I truly believe that faith can move mountains .This conviction has guided me through most of life ..but a couple of years ago I became sort of blasé about the whole thing.. there are something’s in life that you just cant change… or things just not meant to be, or so I thought …...
Anyway I’ve recovered some hope and have started reading Norman Vincent Peale books and such like to get back the power of Positive Thinking..
It's good to have purpose to cling to in trying times ..something that you know if all the mountains come crashing down will still exist… I alluded to a lack of purpose in an earlier post ..purpose can mean ambition , strong love for a person or for god ..
Faith is a powerful and beneficial concept , but it can be negative at times ; I got to thinking about this after watching an episode of Law and Order SVU.. the story was about a lady who commits murder because of her faith in a person who we find out in the end doesn’t exist ( this imaginary person was a work of con artists ) …So faith drew this seemingly well adjusted ,well educated woman to murder ….
But it was misplaced faith… we all know about cases of misplaced faith , from my real life experiences I can state the examples of people who turn their back on family and close friends at the insistence of jerk best friends and lovesofthierlife , only to realize at the end that they had given on up on the people who truly cared for them .And jerk lovers/best friends being the way that they are; disappear when it comes down to the crunch ….This is of course an example on a small personal scale on a larger scale it could involve people drawn into malicious cults ,terrorist groups etc etc…
What happens to people who don’t end up in prison, or don’t get blown up , or aren’t left friendless and desolate….because of strong faith and belief in an undeserving cause??? They lose the ability to believe in worthy causes i.e. themselves, love, God……
I was spurred to write this post after Reading about this game in Aswin’s Blog ..found out about the post via Sharath…
Aswin asks :
Can you imagine ever having such a cause or Ideology in your life that you are ready to die for ? Your cause could be Absolutely Anything. I don't mean just Religion, Idea, etc - Your cause could be as noble as 'Ending poverty', or it could be as personal as curing your loved one's illness, it could even be something fictional like bringing someone back to life(?) , it could be, like I said, Absolutely Anything.
He goes further and reduces the penalty from Death , to years in prison to giving up all your wealth , education , memory ..to find out how much a person would be willing to forsake and for what cause
Here’s my comment :
Hi Aswin , Got the link to this post via Sharath, very thought provoking!!!
I wouldn’t die for a cause, because I believe life is precious and I don’t like to encourage suicidal tendencies of any sort..
Would I die to save a loved one??… Maybe, that would be the only instance I would consider this option ..Die to save a hundred dying people ?? ( maybe if it unequivocally resulted in their survival)
Would I die for my Country , Religion ,State or Planet??
…A resounding NO!! I believe all these disputes are politically motivated and everyone’s life is more precious than giving in to the whims of manipulative powerful people.. it’s the same as the case of the Indian soldier who died in Iraq fighting for the US army ..He only recently migrated to the States… and was brought up in India ..God Bless his Soul, but it wasn’t his war to die fighting … Maybe in an Armageddon situation, a war against planets, I would consider joining an army. The job of the United Nations and Peaceniks like me is to ensure that no world wars occur.. the world is no longer as isolated and countries and people aren’t as disconnected as they once were..
I would however risk my all my money ,incur the wrath of my friends , possibly switch careers to stick to my personal beliefs i.e. : open mindedness, the war against bigots , individualism, family ties and self respect .
I would also contribute as much as I could to the elimination of poverty.
This is starting to look like a letter :)
Regards,
N
6 comments:
[ Hi, for sake of the continuing discussion, please copy your reply to this comment up on my blog too.. thanks! ]
Thanks for your comment, as well as a link to my post from your blog!
You are the first one to give me an expected answer - That you would die for a loved one. I expect many more people to have your answer.
I'm not sure if you thought your answer through when you said you might die to save a 100 people... really ? [ I'm assuming these 100 ppl don't include your loved ones ]. If you still stand by your answer, I think you are one of a kind. I wouldn't die to save a million strangers , quite frankly ... (!) Life is all I've got.
The only non-personal goal you mentioned is helping eradicate poverty. Now that you mentioned this, you have to play the game !
- If I told you that you could eradicate the world's poverty in an instant, but you had to sacrifice something (one of the things mentioned in the game) what would it be?
Ok, from personal experience I donate a small portion of my income to charity when a chance arises…However ,I haven’t donated all my income ,and I don’t intend to major in social service . To contribute to the game; I would be willing to bear the temporary inconvenience of losing all my material possessions to eradicate poverty ….
As for dying to save the lives of a 100 people ..I would do that, my family and friends would miss me, and I them , but I also believe in an afterlife…so that influences my decision…
Remember I speak only for myself , if the decision was to save a hundred other people from a speeding train by diverting the tracks and killing just one person( not me !!) ..I don’t think that’s a decision that would be up to me to make.
"and in the end things will be alright….. "
Ofcourse it will or else we will be alright with the way things end up :)
Remember Daniel Gilbert from "Stumbling over happiness" ?? ;)
@ Sharath- Yea Sharath , Thanks for reminding me ... searched for Daniel Gilbert in your blog :)
Hi,
No Offence intended.Well your comment looks like if u r goin to contest in miss world'07.Though, I appriciate your thinking but war is war either against nation or planet.Everybody should rate his work at highest level.I am pretty sure ur profession is of utmost importance to u.Same is the case is for soldier died.Probably u think like this bcoz ur upbringing is in the era of globalization but whether u would have thought it in the same way if u witnessed world war 2 arena?
@ Lion: thnkfully i wasnt there during WW2... going by your rationale i would have been anti german or japanese tho ?!?!? i'm neither...
Post a Comment