I try not to be hypocritical, so just as I admonished my fellow Humanists not to be arrogant towards Theists, so likewise I must be accepting of those who consider themselves Baha’is, despite my personal rejection of the Baha’i Faith and my many damning writings against it. But my tolerance does have its limits. And here are the reasons why:
Baha’u’llah called for Abdu’l-Baha to be the leader of the Baha’i Faith after him and that his brother Mirza Muhammad-Ali was to be Abdu’l-Baha’s successor. He did NOT claim anything for Abdu’l-Baha beyond that.
Abdu’l-Baha broke the original Baha’i covenant by claiming to be infallible (Baha’u’llah in the Kitab-i-Aqdas said only God was infallible). Because his brother opposed this, that brother was denounced as a covenant-breaker, ironically. Abdu’l-Baha then appointed Shoghi Effendi as his successor (the “Guardian of the Cause of God”) and said that the Guardian and the Universal House of Justice would also be infallibly guided by God. This I consider to be blasphemy.
Shoghi Effendi did nothing to establish the Universal House of Justice while he was alive, keeping all the power of the leadership for himself, contrary to what Abdu’l-Baha commanded. When his own relatives questioned his decisions and priorities, he expelled them until there were none left in the Baha’i community. That’s what a megalomaniac does, not a responsible and principled leader.
The Universal House of Justice was established without a Guardian at its head and has none to this day, making it an illegitimate body according to what Abdu’l-Baha wrote and Shoghi Effendi himself wrote also.
To justify all the disruptive changes to the Faith over the course of its history, that history was rewritten through intense thought control and censorship. A vast number of unfounded claims based on dogma rather than objective truth were set up, most notably by Shoghi Effendi and then later amplified by the notorious “historian” Adib Taherzadeh. The latter was ultimately rewarded for his chicanery by being elected to the Universal House of Justice. Damn him!!!
There is only one version of the Baha’i Faith that even comes close to being honest and fair in its teachings and activities: the Unitarian Baha’i Faith, descended from the ideas of Mirza Muhammad-Ali. You can find a group on Facebook devoted to this: https://www.facebook.com/groups/876637386003389/
Therefore, I reject completely any association with the mainstream “Haifan” Baha’i Faith (which falsely calls itself THE Baha’i Faith) as well as other splinter groups that claim to follow a “Guardian”. While I do not consider the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha to be a forgery, I still reject it as legitimate. So should everyone else. Only the writings of Baha’u’llah himself should be considered Baha’i scripture at all.
Question: What do you think is the ultimate delusion of the Baha’i Faith? There need be no “right” or “wrong” answer here, but I need some opinions on how best to deal with Baha’i apologists like a certain one that keeps invading this subreddit.
Ever since I joined reddit, I have found it a useful way to connect with others and put out information about certain topics as well as read information from others. Unfortunately, there have been attempts by some to suppress such information.
This subreddit was banned due to being used for spam. If you’d like to take it over please make a post in /r/redditrequest
Uh, I was a subscriber to that community and am prepared to testify under oath that any claim that its users were spamming is a LIE. All it did was post information about Baha’i history, including some criticism of it.
So both the community and the user that made it were banned from reddit! But I have known that guy for months and he is NOT a spammer.
What really happened was that someone, most likely a Baha’i, REPORTED A35821361 for spamming merely because he sent that person a message, probably with one or more links to information on his community. That is NOT spamming!
This sort of treachery is why I have absolutely NO respect anymore for the Baha’i Faith, because it seems to make its followers engage in backstabbing like this!
And when we ex-Baha’is try to get that community back under our control:
I am the top mod of r/bahaihistory, and would love to mod this subreddit to allow us to split off our existing “On This Day…” content into its own subreddit. Our subreddit has existed for a while, and is currently supported by the Today in History project on Bahaikipedia.
