Courage

This really doesn't have much to do with the existence of God, but I think it is a bit interesting nonetheless.

Last night I was driving down the road for the last time on my motorcycle and was thinking about just how frightening it is to be moving down the road at 70 mph with little to no protection. Cars have seat belts, airbags, steel frames, and various other safety features yet thousands die in auto crashes each year while the motorcyclist has at most a helmet and a tough jacket. After thinking about this I became quite certain that I was doing a very brave thing indeed, but then I started to question my new found bravery. If many other people ride motorcycles without feeling fear then it can't be all that courageous can it?

Today, while at the zoo the question was raised in a different way byy my daughter. She is only 2, but she was frightened of a statue that spits water. Finally, she built up enough courage and ran over and touched it. This got me thinking again about what can be classified as a courageous act. Obviously, I wasn't afraid of touching the statue, but that shouldn't take away from the courage she showed in overcoming her fear of the statue should it?

Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines courage as, "mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty". Riding a motorcycle or touching a water spewing statue may not meet this definition to some, but I am starting to think that the defining of an action as "courageous" merely depends on the thoughts and actions of the one doing the action rather than on the opinion of onlookers.

The only requirement then that I can see for an action to be classified as courageous is that the person must feel themselves to be in a fearful, difficult, or dangerous position and then must still act regardless of those feelings. A entity, person or otherwise, that has no fear can do nothing that could be labeled as courageous because they have not overcame any of those things. On the other side though, a entity that always is afraid of everything may actually commit large amounts of courageous acts just going through the motions of everyday life.

I am not claiming that any of this is all that revolutionary, or even correct for that matter, but it is kind of fun to think about.  

I've never thought of it that way...that's interesting!

Very interesting.

I'm not trying to be funny, but there are days I feel it takes courage just to get out of bed in the morning!

The more I have been thinking about it while packing the more fun this line of thought has become.

A question I just asked myself was in regards to following this line of thought to its conclusion, "Could my daughter touching the statue she feared be considered to be equally courageous as a fireman running into a burning building?" I think I am inclined to say that the fireman's act is more courageous than my daughters, but I fear that my belief is only based on my agreeing with the fear that the fireman should have versus the fear/belief in danger that my daughter was experiencing.

If a person has geliophobia, a fear a laughter, I just looked it up, and goes to a Comedy club to face their fear and their fear is indeed more than the fear of the before mentioned firefighter then I am inclined to say that the geliophobiac was the more courageous of the two in that particular instance.  

You are quite correct. The fear doesn't have to be 'rational' for an act that goes against that fear to be courageous.

When I was a little kid I was scared of one of my friends' father. Said father had a booming voice.
I wasn't courageous though, I just avoided him like a little chickenshit

interesting post!

Very good post Einsteinfan, and I completely agree.

It also may work conversely - for example, me and a friend of mine, a few years back, went hiking in the mountains in southern Poland. We missread the route map, and what we expected to be a leisurely route with not too many steep climbs, took us straight over a peak, and had us climbing through a pretty scary, steep mountainside, steep enough that there clearly was an element of danger to it. We stuck to the route, and climbed to the peak, but I don't think this was a very courageous feat for me, as I'm comfortable with heights, and didn't really feel much in the way of fear at any point; only the sort of healthy alertness that comes when you know that you can't afford to be sloppy. My friend was slightly uncomfortable with heights, so he had to overcome a greater challenge - that he climbed that same path, it seems to me could be argued, WAS corrageous.

Courage is indeed not only facing danger, but overcoming the fear associated with the danger, whether that danger is real or imagined. Someone who genuinely believes in ghosts and malign spirits going to a reputedly haunted house to spend the night is corageous, though there is no danger involved - but I LIVE in a reputedly haunted apartment (my landlady swears it!), and as I genuinely don't consider ghost stories plausible at all, this does not require any courage from me.

Going to a blood test however... now that requires a bit of courageousness for me, as I have hematophobia (though it seems very selective - I can watch open heart surgery without problem, but a cut on a finger.... ugh. ).

I thought Christians thought that courage is good. But are not the Christians the biggest cowards in the world, per definition, because they are not standing up to their extremly great fear of God? Even though they think He is allmighty and good they fear him, right? Seems like you cannot have that kind of morals as Christian.

For me courage is an equation. The brain calculates the actions Positive totaland weighs it against the Negative total times your "courage factor"; then you act accordingly.

Nice video, I knew some about it, but I know much more now it seems.

Good post.  Einsteinfan states "The only requirement then that I can see for an action to be classified as courageous is that the person must feel themselves to be in a fearful, difficult, or dangerous position and then must still act regardless of those feelings."  That pretty much sums up my chess playing.