d.rambo - 11/23/00 22:48:29
My Email:www.notdumbenoughtogiveoutmyemail.com
Religion: christian unitarian

Comments:
i find your website to be interesting and informative.i have studied extensively with bahaiis,and find them to be among the best people i know.like you,i find many of their teachings to be ridiculous,but at least they dont teach that a god of love tortures people in a burning hell like most religeons teach.keep up your good work, but dont bash em too hard.

DJ Rogers - 09/12/00 18:08:30
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Still looking...

Comments:
I think it is healthy to have differing viewpoints articulated to further the independant investigation of truth.

Robert Stauffer (Baha'i) - 09/01/00 22:46:39
Religion: Baha'i

Comments:
Once again the avowed enemies of the Baha'i Faith have conjured up half-truths and unwitting interpretations of Baha'i Writings and history to justify religious prejudice in the name of God; this time in a website that in the typical cowardly way does not devulge its author(s) name.

Robert Stauffer (Baha'i) - 09/01/00 22:46:35
Religion: Baha'i

Comments:
Once again the avowed enemies of the Baha'i Faith have conjured up half-truths and unwitting interpretations of Baha'i Writings and history to justify religious prejudice in the name of God; this time in a website that in the typical cowardly way does not devulge its author(s) name.

- 04/17/00 16:53:44
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Former Baha'i

Comments:
During my years as a Baha'i, I thoroughly enjoyed the diverse fellowship, inclusive spirit, and teachings of unity and peace, all the while trying to avoid contemplating the more dogmatic, authoritarian aspects of the Faith. However, as I grew older, I f und it increasingly difficult to reconcile the truths I was learning through intuition and life experience with absolutist, seemingly inconsistent doctrines that discouraged genuine self-expression, individuality, and the independent investigation of trut ; rather than promote ideas I didn't fully agree with, and maintain an image that wasn't really me, my only real choice was to leave. The root of the problem, as I see it, is that divine knowledge is not limited to nine enlightened Manifestations and their successors; it is inexorably intertwined into the very essence of cause and effect itself, its lessons readily and directly availabl to each of us through art, reflection, sensuality, and the every day business of living. To deny its evidence in these areas is to deny God Himself. Bahaism works better as a philosophy than as a religion or theocratic political system, as a world-embracing attitude rather than as an absolutist, infallible institution. Ironically, the very rigidity with which it seeks to sustain itself will ultimatel be the cause of its downfall.

Doug McPherson - 04/16/00 16:35:42
Religion: free thinker

Comments:
Thanks for taking a stand on the Orwellian doublespeak, censorship and rewritten history the Baha'i institutions have continually employed in order to gain new adherents and keep the faithful in line. Though most organized religions oppose any significan degree of original thought, at least they tend to be a little less "bait and switch" about it. They pretty much tell you to leave reason at the door and take the giant leap of faith. The Baha'is lure you in with a list of lofty premises, such as the in ependent investigation of truth and the equality of science and religion -- and once you get in, you slowly start to realize that all the doctrines are in total opposition to those principles. Their aim isn't really to create harmony among the world reli ions, it's to replace the world religions, by virtue of an institution that essentially prohibits any variance of opinion. Setting up a third party as sole gatekeeper of the knowledge we should, as individuals be privy to, is a dangerous thing. It interferes with our unfettered search for truth and renders all our viewpoints subjective. If I am only allowed to see one side f a situation, my judgment will be prejudiced, the information received, mere propaganda. Thanks for providing us with an alternative perspective!

Nathan - 04/15/00 09:43:00
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Baha'i

Comments:
Dir Sir or Madam, While I do not agree with some of what you say about the Baha'i Faith, I think I detect a certain decency in you. This being the case, I hope that you will consider the following request. You may feel free to think what you will of me, for I read your tance on photographs, but it would be appreciated if you would put a warning on your page above the photo of Baha'u'llah. I came to the page directly through a search engine and was not expecting to see the likeness of Bahaullah. It was somewhat upsetti g to me, for, as you point out, it would be best to picture the spiritual rather than the physical. I have tried not to wonder what he looked like, and the split-second look set me back a bit in this goal. At any rate, maybe people should be free to loo it up on the net, but some might appreciate a warning followed by enough blank space of text to push the image below the first screen-full. You are of course free to do as you see fit, but I hope you will consider this. Best wishes, Nathan

Virginia - 02/24/00 09:55:45
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Baha'i