That would be an excellent idea! I second this. r/bahaihistory does need a complementary subreddit to cater to its daily posts, leaving r/bahaihistory for more in-depth discussions of Baha’i history. I think connecting it with the Bahaikipedia project also extends its potential for a subreddit that draws on multiple redditors collaborating.
Also, having a mod with demonstrated experience running and expanding subreddits, collaborating and developing the capacity of others to start modding too, will prevent spam by one individual seeking to make a subreddit his/her own personal message board in future, as was the unfortunate case with r/OnThisDateInBahai.
It seems that Baha’is are making an effort to suppress criticism of the Baha’i Faith on reddit by making false reports of spamming there and then attempting to take over the subreddit above. So the creator of that subreddit has moved his operations to blogspot.
This is yet another reason why Baha’is should always be distrusted. They will stab you in the back if you dare to stand up to them and contradict their propaganda.
Can someone please explain to me how a forum that individuals willfully go to visit can be banned for “spam” (which a Google search states is “irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients”? I understand the /u/A35821361 was banned for messaging three individuals with certain information about Bahá’ísm (mind you, after they posted relevant messages about Bahá’ísm). What I do not understand, and perhaps someone can explain to me, is how the banning of A35821361 for sending three messages (i.e., spam) relates to the banning of /r/OnThisDateInBahai?
As I mentioned in another thread, personally, if I receive a message that I do not wish to respond to, I simply ignore it.
[[[Dale Husband says: September 8, 2008 at 1:27 PM Edit
Thanks for the references, T0lk. I have read those passages before, and once accepted them as valid because I WANTED to believe them, not because they really made sense. They don’t, any more than the errors and contradictions of Christianity, Islam, or other religions make sense. Unless and until you look for absolute consistency in any belief system, you will be led astray. Reality, as revealed by science, is the only way to go for me now!
I have NO use whatsoever for religious doublespeak!]]]
And for those who are interested, here is t0lk doing an interesting bit of damage control elsewhere:
{{{t0lk 15 points 5 days ago
The discussion I’ve run into on other Baha’i forums (facebook) all suggest she was not active/intersted in being a Baha’i, but actively attacked the Faith’s views on things like meat eating. Some quotes:
[[In this Persian video she attacks Baha’is and says Bahais eat meat and therefore are Un-enlightened]]
[[I saw her videos some 5 years ago. She attacked Bahais who eat meat. She was a vegetarianism activist.]].
[[ She was pointed out to me at a Baha’i conference a few years ago. I was told at that time that although she mixes with Baha’is but she is an activist who likes to create dissent and likes going against the grain! This was through a friend and I decided I wasn’t eager to meet a radical militant pseudo Baha’i!]]}}}
You can be a Baha’i and a passionate vegan even though Baha’is are permitted to eat meat. You can also be a Baha’i and argue against smoking even though Baha’is are permitted to smoke.
t0lk can’t accuse me of dishonesty while doing things like THAT!
That does not contradict what I said at all. Here, let me repeat my point: “[Spam is] not merely attempting to share NEWS about a relevant topic that someone is clearly interested in.” By definition, criticism of the Baha’i Faith would be relevant to anyone investigating the Faith. So you LIED here!
You really think the stunt you pulled against us will help promote your Faith? The story of what you did is already OUT, t0lk! It’s out not only on WordPress where my original blog entry was posted, but also on Blogspot where it was copied and on Facebook where links to my blog entry were made.
[[[Would you be okay if Baha’is sent unsolicited private messages to anyone who posted in r/exbahai to tell them how wrong they were? Surely you can see that this isn’t appropriate behavior even if you feel very strongly about the subject.]]]
Your arrogance and dishonesty are infuriating. Someone who gets unwanted messages once or twice can simply delete them. Are you seriously claiming that /u/A35821361 sent the same message DOZENS OF TIMES TO THE SAME RECIPIENT? That might indeed be spamming, if you could prove it was done that way.
