Tragic Earthquake in Japan. Is it Fate? Is it Karma? Is It Living with "the Truth/God that Is Everywhere?"

Please could some-one enlighten me.

Is it impossible for us to follow the principles and values, as propagated to us by our great Sikh Gurus, without a firm belief in God?

Is it possible for an Atheist be a good Sikh?

 
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Jasbir Singh Kaleka

jasbirkaleka ji, I believe you already are a good Sikh compared to many others for me at the interaction and understanding level. As you can see lot of the mis-beliefs and challenge such intelligently in terms of Sikhism. This has to come from knowledge, study and experience.

In terms of God, as long as you have the understanding of oneness of the universe and can believe in the expositions in Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji and don't believe in contradicting Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji, you are a good Sikh for me. Recognizing that understanding and study comes from questioning other people's understandings while sharing your own with an end objective of having better understanding, and not a win-lose strategy.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji dictates that one is not going to define in detail God or "oneness truth" but even then one has to live in consonance recognizing presence of all such internally and externally.

In terms of baptization and Panthic Life, I believe the world is pretty straightforward and there is not much confusion.

Sat Sri Akal.

Until further notice:

Sikh Reht Maryada


Article I
Any human being who faithfully believes in

A problem arises from the following chain of arguments. First one asserts that "One Immortal Being" is timeless and formless, and therefore has no material reality. From that first premise one continues that [God] or [One Immortal Being] per SRM, lacks material reality and therefore does not exist." The conclusion is then drawn: Therefore Sikhs can be atheists, or some similar conclusion. The problem with the conclusion lies in the fallacy of argument by abduction, which occurs twice in the above syllogism. So it is really important to define "One Immortal Being" in the context of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and its teachings before asking whether atheists can be Sikhs, or Sikhs can be atheists.

Atheism and Sikhism are worlds apart. Sikhism revolves around the realisation of God. Just because our concept of God is not the same as other faiths does not make it any less a concept of God. Just because we do not believe in a personal God, what we believe is no less God! Some people will argue that we shouldn't use the word God as it is a word from another language with a whole heap of different connotations but it doesn't matter what terminology you use, the ideas don't change. The Guru's took common phrases and concepts and completely turned them on their head by giving them new meaning. Even if you look at words we use in everyday language, the meaning can drastically change over time but the original ideas behind those words remain valid.

In summary; atheists refuse to believe in God whereas Sikhsim is all about belief in God albeit in a vastly different way to other faiths. No room for confusion!

rangesingh: I am but a lay man as far as religious studies and theology is concerned.

But, at the risk of sounding egoistic, I believe I am a better Sikh than most of the Sikhs I see around me,who have almost turned into idol-worshipers and are steaped in superstitions.

I try to follow, to the best of my ability, the essential teachings of Guru Nanak Dev ji,such as__

Truthfulliving,contentment,compassion,righteousnes s,charity,tolerance, restrain, forgiveness.humility,love,krit and not the least, gyan.

I must admit I have yet to learn much more,but isn"t it what Sikhi is all about, a continuance process of learning.

I know there are lots of short-comings in me and have a long way to go.

But the point I want to stress is that my not believing in a Super-Being has never hampered my humble attempts in being a true Sikh of Guru Nanak Dev ji.
Bhul Chuk Muaf

I don't believe in a super BEING either but I do believe in a GREATER FORCE!

I have some deep thoughts that I may not articulate very well so bear with me please
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/interfaith-dialogues/34847-tragic-earthquake-japan-fate-karma-living.html

At the sub-atomic level the Universe is energy...anything we can see is just a different construct of energy

If Onkar is the Universe and you have Sargun and Nirgun etc then Onkar is energy and is manifest in everything we can see about us

Souls could even be described as bits of that energy that have broken off an "Original source" and the purpose of life is to merge that energy back again

We know there are natural processes that happen just as a result of how different bits of this energy interact with other bits. For example, a volcano blows because that's what volcanos have been doing since they first existed and long before man appeared on the scene

Natural Geological processes govern earthquakes. There is no pre-meditated plan along the lines of "today I'm going to initiate a 6.9 Richter level earthquake in Japan to kill a lot of people"...it just happens

The question of why God allows suffering would then not apply as it is just a consequence of our existence on this planet that we are all subject to how this planet works and what it does.....

Not sure if that made any sense....

Seeker9 ji it makes all sense.

Only thing one needs to add is as Randip Singh ji said and I believe I may have too,

• As part of God's or creator's gift of life is an embodiment to learn and use as much of our faculties to understand how to live amicably with what is above/below and all around.
• The greater our learning of the creation and how we fit wherever we are, the lesser is likelihood being in conflict, misery or misfortune
  • But again what is around being infinite, we will never fully understand and free of all unknowns
  • Also if nature could translate its actions and attributes into plain English I am sure it will give us an earful

Sat Sri Akal.