As a matter of ethical consistency, I believe there needs to be clear definitions of words, including in religion. Thus I was dismayed to discover on TV a show titled “Jewish Voice” that featured a “rabbi” that talked about Jesus as the Messiah, which is a basic teaching of CHRISTIANITY, not Judaism. Jews actually do NOT believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and certainly do not believe he was God incarnate, as most Christians believe!
Category Archives: religion
Mormon Missionary, made a PERVERT
What a shocker this story is!
https://www.ksl.com/article/46585870/utahn-accused-in-sextortion-of-over-50-teens-charges-say
A Conversion to Unitarian Universalism
Before you read this, read my earlier critique of A Conversion to Mormonism.
Now I will share a story about becoming a Unitarian Universalist (UU).
Another Baha’i picks a fight with me on YouTube
Watch this video, which is based on one of my first blog entries attacking the Baha’i Faith:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02FWnoAP3tk
I expected some criticism from Baha’is, but nothing like this:
Biblical Genocide and Pedophilia
Read this sickening passage from the Bible, considered by most Christians and Jews to be the Word of God and a reliable guide to faith and morals. The parts in red are the most disturbing ones of all.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+31%3A1-18&version=ESV
Numbers 31:1-18
31 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.” 3 So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord‘s vengeance on Midian. 4 You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.” 5 So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. 6 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand. 7 They warred against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every male. 8 They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. 9 And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods. 10 All their cities in the places where they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire, 11 and took all the spoil and all the plunder, both of man and of beast. 12 Then they brought the captives and the plunder and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the people of Israel, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
13 Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the chiefs of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp. 14 And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. 15 Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? 16 Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. 17 Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. 18 But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.
THIS IS WHAT A WAR CRIME LOOKS LIKE!
Also, how can anyone possibly know whether or not a woman has had sex with a man? There is only one sure way to tell: only let live the girls that have not yet reached puberty. But note that those girls were to not be set free, but that the army of Israel was to “keep [them] alive for [them]selves”. In essence, they were to be used as CHILD PROSTITUTES for the soldiers.
I feel SICK!
False Prophets
Take a look at this web page:
http://www.bahaiawareness.com/false_prophets.html
The Holy Prophet of Islam (pbuh) prophesised that “there will arise 30 imposters in my nation and each one of them will pronounce that he is a prophet, but I am the last in the line of the Prophets and no Messenger will follow me.”
(There follows a list of these “false prophets” including….)
Bab: Another false claimant to prophethood, and the predecessor of Bahaullah, was Mizra Ali Muhammad, who initially declared himself the “Bab” (Gate) to the Mahdi, and eventually progressed into other claims. He was embraced by the Shaykhis sect of Shi’a , who were then renamed “Babis”. Subsequently, he declared himself to be the Shi’ite’s hidden Mahdi. After declaring himself the Mahdi, he moved on to call himself Nuqtiyiula and declared that the Quran and Muslim Shari’a were now abrogated. Shi’a and Sunni scholars condemned him and Bab faced a series of imprisonment, trials, and indignities before being shot dead by a firing squad in 1850.
Bahaullah: The self-proclaimed successor to the Bab, and another liar/false claimant to prophecy was Mizra Hussein Ali Nuri. In 1863 Hussein Ali, a prominent member of the Babi group, declared himself to be the person whom God will make manifest, whom the Bab had foretold. He also took the name Bahaullah (Glory of God) and formed a new religion, the Bahai faith. Bahaullah was banished from Persia and was eventually imprisoned in Akka-Palestine. There he wrote his main work, his Kitab-ul-Aqdas (Most Holy Book), and developed the doctrine of the Bahai faith into a comprehensive teaching.
So as you can see, the situation is clear. There were many false prophets who came after Mohammed(pbuh). There is nothing to show that the Bahai Faith stands out from any other false religion.
In my Critical Analysis of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, I discredited Baha’u’llah. I did not do so because of my belief in Muhammad.
Question: How can we know that Muhammad himself was not a false prophet too? If your only reason for rejecting a claimant to prophethood is that he came after Muhammad, then why can’t Christians reject Muhammad because he came after Jesus? According to Christian teachings, NO ONE can ever replace Jesus, not even Muhammad! Jesus was the Son of God!
I have long believed that Muhammad was a liar and insulter of Allah precisely because he claimed to be the last Prophet or Messenger, because such a claim means that Allah is silenced forever, thus denying Allah’s sovereignty. And if you deny that, how can you be a credible servant of Allah?
Fifthly, the teachings and revelations cannot have contradictions. For example, saying that God is Truthful and Keeper of promises, but then say that God broke his promise to Noah about the hour of the flood (Kitab-i-Eqan). Isn’t it contradictory? or that Men and Women are equal but yet women cannot serve on the highest council in the Bahai Faith called the Universal House of Justice?
Well, here in this blog entry I have shown a contradiction of Islam. Muhammad was a fraud and Muslims might as well all be atheists.
THERE IS NO GOD AND MUHAMMAD WAS NOT HIS PROPHET!!!!
Who was Joseph Smith?
Joseph Smith…..
……was born on December 23, 1805, in the town of Sharon, Vermont.
…..lived as a teenager in the “burned-over district” of upstate New York.
……was originally known as a treasure seeker and a teller of tall tales among his friends.
……married Emma Hale on January 18, 1827, despite the objections of her father.
……had a total of nine children with his wife, only four of whom lived to adulthood.
……claimed to have been visited by an angel named Moroni who instructed him to found a new Christian church and locate golden plates.
……..allegedly used the golden plates to write the Book of Mormon.
……named his new religious movement the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and its members “Mormons”.
…….founded the Mormon Church on April 6, 1830 with five other men.
……moved to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Jackson County, Missouri and finally to Nauvoo, Illinois to build up his religous community.
……..claimed that God now permitted polygamy in the Mormon church.
………faced bitter opposition from non-Mormons almost everywhere he and the Mormons settled.
……….was arrested for ordering the destruction of a printing press called the Nauvoo Expositor that had published criticism of Mormonism.
……….was killed on June 27, 1844 with his brother Hyrum in a gun battle against a lynch mob at the local jail of Carthage, Illinois.
The Baha’i Leadership is Obsessed with Martyrdom!
