Before You Run Off With That C-4
You are a man with strong beliefs. So strong in fact that you’ve decided to strap a bomb to your body, go to a crowded area and blow yourself up, taking as many people with you as possible. You believe that your deity will find this a noble sacrifice and reward you in the next life. If any of you are shaking your head yes at this moment… STOP! There are some huge flaws in this plan. Let’s go back to the key phrase here “blow yourself up”; now whether or not you care about other people is irrelevant at this point. Any plan that involves the person who is making the plan dying as one of the objectives is not a good plan. Second, if you are convinced that you have to take out the infidels and heathens, how do you know that’s who is going to die? If you run into a crowd, won’t you risk killing people who believe the same things you do? How would your deity look upon you taking out one from his side?
Hasn’t anybody over there heard about converting people? Instead of killing each other, couldn’t you sit down over coffee and explain the advantages of your religion. I’ve had people of a dozen different beliefs knocking on my door trying to convince me that Mormonism, Buddhism, Judaism, or even Krishna is the way to go. But none of them have ever run up and gone boom. A willingness to die for your beliefs is a strong argument, but the practical application of it will leave a lot of leftovers at the church picnic.
You also have to keep in mind the randomness of what you are doing. Besides the aforementioned killing of a fellow believer, you might also suffer the fate of yesterday’s suicide bomber. He successful exploded, that was part of his plan I believe, but no one else was hurt. That doesn’t really make him a “suicide bomber”, more of a “suicide victim” that chose a loud and messy way to go. Would this be the terrorist equivalent to striking out with runners in scoring position?
So if you really have your heart set on converting the world to your religion, remember that it helps to have a world to convert.
You are a man with strong beliefs. So strong in fact that you’ve decided to strap a bomb to your body, go to a crowded area and blow yourself up, taking as many people with you as possible. You believe that your deity will find this a noble sacrifice and reward you in the next life. If any of you are shaking your head yes at this moment… STOP! There are some huge flaws in this plan. Let’s go back to the key phrase here “blow yourself up”; now whether or not you care about other people is irrelevant at this point. Any plan that involves the person who is making the plan dying as one of the objectives is not a good plan. Second, if you are convinced that you have to take out the infidels and heathens, how do you know that’s who is going to die? If you run into a crowd, won’t you risk killing people who believe the same things you do? How would your deity look upon you taking out one from his side?
Hasn’t anybody over there heard about converting people? Instead of killing each other, couldn’t you sit down over coffee and explain the advantages of your religion. I’ve had people of a dozen different beliefs knocking on my door trying to convince me that Mormonism, Buddhism, Judaism, or even Krishna is the way to go. But none of them have ever run up and gone boom. A willingness to die for your beliefs is a strong argument, but the practical application of it will leave a lot of leftovers at the church picnic.
You also have to keep in mind the randomness of what you are doing. Besides the aforementioned killing of a fellow believer, you might also suffer the fate of yesterday’s suicide bomber. He successful exploded, that was part of his plan I believe, but no one else was hurt. That doesn’t really make him a “suicide bomber”, more of a “suicide victim” that chose a loud and messy way to go. Would this be the terrorist equivalent to striking out with runners in scoring position?
So if you really have your heart set on converting the world to your religion, remember that it helps to have a world to convert.
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