Wales85

My wife lately has been telling me she wants to be catholic. She says the sikh community will never be accepting and she doesn't want to deal with it or have our children deal with it. Her cousin who visited recently also recommended that we go to church. I have tried to stay chardi kala, but I am at a loss. I know that God will accept my actions no matter what religion I am, but I love the gurus teachings so much and I want it to be the foundation I build my family around. I realize that much of the punjabi community doesn't always put them into practice, but that is true of every religion. I think what she wants is community, which we could instantly have if we went to church, but what I want is something true to build my life on. This is such a frustrating situation and I am honestly getting a little fatigued with it. It now appears it would make everyone happy if I was to become catholic again, but I just don't believe it. I really don't know how it came to this, and I don't know what to do. Has anyone ever been in a situation similar to this at all?

I totally get what some of your are saying about "not converting". I couldn't agree more, its one of the best attributes of sikhi. I am saying to be the same type of missionary that the early sikhs were. What I am saying is that their are SOOOOO many people who need what the Gurus taught... but sikhs have become very anti-missionary (prob due in large part to the awful conversion tactics of some christians/MUSLIMS) to the point that very few people are aware of what sikhism offers. If I was not married to a punjabi girl... I can guarantee you I would have no knowledge of sikhi. It took years before I even knew much about it, because people simply never talked about it. That is a shame and a travesty! Something this great should not be hidden, it should be made available to all. If you see your brother dying of thirst in the desert, would you not offer him something to drink? I can even tell you from ample experience... in many cases you can practically be begging for it and sikhs still feel awkward about telling you about it! Why?! Early sikhs were dispatched across asia to spread these teachings.... literally acting as missionaries. Guru Nanak Dev Gi travelled all around asia/middle east to spread these teachings...... and it was much harder back then. How can sikhs justify not doing the same thing when it is so easy to do in this day and age. As to the comment about religions... I can certainly agree. I feel this is especially true with many catholics that I meet.... salt of the earth.. but the theological beliefs that you are forced to believe simply drive many people away. It leaves many of us (including myself for many years) with a bad feeling because they believe so strongly in God but cannot swallow that he is a trinity/becomes bread/etc. I think God still loves people of all religions and accepts their devotion, since it is actions that he cares about. However... we all need nourishment... and how difficult it is to be nourished when you have to force yourself to believe so many crazy things! Many deist without a religion in the states... where else can they go? Offer sikhism... you will find that many of them need it desperately but they don't even know it exist! Without it you have to go it alone... without a guide... and that is very very hard!

No other religion I have ever encountered has been more equipped to handle the many challenges that face the modern world as sikhism. A spiritual void is sweeping across the west, and I feel that sikhism, if properly explained, could address this moral and religious vacuum. As much as I despite it, Islam is growing in the west and this is not only due to immigration. Muslims actively evangelize, and they are vocal about their beliefs. The fact that their beliefs tend to border on insane doesn't matter, since many westerners are longing for the spiritual home that their parents had... but cannot accept the concept of a triune God or the divinity of a man. I am calling all of you sikhs out. You should be ashamed. You have been given this great gift, been born into this amazing faith, and you have not done nearly enough to bring it to the world. Of course no one likes religion being shoved down their throat... but is it not the case that in the old days many sikh missionaries were sent by the Gurus.. and this is likely how your family became sikh? Do you not owe others this same opportunity? Did the Gurus intend sikhism only for a select few punjabis and no one else? Can you imagine how many of the problems addressed on this site would be alleviated if the sikh religion became common among non punjabis? Do you realize how fast and how quickly the sikh religion could take off, and how wonderful that could be for both mankind and for the cultural and political influence of sikhs? If there were a million more sikhs, on fire with the love of God, how many more philosophers, doctors, philanthropist, and politicians would bring their gifts to the quam? I challenge everyone who reads this to tell at least one person about your religion. Don't wait for them to ask, just tell them. Ask them if they would like to go to Gurdwara with you. Ask them if they are familiar with your beliefs. The product is priceless, but the marketing department sucks. You aren't doing anyone any favors by not giving them this opportunity, and you all have a religious obligation to bring the Guru's teachings to a world that is in desperate need of it. WJKK WJKF!!!!!!