This clearly shows how desperate you Baha’is have become. The internet will eventually discredit and DESTROY the Baha’i Faith and every other authoritarian cult that exists in the world. It may take another 30 or 40 years, but I have no doubt that a century from now the Baha’i community will exist only as a broken remnant in a few poor parts of the world, much like Zoroastrianism does in Iran and India now. You are only delaying the inevitable.
Thanks to r/redditrequest, justice is served. Our history subreddit remains ours. I’m the new mod and I added another ex-Baha’i in case something happens to my account. On a side note, some of these Baha’is have greatly disappointed me. If something were to happen to r/bahaihistory, I wouldn’t take advantage of it. I wouldn’t want to violate the golden rule. The same rule that is the foundation of my morality and what I used to denounce the Baha’i Faith.
I recall my issue with it being that it presents itself as Baha’i. The name makes it seem it’s a daily version of r/bahaihistory, that is, with r/bahaihistory being about longer expositions and discussions and r/onthisdateinbahai being a daily posting, and both being connected to one another. But as it stands, they are both used similarly, one by the Baha’is on Reddit, one by a single individual to present his personal take of the Baha’i faith. He even uses the 9 pointed star from bahaiteachings.org lol, so anyone familiar with that website would think its officially Baha’i. On the other hand, I or other Baha’is wouldn’t petition for control of r/exbahai because this sub isn’t officially Baha’i and it’s obvious.
Granted, that was a legitimate issue to bring up to us, but backstabbing the subreddit’s creator and trying to steal the subreddit only made the reddit Baha’is look like assholes.
This is the final part of my detailed criticism of one of the foundational documents of the Baha’i Faith. The first part is here and the second is here.
As before, the actual text from that Will and Testament is in green bold and my responses will be mainly in orange italics. My source for the document is:
This is the second part of my detailed criticism of one of the foundational documents of the Baha’i Faith. The first part is here.
As before, the actual text from that Will and Testament is in green bold and my responses will be mainly in orange italics. My source for the document is:
Just as I wrote a detailed criticism of the Kitab-i-Aqdas last year, so now I will proceed to deal with another issue of Baha’i history and dogma. Since the original document I am analyzing was written in three parts, so will this criticism. The original document will be in green bold and my responses will be mostly orange italics. My source for the document is:
Two weeks ago, I made an account on reddit, yet another social media site. I immediately dove into battles with the Baha’i bigot and backstabber Scott Hakala (who was using the false name DavidbinOwen but was exposed anyway), until I got so sick of his arguments and self-serving bullcrap that I finally blocked him. He was infesting the Ex-Baha’i forum, which as a Baha’i propaganda minister he certainly had no business being in.
I have a vision of what could be an even worse punishment for a religious bigot than the death penalty.
In this vision, I would take Ken Ammi (a Christian apologist and a critic of the Baha’i Faith) and Scott Hakala (an ex-Christian turned Baha’i apologist) and lock them up together in a single prison cell for the rest of their so-called lives! And I, an ex-Christian and ex-Baha’i turned non-theist Unitarian Universalist (UU), would be their jailer. Just listening to those two delusional idiots argue endlessly with each other would amuse me to no end!
By contrast, people that are Christians among UUs as well as those that are Baha’is among UUs would have my respect and support, always. Their freedom would be something I would lay down my own life to defend.
Despite the outward similarities between Unitarian Universalism (UUism) and the Baha’i Faith, the two religious movements have profound differences in actual nature. For this reason, I wrote a book recently explaining the differences: I have published a BOOK
One chapter of the book dealt directly with what UUs can do if Baha’is interact with them.
