2.17. Union with Bahai faith

TetraSociology is a global pluralistic scientific theory that pre-supposes a spiritual affinity with belief and supreme moral values. It accepts all gods of all religions inasmuch as they accept o­ne another and abandon claims to exclusivity. TetraSociology does not claim that it is a religion nor creates o­ne, but it does have a spiritual likeness and affinity with Bahai faith, founded by Baha'u'llah nearly 150 years ago. With 6 million followers, it is the second most geographically widespread of the world's religions[1]. Spiritual kinship between Bahai belief as a religion and TetraSociology consists in pluralism of the both. TetraSociology's pluralism is explored above. Regarding religion, it consists in the "plurotheism" idea/hypothesis, recognising equality of all religions of the world as different incarnations of a single god, and necessity for combining them into a single "plurotheist" religion.

Bahai belief's pluralism consists in that this is the o­nly religion that recognises all the other religions. It proclaims "belief in all manifestations," i.e. all prophets/messengers of a single God, whose revelations and religions "are absolutely the same" in this regard. All religions are parts of a single faith. Hence a call to the religions' unification, to a dialog between confessions to develop a global ethical code of major moral values shared by the all religions. The prophets as representatives of different races, cultures, languages, rather than God, determine differences between religions. From Baha'u'llah's viewpoint, he who rejects o­ne religion rejects all of them, so all religions should be recognised, as different insights into God and "facets of the same truth." Not a single religion, including Bahai, can claim the absolute and ultimate truth of God. This truth is beholden to God alone, who reveals it to people gradually and in different forms of different religions. So, the plurotheist idea, arguably, was first formulated by Baha'u'llah within Bahai faith. Herein lies the major similarity between Bahai and TetraSociology, although not the o­nly o­ne.

Bahai faith regards all people as equal citizens of a single country -- the Earth. It admonishes people to unite spiritually and politically, to create a unified social order for all nations based o­n the pluralistic principle "unity in diversity". It considers love of humankind, justice, brotherhood, renouncement of war, and eternal peace to be the supreme values, and humankind's prosperity, the ultimate goal. Bahai recognises a fair globalization, but repudiates an unfair o­ne, the o­ne making the poor more poorer and the rich more richer. TetraSociology completely shares these Bahai ideas; it not simply declares them, but provides a sociological foundation for them and equips them with a technology. Bahai and TetraSociology, therefore, are spiritually kindred and inter-supplemental as a religion and a science. Combined, they are bound to become very efficient socially in the network society, where, to paraphrase L. Boltzmann, there is nothing more practical than a technology-equipped theory. This applies to sociological theory too. Its transition to technology is simultaneously a transition from monotheism to plurotheism as a belief adequate to the new global world.

[1] In more detail about Bahai faith to look: Baha'u'llah. Kitab-i-Aqdas in http://bahai-library.org/russian/bha/aqdas/index.html and essay: Shefer U. Baha'u'llah's Paradigm of Unity in www.geocities.com/wchupin/ftp-collection/PARADIGM.ZIP o­n Russian.