International Peace Day

"May peace prevail on earth"

Running, surgery and philosophy!

I am reading an interesting book, "running and philosophy" by
Michael Austin which I came across while was looking for a book about philosophy of mind!. I can relate to it because there are many similarities between marathon running and surgical training! I recommend reading this book.
The author describes the seven Cs of success originally proposed by Thomas Morris in pursuit of excellence:

1. A clear Conception of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined.
2. A strong Confidence that we can attain our goal.
3. A focused Concentration that we can attain our goal.
4. A stubborn Consistency in pursuing our vision.
5. An emotional Commitment to the importance of what we’re doing [passion]
6. A good Character to guide us and keep us on a proper course.
7. A Capacity to Enjoy the process along the way.

Imagine!

Today is a very important day! to remind us what self-righteous and religious delusion mean! to reminds us how ignorance could be devastating! Let's imagine a world with no religion!
When I am on call,I receive few calls from the nurses in the middle of the night regarding surgical patients who have spiked a fever or have pain. Sometimes we need to do some investigations like lab work or Xray and often I need to go and assess a patient. Why? because our patients are very important. They may seem trivial! these trivial but important things disturb our sleep! this is what we are supposed to do: to take care of each other! then how it is possible people kill each other for supposedly good reasons? what is more important than our life?

Richard Dawkins has a good point:

"The nineteen men of 9/11, having washed, perfumed themselves and shaved their whole bodies in preparation for the martyr's paradise, believed they were performing the highest religious duty. By the lights of their religion they were as good as it is possible to be. They were not poor, downtrodden, oppressed or psychotic; they were well educated, sane and well balanced, and, as they thought, supremely good. But they were religious, and that provided all the justification they needed to murder and destroy.

It is easy for religious faith, even if it is irrational in itself, to lead a sane and decent person, by rational, logical steps, to do terrible things. There is a logical path from religious faith to evil deeds. There is no logical path from atheism to evil deeds. Of course, many evil deeds are done by individuals who happen to be atheists"

I quote Steven Weinberg again

"With or without [religion] you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion."

Just imagine world with no religion!