Would you rather die than renounce your religious beliefs?

[Truthseeker]

Would you die for your religious beliefs? Specifically, would you die in refusal to denounce your religious beliefs?

I remember when I was a preteen/teenager, my Sunday school teacher at a Christian church talked several times about "being a martyr for Christ." He would boast that he would gladly become one. He told us stories (ones I doubt) about how in the middle east, Muslim terrorists would stop busses, and anyone on board who was Christian / unable to recite Islamic scripture was killed. He said that if he was in that situation, he would NOT deny Christ and take the bullet. Then he encouraged us to have the same mindset. Brought up some verse in Revelation about how martyrs get special treatment in heaven or something.

As a youngster, I remember sitting through that class going back and forth in my thoughts on what I would do in that situation. I was being led to believe that I would have to choose death rather than denouncing Christianity. God would deny me if I denied him was the logic I was being told. But then I also was thinking, like, I would also be totally down to say that "I am not a Christian pls don't kill me" if presented with a gun to my face. I mean... That's reasonable, right?

What do you think your God would want you to do? Lie, or die?

I'm not a Christian anymore, but I do think, currently, I would lie about any of my beliefs if they were gonna get me immediately killed.

So, what about you, religious folk? What would you do, if presented with the option of death or renunciation of your preferred religion?

There are many historical precedents for this scenario, even on a wide scale. Perhaps one of the more notable examples was Imperial Rome persecuting Christians and often giving them this ultimatum, before the emperors became Christian.

This question is open to Atheists too. Suppose it's religious folk who want to make a martyr out of atheists, for your scenario.

Baha'is are not supposed to renounce their faith no matter what. If they were to kill me, that would be one thing, I would allow them to kill me. But torture, prison, that sort of thing is hard for me to tell. It is harder to live in torture or prison, than to die for my faith. If I die, I get an immediate reward, but if I went through the other things I don't know what I would do.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Nothing to renounce here, given that I have no certainty as to any particular belief. Being dead doesn't tend to give one many opportunities to change whatever situation occurs so I would do that necessary to stay alive if I was in any threatened position. Not sure what I might do, if younger, and a despotic government (or theocracy) was likely where I lived - as to moving out or opposing such.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I can't think of any religious beliefs I have that could be denounced.

That said, I would rather die, if only because it makes me sound like a ******.

 

[ChristineM]

Already done it, age 14 i really read the bible, the horror of it played on my mind for a few months during which time my religious beliefs were fading

 

[ajay0]

Belief means you do not know for certain. There is a difference between knowing and believing.

For me, truth is divinity , and if the truth exposes beliefs to be hollow, obviously one must discard them. But I have noticed that all religious beliefs I have discarded had been pointers to higher truths.

It is too often believed that a person in his progress towards perfection passes from error to truth; that when he passes on from one thought to another, he must necessarily reject the first. But no error can lead to truth. The soul passing through its different stages goes from truth to truth, and each stage is true; it goes from lower truth to higher truth. ~ Swami Vivekananda

 

[Glaurung]

I hope I would have the courage to accept martyrdom if it ever came to it.

 

[wellwisher]

Would you die for your religious beliefs? Specifically, would you die in refusal to denounce your religious beliefs?

I remember when I was a preteen/teenager, my Sunday school teacher at a Christian church talked several times about "being a martyr for Christ." He would boast that he would gladly become one. He told us stories (ones I doubt) about how in the middle east, Muslim terrorists would stop busses, and anyone on board who was Christian / unable to recite Islamic scripture was killed. He said that if he was in that situation, he would NOT deny Christ and take the bullet. Then he encouraged us to have the same mindset. Brought up some verse in Revelation about how martyrs get special treatment in heaven or something.

As a youngster, I remember sitting through that class going back and forth in my thoughts on what I would do in that situation. I was being led to believe that I would have to choose death rather than denouncing Christianity. God would deny me if I denied him was the logic I was being told. But then I also was thinking, like, I would also be totally down to say that "I am not a Christian pls don't kill me" if presented with a gun to my face. I mean... That's reasonable, right?

