What if there was no heaven or hell!Author: Mohammed Nazari At age 25 I left Iran for Dubai, UAE (United Arab Emirates). By far this was the most relieving moment of my life. For the first time in my life I had the financial independence, hope for a better future and most of all "freedom".When I entered Dubai's airport for the first time, the first thing that caught my eye was a very beautiful lady in a mini skirt. I gazed at her, seconds later I realized that my jaw was literally dropping and I was drooling. I was wondering why she kept looking back at me with a big smile:)In Islamic countries, Friday is the holiday, like Sunday is in Christian countries. One day almost a year after leaving Iran, a Friday morning I was walking somewhere close to the "Clock Tower" in Dubai, I imagined a life with no heaven or hell, contrary to how I was raised, I felt such a "relief". I had previously thought that if there was no heaven or hell I would do all the bad things. I thought I would lie, cheat, steal, bully, have sex with women who were not my wife (taboo in Islam), drink alcohol and so on.But shortly after I realized that I was becoming more conscious of others and my environment. I respected others more, and began to value honesty. I became a better person, citizen and friend because I realized one simple fact: to get what you want such as respect, love, happiness, wealth, independence and so on, you need to surround yourself with people who believe in the same principles as well I need to give the same back, "Karma".People will do what they want to do, and life will go on one way or another. The difference is: When we believe in the other world, we may not feel the need to improve the current world as much.Maybe that is why some "Secular societies have a better world", while "the religious societies hope for a better other world". One very good example is when asked: prisoners, are getting executed without proper investigation, Mr. Khalkhali, a clergy man and an influential member of the Islamic government replied: well if it happens that they are executed for wrong reasons, they will end up in Heaven anyway, and did not feel any need or urgency for any improvement. The sadder part is that due to the religious beliefs some of the public believed the same. Often my mom encouraged me to forgive other's unfair treatment towards me, saying: God will punish them, instead of "helping me understand what the fair thing is" and that if the other party had violated my rights to stand up, "helping the other party understand of their wrong doing" instead of simply forgiving them. I believe this is one reason why religious countries and societies don't improve as much, They forgive instead of fix things. I do not believe in forgiveness as much as I believe in understanding, or not having an opinion when I don't know enough Please read my blog: "You don't have to tolerate people when you understand them".
