Extraterrestrial beings were a scientific and spiritual concept in 18th century Europe and the Baha'i Faith is very clearly a reaction to religious modernity in the West. I didn't see a volume of Emanuel Swedenborg's works at the Archive in Haifa, but the term "fixed star" is all over western esoteric works of the 19C. Stars are not actually fixed, of course. Their apparent lack of motion differentiated them from planets, whose motion was accounted as astrology. There are other early modern proto-scientific misunderstandings in the writings of Baha'u'llah. (That's his symbol, BTW, it's not the symbol for God, it's his name in Arabic). He also writes of metals transmuting underground, which was a theory of elemental formation abandoned later on. You find this sort of stuff all over the literature of moderns trying to harmonize science with religion, which is a stated tenet of the Baha'i Faith.
Yes, the 19C interest in aliens and in effect on new religious movements (from Bahai to Mormonism to Theosophy) is rarely discussed, but it's part of the new religious movements' general trend to adapt to the surge in scientific interest.
Think we might be talking past each other because of pronoun usage by both of us. The symbol refers to God. That's why I said it is a symbol of God, not *the* name of God in the Bahai faith nor does the symbol refer to the prophet Baha'u'llah.
Added: It serves as a name or symbol for God in the way Chi-Rho does in Christianity.
Extraterrestrial beings were a scientific and spiritual concept in 18th century Europe and the Baha'i Faith is very clearly a reaction to religious modernity in the West. I didn't see a volume of Emanuel Swedenborg's works at the Archive in Haifa, but the term "fixed star" is all over western esoteric works of the 19C. Stars are not actually fixed, of course. Their apparent lack of motion differentiated them from planets, whose motion was accounted as astrology. There are other early modern proto-scientific misunderstandings in the writings of Baha'u'llah. (That's his symbol, BTW, it's not the symbol for God, it's his name in Arabic). He also writes of metals transmuting underground, which was a theory of elemental formation abandoned later on. You find this sort of stuff all over the literature of moderns trying to harmonize science with religion, which is a stated tenet of the Baha'i Faith.
Yes, the 19C interest in aliens and in effect on new religious movements (from Bahai to Mormonism to Theosophy) is rarely discussed, but it's part of the new religious movements' general trend to adapt to the surge in scientific interest.
/BTW, the symbol is Ya Baha'u'l-Abha, not Baha'u'llah. The latter is the prophet while the former refers to God. https://bahaiteachings.org/what-do-the-bahai-symbols-mean/
"Ya baha'ul'abha" is "God is most glorious, it's the name of Baha'u'llah used in praise of God.
Think we might be talking past each other because of pronoun usage by both of us. The symbol refers to God. That's why I said it is a symbol of God, not *the* name of God in the Bahai faith nor does the symbol refer to the prophet Baha'u'llah.
Added: It serves as a name or symbol for God in the way Chi-Rho does in Christianity.