For example,
There are a few profound things that sound very much esoteric and true:
In contrast to a number of other religious doctrines and philosophies, the Bahá'í Faith does not teach that the physical desires of human beings are "evil" or "bad." Everything in God's creation is regarded as essentially and fundamentally good. In fact, the very purpose of the human body and its physical faculties is to serve as a proper vehicle for the development of the soul . As the energies of the body are gradually brought under the conscious control of the soul, they become instruments for the expression of spiritual qualities. It is only undisciplined physical passions that become causes of harm, and hinder spiritual progress.
All there is is lessons, and good and evil are subjective, and we are very mechanical which is what hinders our spiritual evolution, which is the evolution of our consciousness. We need to discipline our Being through conscious control and understanding of our actions. The "catch" is in what they mean by discipline - they actually mean by unquestionably obeying what is written in their holy books as holy truth (as will be apparent in a second).
The theme of growth through struggle and suffering occurs at several places in the Bahá'í writings. Although many of our sufferings result from careless living and are therefore potentially avoidable, a certain amount of suffering is necessary in any growth process.
Yes, conscious suffering, wow how true! Some suffering is due to our own stubbornness to learn lessons and avoidable if we learn the lessons in different ways, some is a requirement for spiritual progress and unavoidable. But...
There are things that are also very obviously manipulations and extremely dangerous - in fact, so dangerous, they block all progress and do the exact opposite of what is claimed, undoing any and all potential benefit of the above truths. These things can be rationalized and completely missed by someone "enchanted" after contemplating the above truths, and go on to read the rest uncritically, with the assumption that either the rest will also be true, or if it looks wrong it's only because you the reader are just not "advanced enough" to grok it so it's your fault, and the wise source certainly knows better! Unfortunately, all disinfo uses exactly that technique, and works the same way.
Of course, only those who live during the time of a Manifestation have the opportunity of observing Him directly. It is for this reason, Bahá'u'lláh explained, that the essential connection between the individual and God is maintained through the writings and words of each Manifestation. For Bahá'ís, the word of the Manifestation is the Word of God, and it is to this Word that the individual can turn in his or her daily life in order to grow closer to God and to acquire a deeper knowledge of Him. The written Word of God is the instrument that creates a consciousness of God's presence in one's daily life.
Translation: Only a special few who happen to live at the right time get to see God's true manifestation - and it is God's true manifestation because it declares itself as such, and we're telling you now that that's what it is - I mean, what other reason do you need? So being what it is, it will produce some "holy writings" for you to read and follow. By reading those writings you come closer to God, because as we already told you and therefore you already "know", they are the word of God. How can anything other than the word of God produce such truths like the above? If this logic leaves you kinda confused it's because you're just in need of some more holy writings to read, so go read'em!!
It is for this reason that the discipline of daily prayer, meditation, and study of the holy writings constitutes an important part of the individual spiritual practice of Bahá'ís. They feel that this discipline is one of the most important ways of growing closer to their Creator.
Again, it is not by reading and studying those things that you discern to be true through a lot of study, research, critical thought, and constantly questioning approach and an open and critical mind. It is by reading what WE designate as true and holy, because we of course know better than you, because we have "connections". And you grow closer to God by reading what we designate as holy. Any questions? No, you can't have our connections, so bugger off and go read the holy stuff already!!!
To summarize: the Bahá'í view of God is that His essence is eternally transcendent, but that His attributes and qualities are completely immanent in the Manifestations.9 Since our knowledge of anything is limited to our knowledge of the perceptible attributes of that thing, knowledge of the Manifestations is (for ordinary humans) equivalent to knowledge of God.10 In practical terms, this knowledge is gained through study, prayer, meditation, and practical application based on the revealed Word of God (i.e., the sacred scriptures of the Manifestations).
The books we tell you are Holy contain ALL you need to know about God - it's all contained in there, it's your holy source of truth - get it? Got it? Good. Since our knowledge of anything is limited to what we can perceive in it, it then logically follows that studying the books we designate as Holy is like studying God. And if that makes absolutely no sense, it is because it is divine logic that is just way over your head, but maybe if you read enough of our holy books, it will begin to make sense. Our "connections" are telling us that you also get to have god sparks if you read enough of our literature, and dude, those are off da hook, and the kids love'em, so I mean it's just a good time all around mmkay?
Indeed, the essential reason for such widespread unhappiness and terrible social conflict and crises in the world today is that humankind has turned away from true religion and spiritual principles.
And if you think we're maybe talking about truth, love, and understanding, hahahahaha.. no. We mean the principles we declare as true, and our religion. Oh yeah and humankind did it all by themselves cuz they're just confused, it was not actually a global manipulation by people like ourselves or anything, so don't get any ideas.
The only salvation in any age, Bahá'ís believe, is to turn again towards God, to accept his Manifestation for that day, and to follow his teachings.
