Dying a hero, w/o the belief of afterlife

[TheProbst]

If I choose to live and let die, does the population of the world know my choice also?

Is it a random 10,000 people?

If the answers are no,yes. I choose to let them die.

I feel as though I will contribute much more to society by living than a random sampling a 10,000 people. Plus, if it is random I might take some foreign dictators out by accident.

[vhawk01]

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I would expect most true heros would act without considering whether there is an afterlife or not nor whether they will be remembered or not.

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Yeah, but the OP asked WHY?

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Being good feels nice.

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But being killed, presumably, doesn't. I don't think he was asking why you would claim that you would do it.

[vhawk01]

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If I choose to live and let die, does the population of the world know my choice also?

Is it a random 10,000 people?

If the answers are no,yes. I choose to let them die.

I feel as though I will contribute much more to society by living than a random sampling a 10,000 people. Plus, if it is random I might take some foreign dictators out by accident.

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Really? More than 10,000 random people? That includes 500 random Americans, which means probably 3-4 millionaires. Thats a bold goal, good luck.

[TheProbst]

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If I choose to live and let die, does the population of the world know my choice also?

Is it a random 10,000 people?

If the answers are no,yes. I choose to let them die.

I feel as though I will contribute much more to society by living than a random sampling a 10,000 people. Plus, if it is random I might take some foreign dictators out by accident.

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Really? More than 10,000 random people? That includes 500 random Americans, which means probably 3-4 millionaires. Thats a bold goal, good luck.

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1/150 Americans is a millionaire?

Regardless, you are basically saying would you die or let 3 or 4 random American millionaires live. I doubt many would die for 4 random millionaires.

[vhawk01]

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If I choose to live and let die, does the population of the world know my choice also?

Is it a random 10,000 people?

If the answers are no,yes. I choose to let them die.

I feel as though I will contribute much more to society by living than a random sampling a 10,000 people. Plus, if it is random I might take some foreign dictators out by accident.

[/ QUOTE ]

Really? More than 10,000 random people? That includes 500 random Americans, which means probably 3-4 millionaires. Thats a bold goal, good luck.

[/ QUOTE ]

1/150 Americans is a millionaire?

Regardless, you are basically saying would you die or let 3 or 4 random American millionaires live. I doubt many would die for 4 random millionaires.

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I googled it to be sure, first result said its something like 1/125 Americans are millionaires.

Oh, and I said no such thing. You said you planned on being more productive to society than 10,000 random people. I'm just trying to give you a picture of what 10,000 random people produce.

[PantsOnFire]

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I would expect most true heros would act without considering whether there is an afterlife or not nor whether they will be remembered or not.

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Yeah, but the OP asked WHY?

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I don't know, I'm guess I'm not a true hero. And if I did become one and gave my life I wouldn't be able to tell you why anyways.

I think a better question is would people be inclined to do something heroically different in situations where you have a split second decision to make and ones where you can ponder all the consequences.

[vhawk01]

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I would expect most true heros would act without considering whether there is an afterlife or not nor whether they will be remembered or not.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, but the OP asked WHY?

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I don't know, I'm guess I'm not a true hero. And if I did become one and gave my life I wouldn't be able to tell you why anyways.

I think a better question is would people be inclined to do something heroically different in situations where you have a split second decision to make and ones where you can ponder all the consequences.

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I think thats an interesting question, but I think the OP's is as well. Because some people do, in fact, do stuff like this, although not as dramatic, probably. They really do sacrifice themselves for the good of others, and sometimes even others who aren't related to them. Why is this? Is it just social brainwashing? I hinted at a possible evolutionary explanation earlier, but I have no idea if thats really correct or not. All in all, I think this is a really interesting question. Reciprocal altruism may be a bit old hat at this point, but this is pretty different than RA.

[Leaky Eye]

Can I choose the 10,000?

[pzhon]

Choice #4 is not "let 10,000 people die, and live forever." Choice #4 is "let 10,000 people die, but extend your own life a few decades."

For immortality, you can argue for killing 10,000 people, even from behind a Rawlsian veil of ignorance, but it's very hard to justify killing so many people to extend one life by a few years.

[TheProbst]

I think an even harder question is, would you sacrifice your spouse, your closest relative or your closest friend for the said 10k people.

Would this still be considered heroic?

Edited to add variables.

Such as if the person you are sacrificing knows nothing of the events and has no time to say goodbye.

Would the answer change if they knew about it and disagreed completely; yelling, screaming for mercy. Can you kill this person?