Aug
26
Sign at Lotus Temple
Filed Under Baha'i, Religious Pluralism
As you enter the grounds of the Baha’i Lotus Temple in New Delhi this stone sign is set into a grass incline. Of the temple it states:
“This House is a place for prayer and meditation for the peoples of all religions and races. From within its portals the voice of mankind will ever be raised in praise and glorification of the creator of the universe.”
As you can see, the temple is intended to be a place of worship for people of all religions. You can also see that they tried to get to what they saw as the common denominator of all religions, namely, worship of “the creator of the universe.”
The problem with this is that belief in the creator of the universe, much less the worship of this creator, is not found in all religions. For example, Hindus and Buddhists do not believe in the creator of the universe. They may believe in a deity who formed this age, but the universe has always existed according to Hindus and Buddhists. It is uncreated and eternal.
I point this sign out just as an example of another weakness in the pluralist position.
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2 Responses to “Sign at Lotus Temple”
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Good point. Most people - such as the Bahai faith in your example, but really even everyday people often want to say that there are all these different ways to God - not even realizing the silliness of their statement which you have pointed out here - which is the fact that not many other world religions don’t even believe in a one God or creator of the universe. To me this is evidence of how lightly we take spiritual matters - we just say something we like or have heard, but we have never for example, read the Bible to see what Jesus says about himself and how it actually compares to other faiths.
I would challenge Bahai’s (since this topic is on their pluralist tradition) to read the Bible, maybe even just the book of John, and just see what Jesus actually says about who he is and what his message is! I think they might think differently about their position realizing that Jesus said many many things that are completely contradictory to other faiths - how can that be if they are all the same God?
PS - you should post in a blog your lost comment on the other bahai related lotus temple post. It was very good and very thorough.
It is interesting none of your Bahai contributors have commented on this particular post. I just posted a blog that talks about trying to please too many people. It simply can’t be done while being faithful to reason and logic at the same time.
Great post, very practical!