Questions From A Young Christian

[SunSingh]

There is a gurdwara in Paris, unfortunately, I don't have an exact location for you.

[lowest of the low singhni]

Gurdwara Singh Sabha Paris Association

LOI 1919 NO. 85 /386

16, 18 RUE DE LA FERME

P3000 BOBIGNY, FRANCE

Tel 0033 1 41502825

[Philip777]

I live quite a far way away from Paris.

But if I have to go there some day I may go to this gurdwara. Thanks for the adress anyway.

[Quest4Akal]

So philip your presence here is sending off some alarm bells. Thats just me I'm cautious like that especially when it comes to protecting youth from people who are trying to guide them astray. So many people have answered questions given you links. And you said you have read the info and learned. Please share with us exactly what you have learned in detail please. It will help enlighten all of us. Thanks and god bless

[apne]

To Phillip or anyone for that mater,

i found this on Topix.net ))))

John Smith from Atheist Society Writes About Sikhism:

Dear Ali, please help us. We were very impressed with your website and agreed that religion in general is no longer needed, we can all be humanistic and live in peace and harmony. We are in the process of making a website which will hopefully help to destroy the religious doctrines which divide humanity. We were doing great with knocking out Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Baha'i, even Buddhism but we have gotten very stuck with Sikhism. This religion is (to put it nicely) "a big pain in the <admin-profanity filter activated>" (Please pardon the language) We have only found one site which tries (very poorly) to argue that even this religion is not needed, but the argument is irrational and very unscientific unlike the very rational arguments you use.

When we read the following from your website, we found what you said to be amazingly interesting: "Doubt Everything Find Your Own Light." "Last Words Dear friend, if you look for meaning in life, don’t look for it in religions; don’t go from one cult to another or from one guru to the next. You can expend all your life or look for eternity and will find nothing but disappointment and disillusionment. Look instead in service to humanity. You will find “meaning” in your love for other human beings. You can experience God when you help someone who needs your help. The only truth that counts is the love that we have for each other. This is absolute and real. The rest is mirage, fancies of human imagination and fallacies of our own making." By Ali Sina Why is this interesting? Because we found this religion of Sikhism to be in agreement with you! This is why we have a problem. We tried to look at their holy text (Adi Granth) but didnt find the usual absurdities we found in the other religious books. In fact its refreshingly inspiring and very good!? Maybe you can have some better luck.

We tried to visit a couple of websites and got more of a shock. Did you know that they believed in Democracy, freedom of speech, choice, expression, freedom of religion, pluralism, human rights, equality between men and women, equality of all people regardless of race, religion, caste, creed, status etc. 300 years before the existance of the USA! Theirs is the only religion which says in their religious scriptures that women are equal in every respect to men. They even had women soldiers leading armies in to battle against "you know who" (The usual suspects - Muslims!) Their history is a proud one, they fought in both World Wars. Even Hitler praised them for their bravery and Aryan heritage! Dear Ali, this religion is hard for us to try and criticise but you are an expert and may find some faults overlooked by us. In their holy book, there is a round earth, water is made from chemical elements, there is even mention of the evoution process, big bang and life on other planets! This is pretty crazy and amazing stuff, who would have thought that these New York taxi drivers (There are lots of Sikh taxi drivers in NY) would have such an amzing faith? We read up some information of what Bertrand Russell had to say about Sikhism, this is the man who destroyed Christianity (same applies to Islam and Judaism) and exposed its absurdities, but even this great man got stuck when it came to Sikhism! In fact he gave up and said "that if some lucky men survive the onslaught of the third world war of atomic and hydrogen bombs, then the Sikh religion will be the only means of guiding them. Russell was asked that he was talking about the third world war, but isn't this religion capable of guiding mankind before the third world war? In reply, Russell said, "Yes, it has the capability, but the Sikhs have not brought out in the broad daylight, the splendid doctrines of this religion which has come into existence for the benefit of the entire mankind. This is their greatest sin and the Sikhs cannot be freed of it."

Please bear in mind that Bertrand Russell was a great philosopher and free thinker. We have been trying for weeks now to find a way to fairly and rationally criticize and find fault with this religion but have failed. We even found out that there are many people converting to this religion in the USA and Europe as well as Russia (Mostly well educated and affluent white people). We tried to find some of their literature and see what kind of claims they make, but unfortunatley they have no missionary material as they do not have missionsaries! People become Sikh by learning usually by chance or by coming in to contact with them. They are currently the 5th biggest religion in the world and growing quite fast in the west and Russia. Please help us as we are stuck, to give you an example of they are all about we found the following websites: http://www.sikhnet.com (This is a pretty good site and helpful) http://www.hope.at/sikhism (This site is very easy to follow, check it out, they have a Womans section and a Martyrs section, it looks like that you are not the only one trying to expose the falseness of Islam, Sikhs scholars did it hundreds of years ago and got killed for it!) http://www.sikhs.org (This is the site that was on CNN when Sikhs in the USA were mistaken for Arabs and Middle Easterners and were attacked by mindless morons)

Please help us out, we cant make our website about religion being the cause of war and disharmony when we have this one and only religion which makes a hell of a lot of sense! lol (I thought Atheism had all the answers but were kind of stuck now.) We look forward to hearing from you, we respect your great views and want to promote them to everyone, thank you for your time, take care.

