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The Baha’i Religion
Jonny Beaudet
World Religions Honors Project
12/02/08
Founded in Iran in 1844, The Baha'i Faith is the youngest of the world’s independent monotheistic religions. It currently has more than five million members in over 236 countries. Members of Baha'i come from nearly every national, ethnic and religious background, making the Baha'i Faith the second-most-widespread religion in the world. Baha'is view the world's major religions as a part of a single, progressive process through which God reveals His will to humanity. Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, is recognized as the most recent in a line of Divine Messengers that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad. The central theme of Baha'u'llah's message is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for humanity’s unification into one global society. While recognizing the ethical principles common to all religions, Baha'u'llah also revealed new laws and teachings to lay the foundations of a global civilization. “A new life,” Baha'u'llah declared, “is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth.” The worldwide Baha'i community, made up of people from virtually every racial, ethnic and religious background, is working to give practical expression to Baha'u'llah’s vision of world unity.
There are three major principles that establish the basis for Baha'i teachings and doctrine: the unity of God, the unity of religion, and the unity of humankind. From these principles stems the belief that God periodically reveals his will through divine educators, whose purpose is to transform the character of humankind and develop within people who respond ...