Day 845: Birth of Baha'u'llah

When it comes to Abrahamic religions do you ever think Baha’i, the fourth largest with almost 8 million followers worldwide, ever feel jealous of their big brothers Judaism, Christianity, or Islam?  It’s unlikely, because the Baha’i believe God is powerful enough to manifest himself/herself/itself is multiple human forms giving legitimacy to all three… not to mention some Indian and Far Eastern religions as well.  If Rodney King was a religion… he’d be Baha’i.

Baha’i is actually the 9^th largest world religion in the world… but if that doesn’t sound very impressive I should note that Judaism the 7^th largest.

Anyway, Baha’i seems to be a very interesting experiment in faith.  It’s almost seems like a faith based on a comparative religions class, except with a prophet, not unlike Jesus or Mohammad.   They believe that all world religions share a common thread, the same God, and believe that one day all religions will become one.  Not by means of conversion, but by focusing on what we all have in common rather than our differences.  And by focusing on what we have in common we’ll be able to let go of these differences and become one community.

In the idealistic way of accepting your fellow man, I adore the Baha’i faith.  These cats have it right.  But… in the actually practice of religion I was raised in the Catholic tradition… and if the Baha’i are right… then it shouldn’t matter which tradition I practice… as long as I accept and treat all as my equal, right?

Anyway, today is the Birth of Baha’u’llah.  According to the Baha’i faith, Baha’u’llah is the latest human/prophet manifestation of God.  In short, he’s the one that finally connected all the dots.  Essentially, this is their Christmas.

But, don’t take my word for it… here’s a video from Baha’i World TV.  The production value is quite low (especially the first three minutes), however the information is quite good.