> This is one thing that has come to bother me about religion in general.
> Suppose I give it "my best shot." I read the Writings of Baha'u'llah
> (or of any other religious teacher) and to the best of my (admittedly
> limited) understanding try to deal with them. I honestly and sincerely
> try to consider Baha'u'llah's (or anybody else's) claims, and at the
> end of the day, when you boil it all down, I find myself (at that
> particular time) unable to accept those claims. If I sincerely do my
> best, am I to be condemned if I do not come out where somebody else --
> and that pointedly includes Baha'u'llah -- says that I ought to?
Dear Paul,
I very much sympathize with your struggles and admire you for them. At
the end of the day, I have to trust what the Qur'an says about "Whoso
maketh efforts for us, in our way We will guide him." Unfortunately He
doesn't give a time-table for that. As I've said many times, I don't
believe that faith is something you can just choose. You have to be
persuaded. You can investigate, take risks, but you can't make
yourself believe. I think sometimes faith comes when we despair of our
own efforts, like in the story of the lover and the watchman.
warmest, Susan
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