Dear
Samir,
If
truth is bitter lies are sweet. The lie that
you said about me being an
intellectual giant is a huge lie but it was
sweet and I thank you for that.
Too bad I have seen the bottomless pit of
my ignorance and cannot revel in
that lie for too long. :-) However undeserved
compliments are like gifts. We
treasure gifts more than what we rightfully
earn.
I
agree with you that some people will never
be able to think rationally.
This gentleman, Malik Usman, keeps asking
what is “rational thinking” in
every email. Do we really have to explain
what is rational thinking? See for
example in his last email to me, he invited
Avijit Roy and myself to go to
Pakistan. Why we have to meet face to face
when we can so easily communicate
through email, pondering over our words without
letting emotions get in the
way?
In
his first email to me, Mr. Usman said that
he does not believe in Islam
and for that matter he has problem with his
friends and family and thinks I
am his “solution”. I thought that as a phony
email especially coming from
someone whose email reads islami@consultant.com
yet I respectfully told him
that family ties and friendships are sacred
and it is better that he avoid
religious talk with his loved ones. I also
told him that the essence of
rational thinking is independent thinking
and that means you never follow
another human being as your guru nor you ever
take someone to be your
solution. I also told him that if someone
went through all my writings and
after reading everything decided that I am
so intelligent that he can take
me as his solution and follow me blindly,
that means that I have failed. The
very purpose of this exercise is to make people
doubt, find their own light
and never follow another person. We had a
long conversation about the merits
of doubt and demerits of faith. The transcripts
of those rather interesting
exchanges are in this link.
http://free.freespeech.org/rationalthinking/origin_of_god.htm
Suddenly
however, Mr. Malik Usman retracted from him
original position and
declared that from now on he wants to speak
like a Muslim and his goal would
be to revert me back to Islam. To this I responded
that I too am changing my
position and from now on I declare myself
a messenger of God. I challenged
him to refute my claim. Mr. Usman believes
that “faith does not require
proof”, so I asked him to believe in me without
questioning my authority or
asking for proof. I told him that tell me
all the proof the Muhammad had and
I will match or beat them. He has failed to
do so.
Now
he is asking Avijit Roy and myself to go to
Pakistan. Does he really
take us for total idiots? Is this rational
thinking?
However,
people like Mr. Usman who claim to have the
“scientific proof” for
Mi’raj, splitting the Moon, Noah’s ark and
jinn will go where dinosaurs
went. The ignorance that we perpetuated for
1400 years is ending. Today is
the age of the Internet and the free flow
of information. The day of
universal knowledge has dawned. No more can
the hosts of darkness put his
light off. We need one generation, one generation
and with the power of the
Internet we can wipe out the darkness of ignorance
throughout the world.
You
are born a Hindu. Here we have people who
are born Christian, Jew,
Shiite, Sunni and who knows what else. By
renouncing the religion of our
fathers and forefathers we have discovered
our oneness as humanity. For how
long we can keep this hate going on? Religions
cause hate, division and
disunity. If there is a God that God must
be the God of love and not the God
of hate. If there is a God, that God must
love the atheists who love
humankind irrespective of their creeds and
not the religionists who hate the
non-believers.
I
am not an atheist. I do believe in the God
of Espinosa and Einstein. And I
seek God in the relationship with people,
in the interaction with other
human beings. God is in the laughter of children,
is in he eyes of that old
man sitting in the bench feeding the pigeons,
is in the hopes of that young
miner digging through the hard coal deep in
the ground. God is in the hug
you give to your spouse, in the attention
you pay to your child, in the love
you give to your aging parents. There is no
other god beyond the love we
have for each other.
Now
that I have declared my prophethood and even
had a Mi’raj, may be I
should also compose a Shahada. Well, my shadada
would read something like
this. La illaha illal hobb. There is not god
but Love. :-)
Take care
Ali
From: "Samir Nandy" <samir_nandy@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Re: Took an easy
way in your inbox....
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 00:58:26 -0400
Dear
Mr. Sina
My
name is Samir Nandy and I am originally from
Calcutta, India now residing
in Washington DC. I was introduced to your
web site by Mr. Jamal Hasan, who
is a fellow Bengali, and a friend.
I
am writing to let you know that I appreciate
your efforts in educating
these bigoted idiots. However, it has been
my experience from the News
groups that people like these will never participate
in any form of rational
argument, nor will they respond in a coherent
manner. I honestly believe
that engaging into any kind of discussion
with people like Malik Usman is
sheer waste of time.
On
a different note, I do consider you as an
intellectual giant, and it is
refreshing to read your articles. I have visited
your web site and have
found a wealth of information there. I thank
you from the bottom of my
heart for your dedication and perseverance.
Born
a Hindu, I now flip flop between being an
agnostic or an atheist,
depending on my frame of mind. I truly believe
that all religion were
created by human beings to oppress and subjugate
the masses. In the worst
possible scenario, even if God were to exist,
there is no way that religion
can be God's teachings. Therefore, I consider
all people who peddle or even
adhere to any single religious denomination,
as bigots. There are far too
many problems in the world for people to work
together and solve at least
some of the most pressing ones. Unfortunately,
most of the people prefer to
follow the path of divine enlightment, ignoring
the cause-effect
relationships of all human activities.
It
is a shame that most people are not only gullible,
they are also smug
enough to try to rationalize all phenomenon
in light of creationism as
preached by the semitic religions. Even Hinduism
depicts the earth to be a
flat land resting on the back of a giant turtle!
Why is it so hard for
people to accept that in a habitable environment
Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen
atoms and molecules can combine to form living
organisms? Why are people so
hung up on the concept of "soul"? Don't animals
and lower forms of animals
have souls too? Perhaps they misinterpret
intellect and ability to
rationalize as the "voice of conscience" arising
from the so called non
existent "soul".
I
am sorry that I got detracted, but in a sense
this will give you some idea
why I appreciate free thinking.
With
warmest regards,
Samir
Nandy
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