Thanks for a well-written critique on Critchley’s book, “The book of the dead philosophers”. What I got from reading it is the following string of thoughts.

It has all resulted from giving a thinking mind to some animals, or some animals acquiring a thinking mind. The animal in us appears to resist death and wants to live as long as possible, comfortably, as if it is programmed to do so and the human in us wants to know the reason behind this urge to live.

The religions could be accused of providing a false hope of an afterlife, but that accusation in itself calls religion devious at best; for the religion links better afterlife with the so called good deeds. “Life after death” has been discussed in almost all religions, in some cases it takes the form of re-incarnation and in some it becomes an eternal life after death, full of torture or full of pleasure depending upon deeds.

Deeds have often been classified good or bad at the whim of some religious figures that get ratified by folks who follow them and vilified by those who do not. So, it is a confused mess at best. The best example that you have provided, which is a cheap shot, by the way, is in “As Critchley points out, if we delude ourselves about the nature of our deaths (say, by believing that if we martyr ourselves for radical Islam we'll be welcomed into heaven by 72 virgins), we are likely to make a mess of our lives”. The part “martyr ourselves” involves suicide which is strictly forbidden in Islam.

The best reason provided for following Islam was provided by Ali the fourth Caliph of Islam. His line was akin to Socrates’ and he said something like: If you die following (true) teachings of Islam there are two possibilities. You go into oblivion or there is everything that Islam has promised. If you go into oblivion nothing is lost, you lived a (good) life. If on the other hand you see the afterlife, as promised, you will be rewarded. So, perhaps following a decent religion is the best approach.

Finally the philosophers were ordinary humans given to thinking, so why not think for ourselves knowing that death is the end of our physical lives too, so why not make our lives count by leaving examples of good conduct. This leaves me with the suggestion of a Muslim saint who said something like: Know that when you were born you were crying and others were happy, so make sure that when you die you are smiling and others are sad at losing you. The good thing about this advice is that you do not have to be a Muslim to follow it.

Muhammad Zafrullah

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and all the other psychological conditions that go with it, or come under it, seem to indicate that perhaps modern, well educated, humans are not quite suitable for war; especially the kind of war that we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan or have fought in Vietnam. The point is we can train a person to use various weapons but we cannot train a person to deal with the sight of bloodied disfigured bodies. We can train a person to repeat certain procedures in certain situations but cannot train a person to react with indifference at the sight of a dying child who got hit in error.

It is also very hard to train soldiers to handle the modern day insurgencies where you do not really know who your enemy is until you see one of your comrades falling to the ground. This kind of situation causes stress that could push a person to want to kill or die. I suggest that while we are trying to cure our war injured we should also try to rethink war itself.

I believe that, like the Lebanon war, in this war too the message was clear: Do not mess with us; we can kill you with impunity. Olmert himself told the Palestinians, in an interview, that Israel has devastating force. In an indirect message Olmert indicated that he could make George Bush leave his speech to attend his phone call. One wonders what Olmert had on Bush to be so sure.

I can see that Hamas is insane to pick a fight with a country with so much fire power and so powerful friends. But will you be sane if you are being blockaded out of existence?

I do not know much about international law, but isn't Gaza under Israeli control? Looking at the ease with which the Israeli army goes in and pick off people with its guns and rockets, it seems so. Then why isn't Israel responsible for the Gazans' well being?

Muhammad Zafrullah

I hear that once upon a time,the Chinese thought the sparrows ate their crops off. So they ate, or destroyed the common sparrow. But then they had the problem of worms and caterpillars. Playing with nature wholesale may not be a good idea. I would say try a few farms at a time and see, and leave the rat races and gold rushes to us the Americans. The trouble is there are so many parameters and however much we know some may still be hidden and ignoring them could have devastating effects.

Muhammad Zafrullah

Geneen you have done well to bring this heart grabbing story to light. It appears that more than greed, it was indifference on your part. My only advice is, take good care and have faith, fruit of honest labor is never lost. I also suggest an addition to the list of our cultural oddities. After “We say we want to stop violence, but we allow genocide in Darfur.” add "We want to remember Holocaust, but we ignore what goes on in Gaza."

Muhammad Zafrullah