Posts: 13122
Threads: 130
Joined: October 18, 2014
Reputation:
55
Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 11:21 am
(This post was last modified: April 30, 2016 at 11:23 am by abaris.)
I just watched a documentary about an American officer lining his pockets with German artefacts after the war. Now there's a quote by one of our famous poets, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: There's no crime I wouldn't commit under the right circumstances.
Now, being honest to myself, I couldn't resist tempation, if it's rubbed right under my nose. Being a made man, just by bending the rules a little bit and sending home some packages of unknown origin. I certainly would have embraced the opportunity, if it presented itself so openly.
What would you do? Be honest now, would you resist tempatation? And keep the enemy part out of it, since it's just a ways to wiggle out of the moral dilemma.
Posts: 30129
Threads: 304
Joined: April 18, 2014
Reputation:
92
RE: Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 11:26 am
I'd throw the current timeline in the shitter to get Brian back.
So, everyone born after the mid 1980s is going to be a different or nonexistent person.
Sux to be the rest of you. I will light a candle or something
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
Posts: 25314
Threads: 239
Joined: August 26, 2010
Reputation:
156
RE: Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 11:48 am
(This post was last modified: April 30, 2016 at 11:51 am by Cyberman.)
"I can resist anything except temptation."
I'd like to think that I'd be above it, and I've been in situations where I could have profited from doing something underhand but didn't and then felt cheated. In this situation? I honestly don't know. I think I'd be eaten up with guilt over it though; maybe enough to make me put things right later.
[Eta] I would burn the Universe just to get a single second with my Sam, though. Kinda overturns everything I just said, really, doesn't it?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
Posts: 211
Threads: 1
Joined: January 28, 2016
Reputation:
14
RE: Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 12:33 pm
I don't know what I would do and considering that such situation is likely to happen I must live with such uncertainty.
The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.
Mikhail Bakunin.
The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
Socrates.
Posts: 44051
Threads: 529
Joined: July 24, 2013
Reputation:
109
RE: Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 12:45 pm
I can't see myself stealing anything, let alone war plunder. Not setting myself up as a great moral example or anything, it was just instilled in me from a very early age that those things which are not yours are always, barring freely given gifts, going to be not yours.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 13122
Threads: 130
Joined: October 18, 2014
Reputation:
55
RE: Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 12:48 pm
(April 30, 2016 at 12:45 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: I can't see myself stealing anything, let alone war plunder. Not setting myself up as a great moral example or anything, it was just instilled in me from a very early age that those things which are not yours are always, barring freely given gifts, going to be not yours.
Boru
Yeah, it was instilled in me too. But still, I would, being honest with myself. To be clear, I wouldn never rob some grandmother or someone striving to earn their money, but I find myself seriously lacking when it comes to goods not being the livelihood of any particular individual.
Posts: 5983
Threads: 249
Joined: January 2, 2013
Reputation:
30
RE: Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 1:29 pm
It depends so much on the situation. It depends on the value of the artifacts, what knowledge I have of the people being stolen from, the chances of me being caught, how rich I am.
If the value was a lot, the people who owned the artifacts were likely to be dead or far away or they were just known as being bad people, if I was poor, or even not that rich, and I found a few gold coins or something that no one was going to miss, then yes I would steal them.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
Posts: 13122
Threads: 130
Joined: October 18, 2014
Reputation:
55
RE: Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 1:34 pm
(April 30, 2016 at 1:29 pm)paulpablo Wrote: It depends so much on the situation. It depends on the value of the artifacts, what knowledge I have of the people being stolen from, the chances of me being caught, how rich I am.
It was the treasure of the dome of Quedlinburg. A king's ransom. And the guy knew very well about the value of what he was pinching, since he was a student of the history of arts.
Posts: 12743
Threads: 92
Joined: January 3, 2016
Reputation:
85
RE: Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 1:34 pm
Of course, I would.
Posts: 6856
Threads: 50
Joined: September 14, 2014
Reputation:
44
RE: Would you .... ?
April 30, 2016 at 2:31 pm
Meh not interested in old timey artefacts, nor in profit at the cost of moral anguish
Quote:To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
- Lau Tzu
Join me on atheistforums Slack (pester tibs via pm if you need invite)
|