geo

i dont think that if a fish "believed" in flying it would suddenly become a bird and be able to fly. i dont understand the validity of your point. people believe different things - yes of course. the questions i am asking are: what do you think/believe about their beliefs. that is where things get interesting.please see my post with the 1 and 2 options written toward the bottom. thanks

im not trying to make you badmouth anyone. all i want to know is: why are there contradictory ways of achieving unity with god? drinking wine is specifically allowed in christianity, the red wine represents the blood of christ (when it has been blessed). so clearly christians are allowed by god to eat meat, drink wine, not prohibited from smoking, cut their hair and still achieve their goal of getting to heaven and union with jesus/god. muslims are specifically told to slaughter meat in the halal method and still get to heaven to have unity with allah and mohammed. sikhism (i believe) bans eating of meat unless you are starving, but at the very least it specifically bans eating halal meat or ritual slaughter meat and no wine is allowed, no cutting of hair. now only one of the following is true: 1. people are allowed to have contradictory methods/paths to god/heaven 2. there is only one path to god/heaven and the others are wrong. christianity is quite clear on this - they say the only path to god/heaven is through their lord jesus christ. i dont know the muslim view on this but i would lean quite heavily toward "islam and mohammed and the koran is the only way" from what i can tell from some posts above, the sikh position seems to be "we believe the gurbani is the way to god and we wish other people well in their choices, they may or may not get to achieve unity with god/heaven - we dont know, its gods decision to make" now for sikhs only one of the following is true: 1. god is only letting good/deserving sikhs into heaven 2. god is letting in deserving meat eaters, wine drinkers, halal slaughterers, smokers, hair cut people, non turban wearers as well as deserving sikhs thanks

i dont have a problem with multiple religions because science is tired of trying to disprove them as there are so many. you say that we are all different and we are all created by one supreme being. why then are there contradictory methods to worshipping that supreme being and different routes to obtaining unity with that supreme being? for the record i am not religious so i cannot say to you i am muslim/christian/sikh/hindu. i am born in the UK and my family is from punjab. it will take me a bit of time to read through all the posts so i will respond section by section. thanks

i will respond to you posts more fully but at the moment i would like to point out that it has not been 13 or 14 pages for me, i did not start the topic. i just jumped in with my questions about 3 pages ago. thanks

the ability to make fertiliser is definitely good. any skill or talent or any new invention is good, even the atom bomb and the gun. i am anti war but inventions all have their place. it is true that their are problems and side effects with some inventions but that just means there is something new required to be invented or some new problem to solve. the problems of the world are generally caused by people not by inventions or science. if people were more charitable and less blood thirsty or greedy then we have enough to go around for everyone.

i dont have any followers. and age of the religion is not the issue. what i am asking is gurbani or sikhism the only path to truth and god. some people say yes but i think you are saying no, there are other paths. is that correct? therefor my next question is: why is it allowed for some people to smoke, eat meat, drink wine, cut their hair and still acheive unity with god/reach heaven but other people are not allowed to do some or all of these things? why are people of some religions told in their holy book that only jesus is the way or only mohammed is the way? either they are following the wrong path or different people have been allowed to follow different paths to reach god? thanks

dont you find it strange that only a tiny minority of people have a shot to get to god? obviously people can convert but lets get real, that is not happening in any great numbers. there are billions of people who beleive they are on the right path but they are all wrong because sikhism is the only way? im sure you know that as deeply as you hold this belief, there are christians out there who deeply believe that the only way to heaven/god is through jesus? and there are muslims out there who say the only way is through the prophet mohammed and the koran? do you really think they are all wrong and only sikhs are correct? i just want to know your honest views.

you are right, knowledge isnt for everyone. some people dont have the storage facilities and it ends up going to waste like too much milk for someone who doesnt have a fridge. I also agree that knowledge and science has not solved global warming, exponential population growth or depletion of natural resources or ended world hunger (although it has helped feed billions) as far as i can see religion has not solved any of these problems either, caused or made them worse? - yes.

im not going to argue about the existence of god or not. people have their own beliefs on that matter and no amount or forum talk will persaude them to change their beliefs from one side to another. my questions are more to do with religion and the beliefs and ideas of people. i have always been fascinated with what people think and their viewpoints. i like to listen to all views wether i agree with them or not, i find it very interesting. i also like to ask questions to clarify what they are saying but i dont mean to cause any offence.

i didnt know you had asked a question about the scientific knowledge imparted by bhagats who most likely never went to school. i dont know how science would explain it but i would explain it this way: No scientific knowledge was imparted by bhagats in the gurbani. nothing amazing was ever invented in those days, no electricity, no aeroplanes, no cars, no computers, no internet, no radio, no tv, no penicillin, no cure for cancer, no vaccines, no gps. the scientific knowledge imparted and inventions in the 20th century have been far greater than all other centuries combined and what is significant about the timing of this explosion in scientific knowledge and invenstion? no new major religions formed. thanks

of course you cant say who will get there or not and you dont know what will happen with you. but you do believe sikhism is the way for you? do you believe it is the way for anyone else? eg your family, friends, other sikhs? further to that i am asking if you believe it is possible for a good christian or good muslim to get there? clearly you cannot say yes or no for sure, im just wondering what you believe on that subject? and anyone else who wishes to contribute i would be happy to hear your views. i didnt understand the bit you wrote in punjabi, something about asking i think but i dont understand the rest. thanks

just to clarify: this is the post i was responding to. it does appear to say that gurbani is the only path to truth and god. at least that is the way that i understood it. anyone agree or disagree? thanks

is it your position that a good christian or good muslim can "get there"? ( i say get there because i dont know what religious people are trying to achieve?) would it be correct if i used the term "reach unity with god"? thanks

the professor student thing is brought up again and again. its an urban myth, does anyone have any proof it actually took place? it is using a classic technique whereby the position that you want to discredit makes silly and pointless statements and the position that you wish to uphold has the sensible response. it is classic debating practice.

