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 mind to the possibility of existence 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 Qur’an 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 Qur’an 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
Qur’an. 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 with out 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…
Michael's Website
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