Thread: Am I Evil?

That title attracted your attention, didn’t it?

Anyway, the thrust of the post is that I was discussing (arguing) a philosophical question around a camp fire the other night while a little inebriated. At the time it made sense to me. The argument went along the lines of the response to the question “Would you kill a person to save others from dying?”. I said “No, I wouldn't corrupt my soul by carrying out a wrong act (evil act); that the purity (relative purity) of my soul was paramount, regardless of the lives at stake”. I suggested that one’s ultimate ideal should be to one’s soul; and relatively speaking, one’s physical life was nothing in comparison.

That brought up questions of what is right and wrong; and should MY judgement of it determine if I saved lives or not.

I said my idea of what is right and wrong was right; because I said so.
That is a statement one might make round a campfire at 11 o’clock at night while holding the first Rum one has had in 20 years.
I said there’s nothing wrong with knowing with certainty (enough to stake your soul on it) what was right and wrong.

The other person, said he thought my idea was “evil” and “dangerous” and I was “disturbing”; that the idea that I would put MY morals, ethics, ideas, beliefs above human life was wrong.

I boiled the idea down a bit; personalised it and swapped the number of the ‘others’ you were saving from thousands, to hundreds, to tens to 1. Would you kill one of your children to save another if the other option was all of you dying; or just your children; both of them.

Would you do it for five kids?
Other family?
Friends?
Strangers?
Millions of people?

Am I wrong? If it’s a given you have a spirit and it’s eternal should you sacrifice it to save a life or lives?
Or am I just a dictator without a dictatorship?

I find it a not so easy choice, I have made some hard ones and will for the rest of my life wonder if it was right!

This is on that subject;

Tough question, easy answer.
If it is a choice between all of you, or just my daughters, I sure hope you've all led a good life.

My wife and I have an understanding that if we are ever in an emergency where life is at stake, we are to save the children even if it means abandoning each other.

Crikey Carl, that is a big question. I have thought about this sort of thing on and off, and actually was thinking about it the other day.
Would taking one life really save others? There really is no way of knowing whether by killing one person, another wouldnt just appear in their place, and whether that person wouldn't be worse than the original person. Who would decide, and how would they know.
I could forsee a world with only one person left who would then have to kill themselves for all the wrongs they had done in the cause of right.
With regards to the small scale, I think it would have to depend on circumstance, would you kill a person if they were going to kill you? What if someone broke into your house and was threatening to hurt your grandchild with obvious intent and you had it in your power to stop them? Of course i would, or at least would like to think that I would. I picked grandchild because I know he is of an age where he could not defend himself. I don't think my conscience would let me not do something and how can you have a pure soul with a dirty conscience.
I would also like to think that I would cove able to kill as an act of kindness, for example if a loved one was dying horrifically it would be kinder to end there life.
Though I say this I think it would be hard to do.
Carl I think you certainly made an impression on whoever you were talking to.

I have a simple method of dealing with those sorts of questions by trying to never crossing a bridge till I come to it. If you come to that bridge all the philosophizing in the world may come to nothing in dealing with it.

Bob

I'm not sure of exactly the scenario, but as a general thing I'd only take physical action against someone else either in self defence or in the defence of others. If in the course of doing so the person died I'd regret it but I wouldn't fear for my soul, I don't think. Thankfully it is not a situation I've ever had to face, so it is difficult to say for certain.

If it is a cut and dried scenario like, for example, a mass shooting underway and I could pull the trigger that kills the shooter, I think I'd do it. If on the other hand it is one of those "if you knew what this person would go on to do in later life, would you kill them before they could" scenarios, that's a whole lot trickier. To be honest though, the latter situation could never happen in reality so it's kinda pointless to think about IMO.

James.

I don't think you are evil Carl, I think your justification is more selfish. Please dont take offence at that it is just my thoughts on the scenario given.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

Crikey Carl, that is a big question. I have thought about this sort of thing on and off, and actually was thinking about it the other day.
Would taking one life really save others? There really is no way of knowing whether by killing one person, another wouldnt just appear in their place, and whether that person wouldn't be worse than the original person. Who would decide, and how would they know.
I could forsee a world with only one person left who would then have to kill themselves for all the wrongs they had done in the cause of right.
With regards to the small scale, I think it would have to depend on circumstance, would you kill a person if they were going to kill you? What if someone broke into your house and was threatening to hurt your grandchild with obvious intent and you had it in your power to stop them? Of course i would, or at least would like to think that I would. I picked grandchild because I know he is of an age where he could not defend himself. I don't think my conscience would let me not do something and how can you have a pure soul with a dirty conscience.
I would also like to think that I would cove able to kill as an act of kindness, for example if a loved one was dying horrifically it would be kinder to end there life.
Though I say this I think it would be hard to do.
Carl I think you certainly made an impression on whoever you were talking to.

I've been in this position before Ed, with my Father. He asked me to end him at a time when his cancer was at it's most painful, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. And it is something I hope no one ever has to live with. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

As to the question Carl asked. I would kill, without a second thought, to protect my family. And only with consideration, of any other circumstance, not directly involving my family. A decision would be made as to the right or wrong of it, and how it would affect my family if I did carry it out. Obviously it is a question that has many possible situations, a lot of which you would never even consider taking a life justified.


Mick

Originally Posted by edhewitt

..would you kill a person if they were going to kill you?...

Yes. Or was going to kill some one else. But this is about killing an inocent; me being a murderer to save another; not about self defence.

Originally Posted by edhewitt

I don't think you are evil Carl, I think your justification is more selfish. Please dont take offence at that it is just my thoughts on the scenario given.

Yes, I think that's what the other guy was saying. But is it wrong to have very strong convictions? Or is it what you're supposed to have?

Sorry to hear that Mick, at first I just thought you were highlighting all the errors in spelling my phone had caused.
As I say I would like to think I could, but I really dont know whether in reality I could.