Yeah, no kidding! But it has been a good year nonetheless. -gw
Uploaded on December 2, 2006 by beachblogger42 on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Why no peace? Is it because every religion has its own God, and these gods don't want it? Are there many deities, or only one God? Is it the gods who are the problem, or God who is behind our difficulty? Or is the culprit humankind? -gw
Maybe We Don't Have Religious Peace Because Each Deity Requires Exclusive Worship
Listed are a few of the scriptures and their religions concerning peace.
Christianity: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."
Confucianism: "Seek to be in harmony with all your neighbors ... live in peace with your brethren."
Buddhism: "There is no happiness greater than peace."
Hinduism: "Without meditation, where is peace? Without peace, where is happiness?"
Islam: "God will guide men to peace. If they will heed Him, he will lead them from the darkness of war to the light of peace."
Taoism: "The wise esteem peace and quiet above all else."
Sikhism: "Only in the name of the Lord, do we find our peace."
Judaism: "When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh even His enemies to be at peace with Him."
Jainism: "All men should live in peace with their fellows. This is the Lord's desire."
Zoroastrianism: "I will sacrifice to peace, whose breath is friendly."
Baha'i: "War is death while peace is life."
Shinto: "Let the earth be free from trouble and men live at peace under the protection of the Divine."
A bit of irony here. These religions have striking differences on the outside and in the eyes of others, but in their spirit they carry the same message.
Ester Davis, United Press International.
Re-posted by Zardoz X: Hope you're well, happy and prospering.
Received this email today. -gw
dear friends, although of all Egyptian Baha'i suffering, we dedicated to the world this lovely baha'i arabic & english translated song about baha'i principles.. please forword it to ur frineds & till them it is a massage of peace to the world from Egyptian Baha'is in the new year & we still hve hope to take our rights. - basma
The heavens do indeed declare the Glory of God (Baha'u'llah), and science and religion go hand-in- hand. From gordon on my del.icio.us network I learn of this site and page. -gw
Francis Collins, the former head of the Human Genome Project, has written a book presenting his case for belief in theism. ... At some point in the process (Collins identifies it as occurring ~100,000 years ago) God put a soul into a group of hominids, creating modern humans. 
New Baha'i music from Louisiana. Thanks to nevin on my del.icio.us network, I learned of this group today. -gw
The Sherlock Holmes Review Vol 3, No. 1, is up for bid on eBay. One of the articles: "Sherlock Holmes and the Baha'i Faith."
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I do a keywork search to find out more on this relationship and come up with this. -gw
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The following is a script by a young Baha'i Ben Roskams, a 12 year old (in 1995) from Cardiff, Wales, UK. It was the first prize in his schools drama competition and was performed, with Ben as Holmes, in front of his school and visitors.
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http://bahai-library.org/fiction/sailors.problem.html
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NARRATOR: The characters in this play are completely fictional, but the Prisoner of Akka is real. He lived between 1817 and 1892.
An excerpt from a post about a Baha'i philosopher in Greek. It just seems all so appropriate somehow. -gw
Ας επανέλθουμε όμως στον Dr. Hatcher, ο οποίος παρουσίασε τις σκέψεις του για τον Θεό σε μια σειρά συζητήσεων-διαλέξεων που οργάνωσε ο εκπαιδευτικός οργανισμός Baha'i, στην Columbia των Η.Π.Α.
Εκεί λοιπόν, ο κ. Hatcher, ο οποίος δηλώνει «πλατωνιστής» παρουσίασε τη δικιά του μαθηματική απόδειξη της ύπαρξης του Θεού. Ο ίδιος δήλωσε ότι βασίστηκε κατά κύριο λόγο στην λογική του Αβικέννα για τις σχέσεις μεταξύ των αντικειμένων, παρά στην αριστοτελική που βασίζεται στην μελέτη των ιδιοτήτων τους.
Seagull, Μια μαθηματική απόδειξη της ύπαρξης του Θεού, Daily Bugle
From bahaindex.com I learn of great Baha'i reseources, many of which are totally new to me, such as 
. -gw
Kevin makes a trip to Israel and is using his blog as a way to keep his friends and family informed. He visits Haifa. -gw
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The Baha'i are a 100-some year old religion that is supposedly the most dispersed religion in the world. I don't know much about their practices, but they believe in a universal oneness, respecting of all religions, universal education, equality of the sexes, and much more. They have these gardens in Haifa, which is the center of their religion, that include 18 well-groomed terraces and a huge Shrine in the middle. Located on top of a hill, the gardens overlook the city of Haifa and into the Mediterranean Sea. The gardens are beautiful and peaceful and if anyone is in Haifa I would highly suggest seeing them.
