GYC 2009: unASHAMED

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Subodh Pandit:  Come Search with Me, Let's Look for God

Subodh Pandit

The Existence of God

Just One Way?

Comparing the Five Great World Religions, Part 1

Comparing the Five Great World Religions, Part 2

Comparing the Five Great World Religions, Part 3

The Man, The Book, The Supreme Transaction

We have been comparing, well let's start from the beginning.

The first question we asked yesterday, the first session was, is there a God in existence?

And we realized that to the question, is there a God in existence?

Columns for the first option, which says there is no God in existence.

And in the same line, a second column against the other side which says there is a God in existence.

And then we went to the other side, the option which said there is a God in existence.

And what are the arguments against the other option which said there is no God in existence?

When you have 4 lines and 4 columns of evidences, You just place them before you and you will see how the pendulum shifts very decisively and very clearly to the side that there is something supernatural.

Everything is just not what we see and beyond that there is a supernatural dimension of living.

And if there is a supernatural dimension, then there is the question whether it is only a power or whether it is a being, personality.

The ordinary simple reasoning is that if I have a personality and if that power created me then the power has to have a personality himself otherwise I wouldn't have a personality And therefore the being that is there is a thinking, feeling, acting, speaking being, because that's what I do.

When we settle that, then we have to look for the name, is there an identity to this God?

And when we looked at it carefully, relativism does not stand a simple logical examination.

There are some things known as absolute truths in our existence.

You cannot have everything relative, for if you do, you will not be able to live.

The next question is religious relativism, which is pluralism, which says that don't bother about the number of religions out there.

All of them are just different paths to the same common goal.

We looked at the religious writings of 5 of these religions which we are looking at now, and none of those religious writings ever accept this concept that there is a way and there is an equal alternative on the other side.

Every religion claimed to be the only way.

So if there are 4 or 5 wanting to be the champion, what are the options?

Logical deduction, A final deduction of when there are more than 1 is that there is only 1 that is telling the truth of being the only way.

And I am describing really my personal search into this, which took me over 20 years.

At the end of which I put all these things together and that's what we have here as a seminar.

Then I chose 5 great world religions, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity, and tried to figure out how we would be able to weigh them out.

There is no reference point, so how do you do it?

Just describing the different features is not comparison.

We call it comparative religion classes, but all they do is describe the features.

Nobody has the guts to say this is better than that.

But if you really are Looking for something, you've got to somehow find out whether 1 is better than the other.

Now, you cannot do that by just describing the different features.

If we went to some other features that were not really inside there inherently.

For example, suppose you were hungry and you were given the choice between an apple and an orange.

You love oranges, But this apple was a nice, shiny, red, juicy, sweet fruit on the table.

And by that time it reached the table, it had all black blotches on it and shriveled and little holes there and little wiggly creatures poking their heads out of the holes.

You choose the apple because you're hungry and you want to eat.

Did you choose between the apple and the orange?

But you did not choose between the features of an apple and the features of an orange.

You chose between rottenness and freshness.

And so similarly, when you deal with these different religions, You cannot go to their doctrines to compare the doctrines.

You have to go to features that are what I call para-religious features.

They are facts that anybody else can look into.

You don't have to be an adherent to the religion to be able to decipher those facts.

You must go to those kind of questions and ask simple, straightforward questions.

Now, in my search I found out that it's not as important to look for answers as it is to look for the right question.

You take your pencil and go, boom, against a wall, then come back, and then go to another side, and boom against another wall, and bring your pencil back, and then finally go through.

That's how it was with me until I got the correct questions.

And I guess for you it's kind of easier because all I'm going to show you are the questions that pushed me through.

It took me a long time to bang my head against this wall and that wall and then finally come to this and make a reasonable case.

You cannot be wedded to a cause of which you have serious questions in your mind.

The heart can never be happy and at peace while the mind has serious questions.

It is not that we don't have enough of commitment.

It is not that we don't have enough of experience.

We cannot make a decision to follow on to death until we have a reason In your brain, not in your heart.

There are many people who say, I got a good experience.

Look, let me tell you, there are good experiences in the Buddhists too.

And some of those experiences might be better than yours.

I asked God, I said, give me a reason to believe.

Don't ask me for just blindly follow, just because you feel good, just because you were kind of saved from that accident.

I was drowning, and then somebody just pulled me out.

I had gone to that useless life out there in the bars and having partying time in my life, and God pulled me out.

Let me ask you, why do you say it was Jesus who pulled you out?

Why not Gautama Buddha or Krishna who pulled you out from there?

We just say Jesus, but we cannot answer this question.

Why do you say it was Jesus who pulled you out from there?

I am saying it was Krishna who pulled you out.

Series

Subodh Pandit: Come Search with Me, Let's Look for God

Comparing the Five Great World Religions, Part 3

Transcript

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Parent Conference

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