Convert to Islam, or die.

No way on Earthl would I convert. I'm an athiest, or possibly agnostic, I'm not sure. I plan to stay that way unless I make the choice, and that is a bullet that I would be proud to take, knowing that I died without kowtowing.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

As an athiest, one who doesn't really give a fuck about any of that religious horsepoo or buys into that afterlife stuff, wouldn't you, you know, PLAY ALONG or something so they didn't shoot you in the face?

Not really. My beliefs are as important to me as any those of any average religious person are to me. I'm a proud man, and I won't take orders from anyone I didn't agree to serve.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Devo

Haha, have you had a girlfriend yet?

I do have a girlfriend, as it happens. I'm thirty years old, it's to be expected by now. If I choose to do what she would like me to do, doesn't that fall under "agree to serve" in your opinion. I prefer to think that I do what my girfriend would like me to do out of love than out of obligation though. I'd also presume she does the things she does for the same reason. If it felt like taking orders, I'd get out of there. I'm responding to what I hope was a joke post in a serious manner because I don't know how else to respond. Of course, I'm taking it as a joke, because I don't think anything was really meant by it.

I don't expect many people to agree that it's worth my life to preserve my freedom, and I really hope that I never need to make that choice, but it is how I would feel compelled to act. I just don't take orders under threat of force. My life isn't worth more to me than my values. I'm not sure what impression that post gave everyone, though. I "agree to serve" various people in life, and I do so with a cheerful attitude and a good grace. The point being that it's my choice. I could choose to do otherwise, in most cases.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Aardork

Do you have any logical reasoning for your belief? I mean, okay, freedom... Even if you are forced to do something (anything), you still have way more freedom than if you are just plain dead (as death is a state in which your options are limited to zero by default, more or less).

I suppose that the answer to your question would depend on how logical you find the notion that if I did falsely convert, to satisfy my captors, I would always have to live with that knowledge, knowing what it means in my value system. The concept of remaining true to yourself is a keystone of my life. I like to maintain a sense of healthy self-esteem, and the knowledge that I faked a conversion to Islam, even in order to save my life would be something that would make me deeply uncomfortable. It would eat away at me.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Devo

You can't remain true to yourself if you're dead. It would eat away at you? I'm having a hard time believing that you'd risk everything just to "preserve your value system", when honestly it isn't going anywhere, only for the time you're a captive. I'll reiterate that you can go back to your belief system once the ordeal is over. Is it really worth dying and hurting the ones you love?

How about I just admit that you make some good points, but I maintain that you don't understand how great of a resistance I have to being forced into anything? Does that work?

I was speaking idiomatically.