22 September 2009

"An expression of faith"


A man pierced his cheeks with skewers as an expression of his faith during a ritual to mark the final days of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in Basra, Iraq, Monday.

Photo credit: Atef Hassan/Reuters

7 comments:

  1. Looks like a blessed and holy activity to me. I have a great deal of faith that this guy is an idiot!

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  2. I need no faith to know that this guy is an idiot.

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  3. While this is something I would never do, I can't believe everyone is castigating this man for his practice. We might think it's crazy, but he's an adult who can choose this form of expression if he wants. The narrow-minded criticism expressed here seems harsh.
    Now, what if that man simply had piercings through his cheeks (as in done in a parlor)? What if he had tattoos covering his face, "for Jesus"? Would people feel the need to call him an idiot?

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  4. I'd Rather:

    Yes, he's an adult and can do whatever he wants. If that floats his boat then fine, nobody is saying he should be arrested or in any way prevented from doing the idiotic things he does. However, that doesn't mean that the idiotic things he does aren't idiotic. People should be free to be idiots, and other people should be free to point that out.

    The reason this guy's an idiot is not because he somehow or other got two ice picks through his cheeks. The reason he's an idiot is because of his REASONS for having done so. If people want piercings through their cheeks because they think it looks or feels good, great. They're not idiots because they just have unusual tastes. However, what this idiot is doing, or what an idiot who tattoos his face with "for gesus" is doing are completely different things. We're not calling him an idiot because of what he did, we're calling him an idiot because what he did reflects on his beliefs about reality.

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  5. Boy, I really shouldn't be posting comments when I'm half asleep...

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