Kevin, "Chofesh Part 1," Israel
Found on Mininova, whatever that is. Songs by, yup! you guessed it. -gw
Description:
Seals & Crofts - Greatest Hits (1975) [ccc-Mixed]
One of the most popular singing and songwriting partnerships in pop music history, Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts, two musicians from Texas, recorded a string of chart-topping hits from the years 1972 to 1975. Their songs are still honored today for their hits. Seals and Crofts Greatest Hits chronicles 10 of the duo's best known songs, including their smash hits "Summer Breeze" and "Diamond girl". Their unique pop/rock sound was made famous by their incredible vocal harmony, songwriting and musicianship. Their music was also distinctive for their spiritual lyrics and themes, inspired by the teachings of the Baha'i faith. Songs for baby boomers, and anybody that believes in True Love and True Justice.
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http://www.mininova.org/tor/1074553
How many of us take our shoes off when entering someone's home? I know it is cultural. My friend Polin from Cambodia does it everytimes he comes to our home. I do it everytime I go to the home of one of the Persian friends. Taking off one's shoes is a way of showing respect. -gw 
We found 17,222 results for photos matching Baha'i
The Good Eye Doctor, David Khorram, writes a fascinating blog from an intriguing island. He is running a series of posts on presentations at the recent Marianas International Baha'i Winter School. -gw
Found on Math Help Forum, an online math help forum with the fastest response time on the net, this post. -gw
"Jeremiah in the well, from a 19th Century Bible" 
Uploaded on October 22, 2006 by seriykotik1970 on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
NORMAN — Farhad Rohani has been collecting books for more than 40 years. His 1,500-volume collection includes a set of rare Victorian-era Bibles. ...Dear soul Child of Africa has two meaty posts up with pictures on the recent SED conference. -gw
Baha'i social and economic development conference 2007
Erica Toussaint and the unity of humankind
The Orlando Socio-Economic Development Conference, one of the most learning intensive Baha'i Conferences, takes place annually in December. Baha'is involved in development, or those who are interested in learning about the application of Baha'i principles to the 'revitalization of the fortunes of mankind' attend and learn from each other. This set includes pics from the last 4 conferences. The 2007 conference once again did not disappoint, and our experience was enhanced by 
um, ducked out and ran for the fountain in the lobby. He didn't quite make it. The Duck Herder, not breaking a sweat, rounded him up within seconds of his would-be escape. -- Baha'i Social and Economic Development Conference, 2007 Noted on http://bahai.us/bahai-multimedia, a link to
One Light, Many Lamps, columns by Phyllis Edgerly Ring. -gw
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Here's more on Baha'is and Christmas. So Merry Snippets, starting with Sean in Malaysia. -gw
Today, on Christmas Day, I joined the youths again in their outing to the Malacca Zoo since Saphira wanted to see the zoo before she leaves. Haha. It's easy to spot the Baha'i youths because everyone wore a red shirt over there including me. Really cool.
Put teaching in your life. New from YouTube. -gw
Erica Toussaint at SED conference 2007
Mahendran finds success with Anna's PresentationEnding the disparity between rich and poor is a goal towards which Baha'is are committed. -gw
For Alice Thomas, there was no contradiction between the apparent glamour and luxury of fashion shows and the grim penury of the lives of the women and children which she tried so hard to change. She believed in a better life, not for some but for all and devoted her energy among the richer class to the benefit of the poorer. It was this same interplay that led her from narrow Guyanese patriotism to the broader love of humanity by being a citizen of Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean. It also led her away from the ritualism of Anglicanism to what she saw as the universalism of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'i community, which she served as Secretary.
http://guygenbiosociety.blogspot.com/2007/12/alice-mathilda-jane-thomas-nee-miller.html
http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_archive?id=47543008
“Witness how the world is being afflicted with a fresh calamity every day”, Bahá’u’lláh warns. “Its sickness is approaching the stage of utter hopelessness, inasmuch as the true Physician is debarred from administering the remedy, whilst unskilled practitioners are regarded with favour, and are accorded full freedom to act.”
