What is worth sacrificing your life for?

[Mysterypea]

For humanity

[Keron]

I found it very stupid and annoying to read posts that based their positions on their current life statuses—at a time when your life is "not worth living?" How important can such a cause be, then? How important is ANY cause to die for if you'd only die for it at a time when you feel your own personal loss is minimized? That is pathetic and severely weakens if not fully nullifies in itself the value of your sacrifice.

Only if you're convinced that you can accomplish more with your sacrifice than you could if you continued to live out your life.

That's pretty much the gist of it, for anyone—but I think the threadstarter's asking what that "accomplishment" would be to you, and how it differs from person to person.

This is an issue that I've been having trouble with for some time now, since I rank the saving of souls as top priority—the problem with this is that it's really difficult to foresee cause & effect. I ask myself: if I die now, what about all the people in the future who I could have brought to God? But then that can be countered by the fact that I'm not the only one at work, so if I were to die in the act of saving one or a few people, whether friends or strangers, they could be moved as to accept Him and further my cause themselves, perhaps even more effectively.

By the end of it all, I abide by Christ's simple, easy-to-understand gesture, John 15:13 - "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." I think I may die for anyone (whether I know him/her or not) who is in my vicinity and is about to be killed, whose death I know I can clearly substitute with my own, and who I can give blessing to before I pass on. In any case, causes worth living for should be no different than causes worth dying for, or it's a waste of life and time.

Heh. I just solved my own spiritual dilemma. Thanks for this.

[Zephyr]

I'd sacrifice my life for alot of things-
If it wasnt worth living anymore
To save someone/something important to me
To save someone/something important to the rest of the world
And lots of things too.

No, i wouldnt sacrifice myself to see if there was any sort of afterlife.

[blue_tetris]

A Klondike bar.

[mam]

If there was a chance of both me and the person who I was saving surviving, I'd probably go for it. But not if it was a horrible person. The kind who'd not realise that I'd saved their life and call me a 'daft bugger' or something as I lay fatally wounded.

If it was certain that I was going to die, I'd probably sacrifice myself for my friends/ or some worthy cause. I'm not the kind of person who ponders whether himself or the person to be saved will contribute more to the world. I just really like the idea of people being utterly selfless.

I've almost died twice, and I have to say it doesn't scare me at all. Once I almost drowned 'cos I went down a water slide without realising that it lead into the diving pool. I just stood at the bottom for a while (I've no idea how long it was, but I guess it was about 100 seconds, cos I was holding my breath to the extreme. And then some lifeguard rescued me. It kind of inspired me for a while, I learned to swim and I'm better than all my friends now :D So I guess it would complete the cycle if I saved someone. Like paying off a debt at long last.

The second time was almost suicide. But it didn't feel like it. I was on a ferry, and I had a really strong inclination to jump off the edge. It was weird because I didn't feel down at all at the time. In retrospect though, I was the most depressed I've ever been. But then I realised just how selfish it would be to die needlessly. All the time and efffort people put into me and the people who'd miss me... Ultimately, thinking how I'd feel if someone else did that made me dismiss the idea.

So there a chunk of my life story for you :D In summary, I'm not scared of dying for someone, because I feel that I shouldn't be alive right now if someone hadn't helped me.

[T3chno]

A Klondike bar.

You seriously read my mind when I saw this topic.

[Donfuy]

The second time was almost suicide. But it didn't feel like it. I was on a ferry, and I had a really strong inclination to jump off the edge. It was weird because I didn't feel down at all at the time. In retrospect though, I was the most depressed I've ever been. But then I realised just how selfish it would be to die needlessly. All the time and efffort people put into me and the people who'd miss me... Ultimately, thinking how I'd feel if someone else did that made me dismiss the idea.

I've already felt like that, but the reason I didn't commit suicide was that... "Let's hope tomorrow will be a better day". It was (well, not really the next day, but when the vacations ended a year ago).

