Would you do it?
April 25, 2011 at 4:05 pm
(This post was last modified: April 26, 2011 at 7:38 am by Zenith.)
This is the scenario: you have somehow lost everything you had - family, friends, house, all money, etc. You're a beggar for some years, barely remaining alive, and there is no way you can change it. Except: it happens once that you get to be on a mountain, and there's also a very rich man there. He is on the edge of a precipice, looking down (there is about 1 km till the bottom of it), and no one else is around. You know that if you push him, he would fall and die, and because he dies, you will somehow get to have all that he has and no one would know that you killed him (that's 100% sure).
So, if you kill him, you will cease to be a beggar, and start living a rich life. If you don't, you'll remain a beggar. All he needs is a push. Would you do it?
NOTE:
1. Don't ask me "how will I get to have all what he has" and stuff. Just assume it is as I said.
2. If you are a theist, or an agnostic, then the scenario is that God does not exist and you know it (because otherwise, you may not kill him for fear of God's punishment). If you can't imagine a scenario in which God does not exist, then don't vote.
3. beggar = you've lived on the streets for years, sleeping while raining on you, being washed only by the rain, starving for days and eating garbage from the garbage containers, with dirty and with ragged dirty cloths that you've been wearing for years.
4. There is no hope of a better future (you're 100% convinced that this is the only opportunity to cease being a homeless beggar). That's because the point is: if you would chose to live the rest of your life as a) a homeless beggar and remain 'innocent', or b) push that man now, knowing that nothing external would punish/accuse you, no one would appreciate/reward you if you do not push him, you'd be living a happy life, struggling to do good in the future and not remember this event.
I'm curios if anyone would vote "no".
[EDITED: added points 3 and 4. I firstly thought that the situation is understood as such by everyone]
So, if you kill him, you will cease to be a beggar, and start living a rich life. If you don't, you'll remain a beggar. All he needs is a push. Would you do it?
NOTE:
1. Don't ask me "how will I get to have all what he has" and stuff. Just assume it is as I said.
2. If you are a theist, or an agnostic, then the scenario is that God does not exist and you know it (because otherwise, you may not kill him for fear of God's punishment). If you can't imagine a scenario in which God does not exist, then don't vote.
3. beggar = you've lived on the streets for years, sleeping while raining on you, being washed only by the rain, starving for days and eating garbage from the garbage containers, with dirty and with ragged dirty cloths that you've been wearing for years.
4. There is no hope of a better future (you're 100% convinced that this is the only opportunity to cease being a homeless beggar). That's because the point is: if you would chose to live the rest of your life as a) a homeless beggar and remain 'innocent', or b) push that man now, knowing that nothing external would punish/accuse you, no one would appreciate/reward you if you do not push him, you'd be living a happy life, struggling to do good in the future and not remember this event.
I'm curios if anyone would vote "no".
[EDITED: added points 3 and 4. I firstly thought that the situation is understood as such by everyone]
