Why is it ok to die to for your country but is frowned upon when one dies for his religion?

Amiyna

That is a very good question. I am one of the few people who think both are honorable. There are other ways to die for your religion. You may be performing a necessary rite of your religion when you die. For example, Muslims are required to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. If we die on the pilgrimage, this is a form of Jihad and it is honorable and we go straight to Paradise. People think that Jihad means suicide bombings but it doesn't! It's about sacrifice.

onparadisebeach

I don't think you've got it quite right. We (westerners) revere Joan of Arc, St Paul, Jesus, and many others. Its not the dying part that is frowned upon but the method and attitude. If someone dies innocently trying to hold to their beliefs - that's a good thing. If someone dies by killing 20 innocents while performing a fascist act - that's a bad thing.

briarwood

I'm confused, if you are not talking about suicide bombings, etc. then what are you referring to? I don't think anyone frowns upon those who die for thier religion for non violent reasons that do no affect others. I don't think anyone frowned upon Jesus for dying on the cross, when technically he could have saved himself, so I don't know where you are going with the question? Can you add a further explanation?

drakke1

Only a brainwashed clone is willing to die for either. Especially since all the wars are engineered by the "elites" to manage "overpopulation", and to make themselves richer.

And, believe it or don't, they also "created" the religions, designed to keep you ignorant and under control :)))

Monsieur Rick

I believe it is primarily a western concept that goes along with the separation of Church and state. That is why even though he United States has a number of religious symbols, it is not a theocracy.

GraWolfe

wow! i love these kinds of questions that is supposed to make people THINK!

its semantics. if you asked the same question during the Revolution, to die for your country would be to die for the creator.

good question!

linlyons

so you think it's okay to go burn yourself up in front of the white house because the president doesn't give us all a free hummer, but it's not okay to burn yourself up because members of your religion are being killed by an evil government.

maybe you ought to define what you mean before you ask for opinions.
maybe people answering the question ought to question your motives for asking before making inappropriate assumptions.

It is not "OK to die." It is inevitable. Both suppositions posed by your question are wrong. To die for your country may bring you honor from your countrymen but it is not OK. To die for your religion will make you a martyr and bring you honor from the members of your religion but is not OK. It is better to live and serve your country and your religion.

Lee78

No religion tells you to kill yourself. It's just some ancient sects of the various religions which preaches the bloodpath.
As an individual, forgetting which religion we belong to, do think and see whether it makes sense.
The word fanatic is nowhere close to religion.
I wish there be peace everywhere without the bloodshed.

julie m

It is only frowned upone when someone commits suicide for their religion. Someone who is martyred for their religion is not frowned upon, they are typically exhalted as a hero.

That being said, if you are equating someone's choice to join the military as being suicidal, that is silly. Just because you chose to possibly sacrifice yourself for your country, you still aren't the ones killing you, it's the enemy that is killing you. There is a difference. Someone who commits suicide for their religion is a wuss, and accomplishes nothing. Frankly, any religion that would glorify something as self-absorbed as suicide, is corrupt.

A.Mercer

Not talking about suicide bombings? Ok, give another example of dying for a religion. From what I have heard most people who die for their religion are doing it in battle with those who believe in another religion. Basically killing others who have different beliefs. Not exactly noble, is it?

Zizi

I can see your point, but how do you explain that dying for your religion means killing people of your religion? Just look at Iraq for example. A jihadist (a Muslim) blows up a mosque (not a suicide bomber by the way) full of Muslims ( of a different sect) praying, apparently fighting for his own way of believing. Alternatively, what about those Christians who blow up abortion clinics claiming to act for God but kill their own (mostly Christians) in the process? What God is this that differentiates between people of one (same) religion and allows killing of innocent people of any other religion? If heavens opened and Good (God) fought against Evil (Satan), and all monotheistic religions seem to believe that there is only one God, then to die for God would be justified and glorified. To 'die' for your religion these days does not mean defending your right to believe in whatever you wish, but using a religion as an excuse to kill those one calls 'the enemy', to force others to believe what you think is the right faith, to decide who lives and who dies if they do not follow your religion. God is just an excuse for evil people to give themselves a permission to take away an innocent life and force others to conform to their idea of religion!
Still, you do have a point.

Emy

Troops do not fight wars with the intention of dying for their country. They fight wars with the intention of achieving something, and the goal of winning. When people die at war, it is a tragic hazard, and while it may have been predicted and chances may have been probable, it was only a chance that was taken, not a death wish.
I don't personally believe it's wrong to die in the name of religion. I don't believe in suicide, or anything the like, and although I'm not religious I appreciate religion in many ways, and think it a human sin as well as a religious one to commit a suicide attack in the name of religion. However, a person so comfortable with their faiths and beliefs that they could be killed for stating them, sounds more heroic to me than wrong. You hear stories of people being held to their deathbed when asked by their killers what their beliefs are, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that at all.

I'm confused about your self-association/country question though. I am mixed race, and was brought up not typically for either of my hereditary traditions. I love my nationality, and my culture and where I came from.. But there are places and ways of life that I find myself easier to relate to. And I think that is fine! It is psychological, but aren't most choices/beliefs/faiths!?

