p13 Future of the Talk

Whence, “Is there a God, or what?”

By John Taylor; 2008 Feb 15, 09 Mulk, 164 BE

On Wednesday night Peter Gardner and I gave our slide presentation "Is there a God, or what?" to sixteen people at Mrs. Javid's home. Only one was a new Baha'i and one more was a non-Baha'i. Since the latter was of Catholic background, the discussion turned from the proofs of deity to the usual Christian blather as soon as, and even before, the discussion period opened. I find such talk extremely tedious and was about to drop off to sleep. I was still conscious when at one point the new Baha'i mentioned the idea that Baha'u'llah was the "return in the glory of the Father." That opened up a big can of worms, as one might expect. Then came Peter's finest hour. He launched into an explanation of "glory of the Father" that was penetrating, logical, sensible (as always with Peter), but was also (and I have been noticing this more frequently about his analyses lately) wise. Yes, wise.

My wife Marie and Silvie (13) and Thomas (8) came along to offer support to our mission to the atheists. Thomas brought along a book about dinosaurs and was silent and motionless while reading it for the whole evening; afterwards he confided that he had found the book so fascinating that it was as if time had stopped and all the busy world ceased to exist. Silvie read for us a passage from Robinson Crusoe about his "natural" deductions about God. Mrs. Javid later praised her for the clarity and loudness of her voice (unlike mine). However later when the time came for her to read the Master's talk on the proof of deity in Some Answered Questions, she was too tired. It was getting late for the little ones. As a result Peter stood in and read it in clarion tones. He made it sound extra persuasive because he read it slow and carefully. His reading voice truly is radio quality, and the listeners were visibly impressed with the genius of Abdu'l-Baha.

Afterwards I spoke to Linda, a nurse at McMaster, who mentioned that she has many atheist and anti-theist friends from her professional contacts, but that none ever want to come out to Baha'i meetings. That fact made me realize the problem I face. Even though atheism is the third largest "faith" in the world, the number who would actually turn out to a Baha'i meeting to hear my arguments is probably small indeed. Which is why you see so few firesides directed at atheists and agnostics. So I am doomed to be bored to death at firesides, as long as the appeal of the Faith continues to be directed only at those of a religious bent.

The question remains, where do we go from here? We have pretty much shot our wad as far as the Baha'i Faith goes around here. Mrs. Javid's fireside is the only regular, well-attended meeting in this part of Ontario, with the exception perhaps of Dunnville's monthly public meeting, at which we spoke last month. The Dunnville talk was the off-Broadway production, and Mrs. Javid was the big time. For decades I have been harping on every chance I get about how we should start a speaker's circuit around here, but it has never happened. Until it does, those two are our only opportunities within driving distance inside the Faith itself.

I dreamed about this problem last night, and I woke with the idea of taking this talk to liberal Christian churches, and other religious meetings that might be interested in responding to the New Atheists and their attacks on the proofs of deity. It would take some considerable rewriting and adjustment to the slide show, but I could do it. I am not exactly a mover and a shaker, but I will put out what feelers I can and if God confirms, God confirms.

Another idea I woke up with was the possibility of pruning some of the ideas in the slide show and making them into little YouTube films. Since Peter has a radio quality voice, plus a technical flair (when a cord turned up missing, he saved the slide show at the last minute on Wednesday by cutting notches into another, non-compatible cord), we could probably come up with some films that would chase up further opportunities to give the presentation.

A prime candidate for a first video is the section of the slide show that defines the Baha'i outlook using Venn Diagrams -- the intersection set being the part of the set of all our opinions that a Baha'i values the most. I mentioned this "Venn Diagram definition" of a Baha'i early on in discussion with my atheist friend ePhilo. Later, he paid me the compliment of using it in a musical presentation that he and his family gave at their local Baha'i Center. He wrote that afterwards a Baha'i came up to him and kept asking: "Are you sure that you are not a Baha'i?" Actually, not necessarily so. I just came across this quote from the Bible to include in any further presentations of the Venn Diagram. This should show that concentrating on what the Master called "points of unity" is also a Christian ideal:

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:8, KJV)