I found your words very moving and couldn’t agree more. To know what you believe and stand for that is the greatest freedom. One must not let anyone take that away. Our country has been living under a regime that is trying to bend us to their will, but you and many of us have withstood the wrath and punishments from leaders and friends. I’m praying for the new administration to return our country to one that believes in the principles set forth by God, and remove the evil that has betrayed us all.
Congratulations on your award, Dr. Kheriaty. I believe it is well earned.
Thank you for so generously sharing this. I listened and I am moved.
When I was young, I never understood why authorities in totalitarian or similar regimes so feared religion. But in the last year or so, I've come to understand. It is so very clear to me now.
Once again, thank you for your generosity in sharing this and for all your efforts.
I'm an atheist but I believe in angels. They walk among us, doing their best to know the good and do good, perhaps without the self-confidence of those converted to a faith, but quietly determined to do the right thing.
“..for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” - George Eliot, Middlemarch
On these issues I am more sympathetic to the views of Epicurus, who pointed out that man's innate psychological characteristics are what make one's moral and intellectual autonomy in securing and appreciating the natural and necessary pleasures of an entire lifetime a necessity for one's pursuit of happiness.
One who understands this does not fatally compromise their interior freedom through purely symbolic outward forms of compliance; one doesn't have to choose martyrdom over a "pinch of incense" or an oath to Hitler to be free, and in some circumstances pretending to go along with an evil system might offer many more opportunities for spurring resistance to it than simple overt defiance does.
On the other hand, the same understanding of human psychology also implies that one can spurn threats of inflicted pains or even of execution if the price of compliance is to give up one's autonomy. A miserable life is not a life that is worth living, and avoiding a short interval of intense pain is not suitable compensation for giving up a life that you remain in control of. A choice to endure suffering always or to comply must turns on the specifics of what the psychological price of compliance is in a given instance.
I found your words very moving and couldn’t agree more. To know what you believe and stand for that is the greatest freedom. One must not let anyone take that away. Our country has been living under a regime that is trying to bend us to their will, but you and many of us have withstood the wrath and punishments from leaders and friends. I’m praying for the new administration to return our country to one that believes in the principles set forth by God, and remove the evil that has betrayed us all.
Congratulations on your award, Dr. Kheriaty. I believe it is well earned.
Dear Dr Kheriaty,
Thank you for so generously sharing this. I listened and I am moved.
When I was young, I never understood why authorities in totalitarian or similar regimes so feared religion. But in the last year or so, I've come to understand. It is so very clear to me now.
Once again, thank you for your generosity in sharing this and for all your efforts.
In gratitude
KM
I'm an atheist but I believe in angels. They walk among us, doing their best to know the good and do good, perhaps without the self-confidence of those converted to a faith, but quietly determined to do the right thing.
Thank you for your courage Dr. Kerhiaty!
“..for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.” - George Eliot, Middlemarch
As recently posted by Ruth Gaskovski, School of the Unconformed, recommending Joel J Miller's article on Middlemarch https://substack.com/home/post/p-151547808
Thank you, Dr. Kheriaty, YOU are a saint among us. Praying for your continued courage and fortitude!
On these issues I am more sympathetic to the views of Epicurus, who pointed out that man's innate psychological characteristics are what make one's moral and intellectual autonomy in securing and appreciating the natural and necessary pleasures of an entire lifetime a necessity for one's pursuit of happiness.
One who understands this does not fatally compromise their interior freedom through purely symbolic outward forms of compliance; one doesn't have to choose martyrdom over a "pinch of incense" or an oath to Hitler to be free, and in some circumstances pretending to go along with an evil system might offer many more opportunities for spurring resistance to it than simple overt defiance does.
On the other hand, the same understanding of human psychology also implies that one can spurn threats of inflicted pains or even of execution if the price of compliance is to give up one's autonomy. A miserable life is not a life that is worth living, and avoiding a short interval of intense pain is not suitable compensation for giving up a life that you remain in control of. A choice to endure suffering always or to comply must turns on the specifics of what the psychological price of compliance is in a given instance.