Comments:
First, I feel quite uncomfortable with the fact that you do not present yourself. Any explanations about this ? Then, I would say that some information you provide are well known to Baha'is in general. No need to be a scholar - from university or whatsoever. From reading your so-called information, I would say that either you did not get the point in understanding the Faith, either you are so full of anger towards the Faith that this hatred leads you to inaccuracies and judgmentalistic views. I may be wrong b t I am used to read between the lines and I feel you are very angry after the Faith. Maybe it would be fairer for everybody's information to reveal your true motives behind all that stuff ? For example, regarding the prophecies : No, Baha'u'llah never cast curses on kings and leaders. This was not His point. He only intended to warm them. Either they listen to His advice and things will be better, either they do not and the consequences will be obvious. No need to be a university scholar to understand this. For my part, I use my own eyes and my own ears, as well as my own thinking to look around me and note that, well, Baha'u'llah had it right. Some prophecies put us in front of two paths : one positive, the other negative. After, it is a matter of choice, solely depending on our good will. Baha'u'llah's advice make sense. if we do not listen to Him, we should prepare ourselves to sustain the co sequences... You seem to fail to see many other laws of Baha'u'llah, such as the parental consent. Well, I suggest that you put aside your anger and look around you the problems caused by the lack of parental consent in mariages in our societies ! Every time I explain this law to people of any religious background, they end to think that it really makes good sense. The fact is that you slander Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha, Shoghi Effendi and the Faith in general, not because of an objective study of the Teachings, but only because of emotional problems of your own which have nothing to do in a fair research. Hoping your anger will disappear one day, as anger is a very difficult way of life and thinking. Faithfully, Virginia

JF - 01/08/00 00:45:14
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Baha'i

Comments:
Even though whoever put this site together has apparently studied the Baha'i Faith the arguments presented against it here are for the most part thin, opinionated, inaccurate, and not very persuasive. There is some needless hairsplitting on non-essential points. For instance, who can really argue that world unity at the close of the 20th century and the beginning of the year 2000 is NOT rapidly becoming a reality? If anyone watched the live CNN and ABC news reports on New Year's eve it was clear and evide t. The awesome developments, even as the century came to a close, in the field of peace between old enemies such as Northern Ireland and England, Syria and Israel, the humbling of a genocidal tyrant in Serbia are nothing short of miraculous. One cannot ar ue, without appearing as one who is incorrigibly cynical, that the foundations of world peace are more strongly developed if not more fully established, at least as the ideal toward which all nations are in reality moving, than ever before in Mankind's hi tory. Regardless of this, the danger persists that renegade states rallying around their dictator or strong man and intent on holding onto the old world glory of their nationalist, religious, or ethnic pride will continue to pose problems, and threaten to disrupt the world's peace. Abdul Baha never said there would not be madmen. Also, He never said there would not be challenges and threats to world peace for many years to come. What He presented was a pure vision of all the possibilities that the 20th Cen ury embodied and if one looks with pure vision one can clearly see how far the world has come in this century to fulfiling all those possibilities.

Michael A. Russell - 12/02/99 20:32:27
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Baha'i

Comments:
Who are you? Academic and journalistic ethics require an author to identify themselves and acknowledge bias. Your site includes no attribution, authorship or even bylines. I respect the intergrity of Christian and Muslim apologists, even ex-Baha'i critics, who do not hide behind anonymity even as I disagree with their interpretations and conclusions. This site, attempting to pass itself off as acedemic, doesn't even rise to the intergrity of the yellow press. How can this be taken seriously?

Jerry Ross - 10/29/99 20:00:18

Comments:
This site is so blatantly disrespectful of the Baha'i Faith that the motivations of its author(s)is clearly apparent.

Ray Rad - 10/02/99 19:00:34
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: none

Comments:
This site is nowhere near being objective or scholarly in its presentation and discussion of the Bahai Faith. Attempting to refute Baha'u'llah by referring to the Bahai calendar as being a modification of the Persian calendar?? haha Hardly convincing. Keep up your desperate efforts to refute the Bahai Faith, it'll only make the Bahais stronger.

Eric D. Pierce - 04/30/99 01:20:20
My URL:http://www.ns.net/~EPIERCE
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Baha'i w/Buddhist-Catholic influences

Comments:
Re: Baha'u'llah's photos Greetings, It would be interesting to find out if the photo from Miller's book was taken after Baha'u'llah was poisoned. Eric D. Pierce Sacramento, California - USA work email: [email protected]

Chert
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Agnostic Ex-Baha'i

Comments:

Thanks for your feedback, Mr. Davis.

Upon adopting the new GeoCities interface, we adopted a less intuitive "email us" mechanism (look for a little white envelope on the ad banner). We intend to repair that soon. In the meantime, the guestbook will have to do. We intend to extend our site to new contributors soon, "God willing".

As for the Baha'i Calendar, many Baha'is regard it to be a new creation, and thus a sign of a new era. We're simply informing them that it's just a modified Persian calendar.

Regarding our Monolithic view of the Baha'i Faith: the Baha'i Faith is heavily centralized, and emphasizes the unquestionable authority of its leadership. Baha'is call that "Unity" (capital 'U'). Yes, there are many different Baha'i opinions, but those pinions are chained to the authority of Baha'i leadership and a mountain of texts.

