In the aftermath of the Columbine High School shooting, it was said by a number of Christians that one of the victims had died a martyr's death. While no one can say whether the outcome would have been any different if she had not testified her faith when asked at gunpoint, the premise that dying for a belief makes the belief any truer is a logical fallacy.

After reading a column in the newspaper on the subject of martyrdom, I wrote a short response objecting to the pretension that senseless death ever serves a "higher purpose."

The column in question was written by Terry Mattingly, a professor at Milligan, wherever that is.

The Arabic word shaheed - which means "witness" - appears in several instances in the Qu'ran and the Hadith, the collected sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. Believers witnessed in both word and deed, in the face of infidel persecution...

In "Teen reminds us what 'martyr' means" Terry Mattingly begins his sermon with a reference to the Greek roots for the word martyr. He then goes on to mention religious conflagrations in "Uganda, China, Iran, Indonesia, Sudan and elsewhere" in connection with martyrdom.

But this is questionable logic, as I have demonstrated with the word shaheed, one might as well speak of the martyrs in Chechnya, the martyrs for the revolution in Iran, the martyrs for the jihaad in the Sudan, the martyrs for brave leader Mao, the martyrs for any and every ideology that bespecks, if not besmears, the planet.

Every Harry, Tom, Dick, and Ahmed has his capital 'T' truth for which he would ring your doorbell and solemnly vow had changed his life. And they, of course, all contradict themselves and claim to have witnessed that which by their own definitions of the supernatural they could by no means have seen or heard for themselves. Perhaps they can lay claim to "warm fuzzies," but that is more indicative of the state of the "witness" rather than that which is witnessed.

A person dying for a cause gives no rational impetus for that death making the cause any truer. In fact, any cause which encourages such wanton sacrifice has all the more reason to be rationally examined even further, as it demands of its adherents the ultimate price. If the promises which such an ideology makes in payment of this price are false, then the ideology is not truth but madness.

Less of course one thinks that Heavensgate unlocked the door and are currently on a higher level than six feet under...