Sacrifices - choices

by donkey 40 Replies latest jw friends

  • expatbrit
    expatbrit

    Yes.

    Maybe. Depends on the species and the particular human.

    Expatbrit

  • Aztec
    Aztec

    Yes and probably no.

    Thanks for the Dawkins excerpts Donkey! I plan on picking up "The Blind Watchmaker" the next time I get to the library per a friends suggestion.

    ~Aztec

  • blondie
    blondie

    I think the situation back there was much more multi-faceted to change than just taking Hitler out of the equation. In many ways (without taking away his personal responsibility) Hitler was a product of his times. Remove him and someone else may have come forward to move things in the same direction.

    There is a saying: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

    Not that a TV program is a arbiter of deep thinking, but I saw one with this premise where a time traveler went back and killed Hitler as a baby. The maid/nanny was so distraught and frightened of Hitler's father's reaction that she paid for a baby from a poor woman on the street and substituted it.

    So was future mad-crazed Hitler the original baby, or had the time traveler played a part of having the other baby (the real Hitler) put into the equation?

    This isn't to say that we shouldn't try to improve our lives, but we should look at things as having many factors to be changed, adjusted, not just one.

  • frenchbabyface
    frenchbabyface



    Blondie : This isn't to say that we shouldn't try to improve our lives, but we should look at things as having many factors to be changed, adjusted, not just one.

    I agree !!! Well said !!!

  • donkey
    donkey
    No and no.
    must be something wrong with me...
    The thought occurred to me. It's possible to over-study a matter, to philosophize ad infinitum, to get so deep that we miss the simple crux of an issue. Is human DNA identical to aardvark DNA? I don't know and don't think I'll ever care. What I *do* know is that humans and aardvarks are vastly different kinds of beings, their "identical" DNA notwithstanding. Given the choice of pushing either a human or an aardvark off a cliff, the decision would be made in an instant without a second's refection

    Teejay, You made my point exactly- thanks. It is because of our beliefs, not truth that we feel we are superior or different. It is also easy due to our strong feelings that we are special to disregard even thinking about the question. I don't expect to win this argument - I think I am smart enough to know that. It is like arguing that the JW';s dont have the truth with an old sister who has nothing left to live for. Donkey

  • MrMoe
    MrMoe

    If you could travel back in time and ended up in Germany where Hitler was a 5 year old child and you had the opportunity to strangle him to death with your bare hands....would you do it?

    Yes

    If an animal species could be saved from extinction by killing one human - would you do it?

    Yes, only if it meant I could kill a criminal, such as a child molester or a wife beater

  • MrMoe
    MrMoe

    oh and btw, I could do both things with ease

  • Xena
    Xena
    If you could travel back in time and ended up in Germany where Hitler was a 5 year old child and you had the opportunity to strangle him to death with your bare hands....would you do it?

    No, he was a product of his times and his environment. I would do what I could (which considering I had figured out how to travel thru time would hopefully be something substancial) to alter those two things and hope that would effectively keep him from becoming the type of person who could do something like the Holocaust and/or keep others from being the type of people to follow him.

    If an animal species could be saved from extinction by killing one human - would you do it?

    hhhhmmmmm harder one...it would probaby depend on the human...I think if I was that human I would be willing to sacrifice my life to save a species from extinction...if for no other reason then the fact that my life is pretty insignificant...lol at least then I would have distinguished myself somehow. But I doubt I could make that judgement call regarding another persons life.

    interesting questions donkey

  • Surreptitious
    Surreptitious

    1. By traveling back in time and killing a young child who had not yet become the monster we've come to know as "Hitler", I would be creating another monster in myself. Then who would travel back in time and kill me?

    2. Which would be better, answering to the family of the deceased human while trying to put out of your mind that it could have been a member of your family, or living without the carrier pigeon?

    Syrup

  • Valis
    Valis

    This is an odd page..

    http://www.othertimelines.com/viewtimeline.php?timelineID=646

    I also like Harry Turtledove's alternate history novels....cool stuff to read and ponder.

    Sincerely,

    District Overbeer

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit