Now that right there is how you conduct a dialogue, are you proud of yourself for having said that? I hope you are because i find whenever you attempt to answer daler, most of the time you simply don’t attempt a responce but try to connect emotionally with people, not as an intellect but as emotional wreck. Your approach really doesn’t work here and against someone in the real world who knows what they are talking about, I bet it wouldn’t work there either.
What does racism have to do with the current discussion on whether or not we have the same God? Is this an unimportant question for you? Do you want to discover whether or not we can pray to the same God is questioning it from the begining going a bit to far that you write this highly rhetorical stab with no content worth responding to in the first place. Better that I should have typed elipses instead of responding to such trash because you clearly don’t take these arguments of religion seriously.
I’ll ask again and without resorting to such rhetoric or your prophet try to answer. Do you worship one God in the trintiy? Do you believe God intended this world to be perfect and glorified (in the Christian understanding not the bahai understanding, which means deathless)? Do you believe that God took on an additional nature and became man? That it is right to worship this man as he walked on the earth as Lord and Christ?
Now I know the answer to all of these questions and they are all negative on your behalf, but you will never admit to it, no bahai will. Because admitting such fundamental differences is accepting the reality we really do not have the same God but a different God. Christians are idolatrous wretches who trade the worship of God for hte worship of a man, that is what the muslim says and he is being consistent with his religion and holy book. I have no idea how bahai, who deny the incarnation, who deny the trinity, who deny Jesus is the only saviour from our sins, who deny his name is the only name under heaven by which we can be saved go on to say: “We believe in the same God.”
Hope is good, but hope in false things is just self deception.
Ignatian,
. My comment is regarding what I perceive to be an “attitude” of superiority which is reminiscent of other parallel attitudes of superiority which I have witnessed throughout my life. I’m not calling you a racist, but am suggesting that the air of hostility and superiority which you seem to hold is in fact what blinds you to the recognition that there is only One God, whether called Allah, Jehovah, or the Great Spirit.
. I am also suggesting that Saul suffered from the same spiritual condition, had all the knowledge in the world, and that it did him absolutely no good. Until he was humbled, and became Paul, he was unable to see the truth.
. Rightly or wrongly, my perception of you is based upon a sentiment of hostility which you yourself project. Your notion of God appears to be self-centered to some extent and it appears to me that you have had very little real life contact with people of other cultures, religions, and possibly races. I don’t know to what extent this may or may not be true, but what I am suggesting is that rather than trying to understand everything intellectually, you would do better to broaden your circle of contacts and friends.
. The greatest joy of my life has been the immersion into many other cultures, having formed deep friendships and bonds with numerous people of colors and beliefs other than my own. What I am suggesting is that it is this deep association with peoples of all parts of the world which has opened my own eyes spiritually and enabled me to know that we all worship the same God, by whatever name.
. You may not want to go down that road. Many people fear others because of differences of skin color, religious beliefs, and national origin. I don’t know your history and circumstances. For me, it is like Thanksgiving dinner - to share cross-cultureally, pray and fellowship with all of God’s people, in a spirit of joy and fragrance. Having done this for most of my life, I can no longer even comprehend the prejudices of people who have not been exposed in this manner.
. May I ask you how many Muslims you know personally? How many you count as friends? How many Africans, Chinese, Indians? How many Mormons, Jews, Hindus? How many homes have you sat at table with among these great varieties of God’s children?
. You already know the intellectual answers to all of the questions you ask, so there is little point in rehashing the different conclusions.
.