Dutch Uncle
* Tertia Optio * Defend the Constitution
Martyrdom appears in all three Abrahamic religions and also recognized in Buddhism:The apostles are some of the most important and well known people in the history of western civilization.
If you're not interested in history, go talk to someone about pedophilia. There's plenty of threads about that.
Martyr | Definition, Examples, Religions, & Facts | Britannica
Martyr, one who voluntarily suffers death rather than deny their religion by words or deeds; such action is afforded special, institutionalized recognition in most major religions of the world. The term may also refer to anyone who sacrifices their life or something of great value for the sake...
The universality of persecution throughout its history has engendered in Judaism an explicit ideal of martyrdom. It begins with Abraham, who according to legend was cast into a lime kiln and saved from the fire by divine grace. The tradition was continued by Isaac, who consented to be sacrificed by his father, and by Daniel, whose example compelled the popular imagination. Readiness for martyrdom became a collective Jewish ideal during the Antiochene persecution and the Maccabean rebellion of the 2nd century bc. The best known episode was that of the mother and her seven sons (II Maccabees 7). Martyrdom was preferred to the desecration of the Sabbath by the early Ḥasidim. In Hadrian’s time, pious Jews risked death to circumcise their children, and Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef embraced martyrdom to assert the right to teach the Law publicly. The Talmud cites the majority opinion that one should prefer martyrdom to three transgressions—idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder....
...Christianity
The original meaning of the Greek word martys was “witness”; in this sense it is often used in the New Testament. Since the most striking witness that Christians could bear to their faith was to die rather than deny it, the word soon began to be used in reference to one who was not only a witness but specifically a witness unto death. This usage is present, at least implicitly, in Acts 22:20 and Revelation 2:13....
...Islam
The Islāmic designation shahīd (Arabic: “witness”) is equivalent to and in a sense derivative of the Judaeo-Christian concept of martyr. The full sense of “witness unto death” does not appear in the Qurʾān but receives explicit treatment in the subsequent Ḥadīth literature, in which it is stated that martyrs, among the host of heaven, stand nearest the throne of God....
...Buddhism
While distinctly lacking a history of persecution or of violent conflict with other faiths, Buddhism does recognize among its adherents a venerable class of martyrs. The Jātaka (q.v.) commentary on the former lives of the Buddha is in a sense a martyrology of the bodhisattva (“buddha-to-be”) and his disciples, recounting their continual self-sacrifice and repeated deaths. In Mahāyāna (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism, the decision by one destined to become a buddha in this or another life to postpone his own enlightenment to alleviate the suffering of others is regarded as martyrdom.
That's fucking beyond the pale!