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 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…
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