Oh yeah, I'm sure they will get right on that. Expect persecution to stop in approximately 5 business days.

Good for you, Rainn. I don't think there's much you can do, but kudos for trying. I'm not sure that encouraging the Great Satan to oppose this helps those dudes, though.

I suggest you stay out of Iran...if you must go, wear a good, stiff collar.

I got ba'hai as ba'hell once.

Talk about burying the lede.

Why open with a disclaimer, does your religion forbid you shooting from the hip?

And the closer?

I am sincerely outraged at this gross injustice. So in summary, wacka-wacka-wacka?

Funny, he doesn't look Ba'haiish.

After a quick bout of research turned up the following:


* Bahá'ís over the age of 15 should recite an obligatory prayer each day. There are three such prayers among which one can be chosen each day.
* Backbiting and gossip are prohibited and denounced.
* Adult Bahá'ís in good health should observe a nineteen-day sunrise-to-sunset fast each year from March 2 through March 20.
* Bahá'ís are forbidden to drink alcohol or to take drugs, unless prescribed by doctors.
* Sexual relationships are permitted only between a husband and wife, and thus premarital and homosexual sex are forbidden.
* Gambling is forbidden.


I can sleep soundly knowing that there is surely no organized religion on the planet not seemingly designed to keep a large group of people under the thumbs of a small group of people.

Eat_At_Milliways: After a quick bout of research turned up the following:


* Bahá'ís over the age of 15 should recite an obligatory prayer each day. There are three such prayers among which one can be chosen each day.
* Backbiting and gossip are prohibited and denounced.
* Adult Bahá'ís in good health should observe a nineteen-day sunrise-to-sunset fast each year from March 2 through March 20.
* Bahá'ís are forbidden to drink alcohol or to take drugs, unless prescribed by doctors.
* Sexual relationships are permitted only between a husband and wife, and thus premarital and homosexual sex are forbidden.
* Gambling is forbidden.

As a Catholic I have to say, holy shiat! Talk about strict rules, most Catholics I know don't consider what the Vatican says are rules, rather suggestions.

Stop religious persecution in Iran

Really? Just Iran? OK, fine. Hey Taliban, it's still OK to throw acid on schoolgirls. Thank the retard from the office.

Must have some heeb in him.

Iran treats its small Jewish population better than they treat their Bahai population.

That's strange.

Bill_Wick's_Friend: Iran treats its small Jewish population better than they treat their Bahai population.

That's strange.

Jews are people of the book. To Muslims though, Bahai are a weird heretical sect. Kinda like.....Mormons to Christianity.

/ducks

Bahaidlie-ho, neighborino!

/dunno why I felt compelled to say that...

Eat_At_Milliways: * Sexual relationships are permitted only between a husband and wife, and thus premarital and homosexual sex are forbidden.

My girlfriend had a Baha'i roommate freshman year of college. At first I thought it was a new agey religion (she lived in the ecology hippy program house), but the roommate turned out to be more morally conservative than many of the hardcore Christians I know. She wasn't comfortable with boys being in the dorm room, in any context.

Bill_Wick's_Friend: Iran treats its small Jewish population better than they treat their Bahai population.

That's strange.

Most religions are persecuted in the countries where they start. Jews weren't so popular with the Pharoah. Jesus didn't go over too well with those in power where he lived, either.

He should implement the threat of a black bear attack to frighten them into submission.

/got nothing

Submitter:
Iran to stop religious persecution now that the guy who plays Dwight on The Office asked them to

Well that's nice, but what's the rush?

/ got nuthin'

Eat_At_Milliways: I can sleep soundly knowing that there is surely no organized religion on the planet not seemingly designed to keep a large group of people under the thumbs of a small group of people.

The Unitarian Universalist church welcomes atheists, homosexuals, event those dirty gamblers.

"All of the world's divine teachers (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, Abraham, Krishna, etc.) bring essentially the same message -- one of unity, love and knowledge of God or the divine."


O RLY?

Organized religion is the problem. Having a personal faith? No problem. Forcing that personal faith on others? Problem.

That said, hopefully Congress will pass whatever resolution necessary to protect these people and give them a fair trial.

/FACT

Bill_Wick's_Friend: Iran treats its small Jewish population better than they treat their Bahai population.

That's strange.

During the Lebanon-Israel war of 2006 Iran ordered Hezbollah to make one of their top heavy rocket targets the Baha'i headquarters which happens to be located in Israel. Baha'i over Little Satan, talk about hate.

Tenebreux

You don't understand the symbology of that image.

That is Kali standing over her consort, Shiva. He's gazing at her with eyes of love, and she is spellbound.

In orthodox hinduism, Kali is the goddess of liberation. She slays the individual ego, allowing lovers of god to abandon their false sense of self (joe sixpack) and merge into the absolute universal consciousness...or god.

This is very much in agreement with what the guy in the article is referring to:

"All of the world's divine teachers (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, Abraham, Krishna, etc.) bring essentially the same message -- one of unity, love and knowledge of God or the divine."

