Recent content by Sen McGlinn

I strongly believe that "the shining spark of truth comes from the clash of differing logical arguments with factual evidence and sources cited." I may not have remembered that quote exactly.

That's a first question, but it is for law enforcement. My question is about the basis on which the state can form cooperative partnerships with ethnic, religious and altruistic communities. I think that the criterion cannot be doctrine, or values - it should be based on virtues. In a number of...

"Does this community teach X" is not a question for any government official. That's the whole point of my piece on ethics in a plural society. The questions should be, does this community produce virtuous citizens, and will the state's partnership with this community in this project help it to...

A virtuous citizen is a citizen who has a virtue, and virtues -- unlike values -- are universally agreed. Cowardice is not a virtue, in any world. Injustice is not something to strive for, in any religion or philosophy. Wisdom is everywhere valued. And so forth. I do not believe that common...

Pluralism is here to stay: the alternatives required to eliminate it are too terrible to consider. That means that we have to think again about how the whole (‘society’) and its parts fit together, how the state relates to religious, altruistic and ethnic communities, and where the ethics come...

The words you underlined are not there in the original. It reads, at this point, و حضرت بهاء اللّه تأسيس سنوحات رحمانيّه باکمل وجوه فرمود دين ابداً تغيير ندارد زيرا حقيقت است و حقيقت تغيير و تبديل ندارد which is to say, "Baha'u'llah endorsed the foundations of divine guidance in toto...

In your assumptions about the meaning of "progressive revelation" for Bahais, you are not taking the Bahai Faith as it views itself. The Bahai Faith teaches that some of its teachings are the eternal path, and some are adaptations to the time and place, and of the latter, some can be changed by...

This may help in explaining the "progressive revelation" doctrine. It's from Abdu'l-Baha, translated from Persian notes that he authenticated: " The religion of God consists of two parts. One is the very foundation and belongs to the spiritual realm; that is, it pertains to spiritual virtues...

You said, ""Progressive revelation", an axiom of the Baha'i Faith, is refuted by the Perennialists as a metaphysical error..." Could you clarify? Which Perennialist, and what was their argument?

Abdu'l-Baha said, " “…the breezes of Christ are still blowing; His light is still shining; His melody is still resounding; His standard is still waving; His armies are still fighting; His heavenly voice is still sweetly melodious; His clouds are still showering gems; His lightning is still...

and a third group just think sideways about everything. My approach is that the present exclusion of women from the Universal House of Justice is one problem we have: a problem of consistency with our own principles of justice and equality, specifically for women. A second problem we have is...

Hmmm... he doesn't seem too happy about it. Would it be possible to contact the video maker and point him to the "Service of Women" research paper? The Service of Women on the Institutions of the Baha'i Faith. There is more research on this, more texts that have been translated, but in a very...

You can give yourself a break so far as the Prophet Muhammad goes. He did not take worldly power, he respected it and set a good example of the separation of religious and worldly authority. But history is written by the victors. The Sirah and most of the Hadith, the accounts that give us the...

What you describe is a recognized pattern. Established religion ("church") doesn't like new religion ("cult') and seeks out apostates from the "cult." They have a mutually beneficial relationship (there is such a thing as the apostate career). The apostate contributes an insider narrative of the...

I've put a book chapter, "Houses of Worship in all the lands" on my Academia page. https://www.academia.edu/127257191/Houses_of_Worship_in_every_land_Preamble Ask me anything