Re: Questioning/Losing Faith
Sat Sri Akal ji.
Recently I've been questioning religion and whether it is true.
I like Sikhism and what it stands for but I cannot get my head around some concepts.
Even most born Sikhs can't get their head around some concepts of Sikhi. In fact, Guruji tells us in Japji Sahib:
ਸੋਚੈ ਸੋਚਿ ਨ ਹੋਵਈ ਜੇ ਸੋਚੀ ਲਖ ਵਾਰ ॥
Socẖai socẖ na hova▫ī je socẖī lakẖ vār.
By thinking, He cannot be reduced to thought, even by thinking hundreds of thousands of times.
Link to full Shabad:
http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani?Action=KeertanPage&K=1&L=5&id=5
Waheguru cannot be explained or deducted using reason, knowledge of Waheguru is only gained as a gift.
All religions were formed when people did not know a much about the universe and how it was created. I do still think that Guru Nanak was special because he did state that there were multiple planets, galaxies etc.
He also said that the universe has been created and destroyed multiple times, which fits in with the Big Bang and Big Crunch theories.
Although there are references to planets and galaxies in Gurbani, this is not the message that Guruji is trying to teach us. There are plenty of science books that describe and explain such things in far more detail. This is not the 'special' thing about Sikhi, Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji is not some magical tome that predicted future scientific discoveries like Nostradamus or something.
1. No religion has accurately explained the origin of life on Earth and backed it up with evidence.
If you want to know
by what means the Universe was created, Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking can teach you that. If you want to know
for what purpose the universe was created, then go to Guruji. But even that isn't what Sikhi is really about, Sikhi is the art and science of cultivating the soul so that we can meet the Divinity and experience the Divine Love directly.
2. Why would God create things like Dinosaurs and so much before humans? If humans are the only ones that can achieve mukti, why waste time creating dinosaurs and other ancient animals, why not create humans as one of the first lifeforms. The sikh scriptures do not mention dinosaurs.
Gurbani tells us that the whole world is like a play, and Waheguru has created all of it for his pleasure. Just as an artist paints a portrait or a writer creates a novel. The dinosaurs and other prehistoric lifeforms, along with all the rocks, desolate expanses of space, dust particles and other seemingly lifeless and meaningless things, are just more of the colours and brush-strokes that make up the world we live in.
ਜੀਅ ਜੰਤ ਸਭਿ ਤੇਰਾ ਖੇਲੁ ॥
Jī▫a janṯ sabẖ ṯerā kẖel.
All living beings are Your playthings.
Link to full Shabad:
http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani?Action=KeertanPage&K=11&L=18&id=506
3. You are born into a religion, if I was born 2000 years ago in Norway I would believe in Thor and Odin.
Spiritual thought is not about which name you use to call Waheguru. An ancient Greek or a medieval Norseman can achieve liberation just as a Muslim or a Hindu can.
4. Countries where religion plays a big part in people's lives like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Middle East, Africa, South America are generally full of poverty. Whereas in places like Western Europe, Japan, religion is not important at all. Guess which countries are more successful and tolerant.
Firstly, 'religion', when expressed as blind and superficial obedience to a specific set of dogmas and practices, is a destructive influence. After been trapped by this net for centuries the west has seen through this and now they are achieving success in the material world.
Secondly, although the west may be the better half of the world to live in, that does not make westerners morally or spiritually superior people. Who is driving climate change? The west. Which countries (not that long ago) went around the world destroying other nations in the name of racial and cultural supremacy? The west. Which people consume so many resources that the rest of the world sits in poverty? The west. Westerners are no better or worse than others.
5. Why was Guruship kept in the same family from Guru Ram Das onwards? I cannot imagine Guru Nanak giving the Guruship to a child like it was given to Guru Har Krishan or a child Guru Gobind. Even though these Gurus were great men who did a lot for us it seems like nepotism.
I'm not so knowledgeable on Sikh history, so others will probably explain the reasoning behind the decision to keep the Guruship in Guru Ram Das ji's family.
As for Guru Har Krishan ji and Guru Gobind Rai ji, we learn from this that children are perfectly capable of wisdom. This may seem strange nowadays (when people are considered children up to the age of 16 or 18, or even 21) but in other societies people grew up a lot faster.
6. Sorry if this offends people but Guru Nanak was against rituals, so why is it mandatory to drink Amrit, carry a kirpan, grow our hair.
We say we grow our hair because we don't want to change the form God made us in. So if we are born with an illness do we just leave it or do we keep it? We are a continually evolving species and we may one day evolve into one that has no hair.
Amrit, the Kirpan, our Kesh, are all objects and actions that contain meaning. A blind ritual is an action done for it's own sake but with no reasoning behind it beyond tradition. Rituals will not get you closer to Waheguru. An action that is imbued with meaning, with intention, though, can be like a form of meditation. A Sikh goes to bow his head before Guruji not because that's some kind of rule or custom they must follow, but because they sincerely love Maharaj ji.
