I am going to pretty much continue on from what I said yesterday, investigating the philosophy of the Baha’i faith. This time I will focus on some philosophical and theological concerns that have arisen during my short but intensive study.

Firstly, Baha’u'llah describes God as being indescribable.

To every discerning and illuminated heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the Divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery. He is, and hath ever been, veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men.

Labeling your central deity as something outside of human understanding seems like a tricky methodology to maintain. If we think that God is wholly beyond us, how can we know that we can ever reach Him? How can we know that He wants us to worship Him, and that He loves us and is a part of us?

The Baha’i have a simple answer to this- that the prophets of each religion are a kind of halfway point between God and us. They are the only ones who are able to understand what God is, and so they do their best to describe what they have seen to the rest of us. Thus, as I remarked in my last post, each religious leader, and therefore each religion, has captured different aspects of this One True Being. Even though God is not immediately accessible, he speaks to us from the mouths of the Prophets.

However, this system requires an awful lot of trust on our part. We are subject to the Prophets who claim to know God, and so far we seem not to have any criterion from judging a true Prophet from someone muttering to himself behind a dumpster. In fact, as Baha’u'llah observes, we have historically resisted new Prophets to the point of ridiculing their new doctrines. Even though Baha’u'llah warns us against this, and reminds us constantly about how we must value each approach to religion, this seems to ensure that the next iteration of God’s messengers will bring a message so counter-intuitive that we shall surely rally against it.

If we have always resisted the beliefs of the new Prophets, the next step in the Revelation of our God, and we have been told to make sure we are accepting of each religion to make sure this does not happen, to make sure we can be more tolerant and peaceful- this seems to all but ensure that the next step in our collective, historical, spiritual journey will be very, very hard to accept. And since we cannot know anything God directly, we have nothing to check this message against when and if it does come. No matter how outrageous the new religion may seem, it seems that we will have no choice but to accept it.

Sure, we may not follow someone promoting complete atheism, or something that runs against everything that has been established in our religious history so far. But if we were to refuse this kind of message, it would be in the face of everything that Baha’i as taught us.

The Baha’i’s see their religion has an independent faith, but not as something over and above other faiths. It does not mean to invalidate other beliefs or practices.

Bahá’ís regard the Bahá’í Faith as an independent religion, alongside the other world religions, such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Conversion to the Bahá’í Faith is not, however, similar to conversion to some other religions. When one converts from Christianity to Buddhism, for example, one rejects entirely the view-point that one is leaving behind and adopts a new viewpoint. Since the doctrines of the two religions appear to be contradictory, it is a question of adopting either one or the other. The same does not occur with conversion to the Bahá’í Faith, however. To become a Bahá’í does not entail an automatic rejection of one’s previous religion.

But there does seem to be some kind of primacy inherent in their message. If we want to accept that each religion is valid from their own point of view, then we must first accept the premise provided by the Baha’i faith. Baha’i may claim to not want to reject or replace the long history of faiths, but their own doctrines seem to say otherwise.

Again, if we believe that each new religion is a reflection of the time, with each step getting us closer to the peace and harmony we each seek, then it seems that each religion is closer to that ideal than the last. Baha’i seems to prove this point, as it is based almost entirely on tolerance and peace between ideologies. But we only get to this intuitive and very friendly conclusion if we first accept Baha’u'llah and the Baha’i faith as a primary truth, and as the best religion available.

The Baha’i faith is trying to be humble, but the faith must be true above all the others if we are to accept the arguments for toleration and different aspects of the same truth. The faith seems to be claiming that every religion is true, but only if the Baha’i’s conception of religious and spiritual truths, especially about God, is true. All religions are right, but only because their philosophy is right, and more correct than every other faith (except for the ones to come).

I don’t want this post to sound overly negative, or to be seen as attacking the religion. I’m sure these are minor issues with simple solutions, and I am still a big fan of the themes and principles of the Baha’i faith. I find myself agreeing with the religion, to a point, and so if I can get past these concerns, all the better.

As always, if you have any comments or thoughtful disagreements… you know what to do.