(Before jumping into this I think it would be polite of me to state the overall theme of the following thread. I will not be discussing why I love sikhism or how I found sikhism. Instead I will be presenting some questions from a sketpical person with sikh parents.)
Why am I a sikh? Why should I be? What proof is there that I should believe? Do I just need to have faith?
These are questions I ask myself quite regularly. Maybe when I was a teenager if somebody asked me whether or not I was a sikh I would have said yes.
However, these days I find it difficult to admit that I am a sikh. I don't go to the the temple on a regular basis (really only for special events and weddings). The times that I do go I don't really feel interested in getting involved with prayers and etc.
One from here may quickly jump and wrongly accuse me of being ignorant of my own religion. My apathy towards sikhism doesn't result from poor parenting or lack of education. It likey stems from a few kids I met through my adolescence who asked me some questions, questions I had no answers to. Maybe you do, maybe you don't?
Firstly, the title of this thread. Why am I sikh? Is there really a decent answer to that question. The only coherent answer I can think of is "because my parents are". But should a person really structure his/her belief system according to a viewpoint his/her parents held? What if the religion of a child's parents was corrupt and held very immoral beliefs. Should this child just blindly accept what he/she is told to believe?
Now, I am not suggesting that sikhism is corrupt or immoral (I definitely would never say that). What I am trying to suggest is that the answer "because my parents are" is not valid.
Let's take this question a bit further. If I was born into a hindu/christian/muslim family would I end up later in life finding sikhism and converting? I don't think I (or anyone) could say yes to that question with 100% certainty. Of course this is taking the question and twisting it into a completely impossible scenario. Children are merely a product of their parents (genetically). The hypothetical starting with "If I was born from different parents" is inherently flawed. If I had different parents I would no longer be me and therefore I cannot expect this other me to end up with the same system of beliefs as the real me.
Now of course some may argue "well that's not true, we have souls which are capable of transcending space, time and matter" or something to that effect. I'd rather leave that line of argument out of this. The concept of souls (at least when using the conventional definition of the word) requires one to have faith in something that remains for the most part "unproven".
So how about this scenario. Imagine a kid that was born from sikh parents. While the kid is very young (say...1-2 years old), the parents end up getting in some sort of accident and die (or decide to not be capable of raising the child and put him in an orphanage, whatever scenario you prefer). The child is put in a house until a loving hindu couple adopt the child. Treating the child as their own, they, of course, raise the child as a hindu. Once the child grows up he/she pursues a life as a devout hindu. He/she may never be aware that his original parents were sikhs.
Now some ppl might argue that the kid was DESTINED to be a hindu. That this was just god's plan for him. What do you think?
Back to my life though. These days I don't consider myself sikh. My personal belief system probably falls closer to an atheist than a sikh. I read here that sikhism isn't really a religion. However, whenever I read things about a belief system having a creator the word religion is immediately what I think. Can somebody possibly clear this up for me?
That is all I have time for the moment. I look forward to publishing some more posts and hopefully hearing some intellectual responses. Until then...
Why am I a sikh? Why should I be? What proof is there that I should believe? Do I just need to have faith?
These are questions I ask myself quite regularly. Maybe when I was a teenager if somebody asked me whether or not I was a sikh I would have said yes.
However, these days I find it difficult to admit that I am a sikh. I don't go to the the temple on a regular basis (really only for special events and weddings). The times that I do go I don't really feel interested in getting involved with prayers and etc.
One from here may quickly jump and wrongly accuse me of being ignorant of my own religion. My apathy towards sikhism doesn't result from poor parenting or lack of education. It likey stems from a few kids I met through my adolescence who asked me some questions, questions I had no answers to. Maybe you do, maybe you don't?
Firstly, the title of this thread. Why am I sikh? Is there really a decent answer to that question. The only coherent answer I can think of is "because my parents are". But should a person really structure his/her belief system according to a viewpoint his/her parents held? What if the religion of a child's parents was corrupt and held very immoral beliefs. Should this child just blindly accept what he/she is told to believe?
Now, I am not suggesting that sikhism is corrupt or immoral (I definitely would never say that). What I am trying to suggest is that the answer "because my parents are" is not valid.
Let's take this question a bit further. If I was born into a hindu/christian/muslim family would I end up later in life finding sikhism and converting? I don't think I (or anyone) could say yes to that question with 100% certainty. Of course this is taking the question and twisting it into a completely impossible scenario. Children are merely a product of their parents (genetically). The hypothetical starting with "If I was born from different parents" is inherently flawed. If I had different parents I would no longer be me and therefore I cannot expect this other me to end up with the same system of beliefs as the real me.
Now of course some may argue "well that's not true, we have souls which are capable of transcending space, time and matter" or something to that effect. I'd rather leave that line of argument out of this. The concept of souls (at least when using the conventional definition of the word) requires one to have faith in something that remains for the most part "unproven".
So how about this scenario. Imagine a kid that was born from sikh parents. While the kid is very young (say...1-2 years old), the parents end up getting in some sort of accident and die (or decide to not be capable of raising the child and put him in an orphanage, whatever scenario you prefer). The child is put in a house until a loving hindu couple adopt the child. Treating the child as their own, they, of course, raise the child as a hindu. Once the child grows up he/she pursues a life as a devout hindu. He/she may never be aware that his original parents were sikhs.
Now some ppl might argue that the kid was DESTINED to be a hindu. That this was just god's plan for him. What do you think?
Back to my life though. These days I don't consider myself sikh. My personal belief system probably falls closer to an atheist than a sikh. I read here that sikhism isn't really a religion. However, whenever I read things about a belief system having a creator the word religion is immediately what I think. Can somebody possibly clear this up for me?
That is all I have time for the moment. I look forward to publishing some more posts and hopefully hearing some intellectual responses. Until then...