As if there were not enough disturbing things about the Baha’i Faith I once followed, now it seems its leadership, the Universal House of Justice (UHJ), has been willing to sacrifice people who believe in it for the sake of publicity!
https://bahai-library.com/uhj_dissimulation_iran_emmigrants
(Below are the excerpts from that web page that specify the problem)
1. Letter from the Universal House of Justice, 3 July 1985
Those who have recanted their faith in order to come out of Iran should not receive the impression that after the passage of a year, by simply writing a letter of regret, they would be automatically admitted into the Bahá’í community. Each case has to be studied separately. The result of this study must be conveyed to the House of Justice, which will reach a decision on the case in question only after consultation with the friends in Iran. One of the reasons why the House of Justice is so particular about these cases is that it does not wish any person to be under the false impression that anyone can use the Faith for his own personal convenience whenever it suits his self-interest. The believers who have denied their faith in order to leave Iran should realize that they have betrayed the many steadfast Bahá’ís who, at the cost of their lives, have steadfastly refused to recant their faith.
It’s almost as if the UHJ wants to have fewer followers, not more.
2. Letter of the Universal House of Justice, 8 July 1985
The Universal House of Justice recently received a letter from the non- Bahá’í husband of a Bahá’í questioning the justice of the removal of administrative rights from Bahá’ís who deny their faith in order to leave Iran by official routes. Since this question has arisen from time to time in discussions with representatives of other organizations who are interested in the plight of Bahá’í refugees, the House of Justice felt that it might be helpful to you to have the following extracts from the reply to this enquirer.
“It was the approved practice for many years for Bahá’ís to leave blank the space for religion on official forms in Iran. This was not a denial of their religion, it was merely a tacit refusal to state it. In recent times, however, the authorities refused to accept forms made out in blank, and would deny passports and exit visas to anyone who entered `Bahá’í’ in the appropriate spaces. In order to get such documents a Bahá’í would either have to enter `Muslim’ (or one of the other recognized religions) on the forms or would have to employ an agent to do it for him. This thus became a conscious act by the Bahá’í to deny his faith, and the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran at that point warned all the believers that such an action was unacceptable.
“.it was permissible in Shi’ih Islam for believers to deny their faith in order to escape persecution. since the time of Bahá’u’lláh such an action has been forbidden for Bahá’ís. We do not defend our Faith by the sword, as was permissible in Islam, but Bahá’ís have always held to the principle that when challenged they should `stand up and be counted’, as the modern expression is, and not purchase their safety by denying that which is most important to them in this world and the next. The principle is well known to the Iranian Bahá’ís and is upheld by the overwhelming majority of them when the penalty is martyrdom.
“Those Bahá’ís who have left Iran by official routes since the governmental regulations changed have made a conscious choice. While the majority of their fellow-believers have preferred to face all manner of difficulties, rather than deny their faith, these people have chosen to make this denial rather than face whatever problems were before them. They have left Iran freely, with the permission of the authorities as Muslims. They have chosen freedom and comparative ease at the cost of giving away their faith, and have got what they wanted. Some, however, once they are free, want to have their membership in the Bahá’í community back again. The attitude of the Bahá’í institutions in refusing to immediately readmit them should not be regarded as a vindictive punishment. These institutions are simply saying: `You have shown the insincerity of your belief by denying it for your personal advantage, we are not going to readmit you to the Bahá’í community until we have some confidence that you are sincerely repentant of such an act. In the meantime you can abide by the choice you yourself have made.’
Sincerity is no virtue if it results in DEATH, after which you can do no more good in the world. Or……is the assumption that Baha’is are imprisoned or killed in Iran for their faith not really true?
3. Letter from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States
September 18, 1985
Among the hardships the Bahá’ís in Iran have been experiencing during the last few years has been the restriction placed on their travel. Since April 1982 any Iranian who applies for an official exit permit is required to complete a form where one of the questions is about religious affiliation. When Bahá’ís respond to the question truthfully they are not allowed to leave the country. As explained by the Universal House of Justice, “If they write `Bahá’í’, they cannot leave the country and if they write anything other than `Bahá’í’, it is tantamount to recanting their faith.” Some of the Iranian friends have obtained their passports and exit permits through broker, and although they themselves have not filled out the forms necessary for procuring such documents, the broker has completed the form on their behalf, most certainly indicating their religion as Moslem, Christian, etc., and not Bahá’í. Consequently, the Universal House of Justice, at the request made by the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran before it was disbanded, announced to all National Spiritual Assemblies that any Iranian Bahá’ís who left Iran via Tehran airport after 22 June 1983 is assumed to have denied his faith personally or by the intermediary of another in order to obtain the permit and is considered to be without administrative rights.
The Universal House of Justice ruled that the restoration of such rights is not to be considered by the National Spiritual Assemblies until the lapse of one year, and then only contingent on the attitude and degree of repentance of the individuals concerned. In addition, the National Spiritual Assemblies have been delegated the responsibility of ascertaining the procedures adopted by these individuals when leaving Iran and their reasons for doing so.
Therefore, when a person who has been deprived of his administrative rights applies for reinstatement, the Local Spiritual Assemblies have to insure that certain criteria are met before submitting the application to the National Spiritual Assembly for its deliberation and decision.
To facilitate your understanding of these criteria we offer the following guidelines:
1) Attempt to determine the degree of the individual’s contrition and report the process used to reach this judgement, i.e. did your Assembly meet with the individual, did he/she meet with your representative, did you engage the assistance of a translator?
2) Has the individual participated in Bahá’í community life to whatever degree was possible? What is your evaluation of his actions during the period he has been under sanctions? To what extent have they exemplified Bahá’í standards of conduct?
3) What is the individual’s motive in wanting to have their administrative rights restored? (Please bear in mind that a number of individuals were never active in the Faith in Iran but now wish to be considered Bahá’ís for their own personal convenience and self-interest.) Their visa status in the United States must be verified.
4) Ascertain and report the procedures adopted by the individual for obtaining a valid passport and exit visa in order to leave Iran.
5) Determine the reasons why the individual departed from Iran.
6) Explain to the individual that their administrative rights will not be automatically restored after the passage of a year, simply by writing a letter of regret.
7) Each case must be considered separately; the result of this study along with your recommendation must be conveyed to the National Spiritual Assembly.
Wow, seems the UHJ is asking for Baha’is’ freedom to be denied no matter what they do! With leaders like these, who needs enemies?
