Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Category: Religion / Baha’i Faith

  • The Golden Rule

    Listened to a video about a potential candidate for National Science Advisor where Dr. David Lewis mentioned his belief in the Golden Rule will help him in the job. Thankfully, he stated it immediately after just as I was thinking, “Wait, which one?” Whoever has the gold, makes the rules. Wizard of Id Do to others…

  • Book of Ezra Length

    Living in the Bible Belt, sometimes the only association people have with my name is the book in the Bible. Which is fine. I mean who would honestly recognize… Ezra Klein Ezra Koenig Ezra Miller Ezra Cornell Ezra Pound Ezra Taft Benson before the book? Recently I did get a rather weird question. Ezra is…

  • Five Years On

    About five years ago earlier this month, I went on Bahá’í pilgrimage to Haifa. It is funny how in that post I wrote about the experience my expectation of some significant change. Even that post stated, “Something like serving at the Bahá’í World Center would be the kind of change I foresee,” which clearly states where my head…

  • Evidence

    Evidence is often portrayed as the collection of facts who neatly prove a conclusion. Just follow the arrows. Several things of late hurt my brain as others second guess and respond to the sad truth evidence rarely is so neat. Kendrick Johnson was found dead in a school gym. The local sheriff processed the scene.…

  • TED Talk: Religion, evolution, and the ecstasy of self-transcendence

    Another Tuesday, another Jonathon Haidt video. Locked cooperation can lead to success over free-riders. I am curious what is the next big thing where cooperation will overcome something deemed insurmountable. If the video below does not load, then try Jonathan Haidt: Religion, evolution, and the ecstasy of self-transcendence.

  • TED Talk: Equal Parts Science and Magic

    The unity of science and religion is an important concept in the Baha’i Faith. They are two sides of the same coin. One side looks ahead with faith. One side looks backwards without faith. One is impatient while the other is deliberately slow. Where the two agree is the sweet spot of true knowledge. There…

  • Happy Ayyam-i-ha

    Baha’is around the world are celebrating the intercalendary days starting today. Our calendar of 19 months with 19 days leave a 4-5 day gap.  Rather than make some months longer than others, we have a period to fill the gap. Following Ayyam-i-ha, Baha’is will observe the Fast. We will abstain from eating and drinking between…

  • Happy Birth of the Báb

    There is a good article on the Birth of the Báb. (On surprisingly the Huffington Post) This is a photo of the Shine of the Báb I took during my Pilgrimage to Haifa in 2010.

  • For 9/11

    This seemed appropropriate to re-post today, the tenth anniversary of the event which inspired its need. The problems we are to overcome seem more prevalent and prominent today. This statement was issued by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States in December 2001 as a response to the terror attacks of…