An Ethical Question on Killing

John21 · #1 09-10-2006, 01:11 AM

Suppose there was a religious sect who believed that anyone who didn't believe in their God ( lets call It - ABBA ) should be killed. And not only should the non-believer be killed, but it was a proof of their belief in ABBA whenever they killed someone who didn't believe in Him.

Assuming you were forced into a confrontation with said believer, would you kill him before he killed you?

Please indicate if you've had an actual encounter with a person holding the aforementioned belief, or if your response is more of a hypothetical (doll-house rhetoric) nature.

vhawk01 · #2 09-10-2006, 02:11 AM

We get a lot of silly, transparent, strained hypotheticals on this forum. There is little doubt of that. And yet, even still, this one gets my vote for worst hypothetical ever. Congrats.

John21 · #3 09-10-2006, 06:16 AM

[ QUOTE ]
We get a lot of silly, transparent, strained hypotheticals on this forum. There is little doubt of that. And yet, even still, this one gets my vote for worst hypothetical ever. Congrats.

[/ QUOTE ]
Since people are actually dying over it, it would get my vote to remove it from the realm of hypothetical and into the domain of the real.

guesswest · #4 09-10-2006, 10:36 AM

The problem with this hypothetical isn't the outlandishness, it's just that the question it poses makes the whole religion bit largely irrelevant. You're essentially asking 'would you kill in self defence?'. The answer for most people would be yes, whether the guy swinging the bat at your head was doing so because of religious beliefs, or any other beliefs. It become an interesting question if you ask what you'd do BEFORE confrontation arose.