Morality
is something personal and something that parents should teach to their children.
But the true morality is not derived from antiquated doctrines and old beliefs.
It is sad that some have made morality a hostage to religion. It is absurd to
impose the morality of bygone cultures and vanquished worlds on our modern
society. Morality is derived from human consciousness and our spiritual
awareness. The more we mature the more sanctified becomes our acts. We won’t
have to live a moral life for the greed of a reward or the fear of punishment in
the afterlife. We will be moral because it enhances our lives. Morality should
be part of who we are, just as our knowledge is part of who we are. True
morality is never in contrast with ethics.
Ethics
has little to do with religion. As Gandhi said, ethics is the matter of
economics. The question is where to invest our vital energy for a higher yield.
If you invest your energy into sensual pleasures you will get a temporary
gratification. If you invest it in more meaningful things you will get greater
satisfaction.
Leading
a moral life is not about renouncing pleasure. A life that is not gratifying is
not worth living. It is about choices. What we choose for pleasure? That is the
question. One who invests his energy in the service of humanity gets more
satisfaction than one who indulges in the pursuit of worldly pleasures.
However,
this is a personal choice derived from maturity and spiritual awareness.
Morality should not be imposed by a higher authority such as state or religion.
An imposed morality is not morality. One who leads a moral life for the fear of
hell is not a moral person because he has not made his choices freely. Fear and
greed, the traditional contrivances of religions, used as incentives to force
people into accepting their morality do not make the society moral. No one and
no religion should impose its morality on people. The imposition of morality is
unethical. Religions that threaten their followers with the hellfire or lure
them with the promises of paradise do not make them moral. Stick and carrot have
better results in training animals than educating people. Only the person who
chooses the higher road freely can be called a moral person.
A
moral person chooses to live morally because it gives him immense pleasure. One,
who is honest, takes pleasure in being honest. He would prefer to be tortured
than to lie or to deceive. Our morality is directly linked to our spiritual
maturity. When we evolve spiritually; knowledge, service to humanity and working
for peace gratify us more than indulging in sensual pleasures. Nothing is wrong
with sensual pleasures. But we get more pleasure in doing something in the
service of humanity than gratifying our senses temporarily.
Would
a person who loves knowledge require further incentive to learn than learning
itself? Would Einstein, e.g. have delighted more in his scientific discoveries
if someone promised him a new car if he could write the theory of relativity?
You may offer a child an ice cream if he did his homework but that would
not be necessary for an adult who seeks knowledge and finds his satisfaction in
learning.
Primitive
religions treat you like children (if not animals). They want to impose their
outdated morality on you by threatening you with hell and bribing you with
heaven to accept their antiquated and often unethical morality. Whether you are
moral because of your fear and greed or because you find satisfaction in leading
a moral life, depends on your maturity and spiritual awareness
The
religious morality is not divinely ordained. It is the morality of the ancient
people, their sages and (in the case of Islam) their psychopath charlatan. We do not need
the morality of the ancient man just as we do not need his technology, science
or medicine. The morality of the ancient man must be buried with his bones.
Modern humans must chart their own morality. Morality must evolve just as human
knowledge and his awareness evolves.
New
morality does not mean immorality. It means coming out of the dark ages of
ignorance and raising new generations that are responsible and ethical. Humans can no
longer be chained to foolish fears and threats of the afterlife. Science has shed
light on the absurdity of religious concepts and shaken the foundation of the
beliefs that our forefathers hold so sacrosanct. The manacles of obscurantism
are broken forever. Today, we have to raise our kids with awareness. They must
learn that mankind is One. Just as our parents taught us the religious lies and
we believed, we can teach our children the truth and they will believe. The
following is one such truth.
All
human beings are limbs of the same body. God created them from the same
essence. If one part of the body suffers pain, then the whole body is
affected. If you are indifferent to this pain, you cannot be called a human
being. -Sa'di
We
do not need to lie and frighten our children with hellfire to raise them moral,
loving and good people. That strategy has never worked. The history of inhumanity of
mankind and especially that of the standard bearers of religions, stand as witnesses
that religions don't make people moral and ethical. In fact in some cases they
render them savages and ruthless barbarians. Good people often commit atrocious
crimes in the name of religion, cheerfully and with clear conscience.
If
we love our children, they learn to be loving. If we are honest, moral and
ethical they learn that too. We can build a better humanity by acting humanely.
Compare
the words of Sa'di to those of Muhammad who said only Muslims are
brothers to each other and as for the disbelievers:
Fight
them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help
you (to victory) over them, heal the breasts of Believers, 9:14,
As
you see, the very belief in Islam is unethical and immoral. We cannot heal
mankind until we do not remove its cancer. This cancer has reached a point that
is going to kill us all. We must choose between Humanity and Islam. Mankind will not
have a future as long as this disease is left untreated. Islam must be
eradicated now. Tomorrow maybe too late.
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