Why not come right out and ask Baha’is to COMMIT SUICIDE, you ARROGANT BASTARDS?!
And that is why NO ONE should be loyal to the Universal Hore of (In)Justice!
A Critical Mistake in the UU World
The UU World is the official magazine of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), the religious organization I belong to. About two years ago, a controversy erupted over the embarrassing fact that despite its stated commitment to racial diversity, the UUA was far too white dominated and people of color were being passed over for positions in it that they were indeed qualified for. When this became too obvious to ignore, it forced President Peter Morales to resign.
Now, two years after that blew over, another problem has emerged: the disrespecting of transgender people by the magazine itself!
A Positive Interaction with a Baha’i on Facebook
Ever since I defected from the Baha’i Faith, my only dealings with members of my former religion have been through the internet and most of them have been battles that tended to leave me angered and even a little sick of their arrogance and nonsense.
Some of those battles are seen or described on these blog entries:
Baha’is must reject the Guardianship!
My Battle on Amazon with a Haifan Baha’i
Another Battle with a Haifan Baha’i, this time on Blogspot
Muslim-bashing and Libel Against Ex-Baha’is in Reddit
A series of ludicrous comments on YouTube and Facebook
But last month a totally different encounter occurred on Facebook, one that gives me hope for the future.
In the following conversation, the Baha’i who contacted me will be referred to as L B (for Local Baha’i) and his words will be in red italics. My words in the actual conversation will be in blue italics, while additional notes I add here for commentary will be in green. To protect his privacy, all specific identifying information will be withheld.
First, L B sent me a friend request, which I rejected, not even recognizing his name at first. I then asked who he was.
Have we met before? I see you sent me a friend request.
Yes, you used to come to feast at my house in (city). I’m (mother) and (father)’s son
That was enough to jog my memory. This young man had been only a child when I knew him.
I remember them. But I haven’t been a Baha’i since 2005 and am now a Unitarian Universalist.
I know, I saw your blog
I just thought of you randomly and wanted to say Facebook Hi
Are you still in Haltom city? I work at (medical job).
Ok, no harm, no foul. I looked at your profile and worried you were trying to harass me.
Like a scammer or like a malignant Baha’i?
your profile is open, so I saw your screenshots of responses to scammers
His using the words “malignant” and “Baha’i” in the same breath was the first indication to me that he wasn’t as loyal to the Faith as I thought he’d be.
Yes, I live here with my elderly parents. You say you saw my blog? You must know then that I’m one of the most hard-core critics of the Faith now. But that doesn’t mean I hate Baha’is. I cannot hate what I used to be.
At this point, I thought he would end the conversation. But he continued.
Oh no, I saw the basis of your criticisms and your recommended conversation or cooperation tactics with Baha’is for other Universalists
He was referring to this: https://dalehusband.com/2018/01/15/how-should-unitarian-universalists-uus-deal-with-bahais/
As for scammers, I enjoy busting them and then warning others about their tricks.
I admire a person who investigates the truth and is dedicated to the truth, so I admire your spirit
Thank you.
I guess he really takes seriously the supposed Baha’i idea of “Independent Investigation of Truth”.
Do you or your parents ever come to (my workplace)?
I don’t think so.
Honestly, I never thought I would see or hear from any of you again.
I’ve thought of you a few times throughout the years
I searched for you once maybe a year back, but I didn’t find anything
then last night my sister was telling me about a meme her friend had referred to that was anti-Baha’i
and in the course of finding this unrelated meme, I saw a blog that had posts critical of the Faith by someone named Dale Husband
and I was like “No way!” and I looked at your blog and found you on Facebook
His sister was only a baby when I knew her. She would be a teenager now.
I’m all over the internet. Also, my essays have been copied and cited by many others.
well, I found the ones in your reasoning thinker blog
Anywhere you see a red, white and blue Circle H logo, that’s me. It’s my trademark.
You are welcome to ask me questions.
where is there a unitarian universalist church near here?
is the following large?
WOW!!! So he is not even trying to defend the Baha’i Faith, but goes straight to the other big issue of mine in religion. I was elated!
There are several UU churches in the Fort Worth area. The oldest one is First Jefferson Unitarian Universalist Church. Google that name. The total number of UUs in the Fort Worth area is about 400.
There are an estimated 250,000 UUs nationwide.
The address for First Jefferson is 1959 Sandy Ln. in east Fort Worth.
Since you seem to respect me despite my defection, I invite you to come visit me at the aforementioned church in the interest of having a dialogue between us. It would be very helpful for you to see what UUs are like and what they might offer you.
What service do you attend?
Sunday service is at 11:00 AM, but you can arrive as early as 9:00 AM if you want to be given a tour of the place and then attend one of the gatherings that start at 9:30 AM such as Adult Forum or Adventures in Religion.
I can’t make it this Sunday, but it would be nice to check out the church on a Sunday soon
my work has me working weekends many weeks, so it might be a struggle for a bit
thank you for the invitiation
OK. Just let me know if and when you plan to visit so I could meet you there.
For the record, it never occurred to me, because of his Persian background, that L B would likewise defect from the Baha’i Faith. All my blog entries I wrote against the Faith were not about making people leave it, but about showing non-Baha’is what it is really like so they would not be so easily deceived by Baha’i propaganda as I was. But if my blog has made him quit believing, then I have scored a stunning victory far beyond my wildest dreams!
A Critical Analysis of the Epistle of 2 Peter
The Second Epistle of Peter is one of the most controversial parts of the New Testament, with many Bible scholars claiming it wasn’t even written by the apostle in question, and was instead composed many years after his death to promote the teaching of Peter’s rival, Paul. Let’s start looking at the text.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Peter%201%20;&version=KJV
Mormon Missionaries, Made Stupid
Remember this blog entry from several years ago?
https://dalehusband.com/2011/06/05/mormonism-a-failed-religion/
It included this video, which I shall also post here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbwT4j-mLdw
Sinéad O’Connor goes off the deep end
I’ve written about Sinéad O’Connor before:
https://dalehusband.com/2010/03/27/sinead-oconnor-was-both-wrong-and-right/
And I’ve also written about the Irish and the abuse they have suffered from the Catholic Church:
https://dalehusband.com/2011/01/20/the-irish-people-must-abandon-catholicism/
So it does not surprise me that she would finally reject any allegiance to Catholicism, just I would have urged her to do. But I never expected this:
Sinéad O’Connor Says She Never Wants to ‘Spend Time with White People Again’
Sinéad O’Connor is taking her commitment to her new religion one step further.