What do you think your God would want you to do? Lie, or die?

I'm not a Christian anymore, but I do think, currently, I would lie about any of my beliefs if they were gonna get me immediately killed.

So, what about you, religious folk? What would you do, if presented with the option of death or renunciation of your preferred religion?

There are many historical precedents for this scenario, even on a wide scale. Perhaps one of the more notable examples was Imperial Rome persecuting Christians and often giving them this ultimatum, before the emperors became Christian.

This question is open to Atheists too. Suppose it's religious folk who want to make a martyr out of atheists, for your scenario.

Are you suggesting the Political Left and the Atheists could get so paranoid that they would be willing to kill people if they refuse to deny God and become indoctrinated in their godless paranoia?

I would pretend to be a compliant robot, but I would privately leave my mind free. The hypocrisy would be the lessor of the three possible evils; hypocrisy, die or damnation.

 

[Sundance]

As a Bahá’í, this is something that I ponder a lot (being that in several countries, Bahá’ís are actually being killed for not recanting their faith).

To be straight-up, I’d rather die. It’s a matter of integrity, being true to my deepest convictions through my words and my deeds. Stand up and be counted, I say. I’m with @Quintessence here, to ask me to deny my sincere beliefs or threaten me with death is to require that I deny who I am in my person. This, I could never do.

 

[LuisDantas]

Dying for no purpose? I don't think so.

Beliefs are just beliefs. No one should feel the drive to climb that mountain to make an empty stand. To put it in another way, religious beliefs are not meant to be important even for very religious people.

I am well aware that many people say otherwise. I honestly don't understand why they do.

I would, however, want to resist expectations that I would lie out of confort of social expectations.

That trait is what made me an atheist in the first place, after all.

 

[LuisDantas]

Are you suggesting the Political Left and the Atheists could get so paranoid that they would be willing to kill people if they refuse to deny God and become indoctrinated in their godless paranoia?

I would pretend to be a compliant robot, but I would privately leave my mind free. The hypocrisy would be the lessor of the three possible evils; hypocrisy, die or damnation.

I have to wonder if anyone seriously thinks such a scenario conceivable.

I know I do not.

 

[Aupmanyav]

It can happen. If five religious extremists with weapons (even a hammer or a stone) corner one in a deserted place and put this option before that person. I hope the police will be able to trace the assailants and bring them to justice.

 

[Unfettered]

The OP presents a difficult question to answer with absolute confidence. During the COVID panic I exposed myself to some risks to assert my right to free exercise of religion, but the power of groupthink and mob mentality in the community inspires a very real fear. I am willing to lose everything, including my life, rather than submit to murderous authoritarianism or democracy (mobocracy, ochlocracy) over questions of conscience. But I might also wilt, particularly if the ultimatum also were to carry with it real harm or damage to my wife and children. Part of me holds in such contempt the threat that I'd say, "Yes, I'd die." But I don't know if I'm man enough.

My wife might say, "Yes, you'd die."

I hope she'd say that.

 

[Revoltingest]

To renounce beliefs is only to say so.
I'd still believe as I do.
It's not worth dying for a label.

But this hypothetical can be broadened
by imagining circumstances that would
present this choice. If we had such an
oppressive theocratic government, then
it could be worth taking up arms to revolt.
Death would be possible.

 

[Kenny]

Would you die for your religious beliefs? Specifically, would you die in refusal to denounce your religious beliefs?

I would hope so.

 

[Onasander]

I'd be bound by my faith to denounce.... but only as a temporary ploy because I'd have to buy time to figure out how to disable or kill them. I'm exmilitary and read alot of strategy texts.... if put in such a circumstance I gotta presume it's God's will not to play the part of a helpless martyr but rather to play through a strategem so as to resolve the situation, so it couldn't be repeated again upon others. If merely mumbling the words they want buys time to get help or figure a good plan out, then thankfully, so be it. But the goal is, it will end with me. Can't let these people run loose.

 

[syo]

If a modern Abrahamic wants me to denounce my paganism I'd give them the finger.