Would you die for your current beliefs?
by SweetBabyCheezits 55 Replies latest jw friends
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panhandlegirl
I'm with Bernard. At one time, I would have been stupid enough to die for my jw beliefs, but not now.No waterboarding for me. I will tell you everything you want to know, well almost everything.
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james_woods
There are things worth dying for in certain circumstances - for example, your close friends or your family.
A debate over ideas is not worth dying for. It is not even worth getting your blood pressure up over.
I would behave like Gallileo - apologize for the heresy, and wander of muttering "and yet the Earth still moves".
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00DAD
I believe we ALL die for our beliefs, ... in the end.
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00DAD
panhandlegirl: I will tell you everything you want to know, well almost everything.
Really? Then tell us: what is it women really want?
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Diest
I might die to do whats right, but I dont know if Id die for my beliefs.
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SweetBabyCheezits
James: There are things worth dying for in certain circumstances - for example, your close friends or your family.
That is a given, even for Bertrand Russell, I suspect. I don't think he was including loved ones in "beliefs".
Here's more from a fantastic interview and you can also read/download some of his philosophical works on Project Gutenberg for free if it interests you.
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Qcmbr
Context required:
I would happily lie to preserve life and would not even blink before prostrating myself in front of a religious nutters idol as long as he/she held the knife.
If my death would in some way be meaningful and would advance the cause of human freedom and enlightenment , especially that of my family, I may well, reluctantly, put my head on the block.
If I was in a war that threatened to send us back into a theocracy or extreme political situation like Stalinism I would fight knowing that I had a high chance of dying or getting injured.
Those sorts of extremes aside - no way. 5 year old me believed in different things to 20 year old me. It would have been crazy to sacrifice 20 year old me for 5 year old beliefs.
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james_woods
Just as an aside, it is a Good Thing that Bertrand Russell did not have to die for his ideas in Principia Mathematica.
He spent a lifetime trying to expunge strange loops and infinities for complete mathematical consistency, and was definitively proven WRONG by Kurt Godel in the 1930s.
So, what he said was right - he might have been wrong, after all!