7. Guru Nanak said if you're a Muslim be a good muslim, if you're a hindu be a good hindu, yet he criticised both religions. Even I can see that both religions have big problems. Islam with it's misogyny, violence, heaven and hell, virgins in heaven. Hinduism in it's belief in multiple gods, fairy tales, caste system. He should have been more critical.
Guruji criticises the counterproductive behaviours and thoughts of all people, especially those that result from superstitious or dogmatic beliefs. This isn't some kind of specific rebuttal or Islam or Hinduism. This should be taken to heart by Sikhs as well, there are some who base all their faith on krodh alone and think constantly of revenge on India, or those who believe that they are some sort of special super-determined superhuman, or those who just use their connections with the 'community' to get money.
The last comment there, "he should have been more critical", is really a contradiction of Sikhi in a fundamental sense. A 'Sikh' is a student. But really a 'Sikh' is a student in the spiritual sense, a Disciple. So 'Sikhi' could be translated as 'Discipleship'. A Disciple attaches themselves to their Teacher, their Master. And this attachment is in the sense of utter devotion, it is done entirely out of free will and the Disciple feels nothing but love for the Master. A Disciple does not contradict his Teacher or second-guess them, and neither does he want to.
8. Why worship this creator. Maybe it exists but how do you know it wants us to worship it and think about it all of the time.
How do we know? Because Guruji teaches this to us, and we are devoted to Guruji. That's the most fundamental part of it. We choose to give ourselves to Guruji in the hope that we will be led to liberation and meet Waheguru.
Of course, that leads to a further question: how do we know Guruji is true? This is really the crux of the issue. And the answer is different for different individuals. Just like how not everyone falls in love in the same way.
Whether we 'have' to worship God or not is irrelevant. If you don't want to worship Waheguru, don't. Think of it like the Matrix if you want: take the blue pill and remain countless lives in the illusory Maya, or take the red pill of Waheguru's Name and start the journey to Liberation.
9. Why has no religious 'prophet' discovered something amazing like Electricity or flying. These were supposed to be all knowing people but they did not help humanity in scientific advancement.
Scientific advancement is part of Maya. Guruji teaches us how to escape from Maya.
10. People turn to God when things are down and when going through depression. I am guilty of this as well but as soon as the storm clears and my rational thought returns I return to doubt.
This is the case for many people at the beginning of the path, but eventually it becomes the case that we think about Waheguru all the time, leaving us permanently in elation. Even sadness becomes sweeter, as it turns from mere misery into a deep longing and sense of separation from Waheguru.
11. There are so many religions in this world and most of them have only been around for 5000 years, whereas humans have been around a lot longer. People have worshiped all kinds of things throughout humanity, from the sun, to idols, demi gods, one god and now worshiping no god is rising.
Counterproductive and destructive thinking have been around for thousands of years, and so have enlightened and spiritual thinking. The names and labels and forms they take are irrelevant.
12. They could have sent out a big message by giving the guruship to a lower caste person, rather than keeping it in the high Khatri caste. They could have married out of caste. It would have sent out an even bigger message.
As others have said, India was highly socially-stratified, people wouldn't have listened to a low-caste person, they would have just dismissed it as the ramblings of a man who has forgotten his place. Little to be gained just by rebelling for its own sake.
13. Karma system has flaws. So if you are bad you are given a bad next life, but who cares, it's not like you will remember it. I think it's downright cruel to say that disabled people are born that way because of bad karma. Why don't we just stop helping the poor people, after all it is due to bad karma that they are born that way.
Generally the more money people have the more they succumb to vices, so
is it better to be born poor and believe in god or be born into a rich family where you are more likely do 'bad things'
First: I will make it clear that I personally disagree with the stance on Karma that this forum generally follows. I do accept this concept. But I also know that I don't really have the knowledge to debate it properly here, so I don't want this to spark anything like that off.
Secondly: whether what happens to us is just or unjust is a matter of perspective. The difference between suffering and happiness is also a matter of perspective. Sukh and Dukh are just millimetres from each other. I have many problems and disabilities, but I don't cry over these that God has been unfair to me. Whatever actions I did in my previous lives resulted in this, even though I can't remember.
14. Reincarnation. There are lines in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji that if you think of your family in your last breath you will come back as a pig. Well then I guess a huge proportion of people who die come back as pigs because that is what a lot of people think of when they die. Why is it wrong to think of your family when dying?
For specifics of Gurbani please see someone else's response. I could give my own thoughts here but I don't want to be twisting Guruji's words or trying to turn it into my own or something.
15. Yugas make no sense. We are supposed to believe in the yugas and we are supposed to be in Kalyug. Yet in the last 100 years we have seen the most advancement in human history compared to any other time in humanity. We are supoosed to believe that people lived a lot longer in the past, like for hundreds of years. I highly doubt this is true.
Yugas etc are not meant to be taken literally. But again, I am reluctant to speak here because I can't back this up with sources. However, I did speak to somebody about this recently and they gave a good explanation.
Please forgive me if I have made mistakes in this. Also, not sure if my citation/quotation layout is correct.
