Pollwr

Although famous for being an atheist, Bertrand Russel, an eminent and brilliant English Philosopher and campaigner for peace of the 20th centuary, seemed to share a lot of ideas on world peace with Bahá'ís.

I have never seen any evidence of his being aware of or influenced by The Faith. Has any one else? Bertrand Russel was a well-known figure who seemed to investigate a lot of ideas and he was around at the same time as Abdúl-Bahá. I would have surprised me if they were not aware of one another but I have not seen any mention of this. Have I missed it?

arthra

"...and he was around at the same time as Abdúl-Bahá."

Bertrand Russell was born in 1872 and was around forty or so when Abdul-Baha was in London.

In 1961 Bertrand Russell wrote:

I cannot admit any method of arriving at truth except that of science, but in the realm of the emotions I do not deny the value of the experiences which have given rise to religion. Through association with false beliefs, they have led to much evil as well as good; freed from this association, it may be hoped that the good alone will remain.

cire perdue

We believe that the spirit of renewal has been released by Baha'u'llah. Things are in the air the way inventors with no knowledge of each other come up with similar inventions or artists do similar work. I happen to think AA is inspired spiritually by this revelation though of Chrisitan roots. It is more unified than Chrisitianity and has unity as a focal purpose. Its founding men considered Carl Jung a contributor, but they considered what a spiritual conversion was dynamically and came up with steps to achieve this. Though some had "instant" awakenings, they said the most usual spiritual awakening is slow and gradual in nature. In my opinion there is no longer any pure older religions b/c the spirit of the Baha'i Faith was released. It affected everyone spiritually. Those who seek to renew the old faiths will fail though they argue and protest to preserve their waning precendence.