Re: WHY (pray tell) do you believe 'Abdu'l-Baha?


Will a failed prophecy cause Baha'is to abandon their vision of world
peace and replace it with a vision of European peace? Is the rest of
the world irrelevant?

Randy Burns wrote:
Most likely what the term "world peace" meant to Abdu'l-Baha was that
European nations would stop contending among themselves for conquest of the
world and probably did not refer to the other non-European nations of the
world. After all Baha'u'llah did not write letters to North Korea, or the
Congo, only the powerful nations of His World were referred to, including of
course the Ottoman Empire and Iran.

"His World" indeed! I agree that Baha's view of the world appears to
have been restricted. He did not seem to care much for the East,
Africa, or Latin America. He had no vision of the changes in power
about to overcome the world. He and his son had no vision of the
horrors that would sweep across Africa and Asia. Those places just
didn't matter in 1870 or 1912, so it's not fair to criticize their
prophecies on the basis of stuff Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha couldn't
forsee.

If millions die, that's ok. What's important is that Holland stays out
of Java, and Germany stays out of Namibia, because that's what was
important in the 19th Century.

How are we doing with our cognitive dissonance now? Feel better?

The present-day Pax Europa does not, of course, take in to account the
recent Yugoslav wars and wars outside of Europe in which European
nations have participated. The Iraq "Occupation" is viewed by many
(such as Bush and Blair) to be war of global control. Still, if we can
settle for a European peace, then we can at least claim a qualified
success. Here we see how prophecy helps us to determine what's really
important.

.

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