[Guest SikherOfTheNaam]

Vaaheguroo Jee Kaa Khaalsaa Vaaheguroo Jee Kee Fateh (This is Gods Khaalsaa This is Gods victory)

Hey Philip,

Hope your ok :D I'd like to start off by saying i wasn't born as a sikh, nor am i from an Indian heritage. It's great to see that someone outside of sikhism especially a person of another religion has taken an interest and actually participated on this forum - i deeply respect you brother :lol:

Well it all started for me about 5 years ago. Originally i was raised in a 'Christian' household where my family proclaimed to be christian and believe in God which is evidently not so Since i was very small i never took an active interest in religion and God until i grew older where i began to question my existence, why God punished the innocent, what happens to me after i die, how the world was created. I decided to read more into christianity but then i met my first Sikh friend who remains to be my closest friend and spiritual brother to this day. I tried my hardest to find errors in what sikhism professed, try and disprove God but i couldn't. Everything was perfect! I can still remember my first time visiting the gurdwara (sikh place of worship), i was apprehensive at first, what happens if i wasn't accepted?, if i offended anyone inside?. I entered the gurdwara never the less, removed my shoes, washed my hands and covered my head. I then entered the Darbar Sahib (where the sikh 'Holy book' or eternal guru is read to the Saadh Sangat (holy congregation). I then walked to the front of the hall, bowed my head on the ground infront of the eternal guru - and then joined the rest of the sangat. The sights, sounds and smells were out of this world - i felt as if i had entered heaven! The granthi (or priest if you will) although sikhism doesn't believe in priests, entered and began to read the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee (sikh 'Holy book') outloud. It was the first time i heard the most precious words in my life:

'Ik Onkaar (there is only one God)

Sat Naam (truth is his name)

Karthaa Purakh (he is the creator)

Nirbhau (he is without fear)

Nirvair (he is without hate)

Akaal Moorath (timeless and without form)

Ajooni Sabhang (beyond death and self existent)

Guru Prasadh (known by the Guru's grace).

These opening sentences (wrote by the first Guru Sri Guru Nanak Dev Jee) summed up the unsummarable! I had never found a description anywhere of Vaaheguroo (God) that i agreed with but this was out of this world! What also amazed me is that the sikh 'holy book' talks about other solar systems, planets, constellations way before science knew this. It also talks about the science of growing hair, the importance of Sarbloh (a special type of iron) as well as various other pieces of scientific evidence! The way in which the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee is written is in a way no other religous scripture is - with every word uttered you can feel the pyaar (love), devotion and humility to God. Sikhism also explained the creation of the world - from the eternal guru came the universe in which he created in an instant - from this came the gases which condensed to a liquid and through his will he created our known universe.

It explained that Gods will is also sweet no matter how bitter we see it - because the world is Gods stage and we are merely his actors. We go through countless lives (8.4 million) which we can go through once or thousands of times until God gives us his kirpaa (blessings) to eventually reach mukhti and become liberated merged with God, in his court.

From then on my soul has awoken to the call of my captain, my creator, my father, my mother, my Vaaheguroo. :WW:

I will end it here as it gets slightly confusing onwards, with friend and family problems. I'm sorry if i have offended anyone as this wasn't my intention. I hope i have been useful jee.

Take Care,

Vaaheguroo Jee Kaa Khaalsaa Vaaheguroo Jee Kee Fateh!

[Philip777]

So philip your presence here is sending off some alarm bells. Thats just me I'm cautious like that especially when it comes to protecting youth from people who are trying to guide them astray. So many people have answered questions given you links. And you said you have read the info and learned. Please share with us exactly what you have learned in detail please. It will help enlighten all of us. Thanks and god bless

I've learned Sikhs believe in one God, who is in everything and everywhere. And that all idols, rites and sacrifices are useless, because the real adoration is to praise God everyday and to offer ourselves to Him unreservedly. Sikhism teaches love and brotherhood between all mankind, and so it rejects the cast system of Hinduism, the religion of which Sikhism il issued, and it also teaches that all religions are only different ways to God, that none is better than another.

Your Holy Book is the Guru Granth Sahib, that you believe to be not only a book, but the living Guru speaking to you directly. (I've read a litte bit of it.)

You believe the Guru is God on Earth, the Guru is God and God is the Guru. There is no difference between them. The Guru is the Creator. Without Him, noone can get to perfection. The Guru is the guide. The Guru on Earth must be adored like God Himself.

Man must go through numerous lives (reincarnations) to free himself from sin and suffering.

And I also learned many details about your way of life, for example about your clothings, but I think what I've listed here is the most important. I hope it will show you that I am indeed here to learn more about you.

[Matheen]

Man must go through numerous lives (reincarnations) to free himself from sin and suffering.

Not necessarily......

[mskcan]

There are some really inspiring responses within this thread,

I am surprised as to the intelligence portrayed in all the responses,

SikherOfTheNaam welcome to this forum, and wonderful story...

For Philip, have you heard of: http://www.oprah.com/obc_classic/webcast/ane_marketing.html

There is a great spiritual awakening coming from all corners of North America,

is anything similar occurring in France?

Regards

[hindu]

Hello everyone ! I'm a newcomer here.

My name is Philip, I am 18 years old. I am a Christian, and I firmly believe my faith is the truth, but I am open to discuss with all sorts of religions. I'm interested to learn some more about different religions and philosophies, so I looked for a forum of young Sikhs on Google to learn to know more about the Sikh religion. I'm French, but I didn't find a French forum, so finally I registered here (so, sorry if my English isn't always perfect.) Actually, I'm preparing my A'Levels (school is general school in France until A'Levels), and next year I want to study foreign languages.

I would like to discover what Sikhism is about. I must honestly say I hardly know anything at all about Sikhism, so I'd like to get explanations about what you believe, and what you practice. Please, explain me.

And, how does on become a Sikh ?

And I'd also know what personally attracts you in Sikhism. Were you born in this religion or did you personally choose it ?

Thank you for your answers, I am here to discover :rolleyes:

Hi Phillip, i think the problem here is that you ended discussion in your first sentece by saying "my faith is truth"

all faith's are truth as they all point essentially to the same place