Thread: Am I Evil?

Carl,

The philosophical question in your op leaves too many what if's.
Would the situation be urgent or would you have time maybe for minutes/hours/weeks to consider your actions?
Are you talking about absolute bad person your are trying to stop?
Would you do bad things to bad guy to save more good people?
Would you do bad things to even one of your family members to save more people (be they good or bad is irrelevant and who are you to judge?)
Even if you had time to prepare, would the killing be one and only solution?

In the case of some lunatic crazy madman in the urgent and hazardous situation the answer is easy of course. I would try to stop him/her.
But if the case is not about absolute good or bad persons involved but rather various shades of gray? Specially if you are blessed to have time enough to think about the options.

All this philosophic bs is just a twisting of the words if the case is urgent. Unfortunately in most cases people are not blessed to have the privilege or time enough to choose their actions when such bad creature suddendly comes to threat their lives or the lives of the ones they love.
Do whatever you do and live with it. You are your own judge. Asking forgiveness or understanding from someone else later is useless if you think you've done wrong.

If i got it right, you were asking about something that might happen in civil life.

Those of us who have maybe served a time or more might sometimes find themselves thinking about the actions they are doing, although i've known people who obviously didn't think but just did happily what they are told to do. That is whole different world though and the question of maybe whole different thread.

I've always thought that i'm ok with myself, i've been a good boy for whole my life. For some reasons there have been nights when wifey had to wake me to ask me to calm down and tell me that everything is ok and good now. It's hard to admit.

I've maybe grown in the bit different culture. Although not religious at all, i was thought that all life is sacred. All life.
Now do whatever you have to save life even if it meant doing bad things. Or good things.

Kill a rat if you see one in your garden but do not if you see it in the forest.
Do whatever you are told, for you country (for example) but accept the fact that your country cannot carry the burden of your bad feelings if you for some reason find yourself thinking so about yourself. In the end you are your own judge.

Originally Posted by Lemur

To put a twist on it, what if your son/daughter were the person harming others.
Would you put an end to it to save the life of others?
At any cost help your son/daughter, even if that meant you yourself now would be part of hurting others?

Funny how questions like these we have in this thread can bother people like us but politicians have no problem with it!

Well, that's hard. I say if killing them is the only way to stop them from killing others, we should kill them. Other option is to walk away and ignore it; to say "I'm not the one responsible, what can I do, is it my job to make others do what I think they should do, and to do that by killing them? The second option is as valid as the first. The story of Abraham and his son is springing to mind, that NOTHING is as important as God and faith, but as that guy at the campfire said, that's just MY opinion or belief.

Originally Posted by 10Pups

Okay so here is where I got lost..... “Would you kill a person to save others from dying?”. Stupid me assumes that this person is doing/going to do something that would make them less than innocent. Not surprising that I take a natural defensive posture in this scenario based on the limited facts of just that sentence. No matter what is said after that I am on the defensive and so I am now lost.

I would edit that post but then you would have to edit yours and so on and so on,,,,, :<0) NOT

Oh, sorry if I've not been clear, it's highly likely I haven't. Don't get on the defensive, there was no harm meant. I heard a radio show where they were talking of stories of atrocities in Rwanda, and one was a so being forced to kill his father to save another family member; as in the rebels or whatever they are forcing the child. of course the child would then be conscripted. A similar thing I was told happened in Asia via the Pol Pot thingy. It's truly horrific but it brings in to question really difficult questions, and a lot of the possible answers are based on really fundamental beliefs, like "I should preserve my body and evolution has dictated that" or (as I heard on the radio today, in a documentary about an Indian Guru (I think) "You are not your body, you are not your mind".

If one allows the idea that you are a spirit with a body AND a spirit must do good to advance (or go to a good place) then I think the question becomes clearer but actually not well accommodated.

On reading my original post, I see I should have highlighted the 'boiling down' bit. THAT was the point where he said I was 'evil', that ME abiding by a demand from another to kill one child to save another child (or the child and me) would be wrong, as I was carrying out an act that was AS evil as the other. However, as I was prompted by you, I need to remember that I'm not WANTING to do an evil act, and maybe I could be forgiven for doing the evil act to save another. We are of course assuming SOME sort of judgement scenario.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

So what if you knew that you were going to do something terrible, would you take your own life?

That's a good one. You know what hackneyed expression I'm sick of? "Be true to yourself honey, always be true to yourself". I say to people "What if you're a REAL arsehole, what if you're a REALLY bad person? Is it OIK to be true to yourself then?

Maybe that explains some suicides? People who know they're going off the edge and getting dangerous and they don't want to? The stories I hear about what's happening here and there around the world are just horrific.

I'd take my own life. But then again, I'm the sort of person who would kill themselves for their dog...

Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

On reading my original post, I see I should have highlighted the 'boiling down' bit. THAT was the point where he said I was 'evil', that ME abiding by a demand from another to kill one child to save another child (or the child and me) would be wrong, as I was carrying out an act that was AS evil as the other. However, as I was prompted by you, I need to remember that I'm not WANTING to do an evil act, and maybe I could be forgiven for doing the evil act to save another. We are of course assuming SOME sort of judgement scenario.

If you think you've done wrong or evil, even for the good and acceptable cause, then you have the rest of your days to explain it to yourself and trying to learn to live with that. Conscience might be ruthless, sometimes, for some.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

'Nine Meals to Anarchy" ....

It is an old adage of just how thin the veneer of civilization really is ...

HA! Maybey not in Idaho! Thought of you as i saw this today, Glen!

Yes.

Originally Posted by Nightblade

He got hit in the head with that branch and deviated.(the devil made me say it.....by threat of death)

You are mean Nighty

Originally Posted by edhewitt

You are mean Nighty

Pokin fun Ed...but I am sorry if you were offended. Apologies.

Originally Posted by Nightblade

Pokin fun Ed...but I am sorry if you were offended. Apologies.

I knew, now I feel mean for making you feel bad about you thinking that I thought you were being mean.
Here is an extra one for my last post