Still no word from Baha'i sources about the procedure for visiting the Gardens (Terraces), but I did get a friend who lives in Haifa to telephone them. Here's what he says: I phoned the number you gave me, and they say you have to reserve one day in advance, and that the place is open all week excep...

[Edit: this thread is in response to a question about a schedule or guide for studying the Baha'i Writings in two years according to the injunction that we study the Writings every morn and eve, which has since been deleted. -J.W.] I remember seeing that too (though not so recently--more like severa...

No, Sikhism and Jainism are not on the list of religions whose founders are officially recognized as prophets. This would tend to interfere with the notion of a thousand-year prophetic aeon. (The Sikh gurus came after Muhammad, and Mahavira was a contemporary of Sakyamuni Buddha.) However, I do beli...

Part of the usual definition of "Adam" is "the first man." If I say that I believe in Adam, but not that he was the first man, what on earth am I saying? It sounds like Baha'is would change it to "the first prophet," no matter who he/she was or what his/her name was. (Alley Oop, perhaps.) The same p...

I heard back from them on the museum question. They say that technically there is no "Baha'i museum," only a collection of "relics" attached to the archives, which only Baha'i pilgrims are permitted to see. Requests for information by outsiders may in principle be considered, but they're real busy a...

You believe that certain other religions are animated with a spiritual spark which legitimizes them, but which you possess in greater abundance--by which I mean, you see yourselves as more suitable for the modern age. Everybody else ought to join you, if they only understood their own religions arig...

I do appreciate the difficulty. Of course I too have my own "little system" which I try to stuff everybody else into (though on the other hand, I don't claim that other religions really secretly agree with me deep down). Appeal to historians' judgment might be a good basis for discussion (many, perh...

Mecca is only open to Muslims. A Baha'i intent on visiting would have to lie about his religion, which the Baha'i religion does not allow (other forms of Shi'ism do). Besides Jerusalem, other "Baha'i-friendly" pilgrimage spots include the birthplaces of Krishna (Vrindavan, India) and Buddha (Lumbini...

In all probability, the original Sabaeanism had no founder. So Baha'is accept prophets called "Krishna" and "Adam" (or other-language equivalents), but know nothing about them other than (a version of) their names? This makes the affirmation meaningless. It's like saying that I believe in Jesus, but...

Several big problems with "native messengers of God" category. (1) Who gets to be considered a "native"? Examples: the Tibetan Bon religion, Mongolian worship of Genghiz Khan, Chinese folk religion. (There seems to be a fundamental tension between the concept of aboriginality, and the insistence on ...

One more idea. I wonder if the original question wasn't motivated by the assumption that a clone would be a human creation, whereas a "normal" child would be the result of nature or God. In fact cloning also involves natural material. We are comfortable with the idea that children conceived through ...

I may have the good fortune to travel to Haifa soon, and would very much like to visit the Baha'i gardens. Do I need to sign up in advance? If so, how? (I am not a Baha'i.) I also understand that the Baha'is have some sort of museum with artifacts related to the Babi movement. Are outsiders admitted...

Those Iraqi followers of John the Baptist are called Mandaeans. Basic information about them can be found in Kurt Rudolf's book "Gnosis". The term "Sabean" has been claimed by any number of groups whose members wished to secure protection for their religious beliefs. In all likelihood it originally ...

I ran across this by accident on another site, unrelated to Baha'is: Yesterday I had a lovely lunch with two friends one J, a student of AAB & the other L, of Ba'hai faith. We shared our love of God, our desire to see improvements in ourselves & the world & a growth through sharing of each other's l...

Here is a website with the names and personal information of UHJ members as of 2003: http://www.onecountry.org/e151/e15108as_elections_story.htm And the crucial extract: The elections this year for the Universal House of Justice were marked by the retirement of two long-serving members: Ali Nakhjava...

Here's a link. NB: only nine-ish of these are official.

http://www.wheeloftheyear.com/2004/baha%27i.htm

Brett, thank you for that quote. I wonder what else like that might be buried in the mass of holy texts, unemphasized? Janine, I like very much your suggestion to wait a hundred years, and see what happens. Interestingly, the Baha'is are well-positioned to still be around, no matter what happens wit...

[Brett says:] Just because someone worships a stone...does not mean that I must submit my brain to believe that something lower than myself (the stone) is actually higher and possesses magic. Of course there is no compulsion to believe anything. But I think the presumption that indigenous religions ...

You are wrong to assume that the Baha'i Faith stands in opposition to all Daniel Quinn's ideas. Not "all" but probably "most." Certainly "much." For instance, we certainly should learn from indigenous peoples: Baha'u'llah states that the whole world will be illumined by the influence of the Native ...

Daniel Quinn is the author of Ishmael, The Story of B, Beyond Civilization, and other books with an ecological theme. He gives his religion as "animism" (after Tyler). So what do you think of the following points? Am I being fair? ---------------------------- Quinn: There is no one right way to live...

To me, the strangest thing about theism is the presumption that "my" culture or subculture's religion / God makes sense in a way that the cults and idols of Zeus or Mumbo Jumbo, God of the Congo, do not. At least with science, there is always the recognition that we might be wrong, even on the most ...

You could make the same arguments on behalf of any belief system. Who's to say that astrology and science might not turn out to be harmonious? As a layman, I wouldn't want to abandon my family fortune-teller just because of something I read on the internet... If self-creation sounds absurd to you, s...

Yes, that's what I meant. Shaykhis are a subgroup of Twelvers are a subgroup of Shi'i are a subgroup of Islam. By now I hope he's got it figured out.

Ah, Brett, that's all right. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I'll do my best. To begin with, I recall being concerned to clarify the difference between "Shi'i" ("Partisan"--of Ali) Islam, which is one of the two major divisions of that religion; the "Ithna Ashariya" ("Twelver") branch, its...

I personally think that William Miller's book is a good one. I often wonder why Baha'is dislike him, but like EG Browne, when in fact their views and approaches are broadly similar. We certainly don't agree with Browne's reliance on the Azalis. He later apologized to 'Abdu'l-Baha for this, as I und...

Just one point: While "most" recognized prophets do seem to have Semitic roots, Baha'is see Muhammad as the seal of this Semitic line of prophets. The Bab and Baha'u'llah were not primarily of Semitic extraction (though as a Siyyid the Bab was a descendent of Muhammad). This suggests that the next p...

Some sources say 1814, some say 1817. What say ye?

And while I'm asking, does anybody have biographical information for her three kids?

So, Babis didn't like the color black. Avoided it even in the form of black ink. So, what about the Black Flag of the Qa'im? They liked that. Did anybody ever try to reconcile this, that we know of?