Subject: Re: Doubt (has different meanings to different people).
Date: 10/12/1998 6:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Gibro28W
Message-id: <19981012185925.22197.00000323@ng109.aol.com>
BRaynor781 writes:> The disease we are concerned with is spiritual, not
intellectual and
>therefore the remedy is probably best prescribed by by the One in whom we
>have chosen fo follow.
Raynor, you're not getting it. The doctor's
prescription for the so-called "disease" has
made his practice suspect. How can anyone
with intelligence accept this kind of dogma
on blind faith? When is doubt or the sincere
questioning of authoritarian abuses a spiritual
disease? Was Baha'u'llah a victim of this pseudo-disease as well when he
condemned
the hypocrisies of each of the religious establishments of his day?
Again, you say:>The objective is unity. Intellectual freedom of expression
may be a luxury on
>this road.
Since when do the Baha'i writings (collectively) say that intellectual
freedom is a
"luxury"? Without it you simply have "a broken-winged bird" that's too
crippled to get off the ground. Is that what you prefer?
Finally, you say:>It seems the ego is best expressed through intellect and
not spirit.
What turned me off to the Baha'i Faith (after two and a half decades as a
member), were the egotistical "spiritual" leaders who had often abandoned
all logic and reason (intellect) in their enforcement of absurd
policies and dogmas (contrary to hard science). If you're going to have one
(spirit), you must have the other (intellect). I may have an immortal soul,
but I know I have a brain-mind that I can call my intellect. Please
don't ask me to put my faith in the unprovable--not the second time around.
Thank you for your sincere suggestions all the same, RaynorShine.