Baha'i Faith

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go to one out of the seven Bahai' Temples located around the world. The temple was located in IL and represents the continent of North America. The following site shows the dome area that I sang in: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-temple

I have never heard about this religion prior to my experience over the weekend. Coming from a nondenominational background, I was curious about what I was seeing. I quickly learned the "do's" and "don't" around the temple. We were took into the recital hall that was a circular room shaped like a dome. The director told us that if we stood under the "peak" of the dome and whispered that we would be able to hear our echo. Since I'm a piano major, I was also very interested in the large German-made piano that, later I was told, is the largest piano under that brand in the world! How would a organization like this be able to afford such a thing? Apparently, a man who was one of the first men to follow the Baha'i religion donated it. Considering the price and quality of such a great instrument, it says a lot that a person would have so much faith to donate it!

The temple itself requires everyone to remain quiet. The choir must not be seen when performing in order to create a heavenly, meditative environment. During the service, several scriptures from any religious book you can think of are read aloud and equally chosen throughout the year. After the service, people were led downstairs to the exhibition area where there were signs answering questions about the religion. There was also a presentation being shown (I don't know what they were showing). Since I had never heard of this religion, it was a lot for me to understand.

Nowhere in the service was I reminded of a religious ceremony; instead, it felt more like an ideal. There wasn't the traditional ceremony where the congregation sings and prays, etc. Instead, the religion emphasizes unity and ideas of peace. This is a religion because even to this day, especially in Iran, many people are being prosecuted for their beliefs. It has been around for hundreds of years and is consistently believed by many all over the world.

I'm still wondering why I haven't ever heard of this religion before. It's a very interesting concept. Personally, I feel like their goals for all religions, people, gods, etc. to be unified is impractical. In order to successfully enjoy a service, one must give up parts of their own faith. What I mean by this, is that if I were Jewish, how would I be able to meditate and appreciate a scripture from the New Testament that talks about Jesus' miracles when I don't believe that. This is still a new topic for me and open to learning more, but that was one aspect I just couldn't understand; the acceptance of all religions when religions are constantly butting heads and contradicting each other.