World Unity through language

[Dah-veeth]

If you look at a map of Europe, you'll notice that most of the countries have their own language... France speaks French, Spain speaks Spanish, Italy speaks Italian, England speaks English, Greece speaks Greek, etc. If everyone spoke the same language, you could easily, in my opinion, have one country for everyone... language erases barriers that seem large otherwise. Imagine if every American in Iraq could speak Arabic and every Iraqi could speak English. Imagine how much more dialogue and communication could go on. I believe it would help enormously."From the beginning of time the light of unity hath shed its divine radiance upon the world, and the greatest means for the promotion of that unity is for the peoples of the world to understand one another's writing and speech. In former Epistles We have enjoined upon the Trustees of the House of Justice either to choose one language from among those now existing or to adopt a new one, and in like manner to select a common script, both of which should be taught in all the schools of the world. Thus will the earth be regarded as one country and one home." -Baha'u'llah

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There is also, of course, the issue of religion, but if people of all different religions can communicate with each other, facilitated by a universal language, that will greatly help tolerance, love, acceptance, friendliness, and fellowship.

What do you think?

 

[China Cat Sunflower]

I'm not sure that world unity is a desirable thing.I hear Christians, Muslims, and Baha'is promoting their religion as a mechanism of world unity. That's like saying "as soon as everyone agrees with me we can stop fighting." I don't think that's ever going to fly.

English is the international language of business and air traffic control. It does help to have standardization, but do we really want to have one homogeneous language? How would we decide which one?

Chris

 

[arthra]

I'm not sure that world unity is a desirable thing.I hear Christians, Muslims, and Baha'is promoting their religion as a mechanism of world unity. That's like saying "as soon as everyone agrees with me we can stop fighting." I don't think that's ever going to fly.

English is the international language of business and air traffic control. It does help to have standardization, but do we really want to have one homogeneous language? How would we decide which one?

Chris

Baha'u'llah around 1870 suggested that the rulers of the world gatehr in Parliament and that a universal auxiliary language be chosen...

The League of Nations selected Esperanto...

But with the demise of the League it could be another language.

The only reason Baha'is are supporting a world government is that it will have the capability to bring world peace ...

Baha'u'llah suggested that the rulers reduce their armaments and establsih a representative world parliament well over a hundred years ago... They failed to do this and the disastrous wars of the twentieth century were the result in my opinion...

The governments and negotiators will have to do this to establish world peace. We do not ask for hegemony of any religion to do this:

"Nowhere in the Bahá'í corpus do we find the claim that one and only one religion is true or correct, to the exclusion of all the rest. Indeed, a central Bahá'í principle related to the oneness of religion is that "religious truth is not absolute but relative," that it is not static but dynamic and that the process of "Divine Revelation is progressive, not final."[6] In fact, according to Shoghi Effendi, Bahá'u'lláh not only repudiated the claim of any religion to be a final revelation, but He also disclaimed the finality of His own revelation:

Repudiating the claim of any religion to be the final revelation of God to man, disclaiming finality for His own Revelation, Bahá'u'lláh inculcates the basic principle of the relativity of religious truth, the continuity of Divine Revelation, the progressiveness of religious experience ...[7]

Source:

The Bahá'í Principle of Religious Unity and the Challenge of Radical Pluralism: chapter 3


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[Dah-veeth]

We're not looking for homogenity or uniformity, but we believe Baha'u'llah told the leaders of the world how to have world peace, and among the things that helps the cause of world peace is to be able to talk to anyone in the world, for everyone to be able to communicate. It doesn't mean people have to give up their native language. It means every school in the world needs to teach a common language so that everyone can communicate with a universal auxiliary language. I've heard that 200,000,000 students in China are learning English. That will help enormously, in my opinion. English hasn't been made officially a universal auxiliary language, but any country teaching so many students a language that will help them communicate with so many more people is a step in the right direction

 

[Ahanu]

I hear Christians, Muslims, and Baha'is promoting their religion as a mechanism of world unity. That's like saying "as soon as everyone agrees with me we can stop fighting." I don't think that's ever going to fly.

