Random thoughts about infallibility

Some random thoughts after reading Alison's "Infallibility 4": "Infallibility and the idea of never being wrong."

In an earlier post I said I want to be part of a community administered on the premise that Baha'u'llah is always right. Now I might say that I want to be part of a community that puts His interests first, in which all other interests are subordinated to His.

I've never thought much about the meaning and scope of anyone's infallibility, because that's irrelevant for my purposes. I don't see any need to try to change anyone's mind about that. For me the first thing that needs to change is not the way people think. The first thing that needs to change is the way people act. Without that it won't do any good to change the way they think. It might even make things worse. After they change the way they act, then it might help for them to find better ways to think, and they'll be much more interested in doing so.

Regardless of the meaning and scope of anyone's infallibility, I agree with not imagining that we can have any certainty about what's going to happen. Even imagining unfailing accuracy in the writings of the Faith, we could all be misunderstanding what they mean.

Last year, or maybe the year before, I let go of some of my most cherished imaginings about the future of the Faith and the future of the world. I thought of that recently after reading Steve's comment about an earlier post. He was talking about individuals losing one set of beliefs and gaining another set of beliefs. He wrote: "Exploring your own grief and re-attachment stories is also a healthy way to go, I think."

I let go of some beliefs about the future, and I did feel some grief, but I don't remember re-attaching to anything else in their place. I'm not trying to. I decided to give up having beliefs many years ago. I even wrote a little poem about it. I don't remember the words, but it was something about a mind being enslaved by beliefs. Then a new vision comes along, and the mind is freed. Then it becomes enslaved again by beliefs attached to the new vision. The poem began and ended with the words "A mind, enslaved."

I especially enjoyed this in Alison's article:

"Say: By God, you are only as a wayfarer resting in the shade of a tree."

- Baha'u'llah: City of Radiant Acquiescence, para 11, translated by Juan Cole

Today it occurred to me that the French word for "infallible" is "infaillible," from "faillir," which means "fail." A literal translation could be "can't fail." I looked up "infallible" in the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and sure enough, one of the definitions is "2 : not liable to mislead, deceive, or disappoint : certain." For example, "an infallible remedy."

If the Arabic word can be used that way, then saying that the House of Justice is infallible could mean that we can't fail by following the House of Justice.