A prominent author and evolutionary biologist said recently that people would do bad things if they thought God was not watching them. Perhaps he meant that the fear of God punishing them in the afterlife would prevent them from committing a crime.

I stopped to think about that, after reading it. I asked myself why don’t I commit any crimes? I realised that the reason I don’t is not because I believe in God. I wouldn’t, for example, steal something from someone for two reasons. Firstly, I believe in karma—you reap as you sow. And, secondly, in hurting someone else, I believe I would be hurting myself because, in reality, there is no other. There is only one of us appearing as 7.7 billion people on this planet and countless others on numerous other planets. Fear of God doesn’t come into the matter. God is love not fear. Fear only exists in the illusory world of the ego. Nonduality teaches us that there is only God and we are part of Him.

A Course in Miracles, Lesson 156 highlights the concept of nonduality in this way: “I walk with God in perfect holiness. I light the world, I light my mind and all the minds which God created one with me.”