If You Could Talk To One Famous Scientist

[Singh559]

If you could talk to one famous scientist like Richard Dawkings or Stephen Hawkings and introduce them to your lifestyle for one FULL day what would you talk about? If he/she asked you questions related to Waheguru and a Sikh's belief in what is Waheguru, how the universe was created and the meaning of life what would you reply?

Article and quote that inspired this thread:

"If there is a God, it's going to be a whole lot bigger and a whole lot more incomprehensible than anything that any theologian of any religion has ever proposed." - Richard Dawkins

If only Richard Dawkins knew.

http://news.yahoo.co...s-a-fairy-story

Look at 3:30 where the Singh talks about the UN general secretary.

[puneetkaur]

An interesting question Veerji, really liked the video too.. Thanks for sharing!

Look forward to reading other's views though :allears:

[Singh559]

Bump~

Would really like if sangat contributed. Love discussions like these...

[Mat Pulo Rai]

Can anyone link the article of kofi annan saying this, as i cant find a link or related quote.

[VanHelsingh]

I would ask whether they judge all religions - and therefore the existence of God - based on the Abrahamic interpretations of theology or do they believe there could be a divine presence but hitherto has not been explained well enough for them to consider the possibility?

The issue I have trying to explain God and all things divine from a Sikhi viewpoint is this: In Gurbani it says it is impossible to describe the wonders and delights of Waheguru because he has no limits and there is no language in existence that could begin to describe Him. I haven't got a problem with this but for someone - such as a scientist - who want's empirical data or at least some nuggets of information to try to understand what Sikhs refer to when speaking about God it doesn't really help does it?

Sikhi is unique in that it encourages experiencing God through bhagti rather than trying to "cage" God's attributes and then pass on the word if you know what I mean? Its one of the reasons why there have been Sants and Mahapursh throughout Sikh history that have experienced the presence (for want of a better word) of Waheguru but to try and explain what it is to someone who may be approaching the situation from a completely alien viewpoint is very difficult.

[humkire]

Gurbani uses (amongst others) two very important words to describe God i.e agam and agochar. Agam means beyong physical reach/out of reach, and agochar means beyond comprehension/ understanding. Dawkin will probably like that!

Dawkins like so many other western scholars such as Darwin, Hawkings etc have been propelled towards either atheism or a misbelief in God because of a)the hostility of Chriatianity and other Judaistic originating faiths towards the discoveries of science in regards to creation, b)the suggestion in these religions of creation being very limited, c) and as a result of that, the idea of God as been a limited God with a limited capability and capacity and d)the physical emphasis in these religions in their description of God.

Sikhism takes away the pressure of a need to believe in God as a)a necessary precondition and, b) a the starting point in one's journey towards God by encouraging anyone who is sincerely and truly interested in God, religion and spirituality to a)start a course of investigation by becoming a student and learner i.e a Sikh and b) by shifting the emphasis to the exploration of truth and reality i.e Sat/Sach.

This is of course more logical, sensible and interesting because it shifts the entire paradigm from the realm of beliefs and opinions to the realm of discovery and awakening to the existence and nature of God. Sikhism makes all this even more exciting by taking it to a higher level than what I have just explained by teaching that the pursuit of truth is not amorphous, elusive, subjective and out of hand but rather singular, objective, and starts from within. Even more beautiful is the teaching that the discovery of truth is not a mind boggling , complicated, strenous and difficult effort but rather that truth within is like a mirror that just needs to be bravely and humbly looked at, and surrendered to, for it to open like a flower blossom and be activated. And even more wonderful is the simple but profound teaching that all this happens effortlessly, by touching Gurprasad through becoming a student of SGGS.

There is a white American lady just completing her PHD at Oxford University who I have adopted as my sister from quite a few years back. Prior to that she was mixed up in her beliefs, atheistic etc. But she started reading SGGS online dutifully line by line and this had totally transformed her. She has given up all her previous Buddhistic, Spiritualistic and New Age beliefs and started amrit vela simran, started attending satsangs etc. Now her life is beginning to revolve around Sat in all aspects of behaviour, lifestyle etc.

As Sikhs we live as people of Sat or Truth, plain and simple.

[Sherdil]

I would ask Albert Einstein if his formula E = MC^2 lends to the idea of reincarnation. Matter and energy are fixed in the universe, but matter can be turned into energy and vice-versa. When a person dies, the physical body is destroyed but the person's energy can be manifested in different forms (I'm not talking about ghosts).

I would also ask him if scientists will ever come up with a single formula, expressing a single law that is true for all aspects of the existing universe. Nothing would be outside that law. That is, could Hukam be expressed as a mathematical equation?