Gray

In most cases, a religious cause has been an offense, not a defense. That, of course, is not the case 100% of the time, but as it is true at least 80% of the time, the holy wars come to mind.

For many countries, it is considered a defensive move to fight outside your own country, since keeping the war out of your territory is a defense. I can't think of any religious wars that were fought this way.

lkmoose87

It's not so much frowned upon dying for your religion, but how. I know you said that this question isn't about suicide bombings and the likes, but it is these violent ways that are looked down on. Do you remember Columbine, how that girl was shot when they asked her if she believed in God? She wasn't frowned upon for that, she was glorified. So it's not really that dying for your religion is frowned upon in general, it's only frowned upon if you harm others in doing so.

Allen B

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen would disagree that it is a fine and noble thing to do if you die for your country
You will find those who say it is okay to die for your country have never served in a war!

Moneta_Lucina

If say, someone were coming to force me to renounce my God, and a battle ensued, and I died as a result, that may not be deemed crazy . . .

Unless I thought I WAS God, or someone in the compound was God . . . (that might be a little crazy).

But, hey, to each his own, eh?

scooterman131

If you die for your faith, then it is God's will.
If you take someones life in your God's name that's another matter.

Corona

The only way I can answer this is to compare it to the 9/11 attacks. To me, it is not okay to die for your religion when you religion believes in killing others will reward you with a higher place in "heaven". It's not "ok" to die for your country, but rather honorable because you died defending your country...trying to keep others from harming your country.

â™¥Special Red Girlâ„¢

I never thought about it in that perspective. You're right. People hold too many double-standards.

Arcanum Noctis

So an individual dies for his or her religion by defending his/her religion from a threat? The only material threat I think that could attack an individual's religion would be another religion or ideas that impede on the individual's religion.

The only people I know that die by *defending* their religion are suicide bombers. Abortion bombers bomb abortion clinics without suicide.

Country and religion are two very different things. It is good for one to die for something he/she believes in, but its the manner and reason one dies, this is what decides whether or not its right or wrong which decides whether it should be frowned upon.

What is the manner and reason one is dieing for his/her religion? Is the individual causing genocide or trying to prevent genocide in the name of his/her religion? Are you a victim of genocide. Does the individual seek defence of ones religion through peace or war?

You question is way too open ended. Please be more specific.

Don H

It is silly to die for any false belief system. Religious or political.

Love and blessings Don

Drew the Spartan

Death for your country is patriotic, death for religion is crazy. No "God" or "higher power" should lead you to death.

shorty937222000

I am not sure I understand what you mean by dies for ones religion. In my opinion when you die for your country it wasnt like you were asking to die, I mean not everyone who goes into war dies, so its not suicide more like a occupational hazard. They chose to fight for their country yes but I highly doubt any of them went into war to die, more so to do something great for their country and to protect freedom, rights, and so on. Now as far as dying for your religion it pretty much depends on how you mean it. If you mean like the highjackers from 9-11 who were told if they did what they did they would be serving God and go to heaven, of course it would be frowned upon. I mean they didn't choose to kill only themselves but thousands along with them. Now if you mean dying for your beliefs like the poor girl Cassie Bernall who was killed at Columbine High school for replying "yes" when asked if she believed in God, then that should not be frowned upon. To die because you refuse to deny God should never be frowned upon. However if you kill yourself for whatever reason may it be religion or not then yes it is frowned upon, not only by society but by God himself. Suicide is one of the worst Sins a human can commit, you would be taking the most precious gift God can ever give you (being Life) and throwing it away. Are you saying that shouldn't be frowned at? If I misunderstood your question I apologize, and for anyone who reads this please do not be offended by anything I said.

fairly smart

How does one die for their religion now?? In the past 10 years or so, you only hear about the Middle Eastern people strapping bombs to women & children, & brain washed young people, promising them virgins & myrtrdom, when all they get is dead? I haven't heard of one single person taking themselves out for their religion, just the one's who take innocence & innocents with them.

bacondebaker

religion is a state of mind, not were you live, if you want to die for your religion,go out in wood and take a life no one cares about. because some one who think others don't have a right to there own thoughts doesn't need to live and won't be missed'

Kandy S

Depends which media you expose yourself to. It is semantics and is a part of human nature. There will always be disagreements and people striving for power politically or within a religion. This is why they say religion and politics should never mix. It is dangerous when people are sent to their deaths for an idea formed in the heads of figureheads with grandiose plans.

*Star* for excellent question.

jake

because a higher power may acutally mean that some of what they do is wrong.

sgoldperson

Why not give us an example of dying for your religion. Why does your religion think it is wrong should be the question. The country thinks it is ok(as you term it) for our servicemen to die because they die with honor. They were doing their job as we asked. Does your religion ask you to die? If so then why does your religion hold it against you when you do? Basically it is ok for you to die for your country because that means we asked you to. It is wrong to die for your religion because we didn't ask you to.

Random Dude

It's supposedly ok to die for your country coz the government says that it is, with religion life is something to be celebrated not destroyed. That's just my opinion anyway.

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