Religion as defined in the Baha'i writings

Over the last few months at my new job, I have had the privilege of forming a very spiritually enriching friendship with a coworker and his wife. In recent conversations he raised some excellent and thought-provoking questions on the Baha'i claim of the oneness of religion that got me to do some research into the exact nature of this claim, and what it implies. Born out of this was the impetus to get back to blogging, after a year and a half hiatus - a hiatus necessitated by changing life circumstances, getting married, graduating, finding a new job, etc. Anyway, here I am now, and hopefully I can keep the momentum going. For now, in order to address these issues of the oneness of religion, I'll be putting up several posts over the course of the next few days, addressing a variety of concepts around this central theme in the Baha'i teachings.

The first topic we'll address is religion - before we get into any discussions about the oneness of religion, I think we need to clarify the concept of religion as presented by the Baha’i writings, as it is somewhat different from what people usually mean when they talk about religion. Two traditional views of religion are nicely summarized in the following paragraph that I copied from the international Baha’i website:

To put the Bahá'í concept of religion more clearly in focus, let us compare it with some other ways in which religion has been regarded. On one hand is the view that the various religious systems result from human striving after truth. In this conception, the Founders of the great religions do not reveal God to us, but are rather philosophers or thinkers, human beings who may have progressed farther than others in the discovery of truth. This notion excludes the idea of a basic unity of religion since the various religious systems are seen as representing different opinions and beliefs arrived at by fallible human beings rather than infallible revelations of truth from a single source.


Many orthodox adherents of various religious traditions, on the other hand, argue that the Prophet or Founder of their particular tradition represents a true revelation of God to humanity, but that the other religious Founders are false prophets, or at least essentially inferior to the Founder of the tradition in question. For example, many Jews believe that Moses was a true Messenger of God, but that Jesus was not. Similarly, many Christians believe in Jesus' revelation, but consider that Muhammad was a false prophet, and hold that Moses was inferior in status to Christ.
http://info.bahai.org/article-1-4-0-4.html

The Baha’i concept of religion, on the other hand, arises from two concepts – the oneness of God, and the oneness of humanity (all of humanity derives ultimately from that same Source, the one God). The relationship between the one God and one humanity is what is termed as religion (which comes from the Latin root, religio, which means “to bind together”). Religion, therefore, is seen as a relationship that is woven into the very fabric of reality, rather than as just a set of beliefs and principles that someone devised.

The foundation of the divine religions is reality; were there no reality, there would be no religions… Reality is as the sun, which shines forth from different dawning points; it is as the light, which has illumined many lanterns.
-- Abdu’l Baha

In this sense, it might be useful to distinguish between religion (this relationship), and religious systems (different manifestations of this relationship, such as Christianity, Islam, the Baha’i Faith, etc). These terms are usually used interchangeably in the world today, though in my understanding the Baha’i Faith makes this clear distinction. Depending on context, therefore, the word “religion” can be used to mean either of the above two things in the writings. For the purposes of these discussions, I’ll use religion when I mean the first, and religious system when I mean the second. Different religious systems are seen, by the Baha’i Faith, not as sociological phenomena, or philosophies engendered in the minds of wise thinkers, but rather organically evolving responses to the condition of humanity, communicated to us through who we call Prophets or Manifestations of God, who are considered divine (and we can get into what that means in the Baha’i Faith in another conversation).

On a side note, the close tie between religion and reality is really the foundation for the Baha’i belief in the unity of science and religion, as both are considered windows into reality.

Any religious belief which is not conformable with scientific proof and investigation is superstition, for true science is reason and reality, and religion is essentially reality and pure reason; therefore, the two must correspond. Religious teaching which is at variance with science and reason is human invention and imagination unworthy of acceptance, for the antithesis and opposite of knowledge is superstition born of the ignorance of man. If we say religion is opposed to science, we lack knowledge of either true science or true religion, for both are founded upon the premises and conclusions of reason, and both must bear its test.
-- Abdu’l Baha

Understanding the notion of the unity between science and religion further, however, will require more time, so lets leave this as is for now. The relationship between religion and reality is the reason that the first principle of the Baha’i Faith is always stated as the “independent investigation of truth.” Religion is therefore seen as a tool that helps us discover the nature of reality (just like science).

Among these teachings was the independent investigation of reality so that the world of humanity may be saved from the darkness of imitation and attain to the truth; may tear off and cast away this ragged and outgrown garment of 1,000 years ago and may put on the robe woven in the utmost purity and holiness in the loom of reality.
-- Abdu’l Baha

The primary task of the soul will always be to investigate reality, to live in accordance with the truths of which it becomes persuaded and to accord full respect to the efforts of others to do the same.
-- From a letter written by the Universal House of Justice to the world’s religious leaders in 2002

I think we should stop here for today and let all that sink in! Tomorrow we'll go from here to the oneness of religion.