophet's view is taken into account without completely ignoring the oprevious messages. This progressiveness of the message, I feel is one of the key points of the Baha'i, and I feel that this is an important idea and valid point. Also, I would say that they worship their transcendent God becasue this God is where the prophets' teachings which they hold so highly comes from.
ReplyDeleteThough certainly, I can see where you might get a creepy feeling from this religion. the idea of worshiping a transcendent God is strange and perahps makes it feel as though the prophets are more important. Also, I don't agree with all of their teachings, laws, and prohibitions, as mentioned in part of my blog post.
Well put - I also find it somewhat bizarre to imagine just exactly how you 'worship' (if that is even the primary goal) a completely transcendent god.
ReplyDeleteThis also makes me wonder how they view that in other religions. Since the Baha'i claim so many other religions as a sort of precursor to theirs - how do they explain the personal interaction with god that most of these had? I guess that brings us back to the issue of 'watering down'.
Really interesting points.. I would just point out how worship in common sense does not seem to be the goal, but rather discussing and reasoning about world and words of Baha'u'llah and others. Also, when you talk about UUs I think you mean their humanistic viewpoint rather than their humanitarian one.. Important difference.. But your point is really good. It is easy to think of the Baha'is as just another liberal group like UUs, but on close analysis they are quite different.. You see that and express it well..
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