1. Bahai teaches the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, and the
oneness of mankind.
2. Bahai teaches the harmony of science and religion.
3. Bahai teaches progressive revelation.
4. The prophets, in Bahai teaching, are Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster,
Buddha, Christ, Mohammed, the Bab,
Baha’u’lluh.
5. The prophets are the only way to know God. God’s essence cannot
be known by experience or reason.
6. The prophets are intermediaries between man and God; they are a
third reality; they have a divine soul and a human body.
7. The prophets come to revive man’s spiritual life and to establish
a new civilization.
8. The physical universe is a creation of God but it has always existed.
Creation is a continuous process.
9. Man has always existed somewhere in the universe. He evolved
from a lower form, but from the beginning he was potentially man.
He is a distinct species.
10. In the individual man, soul and mind existed from the beginning.
The soul does not really enter or leave the body.
QUESTIONS ON THE BAHA’I FAITH
1. If it is impossible to know the essence of God because we are finite,
then can the prophet make this known to us? And if we can know attributes
of God, do we need the prophet to make this known?
2. On the nature of the prophet: can there be a human body without
a human soul?
3. Are the prophets a third reality, or a combination of the divine
and the human?
4. If Baha’u’llah is Christ returned, is there one prophet or many?
5. How can a prophet be recognized? Do they identify themselves
to others? Abraham, Moses and Mohammed did not claim to be more than
human.
6. Was there a prophet to the Chinese? To the Aztecs? To the Greeks?
Could Socrates or Confucius or Joseph Smith be prophets? If all need
prophets why do all not have prophets?
7. Why are some prophets such near contemporaries since they are said
to come in different ages? Why the Bab and Baha’u’llah? Why Zoroaster and
the Buddha?
8. Must civilizations end and new ones begin? Can civilizations continue?
Is the kingdom of God the same as a civilization? Does the kingdom
of God grow continuously in history?
9. If man has always existed somewhere in the universe and the universe
has always existed, is man therefore eternal as a species? How long
has man been evolving? Does only the body of man evolve? Is
man still evolving? Will evolution ever stop?
10. Is the process of creation unique in any sense or is the process
the same as an endless cycle that is ever recurring?
© Surrendra Gangadean