Omkar Pandirkar wrote:Pink Panther, it's not about religion, it was just created during the Copper Age. Before that, in both ages, there was no religion.
Copper Age? Upon what basis do you use that term?
Year 12 exams at school? What have you learnt?
Are you seriously thinking that before 500 BC there was no religion? Do you think a true God doesn’t know history, geology, geo-physics paleontology?
The "
evidence under our noses” I referred to in my earlier replies to you is the obvious hard, physical evidence of physics, maths, archeology, biology. You have to throw out all that knowledge, undeniable by all tests (other than just wishing it away) to accept ”Copper Age”.
Please Omkar, with full respect, I am writing to you as if I was writing to my younger self who, as I said, foolishly joined the BKs when I was was only a few years out of high school. I was not stupid. I was among the top achievers in my year. (Interestingly, the intelligent & idealistic are often the ones who rationalise and explain to themselves what they want to be true better than the less intelligent, so they often get drawn in. Studies into cults, extreme political and religious groups etc show this.)
I wish someone took the time to talk me through things clearly and rationally. There were no internet forums in those days. In life, people will ask you to believe all kinds of things. Please take the time to consider each point of what you are being asked to believe.
Quran, Bible, Bhagwad Gita and the one Punjabis read in Gurudwara, all these are holy books are for particular religions. Every religion talks about peace and love but very less people look upon this.
The Sikh scripture is the Guru Grath Sahb. All are of their time and cultures. They are moral guide books for their people, and they are attempts at explaining existence from a time before scientific method and rational secular exploration of societies etc.
BK teachings reflect the time and culture of its founder Lekhraj. That is, the Gyan (as it calls itself) is not from a Supreme God but from a 19th century self-annointed ”spiritual teacher” who thought he was God at first, and later decided there must be another explanation ... the Gyan, when examined, reveal exactly that.
He was a man born in the latter half of the 19C, his education barely a fraction of today's. The level of understanding of history, science, societies and culture was very limited, filled with the prejudices of the day. He believed in caste, in monarchy, in racial categories. He did not know the difference between Islam and Judaism (the BK picture of The Tree was changed after he died). He ignored 1/4 of the world’s population in the ”Human geneological world tree!!”. Where are the Taoists, Confucians and Shintoists of China, Japan and Korea? Where are the animists and shamanist religions of the African, North and South American continents?
The word ”geneological” is used in the BK posters etc but genetics show humanity came out of Africa. Modern biology and medicine would not work as it does if evolutionary genetics was wrong.
Your computer and smartphone and aircraft navigation would not work if Einstein’s Relativity theory was wrong. It is not, which means astrophysics and the size and age of the universe as conceived by Lekhraj/Brahma BapDada is mistaken. Such mistakes are understandable, he was trying to make sense of the world he was surrounded by in terms he was educated and enculturated in, i.e. the mythologies of scripture & Hindustani culture rather than modern, secular, universal sciences etc. Please, when you have time after the end of the school term, look up discussions here about science and Gyan or history and Gyan.
To understand 'how is it we know what we know' is called ”Epistomology”. If you go to university, I can recommend it as a subject you should get acquainted with. If you do an Arts or Philosophy course, or maybe as part of any science in the philosophy of science?
and thanks for the advice but I am not in love with anyone, I am just in 12th preparing for boards.
I meant you are in love with your current understanding, not a person. The work of the young is to develop a healthy identity, to develop a sense of themselves in the world and take their place in it. That dynamic includes infatuation with one’s newfound discoveries and exploring them further. We all do it.
What we are asking of you is to not get caught in the trap of ”the romance” of idealism and your current ”spiritual” experience. Like a romance, idealism and youthful discovery lets us think it is we who have invented the wheel for the first time. OK, It’s normal for the young to question the advice of those older, as if we are cynical ”old fogeys”. By all means, question us, we will answer straightforwardly and honestly. But also, please question the BK ”old fogeys” too, about the things they teach and expect you to believe, or about their history, see how honestly they answer you. it will all be ”just remember Baba, do Yoga and service”.
Please, explore this site and look at the BKWSU documents which even the BKWSU doesn’t want its people to know about. You may not know it but there is a "war” within the BKs about how it handles its own history. Please read the personal experiences of the many who have written here about their BK lives, the good and the bad.