It wasn't my selfishness that made me not commit suicide. It was my fear of dying, that at the time was struggling to be higher than all the sadness.


And like I said before, I don't think I could really die for someone.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

It's funny how much more value people tend to put on life when you ask what they would give it up for, as opposed to why they should keep theirs. Some would die for nothing even while they wouldn't die for anything.

[bobaganuesh_2]

an ideal (eg: Christianity)

[Donfuy]

It's funny how much more value people tend to put on life when you ask what they would give it up for, as opposed to why they should keep theirs. Some would die for nothing even while they wouldn't die for anything.

We're so damn selfish.

[sheganican]

i think its stupid to give your life for a religion, but maybe thats because im not very religious beyond believing in god.

multiple reasons:
My girl (if i had one)
Humanity
Anyone in my immediate family
Some people in my not-so-immediate family
my best friend and ONLY my best friend. other friends dont count.
If i was really old and about to die anyway and dying might benefit someone else

If my life was going nowhere and there was no clear way out

[Keron]

i think its stupid to give your life for a religion, but maybe thats because im not very religious beyond believing in god.

Well, you mentally box it in by calling it just another "religion." For the true believer, it should be all-consuming, affecting every aspect of one's life.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

Well, you mentally box it in by calling it just another "religion." For the true believer, it should be all-consuming, affecting every aspect of one's life.

Amen. To use the lexicon of a popular musical genre, it appears to me that most who would call themselves religious is just fake-ass gangstas.

[kai]

For humanity

Pffff...

an ideal (eg: Christianity)

PFFFF!!!

A Klondike bar.

Orange soda.

But seriously, family. If someone ever pointed a gun at my grandmother's head, I'd step in front of the bullet.

That and my girlfriend and this chic Becky I know.

[Brainwasher]

The only thing to die for is an idea. A person can be stabbed or shot, a place can be burnt or bombed, but an idea; an idea is invincible. An idea cannot die, as long as there are people that hold it true and valuable. Ideas are eternal.

To know what is really worth dieing for, watch (or read the old comic of, but most likely watch) V for Vendeta.

[handofgod]

id sacrifice myself for music.

[Destiny]

If it got down to it, i'd probably do anything that wouldnt get someone else killed to survive.

[blue_tetris]

I think people die for causes because they believe, on some subconscious level, that they'll get to experience whatever their death acheived. Consciously, yes, they understand that it's all over for them. But beneath that, I think their mind creates expectations of a future that they'll enjoy personally.

[crescor]

I'd die for a good grade.

[Sithmaster]

stopping the deaths of more people (if my action saves more people than my inaction, I'd do it)

[Deathconciousness]

there are about 20 individuals that i wouldnt even hesitate to die for, and i know that there are many many others that i would probably sacrifice my life for as well, but im not strong enough in my backing to fully say yes.
i'd also say that id sacrifice myself for love, but then again im a hopeless romantic.

[Exüberance]

FOR THE HORDE

It's really hard to answer something like this unless there is an actual danger of this happening. Ideally, I would like to say that I would sacrifice my life defending my religion, but it's much easier to talk the talk than walk the walk, and unfortunately, a very very large percentage of both theists and atheist either don't know what they believe in, or they're faking it, or they believe but stop there. (and an even smaller number would die for what they believe.)

[DemonzLunchBreak]

To paraphrase Bertrand Russell, I wouldn't die for something I believe in. I might be wrong.

[yungerkid]

so to clarify, demonz, you wouldn't die for anything?

i would willingly die if i had proof that there is no afterlife. but there is an afterlife. :/

[DemonzLunchBreak]

Like I said on page one, I'd die for someone I value more than myself. I wouldn't die for the sake of an idea that I hold. I acknowledge the possibility that my beliefs could be incorrect and so to die for them would be a waste of life, which is something I can't stand for. (But I might be wrong about this belief!)