I'll check it out, thank you.
And this is exactly what I am trying to get Sikhs to think about. Why should we follow the Guru instead of Jesus, or "any other religious figure of equal importance within its related religion"? The point I am trying to make in this discussion is not to list those reasons, but to simply put forth the proposition that if they are mere philosophers then there is no actual reason to do so beyond your own desires. But if the Gurus weren't just philosophers, then there is (potentially) an actual objective reason to follow them and their teachings. Whether you or I or anyone else followed them or not would have no effect on the truth of their message.
Pragmatic in what sense? According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the definition of 'pragmatic' is "dealing with the problems that exist in a specific situation in a reasonable and logical way instead of depending on ideas and theories."
What is 'pragmatic' about choosing to be tortured to death on a hot plate instead of taking out a few verses from Gurbani and changing your religion, as Guru Arjan Dev Ji had done?
What is pragmatic about choosing to be sawed in half and burned alive rather than changing your religion, as the companions of the 9th Guru chose to do in Delhi?
What is pragmatic about choosing to keep your long hair even when there is a warrant demanding your death, as the Khalsa of the 18th century chose to do?
This is highly subjective. I know many Sikhs who have tried explaining Sikhi to others only for the other person to turn around and say "this is so confusing and makes no sense."
Many people in the 21st century would claim it is unnecessary to even talk of a 'Creator' at all. Besides, if "rejection of supernatural claims" and "time-bound laws for a specific society" are the reasons we should accept Sikhi, then why not just accept secular humanism? It doesn't make any supernatural claims, not is it time-bound for a specific society...
If the Gurus were philosophers, then there is no reason to accept their teachings aside from our own subjective whims, desires and convenience. If the Gurus were philosophers, what reason do you or I have to follow the Gurus if we don't "feel like it"?
Once again, if the Gurus were philosophers, then on which basis am I to accept this worldview of our connection with Sat Naam over anything written by Aristotle, Plato, Socrates or any of the other great philosophers of history, aside from my own subjective "whim, desire or convenience?"
Objectivity vs. subjectivity.
