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| Jass Singh ji: Here we go again. I have to be careful in replying back to 'You'. Using the phrase 'You' can put me into trouble. I'll try. You feel that I have been erroneously assuming things when you didn't state those. Let's say my assumptions are wrong. But that's what assumptions are; either right or wrong. My problem is I assume a lot. I have, however, most of the times made it clear everytime I made an assumption. I did not specify that the quote came from Excellence of Sikhism. That is correct. However, I did specify that the book was about non-Sikhs views about the Sikh faith. If you were new on Sikhnet I could have understood, however you have been here for over a year and were very much present when I was quoting from the book. Here also I assumed that you would have the ability to figure out, since there is no reason why Russell would have compiled such a book. I may make some comment about Christianity, but I have no motivation whatsoever to compile a book about what people think about that faith. As far as the page number is concerned. I can't give it to you now. Most of my books are in storage since I moved to this new city. However, the book and the author is quite well known in India. Judging by your anxiety, how about trying to find it on your own. The context is that Russell has admired the Sikh way of Life and his comments reflect that. Jass Singh you forget that I started the post saying that I "had been observing your posts on Sikhnet." What this would imply is that what follows is "my assumption" of what you're upto. The concepts I had introduced are not new to this forum. Check it out for yourself. Again, judging by your enthusiasm to call him an atheist, I assumed, that, you are trying to put that label on him. Now, it seems, you have changed your opinion and are describing him the way he described himself. You could have done that earlier too. "No man is completely lost...". This is not side-trakking of the issue. You are giving a man discredit because, in my assumption, it is your opinion that an atheist's opinion about the christian faith is irrelevant. I can agree with you on that too. Afterall, one needs to practice a faith diligently before he/she can argue about it or in some instances discredit it. I am, however, looking at him as another human being and am willing to listen to his point-of-view. I have never mentioned that I agree or disagree with what he says about christianity. It doesn't bother me. I'm not a Christaian. His comments are for the christian community to debate and discuss. You mention that Christianity feels the same way. Good. However, your insistance that the man was an atheist and should not be given credit for his views is in contradiction to your present change in opinion. What Guru Granth sahib says is an illustration. The Gurus have used illustrations so as to be able to communicate with people. There is a difference in the way Christian faith puts it and the Sikh faith puts it. Highlighting this difference could be a good project for a student of Comparitive Religious Studies. He could be either a Sikh or a Christian. The life that Russell is supposed to have lived is not recommended by anybody. His works may throw some light as to why he decided to live the way he lived. It seems that the attitude of the Christian clergy and their interpretation of the faith definitely was one of the major factors. Thanks for the offer. I was not sure if some work had been done in this regard. I assumed, that your enthusiam could be used to the benefit of your community. Jass Singh ji, what do you find fallacious in Russell's comments about the Sikh faith. After all this discussion we are back to where we started. In this endeavour, however, both of us have learnt how to write lengthy replies which should not have, in my opinion, been more than a 100 words. One more time: Whether Russell was an atheist, agnostic, promiscuous, believed in polygamy (I thought he was married twice), or a plain idiot, in my opinion, like every human alive he was also blessed with intelligence. We all vary in the degree of intelligence that we possess. However, no matter how unintelligent or bad we are there is some basic intelligence that each one of us possesses. And this is enough to tell that the Sikh way of living is a humane way of life. Something for the betterment of the society. I don't think Russell could have missed that. This is my opinion. If you re-read my post I never mentioned that Russell made the quote about "Love thy...". I was trying to make a point and as a conclusion wanted to impress upon you that Russell's works also lead to similar views. The bottom line is that he was against the way the christian faith was being run and interpreted because he thought that such an interpretation went against basic human rights. Unfortunately you seem to make more assumptions about what I have written or meant. There is nothing wrong with it as long as you mention that. Good Luck was just "Good Luck". I think we've wasted more time than was required. Regards P.S. For all: I think we should read all the posts in this category. In my opinion that would be a good idea. It'll help us retain the focus. |
