We do not only like to be in a Western country, we love to be in one. And there are other reasons to it apart from money, beauty, culture, art and all the liberty. Consider this for an example:

As a part of my application for a driving theory test in Denmark earlier in June this year, I had to appear for something that is known as to be able to drive on a slippery road. As a part of my rehearsals there I was supposed to take an interpreter for me who would help me in translating the instructions given on radio in Danish to English. This was mandatory as I had listed that I needed an interpreter as my Danish is not so good. At the nick of the time all the few friends I had talked to about this to go with me to the interview did not turn out for some odd reason. I finally had to go to the slippery ground alone. The instructors there did not agree to let me in without an interpreter and asked me to bring one by giving me a short span of time. After trying to call a few more acquaintances and failing I walked to a taxi standing nearby as a last hope. The taxi driver was not only very friendly but he was also extremely honest. And this came to me as no surprise. I told him about my problem and he started ringing all over to his friends to find me an interpreter. Eventually the person arranged for me a person who was Danish and also knew English. The person would not only charge a lot less than most other person and this is what that nice taxi driver explained to me how and why should he charge like this. Examples such as this are not few about Western friendliness and honesty, somethings which come for free most of the times. 

After reading a book like “The End of Faith”, many people would want to convert to atheism. There could be many compelling reasons for that. After getting the idea that all one has is a short life, with the present moment as its most precious gift, without an otherworldly life and with no God in sight. Indeed, the idea that there is no God and, consequently, no after-life is a source of great relief too. This gives one the possibility of availing the endless opportunities and exploring the endless avenues which would otherwise have been prohibited due to more or less strict religious laws. Indeed, the idea that a personal God is constantly monitoring one’s actions   can be a great source of inhibition for pursuing many fantasies.

But the main reason why a person would believe in such a book, or message therein, would depend on that person’s belief in the author, or the messenger. That belief comes from the trustworthiness of the latter. This is to say that if the author of a very nicely written book having compelling reasons for its readers to take its message seriously was himself a complete impostor, nobody would take the book seriously. That veritable traits such as honesty, sincerity, truthfulness, a general predisposition towards innocence and a lack of social crookedness etc. are to be considered more seriously as parameters of credibility as opposed to scientific acumen, wit, eloquence, intelligence quotient etc.

If we look at the spectrum of personalities that inhabit the Western continents, where atheism is flourishing, we find that it is quite easy to find many people that are quite credible. This is what makes atheism quite attractive as an idea for life. In other words, this is the main reason why one would want to develop a disbelief in a super-natural being that controls the lives of people and an after-life.

Personal credibility plays a great role in making people believe in ideas. Consider this person who had lived in a town for around 40 years and he had never cheated, stolen, lied, or had never done anything, what so ever, immoral  otherwise. As a matter of fact the person has been found to have immaculate and extraordinary personal character from the point of view of the Western scholars also. A good example of this can be found here. It is this reputation of him that walks two steps ahead of him and makes people believe that they should consider him as the Prophet of God when he proclaims to be so. It is this reason that when Muhammad (PBUH) made his way to Mount Safa, the most well-known hill in Makkah, to announce the message of Islam to its people and asked the crowds, “O people! Will you believe me if I say there is an army marching behind this mountain which is about to attack you?”.

They all answered, ‘Of course we would, we have not heard a lie from you throughout your life’.

Muhammad, The Last Prophet (saw) said, ‘O people of the Quraish! I warn you to fear God’s punishment. Save yourself from the fire. My position is the same as that of the sentry who sees the enemy from afar and warns his people of the danger of their enemies. Does such a person ever lie to his people?’

It is this message, that was delivered by one of the most credible persons of history, that makes one think that he might as well be right on his account of existence of God and the prospect of an afterlife. 

What is the importance of religion then if people can live their lives by having good morals otherwise and can live peacefully? The need to having a religion becomes superfluous if people can get everything they need in their lives by the virtue of a good social order AND if there actually is no God. This last bit is something no one is sure about. Surely, as a religious person (like a Muslim or a christian or a Jew or a Hindu) cannot give the proof of existence of the God he or she believes in, an atheist cannot give a proof of the non-existence of God either. A religious person can only argue in favor of his existence by presenting the signs of his existence as portrayed in the religious texts. Similarly an atheist can only argue in the non-existence of God by possibly using scientific methods as tools. The end result of this is what we are seeing; a war of ideas, words and weapons on every level of the human society. For instance, your blogs are extremely heated up by the continuous bashing of Islam. Similarly,  in various places in the Muslim countries there are uproars against the USA.

Religion, however, is only important if what religion claims to be or have is actually true. Stated more specifically, and that too about Islam, is that, Islam is the true religion of God (or Allah, to be more specific) IF AND ONLY IF what we know about Islam is in reality true. and IF AND ONLY IF the God (or Allah, for that matter) actually exists and IS not an invention of the prehistoric Arabs or people of the middle-east. 

How can we know that? The answer is that it is not a very simple project to undertake. Nobody has ever seen God. And whether there is an afterlife is only known to the dead, with whom we cannot communicate. 

To this end, to satisfy my curiosity about this matter, I further investigated on the Internet to try to know anything I could about a possible afterlife. I came across your lecture titled “death and the present moment”. In this lecture you say that we live in nothingness once we are dead. That mind is run by the brain and mind ceases to exist once the brain is dead. That we are as good as a dead animal once we are dead. That is to be dead is as if we were never born. That further intrigued me to research on as to what really happens once we are dead. I came across these ideas about “near death experiences” and “out of body experiences”. I am not going to go in to the details regarding the nature of these experiments but the crux is that there is a certain part of the “self” that exists even once we are dead. The guys (who were normally western researchers) inferred that there IS an afterlife for the dead human-beings. 

Having said this, this does not mean at all that there is a God. Or even if there is one, that Islam is the true religion of God. This does not simply imply that. What it implies to me is that the existence of God is an all time open question the answer to which has not been found yet by so many scholars, scientists, and philosophers. 

This, however, does imply that there might or might not be a God. And if there is one, there might be a true religion and hence a true word of God. The consequence of thinking like this is that both the religious people as well as the atheists should soften up a little bit on this topic and try to adopt alternative approaches to addressing this problem. For instance, adopting the scientific method is a really good option. So, for instance, you may appoint a PhD student in your lab to develop a thesis “Is there really a God?” (jokes aside). Burning Holy scriptures and mocking religious figures (like Muhammad (PBUH) or Buddha) only creates more unrest in the society.