The 51-year-old “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer, who now goes by the name Shuhada Davitt, shared in a series of tweets early Tuesday that, a few weeks after officially converting to Islam, she wants to avoid everyone who does not share her spiritual beliefs.
In the first message, she wrote, “I’m terribly sorry. What I’m about to say is something so racist I never thought my soul could ever feel it. But truly I never wanna spend time with white people again (if that’s what non-muslims are called). Not for one moment, for any reason. They are disgusting.”
If her spiritual orientation is indeed Islamic, by all means she should embrace it. But this sounds like bigotry against non-Muslims. How can you promote the virtues of Islam except by interacting with non-Muslims to show them how good the religion is for you?
Then, O’Connor called into question the social platform’s policy about blocking hateful content. “Interesting to see if Twitter bans this when it allows people like Trump and Milbank spew the satanic filth upon even my country,” she said.
The musician also addressed the role of violence in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. O’Connor is a known critic of the Catholic church.
“BTW if one IS an intelligent theologian and has taken the journey, one would know there is no more talk of ancient violence in the Q’ran as the Tanukh, the Bible or The sodding Mahabarata. And its ALL EQUALLY [IRRELEVANT] TO OUR TIMES,” she mused, adding in a follow-up tweet, “Everyone says the Poor Americans are the victim of Trump. But you hired him. So fire him. Otherwise you’re complicit. It is the same with all so called Islamic Terrorism. Which is exactly what the devil wants and loves.”
If the violent stories in the Quran are indeed irrelevant to our times, why would anyone assume that the dogmas and rituals associated with Islam are relevant to this present day? Does simple logic not occur to her?
Tying in her own Irish culture, the singer continued, “No Irish person on earth would disagree. We didn’t fire the church. We let them please themselves in our children right under our noses and there is no recompense. No balm in gilliad for Irish human beings under ‘[civilization].’ “
To conclude, O’Connor acknowledged the bizarreness of the rant: “Final word. If its ‘Crazy’ to care. Then by all means, spank my ass and call me Fruity loops : )”
It is never crazy to care, but remember when you tore up that photo of the Pope on Saturday Night Live and the fallout resulting from that? That was a crazy stunt. And it seems you learned nothing from that failure.
Last month, she confirmed on Twitter her conversion to Islam, explaining that her new faith “is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey.”
“All scripture leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant,” the Grammy winner added, before revealing she would henceforth be known by a new name. “I will be given (another) new name. It will be Shuhada.’”
In addition to changing her name on her Twitter page, she also replaced her profile picture with a photo that reads “Wear a hijab just do it” alongside the Nike swoosh logo. Additionally, her Twitter bio now reads, “PLEASE BE AWARE THAT IF YOU POST RACIST OR ANTI MUSLIM RHETORIC ON THIS PAGE YOU WILL BE BLOCKED.”
Demanding tolerance for your beliefs while being intolerant towards those who disagree? We have a word for that.
I wonder if she ever considered the Baha’i Faith. A Baha’i could just as easily proclaim that “all scripture leads to the Baha’i Faith. Which makes all other scriptures redundant.” As a Christian, I was taught that most of the “Old Testament” pointed to Jesus as the fulfillment of the Jewish covenant, which would have been an offensive thing to claim to any Jews that heard it. Well, as a non-theist, I think they are ALL wrong. There is no final religion, no perfect religion and no “true” religion. And no one can prove otherwise. That’s why we have so many religions and the many, many, MANY divisions within all of them.
The day after revealing her big news, O’Connor shared that she had been given her first hijab, writing that she wouldn’t be posting a photo because it’s “intensely personal,” before humorously adding that there was a second reason for her decision.
“I’m an ugly old hag,” she wrote. “But I’m a very, very, very happy old hag.”
Over the next couple of days, the Irish singer went on to share a number of photos of herself wearing a head covering, simply writing that she was “happy.”
O’Connor was ordained as a priest in 1999 in a dissident Roman Catholic group.
She has previously spoken out against the abuses of the Catholic Church, even ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a Saturday Night Live appearance in 1992.
The singer has struggled with her mental health in recent years, including suicidal ideation, yet said she was open about her issues in the hopes that it would inspire others suffering to seek help.
Could her conversion to Islam also be a sign of mental illness? I’m not saying that all Muslims are mentally ill, of course. But her stated contempt for white people, while herself still being white, reminds me of THIS lunatic, Rachel Dolezal:
https://dalehusband.com/2015/06/14/lying-to-fight-racism/
And both should be ignored.
The Wayback Machine preserves the debunked nonsense of hypocrites!
On several occasions, I have recorded on this blog and directly answered the lies and unfounded nonsense of Christian apologists. Here are two examples:
Lying About History for the Bible
Insulting and Libeling Unbelievers
In the first, I showed how history was distorted regarding the city of Tyre and the obviously false meaning of Bible “prophecy” was papered over in an incredible display of projection and damage control, while in the other one I attacked Creationist Hugh Ross when he tried to explain why people often do not become Christians. In both cases, at least one of the false web pages were removed completely by the writers, while in the second case the other false web page’s address was changed to make it harder to find (but I caught that and updated my blog entry anyway). You’d think with that, both liars would have sense enough to shut up, but their phony websites remain to this day:
Here’s a basic rule of thumb to prevent you for falling for a con artist of any kind: If a person is caught telling ONE lie, then anything else he says should not be taken at face value. Huge Ross lied about whale ankles, while the unknown writer(s) of the Exchanged Life Discipleship website lied about the issue of the prophet Ezekiel. I am pleased that their web pages in question were deleted after I busted them on this very blog, but don’t you think they should have had the courage to make a public apology for their lying? Instead, they chose to hide what they did like it never mattered!
But a special website known as the Wayback Machine preserved what they said anyway.
https://web.archive.org/web/20101124175220/http://exchangedlife.com/skeptic/ezekiel.htm
And with these falsehoods exposed, seekers of truth can know to avoid those websites and their creators to prevent being deceived by anything else they might claim.
Ironic that the Christian rock band Petra made a song about hidden things being revealed in an act of judgement against people.
As a Christian, I LOVED Petra, so this pleases me to no end!
