the man will likely consider the following in the fer seconds that he he has; 'allowing the train to crash represents a greater evil than killing my son' -- 'but it's my son and well...toughluck train!' -- 'but if i fail to save the train, i will most likely be held legally responsible for the outcome...100 counts of negligent homicide...hmmnnn...prison.....long time....no more sex w/wife...might get sodomized by my new 'friends'...ugly pajamas...essentially the end of my life as i know it....hmmmmnnnn.....well, sorry son, i cant let those people perish my boy...mans gotta do what a mans gotta do...i wonder what else will come my way as a result of my 'painful and heroic self-sacrifice?'.......
My point being that, to claim these angelic tendencies is folly...i'm sure you do actively avoid hurting others..but 1st - it's usually in your own best interest anyway,2nd - its easy to give when it costs you nothing.....
>From: the great tinkerer <tinkerer@tinkerers-workshop.com>
>Reply-To: virus@lucifer.com
>To: virus@lucifer.com
>Subject: Re: We Shall Fear No Evil (was:: virus: To all sinners...)
>Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 16:11:55 -0500
>
>> What happens when you are forced to choose between two people...one
of
>>which will 'feel wronged' when making an unavoidable decision?
Doesn't
>>this demonstrate faulty 'moral logic' -- naturally your response will
be
>>something along the lines of "i would decide which would be less
>>wronged"....this of course denoting a sort of all-seeing
>>wisdom...which then infers a kind of deity state, which gets back to
>>zloduska's point that your 'god' is but an imaginary friend you've
>>customized based on your psychological needs and wants + your cultural
>>identity and its inherent value systems. How pretentious and blinded
>>that sounds..mixed with denial of course.
>
>i deny that there is a need of any deity to be empathetic. my god
doesnt
>decide who will be wrong more, it depends on my behavioral traits, my
>relationships to the parties, my outlook on how things will result in
the
>long run etc...
>its called a "moral dillemma."
>a hypothetical:
>a draw bridge operator brings his child to work one day and his child
>wanders around. a train is coming and the bridge is up, but the worker
>sees on the monitor that his child is playing in the gears... if he
lowers
>the bridge he will crush his son; if he doesnt lower the bridge a train
>full of people will die. what does this man do?
>
>the best thing to do is to try to avoid such situations that will cause
a
>moral dlilema in the first place.
>~the great tinkerer
>tinkerer@tinkerers-workshop.com
>http://www.tinkerers-workshop.com/
>http://www.tinkerers-workshop.com/order/form.shtml
> - order my cd!!!
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