1. Be friendly, but reserved. – Most Baha’is are genuinely loving for humanity in general, being ignorant of the actual failings of their own religion….just like the members of most other religious groups in the world. 2. Be willing to work with Baha’is on issues you have in common, but only on YOUR terms. – They are decent allies against racism and for human rights in general. But they will avoid issues regarding gay rights, seeing gays as diseased. 3. Do not confront them about their falsehoods and failings of their religion, unless they actually try to convert you. – Most Baha’is are not emotionally equipped to deal with the totality of the facts regarding why their religion is not suited for most people in the world. However, if a Baha’i does ask specific questions about why you reject the Baha’i Faith, be honest. Do not sugarcoat the truth in such cases. 4. If you attend Baha’i gatherings, NEVER go alone. – Such events known as firesides, Unity Feasts and Baha’i Holy Day celebrations are designed to mainipulate “seekers” into learning more about the Faith, but they are profoundly one sided in their depictions. People who are going through periods of depression or grieving over a loss may find themselves subjected to “love-bombing” by Baha’is. 5. If a Baha’i wants to join a UU church as a “Unitarian Baha’i”, welcome him – Not all Baha’is are loyal to the Universal House of Justice and those that want to think freely should be helped to find a place to do so. UU churches and fellowships are ideal for this.
It is run by a man named Naser Emtesali. A few years ago, he took notice of my own blog entries criticizing my former religion and made copies of them to spread my messages.
For over a decade, I have used this WordPress blog as a weapon against all kinds of irrationality, bigotry, ignorance, and hypocrisy. Recently, I decided to take many of my blog entries relating to Unitarian Universalism and/or the Baha’i Faith and assemble them into the form of a book for people to read.
Introducing:
The Baha’i Faith and Unitarian Universalism: A Personal Testimony and Analysis
I’d like to sell a few dozen copies, at least, but my real hope is that the book influences people. If its contents can deter at least one person from joining the Haifan Baha’i cult and maybe even persuade him to join Unitarian Universalism instead, then my efforts will not have been in vain.
At long last, I have reached the home stretch of my dealings with the Most Holy Book of Baha’u’llah. This has been a catharsis of sorts for me and I now think that once this is done, I need never write anything about my former religion again, though I will always keep and use the various blog entries I have made about it as weapons against it.
Here are the links to Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, and Part Eight of my critique of the Most Holy Book of Baha’u’llah. And as always, I will include direct quotes from the book in red bold and my responses will be in blue italics. My source for this book is:
One of the most amazing things about really sitting down and going through the contents of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas is that I probably never would have been impressed with the book had I first read it as a non-Baha’i about 25 years ago. I only got a copy of it after I’d been a Baha’i for several months and by then I had strong personal ties to other Baha’is that blinded me to the flaws of the Faith. When you fall in love with PEOPLE, it often makes you overlook FACTS that otherwise should matter.
Here are the links to Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six and Part Seven of my critique of the Most Holy Book of Baha’u’llah. And as always, I will include direct quotes from the book in red bold and my responses will be in blue italics. My source for this book is:
Once again, Dr. Dale Husband takes his scalpel and cuts into the guts of the Most Holy Book of Baha’u’llah to see what can be exposed for others to see.
Here are the links to Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, and Part Six of my critique of the Most Holy Book of Baha’u’llah. And as always, I will include direct quotes from the book in red bold and my responses will be in blue italics. My source for this book is:
Once again, I dig into the Most Holy Book of Baha’u’llah looking for precious metals but what I tend to find instead are tons of pyrite. Despite my frustration, I continue because I hate to leave a job unfinished.
Here are the links to Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five of my critique. And as always, I will include direct quotes from the book inred bold and my responses will be in blue italics. My source for this book is:
As my home state of Texas gets battered and flooded by Hurricane Harvey, I’ve been dealing at length with the issue of dogmatism and absurdity in the very heart of my former religion, the Baha’i Faith, as a means of atoning for eight years of delusional thoughts and acts I never should have committed myself to.