One Common Faith
Author: Bahá’í World Centre * Source: Bahá’í World Centre, 2005 edition * Page: 11. Quoted from Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1983), section XVI.
More on apocalyptic thinking. The blogger on Ninth's Place has written a post outlining his speculation regarding a calamity in 2012. He cited Abdu'l-Baha.
"my growing interest in Baha'i has led me to learn of Abdu'l-Baha's prediction of a calamity such as 'to make the limbs of men quake' that must be endured before a new age of unity and peace can begin."
As I commented on the blogger's site, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, Iraq, and many other conflicts in the past 100 years qualify as "calamitous." No need to postulate some extraordinary catastrophic event a la some Hollywood sci-fi thriller. Abdul-Baha's predictions have already come true again and again.
The Baha'i view on this matter of calamity is nuanced. There are two processes at work on the face of the planet, a process of disintegration and a process of integration. Every day both catastrophe and sublimity are lived experience for the homo sapiens on this planet. The human drama playing out is real and not a movie.
I did a quick search on Baha'i Reference Library, searching for "calamity." There are 177 references. http://reference.bahai.org/search?max=10&lang=&first=11&query=Calamity. Here is a well-known passage by Shoghi Effendi. -gw
This great retributive calamity, for which the world’s supreme leaders, both secular and religious, are to be regarded as primarily answerable, as testified by Bahá’u’lláh, should not, if we would correctly appraise it, be regarded solely as a punishment meted out by God to a world that has, for a hundred years, persisted in its refusal to embrace the truth of the redemptive Message proffered to it by the supreme Messenger of God in this day. It should be viewed also, though to a lesser degree, in the light of a divine retribution for the perversity of the human race in general, in casting itself adrift from those elementary principles which must, at all times, govern, and can alone safeguard, the life and progress of mankind. Humanity has, alas, with increasing insistence, preferred, instead of acknowledging and adoring the Spirit of God as embodied in His religion in this day, to worship those false idols, untruths and half-truths, which are obscuring its religions, corrupting its spiritual life, convulsing its political institutions, corroding its social fabric, and shattering its economic structure.
Not only have the peoples of the earth ignored, and some of them even assailed, a Faith which is at once the essence, the promise, the reconciler, and the unifier of all religions, but they have drifted away from their own religions, and set up on their subverted altars other gods wholly alien not only to the spirit but to the traditional forms of their ancient faiths.
The Promised Day Is Come
Author: Shoghi Effendi * Source: US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1980 revised edition * Page 112
"Wilmette, Illinois," uploaded on March 29, 2006 by Paul-W on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Joe
Chicago, IL, United States
I like to play Ultimate and bike around town.
Logan Square Times
During a three-month stay in Germany I posted to a blog to let people know what I was up to. To my surprise I found that I enjoyed writing, and being back in Chicago, I couldn't simply continue with the old blog. Enjoy the new one!
"Three Wise Men at Nativity Portal"
Uploaded on October 5, 2006 by Carlos Lorenzo on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic
Carol-lee visits with her local newspaper reporter. -gw
I recognize in the Christmas story the appearance of the three wise men and the birth of Christ as the fulfillment of a wonderful prophecy. A lot of religions forecast the return of a prophet. Zoroaster predicted his return with some celestial certainty. The manifestations of God always predict their return. They always give clues. I have a deep and abiding love of Christ. But I believe Baha'u'llah (who founded the Baha'i faith in 1863) is the most recent manifestation of God. To look further back could be counterproductive. It would be looking backward. I want to look forward. Dad was a lay leader of the church; Mom was queen of the choir. They were central to their congregation and they set a wonderful example of commitment. I grew up seeing religion as a very real thing in the world. I needed something more; something that let me be a thinking person and a woman with my integrity intact. I believe Baha'u'llah is the return of Christ. Baha'is who grew up as Buddhists might think he's the fifth Buddha. Zoroastrians might have another explanation. My family makes a very big deal about Christmas and a lot of other holy days. We always have a Christmas tree. We do the whole Christmas thing, with a pageant. Who can resist? Especially if you're really psyched about the three wise men.
