So much for "war on terror"

[Big Papa Goat]

Originally Posted by Plato

(Courage is) the preservation of the belief that has been inculcated by the law through education about what sorts of things are to be feared. And by preserving this belief "through anything" I mean preserving it and ot abandoning it because of pains, pleasures, desires or fears.

(Republic 429c-d)
Looking at courage in that way, a suicide bomber who dies for the beliefs he's been indoctrinated in does possess courage. The fact that he kills innocent people instead of conventional targets in a way further demonstrates courage under this view, since the suicide bomber retains only his indoctrinated beliefs on what is to be feared, i.e failure to combat the supposed enemy through whatever means, rather then the normal human 'fears' of killing innocent people or dying.
The fact that the beliefs the suicide bomber holds are insane doesn't change the fact that he courageously retains them in the face of a number of normal human impulses, like self-preservation, sympathy, and rationality.

Originally Posted by sadie

scully said, maybe true faith is a form of insanity. :O

Me, I think thats so right. I'd call insanity a really skewed perception of reality. Someone who has real faith doesn't perceive reality, he perceives something outside of reality, or else it isn't faith.I guess its all a matter of degrees though, and its really just my own view on it.