Here are the links to Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four of my critique. And as before, I will include direct quotes from the book in red bold and my responses will be in blue italics. My source for this book is:
This is a continuation of my criticism of the Most Holy Book of Baha’ullah, the book of laws that is a foundational document of the Baha’i Faith. Here are the links to Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. And as before, I will include direct quotes from the book in red bold and my responses will be inblue italics. My source for this book is:
This is a continuation of my criticism of the Most Holy Book of Baha’ullah, the book of laws that is a foundational document of the Baha’i Faith. Part One and Part Two should be read first. And as before, I will include direct quotes from the book inred bold and my responses will be in blue italics. My source for this book is:
This is a continuation of my criticism of the Most Holy Book of Baha’ullah, the book of laws that is a foundational document of the Baha’i Faith. Go read Part One if you have not done so yet.
As before, I will include direct quotes from the book inred bold and my responses will be inblue italics. My source for this book is:
The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, also known in English as the Most Holy Book, is the central book of laws written by Baha’u’llah while he was imprisoned at Akka in 1873. Baha’is consider it to be holy scripture equal in rank to the Torah of the Jews and the Quran of the Muslims. For this blog entry, I will include direct quotes from the book in red bold and my responses will be in blue italics. My source for this book is:
Shoghi Effendi is known to Baha’is around the world as the Guardian of their Faith. But with a Guardian like him, the Baha’i Faith never needed enemies to destroy it!
Consider that in 1957, he:
Died at age 60,
Died suddenly of Asiatic Flu,
Died in London, not the Baha’i World Center,
Died in the middle of the Ten Year World Crusade (1953-1963),
Left no will and testament,
Had appointed no successor, and
Had expelled from the Baha’i Community, often for trivial reasons, EVERY ONE OF HIS BROTHERS, SISTERS, AND MALE AND FEMALE COUSINS! None of them were spared his holy wrath.
Also, if Abdu’l-Baha really believed in the equality of men and women, he would not have appointed his 21 year old grandSON his immediate successor, but would have instead appointed his eldest DAUGHTER. But she, even as the mother of Shoghi Effendi, is merely a footnote in Baha’i history. So Abdu’l-Baha was himself a hypocrite! Did you know that in the early years of his Guardianship, Shoghi Effendi tended to take long vacations in the Swiss Alps to get away from his duties and his relatives had to beg him to return? As long as the Greatest Holy Leaf, Abdu’l-Baha’s sister, was still alive, she could keep him in check, but after she died, he became a tyrant to his relatives, treating them like mere servants and punishing them whenever they dared to question his orders and demands. This is what happens when you give a man so much power that he thinks he is like God! Shoghi Effendi was a megalomanic that official Baha’i propaganda has tried to whitewash with false narratives decades after the fact, but the truth speaks for itself and cannot be excused.
This is a direct quote from the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha:
The sacred and youthful branch, the Guardian of the Cause of God, as well as the Universal House of Justice, to be universally elected and established, are both under the care and protection of the Abhá Beauty, under the shelter and unerring guidance of the Exalted One (may my life be offered up for them both).
Read again the circumstances of the Guardian’s death. I guess the issue of “care and protection” for him was indeed a lie!
The Covenant of the Baha’i Faith is dead, may it be buried forever!
When I started this blog about a decade ago, I always hoped it would be a useful reference for people seeking credible arguments about science, religion, politics, and other social issues, backed with a consistent ethical standard. Little did I know just how far my words would travel!
Recently, other bloggers that are critics of the Baha’i Faith have begin taking my words and directly posting them onto their own blogs and even on one video on YouTube, much to my astonishment.
From 1995 to 2004, I was a member of a religion known as the Baha’i Faith. This religion teaches that God is called by various names but is still the same all over the world, that all religions teach the same basic message, and that humanity is actually one race and is destined to unite under the banner of the Baha’i Faith in a new age of peace and unity.
