Would you sacrifice yourself to save others?

[Prince_Imrahil]

So lets say its you or a 1000 other people, no matter what one of those two sets has to die, you or them... so what is the right thing to do in this case? And which would you do?

I ask what is the right thing to do because obviously the 1000 would think its right for you to sacrifice yourself for them, but is this true? Do you have an obligation to give up your life so 1000 others may live? Or is it not wrong for you to live and let them die? Who is your primary moral obligation to? What benefits yourself or whats the good for humanity as a whole?\


P.S there are no 'special' people in that 1000 group, no one you know, love, care about, are closely related to, etc. etc. Just 1000 everyday people, good people too, women, men, children, but still strangers.

 

[skadistic]

I have no obligation to save any one other then my self. That said If 1 or 2 choice folks were in the 1000 I would do it in a heartbeat. If they were just some poor schmucks I probaly wouldn't care.

 

[Prince_Imrahil]

Indeed that's the most rational answer IMO and one I fully agree with.

 

[Bamspeedy]

I would risk my life for 1000 people, but if it is guaranteed that I die to save them (which is the scenario the OP is stating), then no I would not give up my life for 1000 strangers.

 

[Kozmos]

No....unless one of the people in the said group meant the world to me.

 

[Elrohir]

Who are these people? Are they a group of condemned murderers? Or are they fathers and mothers with four children at home? Are they just a random cross-section of humanity?

Assuming it's just 1000 random people, not a bunch of murderers or anything like that, then yes, I would.

 

[SG-17]

as long as my girl friend wasnt one of them i would not bother

 

[Prince_Imrahil]

I added it in the OP, but the 1000 people are decent everyday folk, families, that love eachother and care for eachother and hardworking members of society and so forth and so on.... but no one you personally know or care about...

 

[Ramius75]

The question should be, If i dont save the 1000 ppl, will i survive ? and it what circumstances ? Will sacrificing my life be futile ??

Maybe 1 day if Galactus appeared and ask me to sacrifice myself instead of 1000 others. then perhaps i will.

 

[Prince_Imrahil]

If you dont you live, if you do they live. Nothing else, simple as that.

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

If there among the 1000 that I couldn't live without or that I would be to ashamed to let die I would sacrifice myself. Also if there was a split second decision where I could do something dramatically heroic I might heroically and perhaps foolishly sacrifice myself. If I had time to think about it, not likely.

 

[Nylan]

I would sacrifice myself. I believe that I have received Christs' gospel and since I have been baptized, I would be okay. I don't know how I would be judged in the end, but i'd be okay. Furthermore, I've lived a good life thus far. And who am I to value one over a thousand?

Those thousand may never have heard of the gospel, or they may have countless family members that will suffer without them. They have lives, they have jobs, their collective deaths will have a significant impact on the lives of all those hundreds of thousands that will never interact with them. They deserve a chance.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Many more than one thousand people died while I was typing this.

 

[MobBoss]

I voted radioactive monkey on this as the real truth is no one knows what they would do until the actual event. People react differently in extremely stressfull stiuations and you have no idea how someone would act at the moment of truth.

As a christian and a soldier I would like to think I would do the right thing if the time came to sacrfice my life to save 1000, but I am honest enough with myself to realize I have never been in that situation. And to the people who say that they would, even if they were 'ready' because they were christian, I still say you dont know. Remember, even Peter denied Christ when his life was on the line - a thing unthinkable of him prior to the event.

 

[bigdog5994]

if a suicide bomber were about to set off a bomb on a bus i would sacrifice my body to save the other people on the bus no problem and i would with out doubt give my life for 1000 others

 

[Ramius75]

If you dont you live, if you do they live. Nothing else, simple as that.

Then i suppose i will do it. If its absolute result.

 

[JohnRM]

Yes, I would sacrifice my life to save them.

 

[Prince_Imrahil]

It's an absolute result, and while yes we do not know what we will do until it such an event occurs (think grenade jumping) the point is what you think, feel, believe and value, not what your instincts will make of you when horror befalls.

You you THINK the right thing to do would be to save the people, or to you is what matters you first and those you have an obligation to, and therefore strangers, no matter how good and happy and all that, their interests are secondary when your two interests come in conflict.

 

[Kraznaya]

No. tenchar

 

[LuckyAC]

I'd save myself, even if it was a billion people. The existence of the rest of the world doesn't matter if I am not alive to experience it.