|
Add to Interest Profile
Edit Interest Profile
Email This Message
Search
| Jass Singh ji: For almost a year I have observed you put forward your arguments. People ask you questions. Some you answer others you don't. Maybe you forget. I don't know. You write quite a lot but sometimes it appears that you stray away from the issue. You seem to subtly bring a reference to Jesus and christianity. I have respect for Jesus as much as for other prophets. This is because my Guru asked me to. Arthur William Radford once said: "Half of art is knowing when to stop." My corrupted version is: "Half of the art of discussion is to know when to stop, otherwise it becomes an exercise in futility." Over the last one year you have quoted from the Bible. We appreciate those quotes even though this forum is a place for the Sikh community to learn about the Sikh faith. Please remember that there are some guidelines to follow when dealing with inter-religious discussion otherwise misunderstanding may result. You and many christians have dedicated their lives to the teachings of the Bible. Wonderful. If my assumption is correct then it does not matter what John, Matthew, Peter or Paul have said in the Bible. Their teachings will be reflected in the behaviour of their followers. This is all we need to know. This is all we need to observe. I am tempted to end my response here. I will, however, reply back to all your questions lest you feel left out. Here I go again... 1. When I mentioned about the book that contains quotes of non-Sikhs about the Sikh religion and community, I was referring to "Excellence of Sikhism" by Sarup S Alag. 2. Thanks for giving the full name of the book: "Bertrand Russell: Why I'm not a christian and other essays". He could have titled it "Why I'm an atheist and other essays". That was my point. 3. A Christian's religious beliefs may make it convinient for him/her to lable people as an atheist. As a Sikh I don't have that luxury. My religious belief's tell me that "no man is completely lost to God because God never gives up on man". In Sikhism an atheist is as much likely to receive God's Grace ("Nadar") as a staunch believer. It is our actions that take us closer to or farther from God and not any useless labels. Now that we know what you think of Russell and how I feel, let's see what Russell has to say. Let's give the poor man a chance to speak. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/2795/atheist_or_agnostic.htm 4. I don't know how various religions define sin. But in Sikhism there is no such thing(or sin) that will "lead you to eternal hell". According to Sikhism every man is at a certain stage of spiritual development. Some are closer to the final stage while others are far away. Since we're all different (in our ways and not as humans) we all move towards this final goal at different speeds. There is a good article by Dr. Jodh Singh which describes the various stages of progress in a Sikh's Spiritual journey. To understand someone's attitude towards life or other aspects of it one need to know a bit more about that person. As the saying goes: "Man is a sum total of his experiences". To understand the revolting nature of Russell's arguments you need to know what made him to revolt. Unless we can do that we're all wasting our time. No man is born a non-believer. In most instances it is our attitude towards people that leads them to question God. For Christians reading of the Bible is as much of a useless exercise as reading of the Guru Granth Sahib is for the Sikhs, if we don't live our lives accordingly. I think it was William Arthur Ward who said: "Real religion is a way of life, not a white cloak to be wrapped around us on the Sabbath and then cast aside into the six-day closet of unconcern". While laying the foundation of the Sikh religion the Sikh Gurus always lay more stress on our actions and the kind of daily life we should live. I just posted an article that summarizes the Sikh philosophy of life. 5. You feel that Russell's arguments against Christianity are fallacious and can be refuted. This could be a good project for you to work on. ...Once you have your thoughts published please let us know and we'll buy the book and read it. 6. You feel that Bertrand Russell could not have said about Sikhism what he did.So this is what all the discussion was about. My question to you is why would you be so eager to prove that he didn't. Why should it bother anyone? In fact people should be happy that some amongst us have a treasure which we are more than willing to share with everyone irespective of their beliefs or ethnicity. I always thought that Jesus had said "Love thy neighbour". However what he probably meant was "Love thy neighbour unconditionally" rather than "Love thy neighbour if he believes in me as the only saviour otherwise consider him to be possessed by Satan and condemned to a life of eternal hell". I hope this is not what Jesus meant. I think most of Russell's work also leads to such a conclusion. Good Luck |