The So-Called Baha’i Faith (SCBF)
I was lurking at the ex-Mormon subreddit and kept finding this acronym being thrown around: TSCC.
I finally googled it and found: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TSCC
{{{ The So-Called Church – a pejorative term for the Mormon church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, LDS) primarily used by ex-mormons during online discourse. }}}
So, what if ex-Baha’is and other critics of the Baha’i Faith could use their own acronym, SCBF, the So-Called Baha’i Faith? This would stem from the “Haifan Baha’is” claiming to be THE Baha’i Faith and it would get across to non-Baha’is what a LIE that really is, since there are indeed other groups out there! Then we could drop the term “Haifan Baha’i”, since only “Covenant-Breakers” use it.
A series of ludicrous comments on YouTube and Facebook
I may write a lot, but one thing I definitely believe is that it is better to write 100 words of logical truth than to write 100,000 words of nonsense and lies. Case in point, some comments I got from a Baha’i on YouTube and Facebook regarding one of my videos:
FIVE Ways to Create a Religion of Hypocrites
Note: This is a slightly expanded version of an earlier blog entry: Four Ways to Create a Religion of Hypocrites.
- State that religion no longer needs clergy……and replace them with leaders that are as authoritarian as the clergy ever was.
- Claim that men and women should be equal……but then deny women membership in the all-powerful leadership council of the religion.
- Condemn as heretics those who believe in your religion but dare to challenge the claims of your religion’s current leadership, while at the same time claiming to welcome as friends the followers of other religions.
- Claim there is harmony between science and religion, but also claim that anything your leaders say is absolutely true, even if on topics science is expected to address.
- Claim to shun partisan politics, but favor a government of their own, which is as partisan as it gets.
Any one of these makes a religion not worth following, but what should you do if you find a religion that has all five of these contradictions?
Muslim-bashing and Libel Against Ex-Baha’is in Reddit
This is a direct sequel to Treachery of Baha’is @ reddit
Baha’is in reddit have come up with a new tactic for attacking those who dare to leave and then criticize their former religion; they are claiming most ex-Baha’is are just Muslim enemies of the faith who never joined.
First see this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bahai/comments/8vd7rj/do_bahais_worship_bahaullah/
At one point, a Baha’i named t0lk asserts:
A word of caution about r/exbahai, it is mostly populated by Muslims and not by people who were formerly Baha’is.
This was noticed and commented on here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/exbahai/comments/8vhhiq/a_word_of_caution_about_rexbahai_it_is_mostly/
The Bogus Issue of Infallibility in the Baha’i Faith.
In the book Some Answered Questions, it was recorded that Abdu’l-Baha told a sheer absurdity that has badly damaged the credibility of the Baha’i Faith ever since.
http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/SAQ/saq-45.html
It is said in the holy verse: “There is no partner for Him Who is the Dayspring of Revelation in His Most Great Infallibility. He is, in truth, the exponent of ‘God doeth whatsoever He willeth’ in the kingdom of creation. Indeed the Almighty hath exclusively reserved this station for Himself and to none is given a share in this sublime and highly exalted distinction.”
Know that infallibility is of two kinds: essential infallibility and acquired infallibility. In like manner there is essential knowledge and acquired knowledge; and so it is with other names and attributes. Essential infallibility is peculiar to the supreme Manifestation, for it is His essential requirement, and an essential requirement cannot be separated from the thing itself. The rays are the essential necessity of the sun and are inseparable from it. Knowledge is an essential necessity of God and is inseparable from Him. Power is an essential necessity of God and is inseparable from Him. If it could be separated from Him, He would not be God. If the rays could be separated from the sun, it would not be the sun. Therefore, if one imagines separation of the Most Great Infallibility from the supreme Manifestation, He would not be the supreme Manifestation, and He would lack the essential perfections. But acquired infallibility is not a natural necessity; on the contrary, it is a ray of the bounty of infallibility which shines from the Sun of Reality upon hearts, and grants a share and portion of itself to souls.
Although these souls have not essential infallibility, still they are under the protection of God—that is to say, God preserves them from error. Thus many of the holy beings who were not dawning-points of the Most Great Infallibility, were yet kept and preserved from error under the shadow of the protection and guardianship of God, for they were the mediators of grace between God and men. If God did not protect them from error, their error would cause believing souls to fall into error, and thus the foundation of the Religion of God would be overturned, which would not be fitting nor worthy of God.
To epitomize: essential infallibility belongs especially to the supreme Manifestations, and acquired infallibility is granted to every holy soul. For instance, the Universal House of Justice, if it be established under the necessary conditions—with members elected from all the people—that House of Justice will be under the protection and the unerring guidance of God. If that House of Justice shall decide unanimously, or by a majority, upon any question not mentioned in the Book, that decision and command will be guarded from mistake. Now the members of the House of Justice have not, individually, essential infallibility; but the body of the House of Justice is under the protection and unerring guidance of God: this is called conferred infallibility.
Look up “infallibility” in a dictionary and you will read something like this:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/infallibility
Sometimes in·fal·li·ble·ness. the quality of being infallible, or of being absolutely trustworthy.
Infallibility by logical definition is absolute in nature; it cannot exist in degrees nor can it be conferred on anyone. You either have it or you don’t, period. Therefore, logic proves that Abdu’l-Baha was a liar. He could not have been infallible, nor could the Guardian or the Universal House of Justice that came after him because NONE OF THEM WERE MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD!
Baha’u’llah made the limitation of infallibility quite clear in the Kitab-i-Aqdas:
He Who is the Dawning-place of God’s Cause hath no partner in the Most Great Infallibility. He it is Who, in the kingdom of creation, is the Manifestation of “He doeth whatsoever He willeth.” God hath reserved this distinction unto His own Self, and ordained for none a share in so sublime and transcendent a station. This is the Decree of God, concealed ere now within the veil of impenetrable mystery. We have disclosed it in this Revelation, and have thereby rent asunder the veils of such as have failed to recognize that which the Book of God set forth and who were numbered with the heedless.
And Abdu’l-Baha by claiming a lesser form of infalliblity (which by all appearances is identical to the Most Great Infallibility) was engaging in doublespeak, the same sort of dishonesty that allows Baha’is to claim they promote the equality of men and women even while women are denied a place on the Universal House of Justice. And we should indeed tolerate none of that nonsense.