Achieving that state requires abandoning the false individual sense of self. In Hinduism, Kali is the goddess in charge of that function...those seeking liberation are devoted to her.

Bears eat beets.

/bears. beets. battlestar galactica

Brainwash: Tenebreux

You don't understand the symbology of that image.

That is Kali standing over her consort, Shiva. He's gazing at her with eyes of love, and she is spellbound.

In orthodox hinduism, Kali is the goddess of liberation. She slays the individual ego, allowing lovers of god to abandon their false sense of self (joe sixpack) and merge into the absolute universal consciousness...or god.

This is very much in agreement with what the guy in the article is referring to:

"All of the world's divine teachers (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, Abraham, Krishna, etc.) bring essentially the same message -- one of unity, love and knowledge of God or the divine."

Achieving that state requires abandoning the false individual sense of self. In Hinduism, Kali is the goddess in charge of that function...those seeking liberation are devoted to her.

I should tell you I know a bit more than I seem to know (worked in Delhi for a NGO for 2 years). I was more taking issue with Mr Wilson's somewhat Abrahamic "All Gods are all about love and kindness and puppies". Admittedly, the Dark Mother is that, a Mother, but she also represents in her other aspects the Great Destroyer. One of the things I find uncharitable in Baha'i and other Unitarian style faiths, is the attempt to aggregate all of the deities to one meta-God. Christ is not Mohammed is not Vishnu. Fatima is not Mary is not Parvati.

brap: wacka-wacka-wacka

I don't know why... and I didn't read the article, but this made me start giggling uncontrollably.

Brainwash: Tenebreux

You don't understand the symbology of that image.

That is Kali standing over her consort, Shiva. He's gazing at her with eyes of love, and she is spellbound.

In orthodox hinduism, Kali is the goddess of liberation. She slays the individual ego, allowing lovers of god to abandon their false sense of self (joe sixpack) and merge into the absolute universal consciousness...or god.

This is very much in agreement with what the guy in the article is referring to:

"All of the world's divine teachers (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, Abraham, Krishna, etc.) bring essentially the same message -- one of unity, love and knowledge of God or the divine."

Achieving that state requires abandoning the false individual sense of self. In Hinduism, Kali is the goddess in charge of that function...those seeking liberation are devoted to her.

That, and she gives really good cunnilingus.

I like the Baha'i faith, and its rules are not as strict as most religions. There are a lot of things prohibited, but none of them lead to absolute damnation, they are merely transgressions and everyone is expected to work on improving themselves. Still, I'm not a fan of any sort of dogma or worship of a mortal authority figure (Baha'ullah) so I'll stick to UUism. Many of the same beliefs, less rigidity.

I feel weird thinking that guy is kinda sexy. Rainn Wilson, not Dwight, that is.

He's a practicing Baha'i? What a badass. Baha'i is the religion I would create if I were into that sort of thing. It's pretty damn cool.

Eat_At_Milliways: I can sleep soundly knowing that there is surely no organized religion on the planet not seemingly designed to keep a large group of people under the thumbs of a small group of people.

There are a number of them, but they tend to be ignored, told they aren't "real religions" because their spiritualism isn't focused* on theism (e.g. Eastern and Aboriginal religions as well as the Gnostics) or mocked incessantly for having beliefs that seem almost alien in comparison to those held by most sects of the Abrahamic religions.

*: meaning they can have theistic elements, but they aren't controlling elements like they would be in Christianity/Judaism/Islam

ninjakirby: It's pretty damn cool.

Aside from the whole "no booze" thing and its near Bronze Age view of human sexuality (based on the excerpt of it provided by EAM you mean?

NobleHam: I like the Baha'i faith, and its rules are not as strict as most religions. There are a lot of things prohibited, but none of them lead to absolute damnation, they are merely transgressions and everyone is expected to work on improving themselves. Still, I'm not a fan of any sort of dogma or worship of a mortal authority figure (Baha'ullah) so I'll stick to UUism. Many of the same beliefs, less rigidity.

Why would you choose any faith based on the strictness of their rules or anything like that? If you don't believe that X god exists, it is absurd to be part of X god's faith. If you feel strongly that X god does exist, it would be unreasonable to question the details like that, unless those details convince you that X god doesn't exist.

NobleHam: I like the Baha'i faith, and its rules are not as strict as most religions. There are a lot of things prohibited, but none of them lead to absolute damnation, they are merely transgressions and everyone is expected to work on improving themselves. Still, I'm not a fan of any sort of dogma or worship of a mortal authority figure (Baha'ullah) so I'll stick to UUism. Many of the same beliefs, less rigidity.

You're allowed to be moral without being religious. Enrollment in a religion is not required to believe that the positive aspects of religion (morals, ethics, etc) are good for you. You can just say "Oh I don't follow any specific religion, but I do think that its a good idea not to covet your neighbor's ass, unless she's really hot."

Not terribly knowledgable about the subject, but it seems to me that they're sort of deists with rules?