Hmm. . .perhaps you are right. Maybe I should stop shoving whatever religion I follow into everybody's throat as a solution for world unity. Like, if one is a Christian, then they may begin thinking that the Muslims are trying to take over the country if they begin to make signs of positive progress. A spice of Gandhism would not hurt. It may even get the plane to fly. He worked in an office full of Hindus, Christians, Mulsims, Sikhs, and so on, who all worked together in unity. He had something cooking, but we just got to rediscover the recipe!

 

[wil]

Hmm. . .perhaps you are right. Maybe I should stop shoving whatever religion I follow into everybody's throat as a solution for world unity. Like, if one is a Christian, then they may begin thinking that the Muslims are trying to take over the country if they begin to make signs of positive progress. A spice of Gandhism would not hurt. It may even get the plane to fly. He worked in an office full of Hindus, Christians, Mulsims, Sikhs, and so on, who all worked together in unity. He had something cooking, but we just got to rediscover the recipe!

Amen, one for all of us!

 

[Sean H.]

Hmm. . .perhaps you are right. Maybe I should stop shoving whatever religion I follow into everybody's throat as a solution for world unity.....

Well certainly not shoving

As Baha'u'llah says...

CX. The Great Being saith: O ye children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity. This is the straight Path, the fixed and immovable foundation. Whatsoever is raised on this foundation, the changes and chances of the world can never impair its strength, nor will the revolution of countless centuries undermine its structure. Our hope is that the world's religious leaders and the rulers thereof will unitedly arise for the reformation of this age and the rehabilitation of its fortunes. Let them, after meditating on its needs, take counsel together and, through anxious and full deliberation, administer to a diseased and sorely-afflicted world the remedy it requireth.... It is incumbent upon them who are in authority to exercise moderation in all things. Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation will cease to exert a beneficial influence. Consider for instance such things as liberty, civilization and the like. However much men of understanding may favorably regard them, they will, if carried to excess, exercise a pernicious influence upon men.... Please God, the peoples of the world may be led, as the result of the high endeavors exerted by their rulers and the wise and learned amongst men, to recognize their best interests. How long will humanity persist in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos and confusion to reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of society?... The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective. I beseech God, exalted be His glory, that He may graciously awaken the peoples of the earth, may grant that the end of their conduct may be profitable unto them, and aid them to accomplish that which beseemeth their station.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 215)


The Bahai Faith is unique in that its purpose is to unite humanity

1589. Cornerstone of All Teachings -- Oneness of Humanity

"It is most essential that the believers should be quite clear on this point, as the principle of the oneness of humanity is the cornerstone of all the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, and should be presented as such, without the least hesitation, by the friends."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, March 11, 1937; cited by the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, August 8, 1968)

(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 480)

The purpose of the Bahai Faith is to both revitalize mankind and bring about World Unity and Peace. One example comes from this letter

55.5 We are told by Shoghi Effendi that two great processes are at work in the world: the great Plan of God, tumultuous in its progress, working through mankind as a whole, tearing down barriers to world unity and forging humankind into a unified body in the fires of suffering and experience. This process will produce in God's due time, the Lesser Peace, the political unification of the world. Mankind at that time can be likened to a body that is unified but without life. The second process, the task of breathing life into this unified body -- of creating true unity and spirituality culminating in the Most Great Peace -- is that of the Bahá'ís, who are labouring consciously, with detailed instructions and continuing divine guidance, to erect the fabric of the Kingdom of God on earth, into which they call their fellowmen, thus conferring upon them eternal life.

(The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986, p. 126)

 

[Dah-veeth]

Exactamente! (exactly!)

The Baha'i Faith is for unity. It is already an example that all the various ethnic and tribal groups of the world can live together in harmony, because in the Baha'i Faith we already do, and we come from 2,112 ethnic and tribal groups.

"O ye that dwell on earth! The religion of God is for love and unity; make it not the cause of enmity or dissension." -Baha'u'llah