If your Spiritual Orientation is NEUTRAL…
I believe that many people in the world have a neutral spiritual orientation. Such people have the following characteristics.
- They will usually follow uncritically whatever religion their parents profess and expect them to be. They do so out of loyalty to their parents, not out of loyalty to the religion itself.
- They have little interest in controversies based on competing religious or anti-religious dogmas.
- They are tolerant of people who profess a different religion or no religion, as long as those people do not cause them problems by trying to convert them to their way of thinking.
- They think of religion as a means of social binding, not absolute “truth”, even if they do think of some of the doctrines of their own religion are true or at least likely to be true.
- They pay little attention to propaganda designed to convert themselves or others to a religion.
- They tend to not be active in religious worship practices and never rise to leadership in their religion.
- If they do convert from one religion to another, it is usually because they marry a partner who does have a strong spiritual orientation and want to join the partner’s religion for the sake of family unity.
Such people, if raised in a multifaith religious group like the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), may choose to simply identify themselves as UUs and nothing more. If raised in a dogmatic cult like the Baha’i Faith, the Mormon Church or the Jehovah’s Witnesses, they may find themselves drifting away from such excessive social control once they reach adulthood, which is why these cults constantly seek new members to replace the ones they lose. The claim that they are trying to bring salvation to the world is merely the excuse they give for their obsession.
Seriously, parents need to STOP trying to “raise” their children in any religion, but tell them what the various options are so they can explore on their own once they approach adulthood.
For those who feel no strong attachment to religion, you can still express love and unity with others by finding secular causes to work hard for. What issues do you care about? What sort of difference do you want to make in the world?
The American Red Cross? http://www.redcross.org/
The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee? https://www.uusc.org/
Doctors Without Borders? https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
The Nature Conservancy? https://www.nature.org/
The Union of Concerned Scientists? https://www.ucsusa.org/
People for the American Way? http://www.pfaw.org/
Those are just a few examples of worthy causes. I’m sure you can find many more.
If your Spiritual Orientation is BAHA’I…
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.
If your Spiritual Orientation is PAGAN…
Paganism used to be a catch-all term for any religion in the world, past or present, that was not one of the “Abrahamic” religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam or the Baha’i Faith). Today it is used among various people to mean any religion that is “earth-centered” in its worship rather than worshiping a deity that is not associated with nature. This would include Wicca, Druidism and other varieties that are polytheistic, though some forms are monotheistic.
Because the gods of modern Paganism are directly associated with nature, Pagans are likely to be dedicated environmentalists. I myself wrote about a form of Pagan worship I am sympathetic to:
Sun Worship
Those who see Paganism as the right path for them can find fellowship here:
http://www.cuups.org/ as well as any Unitarian Universalist church or fellowship with a Pagan group. These Pagans, in turn, might lead you to explore and contact other pagan groups that may not be affiliated with UUs. You might also read this:
Pagan and Earth-Centered Voices in Unitarian Universalism
The Ultimate Baha’i Delusion?
I posted the following on reddit last week:
https://www.reddit.com/r/exbahai/comments/8ejifq/the_ultimate_bahai_delusion/
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.
You should see the discussion that resulted!
If your Spiritual Orientation is BUDDHIST…
Buddhism is a religion that originated in India and is considered a direct offshoot of Hinduism, much like Christianity is descended from ancient Judaism. Unlike Hinduism, however, Buddhism is non-theistic, with no reference to gods at all in its teachings. Instead it is a totally human centered faith, much like Humanism, and thus may be considered more a philosophy than an actual religion. But it includes the Hindu concepts of karma and reincarnation, which Humanists reject. Once stripped of its Indian centered cultural references, Buddhism spread throughout most of southern and eastern Asia.
Keep in mind that while the Dalai Lama is an international celebrity, it would be inappropriate to consider him the eastern version of the Roman Catholic Pope. It would be more accurate to think of him being more like the current President of the Southern Baptist Convention, Steve Gaines. Not quite mainstream compared to larger Christian groups, but still representative of Christian teachings. The main reason the Dalai Lama is so celebrated is because of him representing the struggle of his homeland Tibet against Chinese oppression.
Like Hindus, there are relatively few Buddhist temples outside Asia, so Buddhists may also find a spiritual home for themselves among Unitarian Universalists. Indeed, Buddhism is so popular among UUs that they even have a community for themselves: http://uubf.org/wp/
I know personally a Unitarian Universalist minister who is also a Buddhist: Rev. Alex Holt, who was interim minister at Westside Unitarian Universalist Church (Fort Worth) and later moved to Seattle, where he became interim minister of……Westside Unitarian Universalist Church (Seattle). He wrote an essay for a book about UUs who are also Buddhists: Buddhist Voices in Unitarian Universalism.
It is interesting to note that in India where Buddhism originated, the Hindu priests won back the loyalty of the people there not by denying the Buddha, but by proclaiming him to be an avatar of Vishnu, one of the Hindu gods, even though the Buddha never claimed that for himself and Buddhists themselves don’t believe that either. Likewise, Baha’is claim that the Buddha is a “Manifestation of God” which is also a concept foreign to Buddhists. It should be noted, however, that there is nothing in Buddhism that requires rejection of theism; that idea is simply irrelevant to Buddhist practices.
If your Spiritual Orientation is HINDU…
Hinduism is considered to be the oldest of the current popular religions in the world, and is to the east what Judaism is to the west. Like Judaism, it is a tribal religion made for one specific people, that of India, which is why most Hindu sects do not proselytize. However, there are a few examples of people outside India who have converted to some form of Hinduism, most notably George Harrison of the Beatles.
Oddly enough, Hinduism does not seem to have a specific set of exclusive beliefs. It seems to be more like Unitarian Universalism than any dogmatic western faith we have looked at so far.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism#Concept_of_God
Hinduism is a diverse system of thought with beliefs spanning monotheism, polytheism, panentheism, pantheism, pandeism, monism, and atheism among others;[159][160][web 3] and its concept of God is complex and depends upon each individual and the tradition and philosophy followed. It is sometimes referred to as henotheistic (i.e., involving devotion to a single god while accepting the existence of others), but any such term is an overgeneralization.
The simple fact that a single religious system can incorporate so many different ideas speak volumes about the possibility of someday uniting Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Baha’is together into one similar system since they all have in common the worship of one God and the belief that he sends Messengers to educate people on what God wants from them. They only disagree on when God stopped sending such Messengers. Get rid of that dispute, and we can have religious peace in the west.