Slippery Slope FallacyIn debate or rhetoric, a slippery slope (also known as thin edge of the wedge, or the camel's nose) is a classic form of argument, arguably an informal fallacy. A slippery slope argument states that a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant effect, much like an object given a small push over the edge of a slope sliding all the way to the bottom.[1] The strength of such an argument depends on the warrant, i.e. whether or not one can demonstrate a process which leads to the significant effect. The fallacious sense of "slippery slope" is often used synonymously with continuum fallacy, in that it ignores the possibility of middle ground and assumes a discrete transition from category A to category B. Modern usage avoids the fallacy by acknowledging the possibility of this middle ground Deductive and inductive informal fallacies Informal fallacies of deductive reasoning contain a fundamental disconnect between the premises and the conclusion that renders the argument invalid. This disconnect often stems from the presence of a hidden co-premise that, if presented, would validate the argument. Inductive informal fallacies are slightly different from their deductive counterparts, as their merit rests in the inductive strength of the premise-conclusion link rather than in the presence of hidden premises. For instance, the fallacy of hasty generalization, can be roughly stated as: p) A is an Xp) A is also a Yc) therefore, all Xs are also YsIf the populations X and Y are both too large to sample completely, then the statement is inductive. In such a case, a hasty generalization occurs when the number of Xs and Ys is insufficient to represent the respective populations. It is important to distinguish between a principle of reasoning (deductive or inductive) and the premise of an argument.

You sir, sound like an amazing pimp. Harvard and ex-military... you can write your own ticket. You certainly sound like you have done enough you don't need to worry about winning silly arguments on the internet. No matter what anyone does, there are always people who will find fault with it. Thank you for your service, and best regards. -W

At the end of the day, even with many peoples views of the military.... if there were not men out their defending their country none of us would be able to sit on our computers and berate them. I dont know about british, but US army is what you make of it. About 1/4th of my class has used it to pay for school, including many of the top kids in our class. A few kids did army to pay for undergrad... and they ALL say it was a great decision. If you want to serve your country and be a member of the military.... that is a fine and good thing. My biggest regret is not doing an air force scholarship for medical school, even though my wife was against it. A few members of my family went to the service academies, and to say they have done well is beyond an understatement. Its your decision, and the fact that your considering it is a great thing. -W

Thats the thing man.... the WASP put obama into power. Check his campaign contributions... that guy was handpicked and tossed in. You don't even get a seat at the show unless a party selects you, the people that select that party havent changed... the people didnt rally for him to become president... the party did. No one had even heard of him. They picked a winner and they were right. Think about it, has he hurt bankers (they were some of his biggest donors), has he hurt the MIC (biggest doners) has it hurt israel (duh). That black man is bought and paid for, and cares about as much about the common man as I do about the fireants in my backyard. Its beautiful, its the same guy as every other election! Give him a fancy speech and black skin and the world seems to forget... marvelous! Also, that coverage plan basically put pharm companies on cloud 9... hence the HUGE lobbying money they through towards getting it to pass. Nothing in America passes without money...so the people who financed HC reform were the guys who are gonna get rich.

I agree dalsingh... but prioritize. Strengthen the economy first. How can we do anything without money? Congress is having to renegotiate every couple of weeks just to get enough money to keep the government open! Maybe not the best time to go on spending sprees.

Tea party is over the top, and full of racist.... Plenty of pricks, but lots of what they are mad about I agree with. Americans are sick and tired and going bankrupt playing world police. Obama was bought and paid for from day one. How do you think an inexperienced nobody gets grabbed and pushed forward into a presidency? Google his campaign contributions... do you think those businesses donate to someone who isnt gonna help them! At the top the US has always been a "good ol boys" club. Old WASP money and jewish financers have dictated our government for quite some time now. I am appalled by how naive many people have been by believing in Obamas BS. He is every bit as bad as bush. All the twentysomething idiots and "hip" voters came out in mass to vote for this guy... and all he has done in bankrupt us even more! His ONLY goal should have been to fix the economy, but he tried to fix everything but. The only reason America matters is because of our economy, if its crap all the petty social program don't matter because they can't last. For what this man has done to my future and my families future, and then everyone commends him despite the fact he is raping them in public..... insanity! btw That JFK speech is epic. Ever read his Profiles of Courage? In every white catholic american household his name is virtually equal to JC :-)

