The mediocrity of Bah'a'ullah and the paltriness of the Baha'i

Does my anti-religious position really stretch so far as to condemn a faith which has been persecuted since its inception, that lists the equality of the sexes, the unity of humankind, the establishment of an universal auxiliary language, and the harmony of religion and science as some of its major precepts? Yes. For the Baha'i faith, as its zealous and unquestioning followers refer to it, is frankly, not much better than any other dogmatic cult that has the misfortune to spread enmity on the earth.

Indeed, many of the proclamations of the Baha'i are actually incredibly superficial. The equality of the sexes extends only so far as to the supreme decision making body of the Baha'i community, where women are barred from election. This rather obvious discrepancy is dismissed with the rather pathetic excuse that the reason for high-ranking inequality "will be revealed by god in the fullness of time". Moreover, although Bahaullah encouraged his followers to make wills, in the event that they didn't, women get a comparatively poor deal compared to men in the division of any inheritance. Fathers over mothers, brothers over sisters, boys over girls.

The harmony of religion and science, often touted as one of the greatest things about the Baha'i faith, is equally skin-deep. While the Baha'is recognise that science should be allowed to progress, it is science that benefits the Baha'i faith, rather than any science that does not seek to find "the truth". While Shogi Effendi may have declared this was in reference to theological hairsplitting, one wonders what the Baha'is would do if it were found that universe came into existence from a quantum fluctuation - would the Baha'is really still support science? What about evolution, particularly when Bahaullah proclaimed that man has existed since all eternity? No, of course, as usual, the Baha'i's do some rather nice reinterpretation and come up with some claptrap about "the essence of man having always existed through mutations". Props to them Abdul Baha for coming up with it so early though.

However, I think what really gets to me about the Baha'is is how obviously, painfully, fascist they really are. I've finished reading the Kitab i-aqdas (the most holy book in the Baha'i faith, it's pretty short), and it's essentially like reading Leviticus and Deuteronomy, or the more boring parts of the Qur'an. Notes upon notes, minutiae upon minutiae, ridiculous laws and patterns of how they must be performed. Every aspect of life, from dawn till dusk, maturity (15) till death, is regulated by these "infallible" scriptures. The same infallible scriptures that still preach that homosexuality is wrong, and can be overcome through the help of doctors and prayer. And just in case you're worried about using a watch, it's ok! Bahaullah (god) makes sure you know that clocks are fine to use.

The Baha'i model is at its very core, utopian, idealistic, and dangerously, dangerously fascistic. With infallible leaders, scriptures, and elected elders, it differs little from the communist parties in many countries across the world (and I say this as an ex-communist). Its concept of divine manifestation, and immutable laws that will last a thousand years is all too similar to the "thousand year Reich" of Adolf Hitler. And with execution, exile, and excommunication as tools in the Baha'i apparatus of control, this supposedly tolerant faith seems as though it might go the way of Jim Jones' Peoples' Temple.