Live to Believe or Believe to Live?

alimostofi
by alimostofi
04-Nov-2010
 

Well it's my day off my day job and I am having a lie in. I hear the front door ring and arrgh I crawl out of bed and try to get to the door before they drop off a note saying come to the Post Office. And guess what there is an Indian looking Jehovah's witness there. So I ask the question do I give him a lecture or do I listen to his? I could be one of those annoying get up your nose types as I do it every day as a salesman. But this guy stands there with his head dropped as if he is in sorrow with a book in his hand and you are forced to consider opening the door out of grief for him. So you open the door.

Next thing you hear is a polite sentence, that if you said "no" to you would feel guilty for the rest of your life. Wow what a salesman. He believed in what he was saying. So I asked him did he study history? Did he just consult other sources? This time I was polite and listening. He was curious.  I told him to read Iranian history and how much we had written about all these truths well before anyone. How we kept the peace in our societies.  How people found peace for themselves thousands of years before anyone. I then told him that if you steal my idea and then lie to say it was yours that is called plagiarism. I nearly got thrown out of Princeton because I did not do my footnotes properly.  Heck The Bible has no footnotes! No referrences to The Zend-Avesta or anything else that is a lot older.

He had switched off at that point and had no come backs.  So I used the statement that most people say to him to give him a chance to reply. You know the one about all wars being about religion. He then closed his book and walked away impolitely.

Later I had just finished taking my shower and was reflecting on this episode and I thought do we live to believe or do we believe to live? As a dualist the answer is both. 

Balatarin
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G. Rahmanian

Dear Mr. Mostofi,

by G. Rahmanian on Fri Nov 05, 2010 06:54 AM PDT

I would like to extend my gratitude to you for your prompt reminder with regards to my inadmissible misapprehension of the implications presented in your blog.Please accept my sincerest apologies. I assure you that I shall refrain from exercising such undue negligence in any future response to your blogs!Respectfully,Rahmanian


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alimostofi

Rahmanian how many times

by alimostofi on Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:42 AM PDT

Rahmanian how many times have you travelled to a new place and asked someone for directions, and they answered, "I believe so, yes it is there?"  So the word "believe" or "belief" has its uses, even though many people do not use it as to mean religion. 

Ali Mostofi

//www.alimostofi.com

 


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G. Rahmanian

Mr. Mostofi,

by G. Rahmanian on Thu Nov 04, 2010 07:52 PM PDT

I apologize for the mix up! This was my third attempt. I give up!Please kindly delete my comment.Thank you.


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G. Rahmanian

Mr. Mostofi,

by G. Rahmanian on Thu Nov 04, 2010 07:47 PM PDT

This is a good question, especially, where it concerns those who believe in God,religion or any other man-made faith. And to the chagrin of the non-believers there are plenty of such faiths to go around.As for the first part of your question, I would like to think that believing in any given religion is not the most essential part of one's existence, unless one iswilling to make it so. As you certainly know, there are cultures where religiondoes not play any role in people's lives. If you posed your question to individuals from such cultures, they would not have a clue what you are asking about. Because religion as known to believers does not exist in such cultures, neither does the concept or the "right" answer to your question.I did pose your question to someone very close to me and she had no ideawhat it was about. Her initial response was, "What's that?" Even after some explaining she still could not grasp the meaning, simply because the concept is nonexistent in her understanding of the world around her.As for the latter part of the question I would say even among believersRECENT COMMENTSComment AuthorI'm sure TP is laughing too arash IrandoostWrong Q MOOSIRvaPIAZI'm sure TP is laughing too QRostam jaan Masoud KazemzadehKazemzadeh, Mossadegh would be REAL proud of you! QmoreHOT TODAYTitle #Comامشب نَه عزیزم 24It's a Kindle 16Fokoli 13مرد فمینیست بد کوفتی است 10Ahmadinejad: Russia gives in to 'Satan' 9MOST DISCUSSEDTitle Date CommentsQuestions to Professor Mammad Regarding NIAC, CIA, and American Funding Oct 28 105Toward a Culture of Civil Liberties, Human Rights and Democracy in Iran Oct 30 97Questions For NIAC Official Oct 31 92The other news Oct 27 70Qajar Society Dinner Oct 28 61moreMeetIranianSinglesGOD BLESS ALL OF OUR PEOPLE! I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! THIS WILL BE SOMETHING WE WILL REMEMBER FOREVER! ... ... More >>I am a looking for abetween the ages of and Fari1980IRANIANS OF THE DAYPerson About DayWomen Rugby Players Trailer for "Salam Rugby" -- the story of women's rugbNov 02Alireza Badkoubehie Keest dam az marg vatan mizand? Nov 01Shirin Ebadi Speech at Maryland University human rights conference Nov 01Salar Kamangar Overseeing YouTube daily management Nov 01Mohsen Qara'ati Lessons from the toilet Nov 01Ahmad Reza Ahmadi Poem: "Man to raa sartaasar naboodam" Oct 30Iren Legendaryof the same faith the answer could be dissimiar.Not all believers have identical understanding of their religion. Many so-called, "religious intellectuals"tend to "dilute" the heitherto venerable religious principles with their own home-brewed bled of cognitive subjectivity and a cluster of borrowed modernphilosophical notions.Good luck in your quest for the right answer!G. Rahmanian


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alimostofi

My problem is that I am

by alimostofi on Thu Nov 04, 2010 10:32 AM PDT

My problem is that I am compulsively honest.

Ali Mostofi

//www.alimostofi.com

 


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iamfine

In my case

by iamfine on Thu Nov 04, 2010 09:05 AM PDT

This situation happened to me in many occasions. I learned not to answer the door or simply tell the guy, the owner is not home and don't speak English - that simple


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Maryam Hojjat

Nice

by Maryam Hojjat on Thu Nov 04, 2010 08:54 AM PDT

very nice topic which has happened to many of us but you handeled it with wisdom and cleverness.


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