I am in such a relationship. My opinion: 1. Sikhs should marry other sikhs, jews other jews, etc. because it makes things much much much easier. It is harder to build a family when your principles and traditions are not the same. These traditions and beliefs help unify a family, and if you love your family you will want to pass their beliefs on to your children. 2. When these relationships do occur, it is horrible when members of the community ostracize them for it. It weakens a religious community when they do this because they lose members. If it happens, let it be. You gain nothing by belittling someone else. The sikhs could take a lesson from the jews on this... they have a very active outreach program for jew-other marriages to make the family jewish. 3. Just because someone claims themself as a sikh does not make them so, and it may be that your daughter/son would have been closer to God by marrying a religious christian/jew/hindu than an irreligious amritdhari "sikh". However, please see pt 1.

keep it up! Your getting better and better! waheguru!

If they want to do it, they can do it, and I am sure they can also be fantastic moms. Seems to me it would be very hard to manage life as a mom and a doctor, and excruciatingly hard to be a typical "mom" and a surgeon...only so many hours in the day. Doesn't mean it can't be done, just think it would be really hard...

Even though it sounds cliche and stupid, I think you should do whatever you are passionate about. Not what is easy or what you are good at, but what you are passionate about. I truly believe that in the long run you will do just fine if you go down this path. I would also try to do something difficult, something that most people are not good at (ie: engineering, science, med) because not only is it more rewarding on a personal level it will also usually translate to a higher paying job in the long run. If you do an "easier" field you will have to do extraordinarily well in it in order to be ok financially. In my first go round I went finance because it was extremely lucrative at the time, and then the bottom fell out and it ended up not being a great field (although I did luck out with a good job). So if you pick something for the money right now, it could very easily change. If you are interested in being a mom first and a career person second, I would certainly not recommend medicine and absolutely not recommend surgery. I think pharmacist (my wife is a pharmacist) have an excellent work/life balance, at least if you make an effort to make it that way. If you are very good and passionate about what you do, you will be fine. I know a girl who dropped out of pharm school to be a makeup artist, now she makes wwwwaayyy more money than she would have as a pharmacist. I hope you got something out of this ramble... i am cramming for finals and not in the best state of mind. :-) God Bless, W

This is what happens to a brain when it is brought up in a muslim country that discourages THINKING. Can their possibly be any benefit to leaving this thread open?

These threads always go down exactly the same course. I would have much more respect for these people if they at least had the guts to admit they were muslim and be honest about their intentions.

If Guru Nanak Dev GI's exploits were not embellished by future generations of his followers it would be the first time in the history of the world that stories/embellishments did not crop up around a religious leader. At the end of the day it happened in the past, and you can either choose or not choose to believe in the authenticity of these accounts. No one can prove or disprove them. Beliefs are important, but how we act on them seems to be more important. This man seems to think the parable is not true... who cares? That does not make it so. How he acts on this belief is more important. If it makes him arrogant and sinful it is bad, but if it helps him grow in his faith... no skin off my back. Truth is high, higher still is truthful living. Right?

Been off it for over a year. Don't miss a thing.

God doesn't make deals. Your promise had no bearing. Your chances to get into that college have not changed. Stop worrying :-)

You are doing what you need to do. It takes guts to write the things you write... and freeing sikhism from the shackles of culture is a very hard business... but if someone doesn't what future can this religion have? The sikh faith is in dire need of people like you who are willing to stand up and fight to purify sikhism back to the pristine and pure religion of the Gurus. Please, please, please don't give up.... there is far too much at stake.

*edit* unproductive post

What are they? Just go to Gurdwara?

This has got tons of coverage in the US. IMHO all such men, regardless of race, should be decapitated in public and have their genitals cut off and shoved down their throat. After that I hope they burn in hell. I can promise you that nearly all the white people I am friends with feel the same way, and it doesn't matter what color the poor girl was. -W

Happy Birthday veerji!

Wow. Seems like UK guys need to untie their balls and take care of this trash.