If there are no Hindu temples where you live, see if you can instead join a Unitarian Universalist (UU) church where you can find fellowship with its members while practicing your personal form of Hinduism in the privacy of your home. See if you can form a group of fellow UUs to practice Yoga, a form of exercise and meditation that originated in Hinduism but has found common acceptance by various peoples of different religions.
If your Spiritual Orientation is MUSLIM…
I actually did a blog entry long ago that addressed perfectly my problems with people who feel more drawn to Islam than any other religion so I am content to refer my Muslim readers to that:
Muslims, get a life!
Do you REALLY believe in Allah, who is described throughout the Quran as “the Merciful” as well as “Forgiving”? It seems that many of your comrades in faith do not and merely use His name to destroy people’s lives and freedom!
I have not forgotten how some of you threatened the life of Salman Rushdie in 1989 for writing his novel The Satanic Verses. Did it ever occur to you that if Allah really found what he did to be that offensive, he would have struck down Rushdie Himself? The fact that He never did is evidence to me that either Allah could not do it (why worship such a weak god?) , or that he didn’t see fit to (why do yourselves what He would not?). In short, Allah willed the act of “blasphemy”. So why not condemn Him too? Why is your faith in Allah so weak, that you deem yourselves to be more of a judge of what is worthy of death than Allah Himself? Note that the one who passed the death sentence on Rushdie with a fatwa, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, died soon afterwards, while Rushdie still lives today! It seems clear that it was Khomeini who was the blasphemer, not Rushdie!
Do not be so foolish as to make anyone or anything, including the religion of Islam and the deeds and words of the Prophet Muhammad, above criticism! Remember that Muhammad himself strongly criticised the Jewish and Christian religions, even while stating that their followers were “People of the Book”. Likewise, allowing criticism of Islam in public is in keeping with the verse in the Quran that declares: “There is no compulsion in religion.” (Sura 2:256). How can there be no compulsion in religion if you threaten critics of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad with death, you hypocrites!?
Islam is not superior to any other religion. If you think otherwise, then why would Allah will the existence of other faiths? Why is Christianity still the most popular religion at nearly two billion followers? Is it not possible that Muhammad intended Islam for Arabs only rather than for all the peoples of the world? Why insist on one truth for the whole world when science cannot even find the existence of Allah anywhere, let alone the dogmas of Islam?
The Quran is but a book, revealed by Muhammad. To say that it is equal to Allah himself is blasphemy, yet I always get the impression that you seem to think every word of the Quran should be believed in and obeyed absolutely. NO! Don’t you know that the Quran was not even completely assembled until several years after the death of Muhammad? How can we be sure all of it is accurately transcribed and really from the Prophet?
I am disgusted by the practice of older Muslim men marrying girls as young as 12 and making them fall pregnant. What a violation of the girls’ dignity! Yes, I know of the story that Muhammad married a nine-year old girl. I also know that he and Aisha never had children, so it is possible that the marriage was never consummated. I’d rather beleive that than assume that he was a pedophile, as some have alleged! In any case, are you forgetting that the Prophet was a man and not to be seen as equal with Allah himself? Why assume that if Muhammad did something 1400 years ago, it must be right to do even today? Have you no minds of your own? If you are given brains by Allah and do not use them to determine truth from falsehood and morality from what is immoral, those brains are wasted and thus Allah is dishonored. If your only sources of truth and morality is Islam and the actions of Prophet Muhammad, what will you do if it is revealed to you on the Day of Judgement that Muhammad was not a Prophet at all? Honorable Skeptics like myself don’t worry about that, because we have morals that do not depend on any faith.
It is said among Muslims, “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet.” But an atheist would say, “There is no god and Muhammad was no prophet.” If a Muslim denies Hinduism, the Baha’i Faith and atheism, why can’t the atheist and the Hindu deny Islam (the Baha’i would not; all Baha’is see Muhammad as a Prophet)?
How dare you claim Islam is Allah’s final religion! Why put any limits on the Word of Allah? Why tell him to be silent and speak no more? Isn’t that also blasphemy? I think so!
Remember what the Quran also says, in Sura 109: “Say: O disbelievers! I worship not that which ye worship; Nor worship ye that which I worship. And I shall not worship that which ye worship. Nor will ye worship that which I worship. Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.” Follow THAT, and you will follow the example of Allah, who is Merciful.
If your Spiritual Orientation is JEWISH…
Judaism, unlike the Christian religion that later branched off from it, is a tribal religion made for one specific people, which is why to this day most Jews make no effort to proselytize and the Jewish religion and Jewish ethnicity (sometimes called Hebrew) are often considered one and the same. This blog entry is for those who have either embraced Judaism from a non-Jewish background or are considering doing so, as well as people raised as Jews seeking to live in a modern world with others.
- Consider that most of the Jewish Scriptures (which Christians have named the “Old Testament”), have a highly biased point of view, depicting other nations around Israel as evil and even ancient Hebrews who did not follow the dogmatic teachings of ancient Judaism as corrupt. These scriptures often claimed that the many tragedies that Israel suffered from was the result of disobedience to God. The truth is more complex; even when Israel was independent, it often warred against other nations and committed many atrocities against them. This was considered normal and it was only later that Jewish religious philosophers who wrote the Jewish Scriptures sought to reconcile their lofty ethical teachings with the war crimes their own ancestors had committed before.
- Being a religious Jew means you must follow certain rules and practice certain holidays. Most of those holidays refer to specific events in ancient Jewish history. And most of those rules, including Judaism’s dietary laws, were based on superstition, not science. Islam later borrowed some of those dietary laws, such as the ban on eating pork. Be sure to practice those rules in moderation, not blindly for their own sake.
- Christianity should not be considered an enemy religion. Indeed, the spread of Christianity around the world has brought knowledge of the Jewish people with it, making Jews. both ancient and modern, far more famous and respected than they would be otherwise. The antagonism between Jews and Christians that occurred resulted from a perversion of Christian teachings, not anything Jesus himself ever would have taught or allowed. He was himself Jewish!