I was eager to see and to achieve the highest goodness in my life and in the world, so this was a Godsend to me! I embraced the faith after attending firesides about it in Bedford, Texas and became an active teacher of it, even attempting to convert others to it. I had been a Christian, specifically a Southern Baptist, in my teens, but had become disgusted with Christianity and left that faith in my early 20s because I saw the errors, contradictions, and failures of it. The Baha’i Faith explained that away by claiming that while Jesus was indeed a Messenger (or Manifestation) of God, His faith had become corrupted over time and thus most Christians were not truly following him, but the doctrines of men. In joining the Baha’i community, I thought I was seeing what the early Christians in the Roman Empire were like, except that unlike them the Baha’is would not split into competing sects and engage in wars against each other. If only everyone in the world became Baha’i, I was told, we would be at peace and prosperity forever. Continue reading →
As one who has been highly critical of the Baha’i Faith (and most other religions) for many years, I am usually more than happy to share my words with others for the sake of enlightenment and seeking the truth. So I was dismayed to discover today that a statement falsely attributed to me is being spread around by other critics of the Baha’i Faith.
“I got sick of seeing how women are conditioned to flirt with any possible potential convert around. For the Baha’i administration, most worthy of women values are their bodies – which are conditioned to attract new followers to Baha’i faith”.
Usually when I quote statements by others and they have been publicly made, I include a link leading back to the original statement so others can see that the object of my blog entry has been referred to accurately. As an Honorable Skeptic, I expect everyone to do no less. In each case above, this was not done.
Nowhere on my blog did I make the above statement and I do not remember making it anywhere else. Indeed, when I was a Baha’i, I do not recall seeing any women or girls flirting with potential converts to the Baha’i Faith.
Therefore, I am calling upon my fellow critics of the Baha’i Faith to retract the statement. If I did not make it, it is unethical to say that I did. We need to be better than our bigoted and dogmatic opponents, or we have no business opposing them.
The book was put up for sale on Amazon.com, and just as I and Eric Stetson expected, Haifan Baha’is took notice of it and proceeded to attack it, even without bothering to read its contents.
This is NOT a good history of the Baha’i Faith. It is a very biased history. This would be comparable of the history of the message of Jesus Christ written by Judas Iscariot or by Caiaphas, the Jewish priest who organized His death sentence.
If you REALLY want a good and well authenticated history of the Baha’i Faith, you should try “Baha’u’llah & the New Era” by John Esslemont, a British citizen, or “God Passes By” by Shoghi Effendi, the grandson of the founder, who was educated
at Oxford with a particular interest in history.
1. The Violation of Abdu’l-Baha – Baha’u’llah in the The Kitáb-i-Ahd, or Book of the Covenant (his Will and Testament) appointed Abdu’l-Baha as his successor, but also stated that Abdu’l-Baha’s younger brother Mirza Muhammad Ali should be below him in rank and also be his immediate successor. Abdu’l-Baha disobeyed this commandment by depriving Muhammad Ali of any rank and replacing him as successor with his grandson, Shoghi Effendi, in his own Will and Testament. 2. The Madness of Shoghi Effendi – Abdu’l-Baha, in the same Will and Testament that appointed Shoghi Effendi as Guardian of the Cause of God, stated that the Guardian must appoint either his firstborn or another branch (male descendant of Baha’u’llah) as his successor in his own lifetime. Shoghi Effendi not only had no children, but he expelled from the Baha’i community every single one of Abdu’l-Baha’s own descendants, making it impossible for him to keep his grandfather’s commandments. He also died in 1957 without leaving a Will and Testament of his own as required by Baha’i law, throwing the Faith into a crisis. 3. Failed prophecy cover up – An early edition of Baha’u’llah and the New Era by J. E. Esselmont stated a prophecy by Abdu’l-Baha that by 1957 “Universal Peace will be firmly established, a Universal language promoted. Misunderstandings will pass away. The Bahá’í Cause will be promulgated in all parts and the oneness of mankind established.” But what really happened that year was Shoghi Effendi’s death. The prophecy was deleted from later editions of the book. 4. Attack on Kalimat Press – In 2005 and 2006,The National Spiritual Assemblies of the Baha’is of the United States and the United Kingdon issued orders to Baha’i communities under their command to stop selling books published by Kalimat Press, a small Baha’i owned book publishing company, for publishing a few books that they happened to disapprove of. As a result, the company was crippled in its operations. 