On Saturday night, while sitting in a hotel room, I was surfing channels and was watching some program on BBC, which interrupted it with breaking news on the Norway bomb blast. It was a scary bit of news, but what compounded the same and got me thinking on how much Islam had got tagged as a terror religion. To watch one of the most moderate news channels in the world hinting that this could possibly be a terror attack linked to the Norway Cartoon publication and their presence in Afghanistan was just shocking. If I had heard it on Fox news I wouldn’t have been surprised, but hearing it on BBC was a bit disappointing.It finally turned out that the guy who did this, or the groups behind this were really Christian Fundamentalists and not Islamic Jihadis. I remember reading the below story somewhere on the internet and searched it out as my answer to to the Jihadi, the Hindu Fundamentalist, the Christian Militant or the Buddhist terrorist who is reading my blog.
A child in the sixth grade in a Sunday School in New York City, with the encouragement of her teacher, wrote to Einstein on 19 January I936 asking him whether scientists pray, and if so what they pray for. Einstein replied as follows on 24 January 1936:
“I have tried to respond to your question as simply as I could. Here is my answer. Scientific research is based on the idea that everything that takes place is determined by laws of nature, and therefore this holds for the actions of people. For this reason, a research scientist will hardly be inclined to believe that events could be influenced by a prayer, i.e. by a wish addressed to a supernatural Being.
However, it must be admitted that our actual knowledge of these laws is only imperfect and fragmentary, so that, actually, the belief in the existence of basic all-embracing laws in Nature also rests on a sort of faith. All the same this faith has been largely justified so far by the success of scientific research. But, on the other hand, every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe — spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.”
I believe my personal religion is also work in progress. It matters very little to me, as to what religion I was born under, yet I consider myself as deeply religious. As I look in awe at the miracles of this universe, I am convinced of the existence of the greater power, I am however not convinced that it resides in an idol. I am convinced that anyone with compassion, empathy, kindness and love believes in the same God as I do. If he defines it as The Allah, Jesus or the Krishna, it matters little to me as I know that is the same as my personal God.
