Are you listening, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan?

Quran said: this book is for the believers.

Aha! Belief! That heavenly word on which the heavens and the hells rest!

And thus came a large sheeple of people, calling themselves Muslims.

Once man believed in sun god, cow god and rain gods. Belief?

Then came the prophets, Rama, Krishna and a host of them. They came at a time when the Semitic people were roaming in jungles in bare skin (but the latter would dare to call the formers heretics).

Then the Semitics clothed themselves, and they created their own religions, story of Abraham, and then came their prophets.

The God of Abraham was ruthless, violent, and loved vengeance. Was that all? Then why did he spare the life of the child that Abraham was ready to sacrifice?

Then came Jesus, and he said, “I have not come to do away with the Laws, but to make them come true. Not the least of the Laws shall be done away with, not until there is Heaven and Earth.

Jesus also spoke in the name of God and he lived life of a god, far beyond any ordinary mortal’s realm. Jesus said, if some one slaps one of your cheek, let him slap the other one too. Jesus said, pardon your enemy 70 times 7. Jesus said, leave all your worldly possessions and come to me. He lived the life of a god.

Then came Muhammad, who accepted all Semitic religious traditions before him. Muhammad accepted Jesus as a prophet, and the miracle of his birth and host of other traditions. When did Muhammad bring a new religion? All he did was remove the cobwebs and establish the Kingdom of God in the true tradition of Abraham.

Muhammad had his feet firmly on the ground. He lived the life that any ordinary mortal could live. He was the king of Arabia, yet he lived the life of a pauper. There were days when his body was weak with pain from hunger. He too forgave his worst enemies.

At the gate of Mecca, he faced his life-long tormentors; with one word he could decimate the city into oblivion. Notwithstanding, he choose to forgive. Forgive even the worst of the worst.

Muhammad followed the tradition set by Jesus and all other prophets before him, inclusive of Rama, Krishna and the rest of them.

It is one religion man, the religion of GOD the almighty. Do not kill in the name of religion.

You call yourself a Muslim, you whose hands are smeared in blood? Who does not have the temerity to condemn all these violence in the name of Islam?

You rascal!

Can a non religious person lead an honest and ethical life?

The poll has closed and I am flabbergasted with your response.

Thirty people participated in the poll; I thank you all for taking time to convey your opinion. Sixty six percent of the respondent answered “yes” to the question. This indicates that I am dealing with a matured audience that has come of age and is ready to live without crutches. In my book One God in You and Me, I had hypothesized that a great number of people in our time is not ready to relinquish the crutch. Albeit, not my audience, you have indicated a level of illumination which is above normal.

Twenty six percent answered, “may be,” which is again very impressive since you are prepared to grant the breadth to other thought processes and deliberate the question with honesty. If you have come that far, you have left the base and are close to the transition to a higher plateau.

One person answered “don’t know,” theoretically there is not a great difference between you and the people who answered, “may be,” except that you are probably veering more on the side of caution. You too are ready for the leap.

I will reserve most of my comments for the person who answered “no.” I am sure you will agree that a religious person can live unethical life; in deed a mere look at the outside world is sufficient to exhibit that people who vouch in the name of religion do not always live ethical lives. The very basis of mechanics of war on terror, and the associated mayhem attests to this. Truly, there shall not be any confusion to the reality that a religious life is no guarantor to an ethical life.

Now the question is, if a person is not religious, can he live an ethical life? If not, why not? What prevents him from pursuing an ethical life? If fear of God and religion cannot ensure an ethical life why the absence of it would automatically propel one to the other spectrum? What kind of person leads non religious life, anyway?

Human society has imposed religious beliefs on its members from time immemorial. The cruder the society the greater was the force of authority. Collective thoughts have attempted to suppress contrary individual thoughts time and again. Without freedom of thought, the society rots and is ultimately subjugated by invaders. Quran says, there is no compulsion in religion, so do books of all other faiths. Consequently, freedom of thought is the fundamental human right; freedom to question, freedom to seek better ways, freedom to strive for perfection. That freedom of enquiry thrusts human generation to the next higher level of progression. Can religion be an impediment to that progress?

I dare say; it can. This is what I have tried to delineate in my book One God in You and Me, using various religious teachings, pre-religious customs, and science. That is why I would submit, there are ethical people who can continue to seek meaning of life outside the rigor of organized religions.