[VanHelsingh]

Gurbani uses (amongst others) two very important words to describe God i.e agam and agochar. Agam means beyong physical reach/out of reach, and agochar means beyond comprehension/ understanding. Dawkin will probably like that!

Dawkins like so many other western scholars such as Darwin, Hawkings etc have been propelled towards either atheism or a misbelief in God because of a)the hostility of Chriatianity and other Judaistic originating faiths towards the discoveries of science in regards to creation, b)the suggestion in these religions of creation being very limited, c) and as a result of that, the idea of God as been a limited God with a limited capability and capacity and d)the physical emphasis in these religions in their description of God.

Sikhism takes away the pressure of a need to believe in God as a)a necessary precondition and, b) a the starting point in one's journey towards God by encouraging anyone who is sincerely and truly interested in God, religion and spirituality to a)start a course of investigation by becoming a student and learner i.e a Sikh and b) by shifting the emphasis to the exploration of truth and reality i.e Sat/Sach.

This is of course more logical, sensible and interesting because it shifts the entire paradigm from the realm of beliefs and opinions to the realm of discovery and awakening to the existence and nature of God. Sikhism makes all this even more exciting by taking it to a higher level than what I have just explained by teaching that the pursuit of truth is not amorphous, elusive, subjective and out of hand but rather singular, objective, and starts from within. Even more beautiful is the teaching that the discovery of truth is not a mind boggling , complicated, strenous and difficult effort but rather that truth within is like a mirror that just needs to be bravely and humbly looked at, and surrendered to, for it to open like a flower blossom and be activated. And even more wonderful is the simple but profound teaching that all this happens effortlessly, by touching Gurprasad through becoming a student of SGGS.

There is a white American lady just completing her PHD at Oxford University who I have adopted as my sister from quite a few years back. Prior to that she was mixed up in her beliefs, atheistic etc. But she started reading SGGS online dutifully line by line and this had totally transformed her. She has given up all her previous Buddhistic, Spiritualistic and New Age beliefs and started amrit vela simran, started attending satsangs etc. Now her life is beginning to revolve around Sat in all aspects of behaviour, lifestyle etc.

As Sikhs we live as people of Sat or Truth, plain and simple.

Wonderful post, Humkire. The part in bold was especially what I was alluding to.

I believe the main reason that the likes of Dawkins, etc., possibly haven't considered Sikhi as a serious alternative to the Abrahamic religions - in terms of trying to fathom the broad topic of 'religion' as a whole - is because of a certain degree of prejudice on their part. Now I don't mean calculated bigotry or anything of such nature, but possibly there's a sense of under-estimating what Sikhi has to offer because of the popular (or widely-held) belief that Sikhs are an unsophisticated people from the Indian sub-continent, and therefore could possibly never hope to provide the answers to the perennial mysteries of God and everything inbetween, even though I appreciate the Abrahamic religions originated from the Middle East, but we all know there's a difference between how the populations of ex-colonies are viewed.

These kind of presumptions and negative portrayals all lead back to the attempts of the GOI to paint Sikhs as agitators obsessed with militancy, and if nobody bothers to scratch the surface and really try to learn about our history and our scriptures, as well as challenge the so-called official accounts of the GOIs policies towards Sikhs, many people including highly-educated professors and academics will believe the popular concensus of the time.

I guess thats where we enter the equation and we must try our utmost to get the message out to the world about what exactly we're all about.

[KARKOOSINGH23]

Wonderful post, Humkire. The part in bold was especially what I was alluding to.

I believe the main reason that the likes of Dawkins, etc., possibly haven't considered Sikhi as a serious alternative to the Abrahamic religions - in terms of trying to fathom the broad topic of 'religion' as a whole - is because of a certain degree of prejudice on their part. Now I don't mean calculated bigotry or anything of such nature, but possibly there's a sense of under-estimating what Sikhi has to offer because of the popular (or widely-held) belief that Sikhs are an unsophisticated people from the Indian sub-continent, and therefore could possibly never hope to provide the answers to the perennial mysteries of God and everything inbetween, even though I appreciate the Abrahamic religions originated from the Middle East, but we all know there's a difference between how the populations of ex-colonies are viewed.

These kind of presumptions and negative portrayals all lead back to the attempts of the GOI to paint Sikhs as agitators obsessed with militancy, and if nobody bothers to scratch the surface and really try to learn about our history and our scriptures, as well as challenge the so-called official accounts of the GOIs policies towards Sikhs, many people including highly-educated professors and academics will believe the popular concensus of the time.

I guess thats where we enter the equation and we must try our utmost to get the message out to the world about what exactly we're all about.

y dont u email him n tell im to study it

[VanHelsingh]

y dont u email him n tell im to study it

I don't roll in those circles! If the time comes when I do come across Professor Dawkins then I'll make the suggestion. :biggrin2: