I am
ethnically a Russian Jew. My quest began when I was 19 years old. I was
recovering from my stint with Scientology (yes I was brainwashed into it).
My belief in
God was uncertain. My goals in life were to be a rock star. I was living in my
Pasadena apartment and working as a secretary. Funny, I know.
One night I
was walking to the kitchen, and encountered a dark fellow. I remembered asking
him: “Can I keep this vodka in the fridge tonight?” We shook hands and went to
sleep. After that point, my life changed drastically…
This dark
fellow, a Muslim, was the first Muslim I had ever met. Extremely curious, I
conversed with him about his faith. What’s this stuff I hear about praying 5
times a day? And about Holy War? Who is this Mohammed guy?
Our talks were
accompanied by our Christian roommate, Wade. Together, we created “The Jewish,
Christian, and Muslim dialogue sessions”. In it, we discovered many
differences, and many commonalities.
My interest
had then shifted from sex, drugs, and parties, to a massive search for the
truth. A search that I had to complete. A search for God. And a search for how
to follow him.
In my quest
for the truth, I asked myself: “Ok let’s start simple, how many God’s do I
think are out there?” I figured only one; knowing that a divided God is weaker
than One God; figuring that if one God didn’t agree with the other, there might
be arguments and feuds. One God was my choice.
Once I opened
up my mind to the possibility of the existence of God, I analyzed both atheist
and theist beliefs. The thing that directed me to the latter was the quote
“Every design has a designer”. With that in mind, eventually I woke up with
certainty that God exists. I can’t explain why, I just felt it somehow.
This newfound
excitement was accompanied by a sense of responsibility to follow the Creator.
The world of religion was my next frontier.
Then I asked
myself, “Where do I start?” There are literally thousands of them. I need a way
to narrow them down to a just a few. How do I accomplish such a task? “Find the
ones that are monotheistic” entered my mind. “Hey that makes sense, since I
believe in only One God.”
Ok, then. This
ruled out Buddhism and Hinduism, both being polytheistic faiths. The major
religions I encountered that fell under the title of Monotheistic, where
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Well since I’m a Jew, I started with Judaism.
One God, some prophets, 10 commandments, Torah, Jewish souls…uh, what: “Jewish
souls?”
While doing
research this idea was brought to my attention. The story goes, “if a person is
born Jewish, then they have a Jewish soul, and they must follow Judaism.” Hold
on a sec…that’s discrimination, isn’t it? That’s not universal.
So God makes
Jewish souls, and Christian souls, and Muslim souls, and Hindu souls? I thought
all men are created equal? So, because one is born into a religion that means
by the decree of God he must remain in it… even if the person believes it to be
false? Hmm…I don’t agree with that.
Another thing
really bothered me…there is no strict concept of hell in Judaism…then why be
good? Why not sin? If I don’t have fear of strict punishment, then why should I
be moral?
Moving on, I
discovered Christianity. Ok, one God, a father, a son, and a holy ghost…one
more time: one God, a father, a son, and a holy ghost. Uhhh, please explain.
How can all those things be one God? 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 right? So how can you say
you believe in only one God?
Explanation
after explanation, equation after equation, comparison after comparison,
analogy after analogy, I couldn’t grasp this concept. Ok let’s keep looking
here.
Ok, next major
doctrine: Jesus died for our sins and he did this because we all are polluted
with “Original Sin”. So, Jesus Christ, the “son of God”, had to be murdered to
save everyone from Hell and cure us of our sin “given” to us by Adam.
Ok then, so
are you saying that we are all born as sinners? And to sin is to do something
wrong right? Then you’re telling me that a one-year old baby is guilty of sin
or doing something wrong? Ok that’s strange, so based on the actions of one
man, all of mankind must suffer? What’s the moral of that story? Punish the
whole group if one deviates? Why would God create such a rule? That’s just not
in agreement with my logic.
So Jesus died
because he “loves mankind”. Hold on, it says in the Bible that Jesus said
“father, why have you forsaken me?” So, apparently, Jesus didn’t understand why
he was being brutally murdered. But you just said he “volunteered” to be
sacrificed. Anyway, I couldn’t accept this belief. Ok, what’s the next
religion?
Islam. Islam
means submission. The main beliefs are as follows: One God, worship God five
times a day, give 2.5% annual charity, fast during Ramadan (to be closer to God
and appreciate life…among other reasons) and finally journey to Mecca for Hajj
if you are able financially. Ok, nothing hard to understand so far.
There’s
nothing that conflicts with my logic here. The Quran is a book with all of
these interesting miracles and timeless wisdom. Many scientific facts only
discovered recently where proclaimed 1400 years ago in this book.
Ok, Islam had
passed my initial religious prerequisites. But I wanted to ask some deep
questions about it. Is this religion universal? Yes, anyone can understand
these basic beliefs…no analogy or equation are needed. Does it agree with
science? Yes, dozens of verses in the Quran agree with modern science and
technology.
As I sifted
through the countless logical facts that I read through and researched, one
thing took my attention the most. “Islam”. The name of this religion. I noticed
it is written many times in this Quran.
However,
recalling my prior studies, I didn’t remember once seeing the word “Judaism” in
the Old Testament or “Christianity” in the New Testament. This was BIG. Why
couldn’t I find the very name of the religions in those two books? Because,
there is no name in these books! Thinking…I noticed that “Judaism” could be
broken down to “Juda- ism” and “Christianity” could be respectively
“Christ-ianity”.
So who is
Juda? Or Judah, rather. He was the tribe leader of the Hebrews when God
revealed his message to mankind. So this religion was named after…a person. Ok
let’s look at who Christ is. He was the person who delivered the message of God
to the Jews. So this religion was named after…a person.
So in
recollection, we can deduct that the names of these religions are people’s
proper names attached to “ism” and “ianity”. Regardless of that fact, the very
names of those religions are not mentioned in their scriptures. I thought that
was very odd.
If I went door
to door selling a product, and I said “Would you like to buy this _______”?
Wouldn’t the logical question be: “What is this _____ called?” I would make no
money off of a product without a name.
Naming is the
very basis which humans identify with objects, both physical and non-physical.
If religion is supposed to be practiced and spread to every person on earth,
shouldn’t there be a NAME for it?
Moreover,
shouldn’t the name be given to us from God Almighty? YES, my point exactly. The
names “Christianity” and “Judaism” were not written in the Holy Scriptures.
Humans named them, not God. The notion that God would ordain a religion for
mankind to follow without a name is impossible for my mind to accept.
At that point,
both Christianity and Judaism lost their credibility as pure, logical, and
complete religions, at least from my perspective.
Islam is the
ONLY of these religions to include the NAME of the religion in its scriptures.
This is so huge for me.
I realized I
would follow Islam at that point. I then became a Muslim. I knew the truth. I
was out of the darkness. I came into the light…
No comments:
Post a Comment