Nova Andromeda wrote:--This line of reasoning makes complete sense except for one small fact. We know they are not going to heaven therefore it is still immoral for us to kill them. However, I will be sure to ask all my religious friends just HOW strong their faith is and whether or not they believe I could do them such a favor....
That's the whole point, isn't it? From our moral perspective, it is immoral. However, oddly enough, from their own moral perspective, we'd be doing them a favour.
Of course, it is always possible that Napoleon just means it's OK to kill believers, but he doesn't seem like the type to engage in such blatant flamebait.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Nova sorta has it, that is the one flaw, the fact that from my point of view, they are going to oblivion to. I would have to actually convert to their faith system to believe what I was actually doing would cause this good.
If they had faith in their system then they wouldnt mind if i sent them to paradise.
Thus if we accept for the sake of argument that each person goes where their faith, or lack thereof, dictates upon death (Sorta a Stranger in a Strange land afterlife where there are different "heavens" for each belief structure) then this becomes a perfectly real and decent act.
As is it is immoral from my point of view because i dont think they actually would go to heaven, but from the point of view of a christian it wouldnt be a bad thing since they get to go to heaven sooner, and they should thank me for it if i were to actually be doing it.
Basically i thought this would be an inventive way of saying "If you believe in heaven, shouldnt you thank someone who kills you so you leave this earthly hell and go to your paradise sooner?" And also asking that if this infact happened, would it be moral to do so, because at least from a utilitarian point of view it would be, having the end result determine the morality of an action.