And if you think by God we mean the objective reality of all things, which of course is the only reasonable definition of God - hahahahaha.. NO!! We mean especifically the books and manifestations that WE declare as teachings of God. How come we seem to always know when something is Godly and when it isn't? Well it's definitely not from years of critical study and research, just in case you were wondering, our "connections" told us what the truth is, and so by extension, we are YOUR connection to that same holy truth, do you understand child? Your confused look only proves how undeveloped your soul is due to not reading enough manifestations.
Bahá'u'lláh pointed out that, if we reflect deeply on the conditions of our existence, we must eventually realize and admit to ourselves that, in absolute terms, we possess nothing. Everything we are or have--our physical body and our rational soul--all comes from our Creator. Since God has freely given us so much, we have, in turn, an obligation to God.
He scratches your back, you scratch his. Capiche?
In another passage, Bahá'u'lláh reminded his followers that the duties which God has given to us are only for our benefit: God Himself has no need of our worship or allegiance, for God is entirely self-sufficient and independent of all His creation. We can therefore be certain that everything God does is motivated uniquely by His pure love for us. There is no "self-interest" on the part of God:
Umm... yes, so out of his love for you, he has some requirements, and he sent us to remind you and extract it from you. No no no it's nothing like the Mafia. It's just a few simple things:
Bahá'u'lláh stated that human beings have two basic duties towards God:
The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Day Spring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation [i.e. the Manifestation]
If you think that means recognizing the truth in a big pile of lies, if you think it means recognizing those who are truly on the path of enlightenment by looking and listening and seeking the truth yourself through a lot of hard work and looking at ALL different sources very carefully and critically, you're WRONG buttercheeks. It means WE tell you who that is, but let's just call it "recognition" because we're doing the "cognition" and by telling you what the truth is, you're doing "re-cognition" of our cognition. It's perfectly logical!!! So you re-cognize who speaks the word of God by listening to us as we have already cognized it!
.... It behoveth every one who reacheth this most sublime station, this summit of transcendent glory, to observe every ordinance of Him Who is the Desire of the world. These twin duties are inseparable. Neither is acceptable without the other.
Oh yeah and once you "re-cognize" who those people are (if you forget, let us know, we'll remind you), obey their holy words and writings. In other words, you just do what we say and you'll be closer to God, who as we already told you, needs absolutely nothing from you and gives you total free will. It is perfectly logical, it's not our fault you're too stupid to get it..
In another passage, Bahá'u'lláh reminded his followers that the duties which God has given to us are only for our benefit: God Himself has no need of our worship or allegiance, for God is entirely self-sufficient and independent of all His creation. We can therefore be certain that everything God does is motivated uniquely by His pure love for us. There is no "self-interest" on the part of God:
Whatever duty Thou [God] hast prescribed unto Thy servants of extolling to the utmost Thy majesty and glory is but a token of Thy grace unto them, that they may be enabled to ascend unto the station conferred upon their own inmost being, the station of the knowledge of their own selves.
It's all for your own good. God would never do or ask anything that wasn't. And yes, as we already said, our material is in fact from God, so it is therefore for your own good. And you do know that "know thyself" is one of the most ancient and wise teachings, right? And what better way to know yourself than by reading the works we designate as "holy" and "from God"? Just cuz you don't SEE that it is from God doesn't mean it isn't, you're just not advanced enough to recognize it. And if you think the solution to this problem is a lot of thinking, elimination of beliefs and sacred cows, learning to think with a hammer, research, and networking, hahahahahaha NO. We've already done that for you, spared you all that conscious suffering we were telling you is necessary, so that you don't have to suffer so actually we take that back it's not necessary at all. All you have to do is read, memorize, and obey. Oh yes, also deeply reflect on what you read. You will either recognize the truth of it, or you won't understand it yet. But of course it is still true, you just need to advance yourself before you get some of it.
Besides the obvious obedience/blind faith doctrine, they seriously ignore/downplay the manipulation of mankind and ascribe it to just general confusion and all our fault. And the answer is, as with all disinfo, through them and their teachings. Of course by using words like "realize" and "recognize" they try to create the impression that it isn't "believe" and "obey". They mix in esoteric truths, but also separate God from creation completely. Their argument is that since everything could not have come out of nothing, only God must've created all things out of nothingness. This totally ignores the question of where this God came from - did he also need another God to make him out of nothingness? If not, why does creation need him to do it for us? If he can come out of nothing without any help, so can we. If he is eternal, there is no reason why we cannot be as well, and therefore the purpose of a "creator" is completely unnecessary. But the bottom line is, all this profound stuff they "teach" cannot benefit the "followers" because the main idea of obedience and blind faith completely contradicts the notions of growing our soul and "impeccability" that comes from this, which is a result of seeing objective reality - which can NEVER come from believing anything, and seeking all your answers from some source that claims to have them all. And they expect their followers to not make this connection. Maybe a good thing to look into would be - who is in charge? Who originated this, and who is "on first" in this religion? Is there a particular group that we might already be familiar with that is responsible? You mentioned Israel, so maybe that's one string to pull...
