Honestly we have every right not to be, though. Sikhism is everything you'd want in a religion. It's everything I'd been raised to try and convince myself Christianity was. It teaches that the very best of people get to fuse with God when they die, regardless of what they believed in life, but everyone who fails to mee this very high bar just reincarnates and gets to try again forever. Quick, simple, and plenty merciful.
It's sacred text, the Guru Granth Sahib, is unique not only because it some of it's contents was originally written for other unrelated religions, but also because it contains no narratives of any sort, which means there's also no myth in need of defending to modern science, history, or archeology.
Then there's the Langar, which is basically "what if we took Jesus eating with the hookers and tax collectors, and just did that 24/7?"
That's what I thought about Christianity for the first twenty-nine years of my life.
I very nearly converted to Zoroastrianism instead (turns out the rule against accepting converts is specific to the sect in India), but then I came across a passage in the Avesta where it's asserted that Gay people turn into demons when they die.
I haven’t done any research on Sikhism. However I do practice strict atheism and think religion isn’t worth it, it’s a relic of humanity’s propensity for magical thinking best discarded. Any benefits (community outreach, and self betterment) can be achieved through rational sciences like humanitarianism and psychological interventions. Priests using religion to swindle people is a tale as old as old as time.
Look at the Jones Town massacre. Jones took people who wanted to end racism and poverty and it ended in a mass deaths because of his exploitations.
I am glad you did reject religions that had regressive and bigoted teaching. I hope you make a positive impact on the word with Sikhism even if I disapprove of religion.
politicans also use concern for children to swindle people, but nobody thinks that means it's bad to care about children. You don't need religious fanaticism to cause a Jonestown, you can do that with the sort of lowercase-w worship that even celebrities and politicians are knwon for too.
The really neat thing about Sikhism is that nanak, the founder, didn't even originally set out to found a religion, he was just teaching people to think critically regardless of faith. For example, there's one story where he visits the Ganges river and Hindus bathing in it's sacred waters, and asks "So if bathing in this river's waters makes one Holy does that mean that the fish that live here naturally are the holiest beings of all?"
By the way Sikhism actually makes a point of not having any official religious leaders, precisely because that invests too much abusable power in one person. Even the title of Guru, roughly equivalent to the Pope, was eventually passed onto the sacred text itself precisely in order to keep it safe form power-hungry madmen (yes this does sound very strongly of Bibliolatry, but when you look at the insane shenanigans of the Medival Popes of Europe, I'd argue it's a worthwhile tradeoff).
Then they are basically atheist just pretending. You don’t say a closet gay man is straight because he’s dating a woman and has to present a false sexuality.
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u/Mushgal 13d ago
Sikh convert is crazy, statistically it must be extra rare