5. Dr. Hossein Danesh, sex offender – A member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Canada, Danesh was stripped of his psychiatric license in the 1990s after being accused by several of his patients of sexual abuse. Instead of being expelled from the Baha’i community, he was sent to the Baha’i Landegg “university” in Switzerland, a private school which failed in 2005. Returning to Canada, he was hired by the NSA of Canada as a marriage and family therapist for fellow Baha’is. 6. Italian Baha’i financial scandal – Franco Ceccherini, a longtime member of the Italian National Spiritual Assembly, was found in 2007 to have stolen over 360,000 euros over 14 years while serving as the Assembly’s treasurer. This was discovered only when the Italian government audited the Baha’i community and then charged it 275,000 euros in back taxes, crippling financially the entire Italian Baha’i community. 7. Stephen Birkland, Baha’i secret police detective – In the 1990s, as a member of the Continental Board of Counselors for North America, Birkland led an investigation of Baha’is running an internet forum known as “Talisman” where members could openly question and debate issues regarding the management of the Baha’i communities. Birkland’s abusive tactics drove several Baha’is, including Juan Cole and John & Linda Walbridge, to resign rather than be condemned as covenant-breakers for taking part in Talisman, which was then shut down. Birkand was later rewarded for his zeal by being appointed to the International Teaching Center in 2008 and eventually he was elected to the Universal House of Justice in 2010.
Dale Husband, a fellow Unitarian Universalist and former Baha’i, invited me to write a short summary of a book I edited which has recently been published, A Lost History of the Baha’i Faith: The Progressive Tradition of Baha’u’llah’s Forgotten Family.
This book tells the story of the Baha’i faith through the writings of some of the children and grandchildren of its founder, and others who knew Baha’u’llah personally. They called themselves “Unitarian Baha’is” and stood for a broad-minded faith based on reason and individual freedom of conscience. Because of their liberal views and skepticism of absolute religious authority, they were excommunicated and shunned as the Baha’i faith developed into an organized religion. In fact, all but three descendants of Baha’u’llah – totaling dozens of people – were excommunicated by their own relatives who led the religion after its founder’s death.
The Baha’i faith was founded in the mid 1800s by a Persian nobleman in exile who claimed to be a new messenger of God. Baha’u’llah taught that all nations, races, and religions should come together to build a global civilization of peace and justice for all. Although Baha’i began as a pluralistic, reform-oriented offshoot of Islam, it quickly relapsed into a form of fundamentalism based on claims of infallibility by its leaders.
The Baha’i organization expects its members to believe that Baha’u’llah’s successors were perfect and infallible and that their interpretations and decisions can never be changed. A Lost History of the Baha’i Faith offers a different perspective on what Baha’i could have become – an Islamic-inspired faith with similar progressive values as Unitarian Universalism – if the Baha’i prophet’s own descendants had not been ostracized and expelled as heretics.
This book reveals how even liberal religious movements can be hijacked by dogmatic thinking. A cautionary tale for people of conscience of any faith.
Dale Husband's Intellectual Rants 
Dale_Husband_HS
Alert! Take a look at this: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnThisDateInBahai/
Then this: https://www.reddit.com/r/exbahai/comments/8alrud/this_community_has_been_banned_this_subreddit_was/
And then this: https://www.reddit.com/r/redditrequest/comments/8alw5m/requesting_ronthisdateinbahai_this_subreddit_was/
It seems that Baha’is are making an effort to suppress criticism of the Baha’i Faith on reddit by making false reports of spamming there and then attempting to take over the subreddit above. So the creator of that subreddit has moved his operations to blogspot.
This is yet another reason why Baha’is should always be distrusted. They will stab you in the back if you dare to stand up to them and contradict their propaganda.