Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Experience at the Sikh Temple

So last night most of our Apologetics class went to visit the "Sikh Community Centre" in Toronto. After Pastor Zekveld explained a little about what they were about, and some of the things to not do while we were in there(refrain from laughing so as to not disrespect them), we stepped into the building. Without wanting to be melodramatic, it was somewhat scary.

The first thing I noted personally was the look on the faces of the people going into the "sanctuary" to kneel. Not a single smile on anyone's face, and when they cross their hearts and bow it's nothing more than a sign of fearful respect rather than coming before a mercifully just God. It might sound strange, but you could actually see in their eyes a lack of hope and assurance.

The high priests at the front greeted us with plastic smiles, and then we took our shoes off and put a bandana on. I never did ask what the bandana symbolized, but on it went :) The orange was Ben's color for sure. The bandanas suiting some better than others, I did my best to not lol, and followed our english speaking guide.

He described the building to us, and the significance of some of the logos and paintings. In the main "sanctuary" a man sat underneath a blinking LED palace shape reading "the guru". When I saw those blinking lights I had the image of blinking neon sign saying "Get your idols here". While all of this was interesting from an inquisitive perspective, it was the discussion with the guide that proved the most interesting.

He described how they follow ten men called "gurus" who were perfect men who never sinned, but were not gods or God. He put a lot of emphasis on the fact that they were monotheistic, and that that is what they and Christians have in common. Anyway, the tenth guru said there would be no gurus after him except for the books that he and the others before him had written. And so they consider their books as real gurus who must be put to bed at night and tucked in.

Of everything that we talked about the most profound thing was that they are unsure of anything except death. Even when I asked him about the existence of God, he could only point to creation-he had no real sense or knowledge of his existence. The only thing to be sure of is that death happens, and a person's body no longer exists. You either do good works and die into nonexistence, or you do "bad things" and come back as a lesser creature. No mediator, you are the only one who can account for your wrong, forgiveness doesn't exist if your repentance isn't real, and in the end death is all you can look forward to.

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