(KP) - This article is from an email written by Dr. John Smith, from the Atheist Society (USA) on 5th October 2001, sent to Ali Sina, who is also an Atheist and part of the Free Thinking Group in the USA.
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, [and] even Buddhism but we have gotten very stuck with Sikhism. This religion is (to put it nicely) "a big pain in the back-side" (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 didn’t find the usual absurdities we found in the other religious books. In fact it’s 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 existence 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 evolution 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 amazing 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 criticise 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 unfortunately they have no missionary material as they do not have missionaries! 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 examples of [what] 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 Woman’s 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!); and 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 can’t 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 we’re 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.
Dr. John Smith
Waheguroo Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguroo Ji Ki Fateh.
I came across this email. Reading it one realises the beauty of Sikhi. We take our Sikhi for granted and unfortunately sell it so cheaply. I have heard some ‘Sikhs’ say that “Sikhi should be adapted and changed for modern times. We live in the 21st century. We are not living in Panjab during the times of the Gurus.”
However, Sikhi is a religion not for the Modern World, it is not a religion for the present, and not a religion of the past. Rather, Sikhi is a religion, way of life, and path, which is universal and eternal (i.e. past, present and future).
As Sikhs we should wake up and realise the treasures we have been blessed with. “Take one step towards the Guru, and the True Guru will take millions of steps forward to welcome you” (Bhai Gurdaas Ji).
Let us take that one step. After reading this let us search the web and discover what our religion is about.
Let us take one step by reading about our Great History.
Let us take one step by buying or borrowing books on Sikhi and become knowledgeable on our own faith.
Let us take one step by going to the Gurdwara Sahib, listen to Gurbaani, participate in singing along with Kirtan and helping out with sewa.
May Guru bless and guide all.
Guru Ang Sang.
Gurmukh Singh
Gurmukh Singh Can Be reached at gurmukh.singh@panthic.org.
