Because passionately charging a cannon in defense of an ideal we have not had the courage to examine honestly and critically is so out of touch with the Divinity that is reality, it is not brave or noble at all.
The fear of questioning our beliefs with brutal candor, no matter how poor this search reveals our past choices to be, no matter what it says about our flaws, is a cowardly dishonor of our personal integrity.
Determination in battle is not always a sign of valor. Fighting to the death can be not just unwise, but also a sign of craven terror of facing our responsibility to remain loyal to evidence of Truth about all that is within and around us.
For this reason, during wartime the skeptic has the most reason for confidence.
And as it turns out, true believers are usually full of very profound doubts about themselves.
Still, we have all retreated from uncomfortable facts at different times. So we should have patience and understanding, at times even compassion, when we, or someone else, flees the field of battle in panic.
And as I discuss on another website, compassion can actually arm us in life threatening situations. Love for an attacker, ironically, can empower us if we need to hurt him or her in self-defense.
This ends up making perfect sense when you confidently trust in the goodness of the mysterious, ever-present Beyond-Our-Control-And-Understanding Something many label God. But to reach the point that you can place this trusting faith in the universe, you need to first ruthlessly discard most beliefs about God as ridiculous and incredible.
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