Posted by Bob - the Alien on January 25, 2004 at 19:25:46:
In Reply to: Your Take On Things posted by sodredge on January 25, 2004 at 03:04:05:
This dilemma in my mind is not a dilemma at all... it is the same old cliche -- two wrongs do not make a right.
It is never our place to kill someone. For any reason. End of story.
Yes, more people would die by you taking no action in the first scenario. And that is terrible. But if you take action and kill someone, you are taking life and death decisions into your own hands, deciding who lives and dies, and that is not our right.
And why is it not our right? Because are not omniscient. Maybe that one person who dies would have later saved hundreds of lives. So by switching things, you killed those hundreds. We can go back and forth making scenarios that change what seems right and wrong forever. That is why we do not take those decisions upon ourselves. Stick to truths that you know are right.
These questions are designed to complicate your logic. And that goes back to something that was reiterated to us a couple of sundays ago... don't get so caught up in deep complicated questions of ethics or religion that you forget the plain and simple truths of Jesus' Gospel. In this case, the simple truth is 'thou shalt not kill'. Do not let complex scenarios distract you from something so basic.
So my answer to both questions is the same.