What if one day, you walk along the railway and see a train going towards a family of five. They are chatting happily not paying attention to the train that’s heading their way. You panic and look around to see if you could do anything about it. You find there’s a lever that changes the direction of the train. Unfortunately if you do that, a railway worker will be killed. You look around again and find this really really fat guy just beside you, who will definitely stop the train if you push him on the track.
What will you do?
This is a challenging question to anyone, whether he’s religious, a moral person or a logical person. As for me, after thinking for awhile (around 2 days) I came out with my answer.
I will do nothing. I found that no matter the numbers, I am no one to decide who dies and who lives. Because if I switch the track of the train, I’m directly killing that innocent worker who thought he was safely on the track which the train isn’t suppose to come. And if I push that fat guy, of course, that would even be more direct to killing an innocent person. But if I let that train hit those five people, it would certainly be hard to see them die like that.
Some people may think that to save five lives and scarifies one is worth it. I guess that is logically right, but did you stop to think that THAT is exactly what causes war. Wars and started because one of the sides wants to save some people. To save them, they have to kill. In reality, there’s no such thing as kill lives to save lives. Whether it’s killing one and saving five or killing a thousand to save a million. This is what I truly believe.
2 comments:
By ignoring them, you're also indirectly killing those 5 people. You could at least have tried something, shout or warn or whatever. Pull the lever and warn the worker. In short, do something. Life is not that dumb as to allow you only two choices, to save and not to save.
Numbers don't matter in this case, what matters is whether have you tried. I can't believe you decided to do nothing even after thinking about it for 2 days!
Ok, maybe I didn't phrase it narrow enough to make things clear.
But your answer is definitely correct if the situation is that simple. And you are also right about life is not that dumb.
But this situation is a fantasy one. It's a situation that you cannot tinker with that's why it's down to a complicating answer. I don't think I can explain it well enough for you to understand because at this stage, I don't think my thoughts and your thoughts are on he same plane.
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