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Current time: March 29, 2024, 11:20 am

Poll: Would you kill him?
This poll is closed.
Yes! (he'd better die)
28.00%
7 28.00%
No! (I'd never kill anyone)
72.00%
18 72.00%
Total 25 vote(s) 100%
* You voted for this item. [Show Results]

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Would you do it?
#1
Would you do it?
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]
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#2
RE: Would you do it?
I have to take the moral high ground here and say no. I'd still have to live with the guilt for the rest of my life knowing that I took another human life, and would be constantly worried that someone would find out that I killed him. Not only that, what right do I have to kill another human being and take everything he had?

Maybe it's just my humanistic views, or the fact that I'm well aware that money isn't everything.
Christian apologetics is the art of rolling a dog turd in sugar and selling it as a donut.
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#3
RE: Would you do it?
I absolutely would kill him.

Problem with this scenario is that I'm not the type of person who would become a beggar when dropped into poverty. I'm the type of person that would immediately turn to crime should legitimacy not work out for me. And then I would still push this man.

I wouldn't right now though Smile
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
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#4
RE: Would you do it?
While killing him would be immoral and selfish, if you lose everything and be a starving begger for a few years then see an opportunity to be rich, you would be pretty damn desperate at this point.
Don’t ask.

Atheist
I Evolved!
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#5
RE: Would you do it?
(April 25, 2011 at 4:05 pm)Zenith Wrote: 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.

I'm curios if anyone would vote "no".

No, it's both morally wrong and repulsive.

And your poll question is rigged, I wouldn't say "I'd never kill anyone", I wouldn't kill someone simply for my own gain.

Suppose this man is not Rich, he's just marginally better off than you, he has a minimum wage job and a shitty apartment, but it's better than being a beggar, would you kill him then?
.
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#6
RE: Would you do it?
(April 25, 2011 at 4:40 pm)theVOID Wrote: And your poll question is rigged, I wouldn't say "I'd never kill anyone", I wouldn't kill someone simply for my own gain.
Well, I guess I can't change it now.

Quote:Suppose this man is not Rich, he's just marginally better off than you, he has a minimum wage job and a shitty apartment, but it's better than being a beggar, would you kill him then?
I don't think I would, in that case: I would see him more close to me. I would see a man struggling and working hard to earn a living, I would appreciate him for that, and therefore, I'd consider it as unjust to end his life and unjustly take what is his.

As about the rich man: You know, if I was a beggar for a few years and now I would stand behind this rich guy, I guess all I could think about would be my needs and desires, and of the fact that I have unjustly become in this very poor state, while I worked a lot and did my best, while this guy is a very happy person that only has fun and to whom money and parties just come with little to no effort. And I'd think that it would have been fair for me to have a lot for my very great effort, while he should have had very little to nothing due to his lack of effort. So I would think that it would be fair for me to have his riches, for my effort, while he should deserve nothing. These added to my great desire seen as almost already completed, and my confidence that I won't ever remember him, I would see the little push as a 'little' thing.

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#7
RE: Would you do it?
Void Wrote:Suppose this man is not Rich, he's just marginally better off than you, he has a minimum wage job and a shitty apartment, but it's better than being a beggar, would you kill him then?

Me? Yes.

Remember, this is entirely untraceable crime in this example. I would not so readily risk it in reality... but then I'd never be that poor in reality either Smile
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
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#8
RE: Would you do it?
(April 25, 2011 at 4:18 pm)Doubting Thomas Wrote: I have to take the moral high ground here and say no. I'd still have to live with the guilt for the rest of my life knowing that I took another human life, and would be constantly worried that someone would find out that I killed him. Not only that, what right do I have to kill another human being and take everything he had?

Maybe it's just my humanistic views, or the fact that I'm well aware that money isn't everything.

I've removed the fear of being found/being punished for this.
As about "money isn't everything", I guess that if we lived on the streets for years, sleeping while raining on us, being washed only by the rain, starving for days and eating garbage from the garbage containers, with dirty and with ragged dirty cloths that we've been wearing for years, we couldn't have spelled "money isn't everything".
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#9
RE: Would you do it?
(April 25, 2011 at 4:26 pm)Aerzia Saerules Arktuos Wrote: I absolutely would kill him.

Problem with this scenario is that I'm not the type of person who would become a beggar when dropped into poverty. I'm the type of person that would immediately turn to crime should legitimacy not work out for me. And then I would still push this man.

I wouldn't right now though Smile

not a REMOTELY surprising answer for you sae
[Image: Evolution.png]

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#10
RE: Would you do it?
(April 25, 2011 at 6:11 pm)Aerzia Saerules Arktuos Wrote:
Void Wrote:Suppose this man is not Rich, he's just marginally better off than you, he has a minimum wage job and a shitty apartment, but it's better than being a beggar, would you kill him then?

Me? Yes.

Remember, this is entirely untraceable crime in this example. I would not so readily risk it in reality... but then I'd never be that poor in reality either Smile

* This is an automated message from VOID's moral compass - The rating of one 'Aerzia Saerules Arktuos' has been downgraded from B+ to D- *
.
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