A few days ago, I read google's quote of the day, as I do many days. But this one really got me thinking, so I thought I'de make it my first official post starter. YaY.

Many times I have been asked, "Would you be willing to die for something you believe in?" And everytime I was asked, I said yes. Until, I stumbled onto this. I mean, yeah I know that beliefs can be wrong, but I never applied that to my opinion until reading this and now I'm not so sure.

"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong"
Bertrand Russell


What do you guys think? Would you die for what you beleive? Or not? Why?

Yes, the possibility of being wrong is always there.
However, the likelihood of being right is a much more valuable thing.
Let's take both Jesus and Socrates as examples.
They were both murdered because they began questioning that which nobody wanted questioned. They were both murdered for their ideals of goodness, compassion, and the human soul.
Sometimes a man has to have the balls to take responsiblity for his convictions and stand up for what is right. However, with a society that is prominently relativist and is turning all of its people into big crying pussies, it's hard to find anyone with a soul as beautiful or cajones as large as Socrates' or Jesus'.

There are many things that i strongly believe in. However, i don't know what choice i'd make if i wasforced into the position in which i had to die for the cause...... If the stakes were dire, then possibly yes.

I voted "yes" too quickly. It would depend on the situation, basically what Curst Saden said, if the situations is "dire"...

John Lennon was a threat to the government because he protested against war. The government had to get rid of him, yet he got his message across really well to the people and impacted the lives of many individuals around the world.

Yet of course one is taking a big risk when one goes out to die for one's own belief. I guess it's the matter of knowing the truth behind everything.

In other countries, people that are more intelligent than the president or an individual of that rank get killed because of the way they speak out against the government.

Voltaire once said "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."

Many people have protested against their governments, but nothing changed. Right now in many countries, people get killed for protesting against the government, whether right or wrong....

I always thought dying for one's beliefs was a bit noble or admirable that is until the terror attacks in the US on September 11, 2001. Those terrorists died for what they believed in and took many thousands of lives with them in the process, something I saw as tremendously wrong, barbaric and heart breaking.

So before 9/11/01 I would have said without a pause "yes, I'd die for my beliefs", but now I would say "no, not if it negatively affects lives around me."

Still, I wonder what I could possibly think of as so important that I'd give my life for it. If it's to fight against injustice, wouldn't fighting injustice be better served by keeping the population of the fighters intact rather than sparing lives and thus diluting the number of messengers? Or would the fact of dying be so profound that the death would recruit new followers? I don't think that I'm important enough to gather followers as a result of my death so my dying would be fruitless.

Then I'm left to wonder if there are any living souls out there whose self-sacrificed death would encourage me to follow that person's beliefs or ideals. Are there any beliefs that would be better served with self-sacrifice - true self-sacrifice meaning the person had a choice to disregard his beliefs and live or continue believing and die. I wouldn't die for a woman's right to choose. I wouldn't die to support gay marriage in the US. I wouldn't die for a tax-free state. I wouldn't die for the support of more social causes. Other than the tax-free government I'd like to think I'm a proponent of the right to choose and same-sex marriage.

Maybe I'm just a coward nowadays or maybe my core beliefs aren't so solid, whichever I don't think if I was forced to that I'd die for any of my causes. I would like to think that the level of injustice in a cause would have to be so great, so mammoth, that I'd have no choice but to sacrifice my life for it and since most of the great causes have been fought and won, I see no need for anyone to die for their cause.

Martyrdom can be noble. But it's all relative. For example, the famous saying that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighters. Though they didn't say it loudly there were a few admirers of 9/11 in the Western World, and watching Jesus camp I sensed an envy that certain Muslims are training warriors who believe so much in their god they'll die for him without questioning anything.

My religion is of the opinion that dying for one's belief is stupid, and the tenet is that you should keep yourself alive 'til the last. I disagree at this point: death before dishonour and so forth.

However, martyrdom will always have negative effects. It encourages blind faith, and your martyrdom will be twisted to inspire the wrong sort of morals, and worse you may not even be a seen as a martyr but a lunatic or a joke. I'd die before I betrayed my country or my family, but not for religion (as I might be wrong). Though it'd hurt my family if I died (I hope)