ok in reply to the above I would like to ask what is the hope to reach god for: one billion muslims who believe that mohammed and the koran are the path to god 1.5 billion christians who believe jesus and the bible are the path to god 1 billion hindus who believe ??? i dont really know what they believe but it isnt gurbani 20 million jews who believe the torah is the path to god the number of jews is similar to the number of sikhs worldwide do you believe that only those 20 - 25 million sikhs have access to the correct path to god? and how many of them are true believers or adherents ie. pure mind, good deeds, 5Ks, meditation, prayer, hard work? seems like a very small number to me and most of them located in one small area in a huge country on a huge continent in a huge earth. doesnt that seem a little arrogant? doesnt it seem very selective/arbitrary? i have heard other views a long the lines of true believers and good people, whether christian/hindu/muslim/sikh, have the chance to find god and reach their spiritual goal (whatever that maybe) anyone share these views or do most members believe sikhism is the only way? thanks

is your position that gurbani is the way to truth and god? is it the only way? that question is open to anyone who has a view on it.

A scientific "theory" does not mean "theory" in the common usage of the word. many words have a different meaning when used in a different context. for example "intelligence" means the ability to aquire and apply knowledge and skils along with reasoning and problem solving but military and government departments refer to intelligence meaning knowledge and information gathered by spying/interrogation. scientific theories like the theory of relativity and the theory of evolution are fact based on evidence and experiments.

this is all good news, however the meeting with all persons involved should be peacefull and respectful. violence is not the answer and everybody involved should adhere to this. thanks

http://www.irvineherald.co.uk/ayrshire-news/local-news-ayrshire/local-news-irvine/2011/01/07/irvine-sikhs-make-scottish-history-75485-27932554/ check out the above link, it was forwarded to me by a friend. it was my understanding that sikhi didnt have "ministers" and as male and female are equal anyway it shouldnt matter one way or the other who is reading from sri guru granth sahib ji. also i noted with dissapointment the chairman stating he was "proud" of the fact that his organisation was the first in scotland (something which i highly doubt anyway) doesnt he know that pride/ego is one of the panj vikar along with kam, krodh, lobh, moh. anyone who want to contact this man to offer some friendly guidance PM me and i will try to get a contact number. what hope is there when people as ignorant as this are in charge of something?

i couldnt answer your poll because none of the choices apply to me so i will give my answer here. you should modify the answers so everyone can answer. i generally use singh as my last name. i dont believe in the caste system. since coming to the uk in the 80's my parents always used singh as last name as did everyone who was in our community nearby. i dont know why but thats the way it always was. so i have always used singh. my close friends know my last last name, i am not proud of it nor am i ashamed of it - it is just a name. i dont use it now because of negative connotations because of recent wars. i am born into a jatt family but that has no good or bad meaning for me and i do not think myself higher or lower than any other caste or person or religion or colour. it is time to get rid of caste and racism and sexism and homophobia and all other prejudices. think hard - do any of you have any prejudices? then when you get rid of them you will be on the first step to getting rid of the caste prejudices.

i did some reading on this point and my understanding is that as long as someone truly believes in one true god then they are one the right path, that seems to be quite nice compared to some views like "ours is the only path!" it does however throw up some other questions: 1. hindus believe in lots of god/godesses so are they damned? 2. christians/muslims/jews eat meat/drink/smoke/dont wear turban.cut their hair so how comesikhs have to follow all the rules? is it like a fast track way to heaven/god?

its all about the numbers, christianity and islam and hinduism have a billion followers/member each sikhs are less than 25 million mostly located in punjab. incidently, given that every religion believes that theirs is the true path to salvation/one-ness with god, do sikhs generally believe that out of the whole population of the earth only 25 million are following the true path to god and no one else will make it? i assume that they also believe that not all of the 25 million sikhs will make it, after all so many cut their hair/drink/eat meat/steal/have lust/greed/pride/dont wear kara/are promiscious? it would be interesting to hear your views on this, i am a numbers kind of guy and ive always been facinated by the maths

drinking and drug taking are totally different, whoever died of a facial hair removal overdose? facial hair is a serious affliction for a female. if she had a growth on her body and got that removed, would that be a problem? clearly this woman has a lot of other serious issues that need to be dealt with rather than us discussing her facial hair, she had her own daughter killed and you guys are talking about her removing her moustache!

ive noticed something over the years which has changed since i was young and i wondered if anyone else feels the same: when i was younger most boys got their hair cut but girls very rarely at least until much older. now it seems to be nearly all girls get their hair cut from a young age even when their brothers keep their hair uncut. i believe it is each individuals choice tocut or nto cut their hair but i find it very very strange that parents take their girls to get hair cuts but force boys to keep their hair, i am talking from what i see in my friends and family. what do you all think? anyone have any facts or figures on how many sikhs keep the hair uncut? i think the numbers are probably declining but it would be good to hear the exact numbers or statistics thanks

it goes to show how different old beliefs can be when compared to the modern way of thinking - garlic/garlic breath ( although people love the taste ) is thought of as a major turn off.