Murkanen: Aside from the whole "no booze" thing and its near Bronze Age view of human sexuality (based on the excerpt of it provided by EAM you mean?

Perhaps you know more about it than I do. As I recall, it's pretty open ended and staunchly pacifistic, taking freely from just about any religion that follows the Golden Rule. I was unaware of any sexual condemnation.

EL_FABREZ: Stop religious persecution in Iran

Really? Just Iran? OK, fine. Hey Taliban, it's still OK to throw acid on schoolgirls. Thank the retard from the office.

Must have some heeb in him.

Somebody obviously didn't RTFA

omtc: Not terribly knowledgable about the subject, but it seems to me that they're sort of deists with rules?

Yeah, but it seems like they think God pops up every now and then, so they're probably looking forward to his latest incarnation any day now. Not really deists.

CaesarSneezy:
Why would you choose any faith based on the strictness oftheir rules or anything like that? If you don't believe that X god exists, it is absurd to be part of X god's faith. If you feel strongly that X god does exist, it would be unreasonable to question the details like that, unless those details convince you that X god doesn't exist.

For me it's not a matter of which god, because like the Baha'i I believe it's all the same god. Religion is not as about the god you worship, as how you worship. It's a matter of which theology and doctrine makes the most sense to me, which one seems to be the most like what I believe God's message would be. The details are important. If you can't agree with every tenet of a religion, then you are not really a member of that religion.

Playinodds:
You're allowed to be moral without being religious. Enrollment in a religion is not required to believe that the positive aspects of religion (morals, ethics, etc) are good for you. You can just say "Oh I don't follow any specific religion, but I do think that its a good idea not to covet your neighbor's ass, unless she's really hot."

No shiat. That's relevant to my post how? I don't base my morals on religion, religion is about more than that.

NobleHam: If you can't agree with every tenet of a religion, then you are not really a member of that religion.

If that's true, there about approximately 8 billion religions in the world.

NobleHam: The details are important. If you can't agree with every tenet of a religion, then you are not really a member of that religion.

Eeeehh, I'm going to go ahead and sort of "disagree" with this, but that depends on what you mean. If you're saying that you must only agree with the basic tenants of every religion, than sure. But if you mean that you must agree with every. single. thing. that your religion teaches, then fark no.

For example: If someone claims to be Christian but doesn't really believe in Jesus, then you could safely say that they aren't really a Christian. But if you were Catholic and say, didn't like the current Pope, then it's hardly the same as in the previous example.

This gets even fuzzier when you're Protestant like me, and you don't even know what your particular denomination's stance is on certain minor issues. Basically, when those less important tenets aren't strictly enforced.

/Loves me the once-in-a-blue-moon Fark theology threads
//So much better than the religious flamewars

Fireproof: /Loves me the once-in-a-blue-moon Fark theology threads
//So much better than the religious flamewars

The trick here, is almost no one knows what Baha'i is, and thus has no relevant snark to contribute.

Marx was right - Religion IS the opiate of the people. I'm all for personal freedom, so if you want to be doped up on faith, that's your business. I'll be over here with a bottle of scotch and some acid. That's my opiate.

Awesome use of the hero tag.

Number41: My girlfriend had a Baha'i roommate freshman year of college. At first I thought it was a new agey religion (she lived in the ecology hippy program house), but the roommate turned out to be more morally conservative than many of the hardcore Christians I know. She wasn't comfortable with boys being in the dorm room, in any context.

That's odd, every Bahai I've ever known went absolutely buck wild in college. Sex and drugs all around.

Eat_At_Milliways: I can sleep soundly knowing that there is surely no organized religion on the planet not seemingly designed to keep a large group of people under the thumbs of a small group of people.

Look into Zoroastrianism.

/Sadly, that's one of the reasons it's dying out.

I remember him talking about his Ba'hai faith on Fresh Air sometime last year. It was pretty interesting. His parents were crazy hippies who originally wanted to name him Thucydides.

Bill_Wick's_Friend: Iran treats its small Jewish population better than they treat their Bahai population.

Couple years back the Islamic Republic of Iran was going to require Jews to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes to identify themselves. I think their "Supreme Guide" shot the law down after news of it got outside the country.

Seemed a tad reminiscent of some short dude with a funky mustache that ran amok in Germany a bunch of decades ago.

FTA "They're teachers, and engineers, and optometrists and social workers just like us."

Wow, they must be busy people, I feel like a slacker for only being an engineer.

Persepolis: That's odd, every Bahai I've ever known went absolutely buck wild in college. Sex and drugs all around.

They've more in common with the Catholics than I realized!

?

SmitetheRighteous: Bill_Wick's_Friend: Iran treats its small Jewish population better than they treat their Bahai population.

That's strange.

Jews are people of the book. To Muslims though, Bahai are a weird heretical sect. Kinda like.....Mormons to Christianity.

/ducks


No, more like Jews bought the introductory offer, canceled the subscription, and kept the first volume as a free gift. Mormons bought the whole set.