- The modern republic of Israel has only a vague relation to the ancient nation that shared its name. It was created by Jews from Europe who wanted to establish a state of their own in Palestine, and in the process they displaced many thousands of Arabs that had previously been living in peace with Jews for many centuries. You can be a perfectly good Jew and not be a supporter of a nation that can only maintain itself through exclusion and persecution of non-Jews. Do not equate opposition to Israel’s policies with anti-Semitism and certainly not with the Holocaust that occurred in Europe during World War II; that is simply a lie. One of the things I was taught as a child was that if you do to others what was done to you before, then you are no better than your enemies. The past persecutions of Jews in Europe in no way justifies how Israel conducts itself now against Palestinians. Israel may have been fighting for its right to exist in 1948, but that has not been an issue since the 1980s. Instead, the Zionists of Israel are currently seeking TOTAL DOMINATION OVER ALL OF PALESTINE. So now Israel is its own worst enemy and it is making anti-Semitism around the world look respectable.
- Do not be fooled by American support for Israel; many Americans are brainwashed into believing that the establishment of modern Israel is a fulfillment of prophecies recorded in both the Jewish and the Christian Scriptures. They think that eventually Jesus will then come and overthrow the nations of the world and become the absolute ruler of the world instead. This is absurd; if that was going to happen, it would have occurred over 1900 years ago when the generation that knew Jesus still lived.
- If you want to join with a Jewish group that embraces freethinking rather than dogmatic bigotry, go here: http://uuja.org/ or here: http://www.shj.org/ Also read this:
Jewish Voices in Unitarian Universalism
If your Spiritual Orientation is CHRISTIAN….
Christianity is the most popular religion in the world today, with an estimated two billion followers around the world, and is the predominant religion in the two American continents, Europe, Australia and sub-Saharan Africa. Thus if a person’s spiritual orientation is actually NEUTRAL, then he is most likely to be Christian because there are simply more Christian families in the world than those of any other religion. However, there are people who, even if they are raised in a non-Christian religion, may be unhappy with their family’s faith and may decide that Christianity is a better one for them. This blog entry is for them as well as for others that may be looking for a “true” version of the Christian faith, whatever their original background.
- Remember that Jesus, said to be the founder of Christianity, was a JEW, as were his early disciples. Therefore anyone who is a genuine Christian would also love and respect the Jewish religion and people. Anti-Semitism should have absolutely NO place among Christians.
- Jesus himself wrote nothing that survives to this day; what you read about him in the Christian Scriptures (commonly called the New Testament) are second-hand accounts of what some people thought he said. Do not take those quotations at face value. Do not believe that the Bible or any part of it is the infallible Word of God. That is actually an insult to any real God that may exist. Remember that one form of idolatry is attributing God’s glory to anything man-made, including books that have references to God himself in them.
- The many references in the Christian Scriptures to the coming of the kingdom of God were interpreted by many Christian leaders as referring to the literal coming of Jesus to conquer the world and directly rule it afterwards. This is absurd; if that was the case, it should have happened while the generation that lived in the time of Jesus still was around. They have all been dead for over 1900 years. Those prophecies must already have been fulfilled with the rise of Christianity to take over the formerly Pagan dominated Roman Empire. Writers like Hal Lindsey who claimed otherwise were lying to us.
- Remember that the Apostle Paul, who wrote about half of the Christian Scriptures that were later accepted by the early Christian community as valid, was not even an original disciple of Jesus. He led some of the early Christians, including many from non-Jewish backgrounds, in a very different direction from the groups that consisted mostly of Jews. The Jewish groups eventually faded away, leaving the non-Jewish ones. The result was a badly distorted faith. After all these centuries, we simply have no way of knowing if Paul was a legitimate Christian leader or not.
- In most cases, you must be a CHRISTIAN and nothing else. Do NOT claim as your primary religious identity any subdivision within Christianity, such as Roman Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Mormon, or anything else. You would be a Christian who might go to a Baptist or Catholic church, but that’s it. Reject as necessary or justified any division within the Christian community that claims to be the one true religion. It is only CHRISTIANITY itself that ever should have made that claim. Not Mormonism, not the Jehovah’s Witnesses, nor any other such radical “reformist” or “restorationist” group within Christianity. These are simply additional divisions that do more damage to the credibility of Christianity itself.
- There is one exception to this: if you are also a member of a religious group that is actually multifaith, like the Unitarian Universalist Association. Then you should distinguish yourself from non-Christian UUs, but also celebrate the UUism you have in common with them. Check out this website: http://www.uuchristian.com/ Also read this:
Christian Voices in Unitarian Universalism
Treachery of Baha’is @ reddit
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.
Take a look at this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/OnThisDateInBahai
This community has been banned
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.
It was created by https://www.reddit.com/user/A35821361
This account has been suspended
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:
dragfyre 1 point
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.
aGreenTeaLatte 2 points
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.
dragfyre and aGreenTeaLatte are certainly people I will be wary of in the future. Who is to say that in a few more months they won’t try to suppress the original ex-Baha’i community in reddit as well?
The banned user has now created a new blog of Baha’i history:
http://onthisdateinbahaihistory.blogspot.com/?m=0
Let the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, never be suppressed!
Later, a Baha’i named t0lk invaded the ex-Baha’i subreddit to pick a fight with us.
https://www.removeddit.com/r/exbahai/comments/8at63r/new_bahai_history_blog_for_critics_of_the_faith
_______________
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.
I suppose if you are worried about exposure to “spiritual poison” and such, particularly if it is inherited, then you might be more interested in silencing that voice by cutting its tongue off.
Of course, information control is a characteristic of cults, and we know that the Bahá’í Faith is not a cult.
________________
After t0lk showed up, I proceeded to take him to the cleaners.
Ah, I knew that name looked familiar! t0lk has posted a comment on my blog long ago.
https://dalehusband.com/2008/09/07/the-fatal-flaw-in-bahai-authority/#comment-261
{{{t0lk says:
September 8, 2008 at 1:13 PM EditHello,
This site is interesting: http://covenantstudy.org/questions/shoghi-effendi-will/ and http://covenantstudy.org/questions/uhj-without-guardian/ }}}
I replied:
[[[Dale Husband says:
September 8, 2008 at 1:27 PM EditThanks 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 ten years later, I still don’t!
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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!
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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.
T0lk eventually deleted all his comments. Coward!
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Later:
This guy was BANNED from the very subreddit he created after a Baha’i stole it from him!
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In the end, we finally won a partial victory.
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.
Where one of the Baha’i offenders said:
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.
A Critical Analysis of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha, Part 3
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:
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.