Is an Untrue Belief that Inspires Good Better than a Truth?

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Originally Posted by NikolaiI

Well I'm really sorry you had to hear so many slanders on his name. Trust me they were slanders. If you read his stories I think you'll love them; and if you read about his life after you read his stories, I think you'll admire him for his ability to endure some pretty bad circumstances, and perhaps admire his achievements even more.

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The way I understood it, people like the books BECAUSE of these religious themes.

But fair enough, I'll keep your opinion in mind too, and given the fact that it really is world literature in it's highest form, if ever I decide to read something for the sake of 'general education' instead of just my entertainment and my pursuit of knowledge, then I will read Dostoevsky first, or second after Dickens.

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Originally Posted by Dodo25

I don't understand how people choose to believe in whatever gives them comfort...What about truth? To me, truth is really all that matters.

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You do Dostoevsky an injustice if you imagine comfort in his 'even if it were proved that Jesus Christ never existed, he would believe in Christ'. Not comfort, but the brilliant illumination gleaned from a life well lived!

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Originally Posted by Dodo25

The way I understood it, people like the books BECAUSE of these religious themes.

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For me, Dostoevesky's themes are more those of extraordinary compassion, for instance, Sonia and Lizaveta in Crime and Punishment, Prince Myshkin and Vera Lebedev in The Idiot, and Alyosha in Brothers Karamazov.

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Originally Posted by Sebas. Melmoth

As Pontius Pilatus asked of Messiah, 'What is [the] Truth?'

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Kierkegaard observed, 'Paganism never gets nearer the truth than Pilate: What is truth? And with that crucifies it'. This quote, and Dostoevsky's, are testaments to a life well lived. Neither of these quotes mandate Christian interpretations.