Freedom Of Thought And Finding The Truth And Reality In All Issues *

As a scientist, I see that millions of people in our country and the outside world live a life of false and fabricated information, ideas and customs, not only in the previous ages, but even in the twentieth century.

I am a frequent traveler; I have seen and become familiar with many countries, continents, people and civilizations. There are many examples I've come across. Not only in primitive societies, but also among the developed and advanced, knowledgeable and civilized nations there are various kinds of superstitions, stubbornness and fanaticism; primitive and backward ideas, harmful and evil customs, filth and immorality, cruelty and injustice. What I have seen is that, unfortunately, the people of our time are not being brought up properly, they do not have a good characters and mentalities; they damage themselves, their environment, society, humanity throughout their lives.

So what is the reason for this?

Every healthy child is born with a pure disposition and nature; is open to all kinds of knowledge and experience, is strong and capable. Training is very important; a child absorbs whatever he is taught into his mind. Unfortunately, his personality is formed and developed deprived of the opportunity of examining, discriminating, preference and criticism of what he has learned. For example, if parents and the environment raise a person as a Jew, Nasrani, zoroastrain, pagan, polythiest, communist, irreligious, unbelieving, immoral, disrespectful, heartless, lazy, emotionless, disloyal, rude, thief, cruel, brutal individual... in the future, as he gets older, during the age of maturity, it is necessary for him to understand his mistakes and change himself; to abstain from evil and to acquire good morals and virtues. On the contrary,, he would have ruined both his life in this world and the hereafter, he will be deprived of the bliss  of both worlds; he will face with disappointment, frustration and will be deprived in both worlds. He will be harmful both to himself and to humanity.

However, it is very difficult for people to change their bad habits, the change their misleading  knowledge, correct their bad morals, find and accept the truth and adapt; this requires an extremely long and effective training.

Therefore, first and foremost, as believers and Muslims, who are Ahl al-Tawhi (people of monotheism and Ahl al-Haqq (people of truth), we should give great importance to serious education and training, we should start very early and pay great attention to this. We should devote ourselves to reality, the truth and that which is favorable; explain the importance of these to our children and elders; we should encourage the appreciation and enthusiasm of curiosity, investigation, verification, analysis, research, comparison, listening, understanding, thought.. We must teach that insistence, stubbornness and fanaticism on faults and mistakes,  harmful and evil  is a bad habit. So each of us- whoever and whatever this may be- must accept the truth immediately; we must support the truth, righteousness, that which is favorable at all times and everywhere; be able to correct our own faults and mistakes immediately; should always act with good manners, morals, virtues, knowledgeable, politeness, compassion, sympathy; beneficially and positively... This is the essential condition of succeeding in the worldly trials.

Training in such a mindset and character is the duty of people, groups and environments with a high level of experience, vast knowledge, clean conscience,  strong faith,  good morals, deep appreciation, deep enthusiasm, divine love and the joy of mysticism…

On the contrary, favorable results are not possible. There will always a deficiency, inadequacy in their dealings; these people are deficient either in their essence, intention or morals.

This is the result of centuries of experience; if we want to raise new Yunus’ and Mevlanas in our country, there is no other solution. 

* Leading articles 3: Ilim ve Sanat ve Panzehir (Science and Art and Anecdotes) Journals Editorials, Istanbul: Server Communication, 2015, p. 116-117.