Sincere regards, Chert

Jeremiah S. Davis - 04/29/99 19:02:52
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: a free-thinking Baha'i

Comments:
Your homepage is titled "The Baha'i Millenarian Movement," and you introduce yourselves by saying, "This site is a cooperative effort of several students of the Bah�'� religion, some having had extensive experience within the Bah�'� community." The mild one of your opening page and the fact that you are not presenting another religion as the correct one, like many sites that are critical of some aspects of Baha'i thought, seems to indicate that you wish your site to be seen as an objective, scholarly app oach to some of the problems within the Baha'i Faith. This is a worthy goal. However, some parts of the site seem to concentrate on very minor, irrelevant points (like the fact that the Badi calendar is a modified Iranian calendar), in a manner similar o the incredibly biased, innaccurate accounts of Muslim and Christian polemicists. In some places, you just take a typically "Baha'i" approach to the writings- quoting them out of context, with only minimal consideration of the historical environment in hich they were written. The only difference is that you have a different, equally narrow, view to promote. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those Baha'is who looks at any criticism as an attack, but you seem to take a rather monolithic view of the Ba a'i religion, which you no doubt know encompasses people of many different and varied beliefs. I didn't find any place where one might send you an email to discuss specific points. Is this intentional?

Chert
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Agnostic Ex-Baha'i

Comments:

Thanks for your feedback, Mr. Pierce.

We will promptly update the page in question. We appreciate the very informative reference you have supplied.

Sincere thanks, Chert

Eric D. Pierce - 04/15/99 19:37:50
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Baha'i, w/Buddhist-Catholic influences

Comments:
greetings, Etexts of the letters from the Universal House of Justice about the photos of Baha'u'llah are also at:

http://bahai-library.org

Comments:
Hi, Your site is very informative, and one of the more objective sites dealing with the Baha'i Faith that I've come across. I encourage you to finish the articles on the site as quickly as possible as I'd really like to see what you have to say. All viewpoint must be heard! Peace, ML

Chert
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Agnostic Ex-Baha'i

Comments:

Dear Mr. Dodenhoff,

We are not interested in proving the bravery of any of our contributors. We know that Baha'is are only human, and we know from experience that Baha'is can stoop to violence just like any other human. We maintain anonymity in the interest of our contribu ors' personal safety. The name, or lack thereof, associated with any essay ought not 'impinge' upon the merit of the essay.

That said, we hope to open our site to new contributors in the future, and we intend to let them decide whether or not to remain anonymous.

Thank you for your feedback, Chert

pdodenhoff - 03/27/99 18:22:01
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Baha'i

Comments:
Dear Anonymous, It is interesting that you have chosen to attack the Baha'i Faith anonymously. Certainly you are free to disagree with it and even to slander or misrepresent it. But it is the height of cowardice to do so without identifying who you are, don't you think? If indeed you believe so strongly about the Baha'i Faith, one would think you would be willing to say so without having to hide your identity. Certainly such anonymity impinges on your credibility and your alleged scholarship.

Sean Burlend - 03/14/99 05:50:36
Religion: Bahai

Comments:
Dear Friends: Peace be unto you, It is a shame that I, an 18 year old niave and child (who can't spell)knows more about true Islam that most who inquire to attack the Holy Faith of the Bayan. Submission is the key to Islam and indeed to all world religions. Christ- ians are among the first to submit there will to God, and so are Hindus and Yes even the Bayan. Submission is the key than how can you find the least of these men guilty? A reminder that the Day of Resurrection has occured and change is unpreventible. Do not be so tied to your creeds saying, 'I am a Muslim' or 'I am a Christian' that you lose the meaning thereof. We are all brothers of the same God, I would stand among any company to defend a brother. Pagan or not. So should those who call themselves 'believers'. Respect one another, love one another, and love God. What more is required? So with that being said, let me remind you of the glorious revelation of the B hi' faith. That has showered the world with its glorious illuminating rays of Divine Konwldge, so that we all may live together. Praise be to God the Compasionte and Merciful.

Daryush - 03/12/99 05:10:48
My URL:http://me.com
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Baha'i

Comments:
I used to be a muslem, but true several years of study and research I have find out the truth for myself. I find this site missleading and unfare. If you have any guts, call any baha'i and come in for a one to one session. After all how cah a 1400 years o d religion (Islam) claim to underestand needs of this age !!!

Abdullah - 12/06/98 06:04:06
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: true moslem

Comments:
All this information portrays a very desperate group or Islamic fundamentalists, I hope you don't become another Khomeini or Hitler. Human kind will only have Gods blessing and peace when they set aside their Hate and prejudice.

10/26/98 10:30:37

Name: Bad Bunny	My URL: Visit Me
My Email: Email Me

Comments:
Just surfing. Thanks.

ajay - 10/19/98 01:39:50
My Email:[email protected]

Comments:
excellent please keep it up.After all the Bahais have to practise independent investigation of the Truth

Elvis Presley - 09/16/98 22:34:44
My URL:http://www.theking.com
My Email:[email protected]
Religion: Bah�'� Faith

Comments:
Thankyaveramuch. Y'know, they call me the King, but lemmetelya - the Lord Bah�'u'll�h is the King of Kings! Thankyaveramuch.