http://www.thothweb.com/article6180.html, original source: Burlington Free Press.com
Posted by Snow Dancer at 11:04 PM on Cloud Dancer ~ Blog with a purpose... Giving life to all... Photo: Flitzy Phoebie 
Leila and Shaun are in the right front in this photo taken in our home. They have been married for two years, as this incredibly beautiful, photo-filled post celebrates. Do click over. -gw
I haven't seen the 2006 movie Apocalypto, and probably never will, but Keyvan has and liked it, writing about it on Baha'i Library Forum. -gw 
So I just watched the Mel Gibson movie Apocalypto, and for anyone who has seen it, its clear that the movie's themes are very parallel to Baha'i teachings. That is, the whole emphasis of Apocalypse meaning the coming of a new beginning, led by mankind's self-destruction, and not a supernatural "end of the world," which is the dogmatic understanding. I found this interesting considering Mel Gibson is known for being a devout Christian and thus one would assume he would more likely illustrate the dogmatic understanding of apocalypse - a total end.
Apocalypto / Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:26 pm, by Keyvan / Joined: 25 Sep 2005 / Posts: 152 / Location: Los Angeles. Keyvan is on Mypace at http:/www.myspace.com/keyvan
S
ee on YouTube:
Mayan Indian prophecies fulfilled
Video made in the Maya Mountains, Cayo district, Belize, Central America. This is a discussion done in the Mayan language between two Mayan Indian Baha'is about Baha'u'llah and the Baha'i Faith as the fulfillment of both the Mayan prophecies and the Bible prophecies. For more info go to http://bci.org/prophecy-fulfilled/chilam.htm
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There's Mel Gibson's movie Apocalypto, and then there is Jimmy Buffett's song "Apocalypso," which treats the "dogmatic understanding" of the apocalypse satirically. Who said everything is serious here on Baha'i Views? -gw
Apocalypso Lyrics (Jimmy Buffett)Here is a Christmas collage of blog mentions of "Baha'i". Christmas-time brings up a lot of feelings for a lot of people, both Christian and Baha'i. -gw
I can’t believe how many churches there are in Renton! A quick count brought me to about ninety. Ninety! Well, now I’m beyond thinking about sitting and singing hymns and hearing a great message of hope and renewal. Now I’m on to thinking “ninety churches”! How many people does that represent? I know it’s a huge number of people who probably attend church on a somewhat regular basis. And that doesn’t even count the people who attend another house of worship; folks who are Muslim, or Buddhist, or Jewish, or Sikh or who follow the Baha’i faith, or any of the other people who follow their own brand of living a good life. It makes me think what if we all, all of us from all of those churches and all of those houses of worship and all of us who don’t get to GO to church but live lives committed to love and compassion, if all of us took the spirit of Christmas to heart. We could change our city, and our whole world to be a place of care, and compassion where no one ever went hungry and no one was ever old and alone. 
I asked my Baha'i friend how he celebrated the season. He laughed "Mostly meeting the expectations of our non-Baha'i family members". In other words, while Dec. 25 is not a focal point in his religious calendar, sharing in family celebrations in the spirit of joy, hope and peace is perfectly in keeping with his faith. Those who struggle with the over-commercialization of the holiday would be particularly comfortable with the Baha'i value of avoiding excessive materialism and greed. One Baha'i description of God's design is "to give and be generous are attributes of Mine". Like many people, I've started giving the kind of Christmas presents that can't be wrapped up - donations that provide something to people I've never met in the name of people I love. I try to fit the gift to the recipient. This year in my book-loving sister's name I am giving a solar panel and light so that someone in the Costa Rican rainforest can read at night without the dangers of an open kerosene lamp. My Baha'i friend, living out his faith, will be taking these lights personally to Costa Rica. He'll be training local indigenous people on maintenance and micro-finance to help make this economic development project truly self-sustainable. I think my sister will approve. 
I had said Ya Baha'u'l'Abha at work a little while back (shortest Baha'i prayer) and he was wondering what it meant and how to say it. Well, he passed out Christmas cards this morning and mine says: Merry Hullabullub Kilikiwa. I was laughing for a good 5 minutes. 
and is set aglow with the fire of God’s love, calling unto responsive listeners. I supplicate God to heal thee from all troubles and diseases and make thee a sign of guidance and a standard of the Supreme Concourse in those regions and particularly at Green Acre. 
