My Journey to God
by
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Chapter 1 A Framework for this Book (Page 3 to 5) Geologists say our Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Biologists say that humanity’s journey on Earth may have started 3.5 billion years ago, as indicated by the filament-like fossils in Australia, or perhaps 3.7 billion years ago, as may be evidenced by sediment rocks in Greenland. According to the most popular scriptures in the West, however, their God created humans, the world and everything in it a little over 6,000 years ago. The human population reached an estimated 8 billion in 2022, and that number continues to grow. Likewise, there are over 4,200 different religions (by some accounts) and that number is growing, too. According to data compiled by Infoplease, 83 percent of the world’s population belong to one of the 12 following religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, some form of Chinese Traditional Religion (Taoism, Shintoism, Confucianism), various forms of African Traditional Religion, Sikhism, Spiritism and Judaism. Fifteen percent, or 1.2 billion people, identify as atheist or non-religious. In another study, the Pew Research group found that in 2015, 35 percent of American millennials were not affiliated with any of the popular religions. Pew may have focused on the American population, but my own observations have revealed that 40 percent of the world’s population either doesn’t believe in a Creator God or Keeper God, or believes in some form of nature God. What are these statistics telling us? What is religion? Who created it and what does it really mean to be religious? Why were the major religions divided into several denominations? Why is one religion considered real and another fake? Is God watching us 24/7 and rewarding or punishing us based on each of our actions? What is the meaning of religious nationalism? Why do we need such nationalism? I have been seeking answers to all these questions for years, but it’s not just me. God’s existence and his/her influence over human behaviour has been of interest to all conscious minds. These questions are the framework for this book. During my own research, I have examined the logic and theosophies behind two major religious groups: the Indic and Abrahamic faiths. I have not read all the religious books I have talked about in this book page-to-page. Neither have I pretended to have any ability to read ancient Sanskrit, Urdu, or Hebrew texts. But I have read the translated versions of these holy books and the interpretations of them from my own trusted sources. My trusted sources for the Indic theosophy come mainly from Adi Shankara, Swami Vivekananda, Eknath Easwaran, Jay Lakhani, and Aurobindo Ghose. All of these humanists were prodigious readers and well-intended individuals. Three out of five of them were fluent in Sanskrit and English languages. The very few books, articles, and speeches they wrote are unbiased, in my opinion. Socrates, Bertrand Russell, Ibn Warraq (an ex-Muslim), Dan Barker (an ex-Christian), Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are my other trusted sources for their writings on Abrahamic theosophies. All of these individuals were or are well-read, well-meaning and culturally unbiased humanists. The religions I cover in this book are Hinduism, Judaism, Christianism, Islamism and Buddhism. I consider these the main religions and the rest as offshoots of these five. For instance, I take Hinduism as the root religion for Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism and many other lesser-known Eastern religions. Similarly, I consider Shintoism, Taoism and Confucianism to be part of Buddhism, and Christianity and Islam part of Judaism. From the latter three religions sprang many others (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Bahai, Wahabi and so on). Even though Zoroastrianism is considered one of the oldest religions in the world, I found its belief system similar to that of both Hinduism and Islam (monotheistic, yet naturalist). Hinduism is a complex mix of philosophy, theology and spirituality. Not all of these ideas align with Jainism and Buddhism. Because of this, I have separated Jain and Buddhist faiths from Hinduism in this book. I have also separated Judaism and Islam from Christianity to highlight the two major differences between them. For instance, Judaism and Islam are more of the orthodoxy (or orthopraxy) faiths. The nonbelievers of such orthodoxy are automatically excluded from the groups, but Christianity gives the feeling of inclusiveness even when one doesn’t strictly follow the faith. This book is more of a research paper than a traditional book in the sense that this is a collection of information I found in the books, lectures, articles and videos I use as sources. The places I went and the people I met and spoke with have also contributed a great deal to this book. In this light, this book is a synthesized version of my journey to God.
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About the Book
My journey to God began in my childhood. My mother followed all rituals and rites as a Hindu woman, but made priority to serve the poor. That was her religion. My father, on the other hand, didn’t believe in any sort of supernatural being, but talked passionately about his atman. That was his religion. My husband had seen some of the poorest among the poor in his village fervently following their religions and all the rituals their priests prescribed to them. Neither to exploit nor to be exploited became his religion.
There are so many gods and goddesses. That many religions and faiths. Even more gurus and swamies, telling us what to do and what not to, while the poor and the vulnerable people around the world being cheated, exploited, and even murdered. Where is the God? What is S/he doing to improve the worsening environmental conditions—the heatwaves, the melting of the iceberg, the hurricanes and tsunamis? These are the reasons I took this journey.
About the Author
Bina Sharma is a social entrepreneur, author, and MBA. She was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal, and is one of the Canadian pioneers who was the first Nepali immigrant woman to settle in New Brunswick, Canada, over 40 years ago. She has a keen interest in research and development.
Bina is the author of three books: My Journey to God (2025), Our Forgotten Culture (2024), and Cultural Heritage of the Nepalese (2016). Her fourth book, Nepal’s Major Cuisines and Culinary Cultures, will be released in 2026.