Push the button or not?

[Eore]

I just got done watching this video on youtube and would like to know what you would do.

Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS7wqkcjdIg


Please watch the video before reading below.

For me, the question isn't about could I erase the whole believer population to keep living (religion stops being a factor at this point), its could I live with myself knowing that because of me billions of people, millions of families stopped existing. Sad to say, I guess I would NOT press the button. I would like to spend a day with my family before I went though.

[Sophus]

Well, I wasn't going to push the button until the part was mentioned about sacrificing yourself. I would never die (or in this case give up life via vanishing) for my beliefs. So, sure, I'd push it. But if it weren't for the self-sacrificing part I wouldn't do it. We'd lose too many great people, or at least people who have made great contributions. The crazies, from where I'm sitting, can be tolerated.

What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do?

[TheJackel]

I just got done watching this video on youtube and would like to know what you would do.

Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS7wqkcjdIg


Please watch the video before reading below.

For me, the question isn't about could I erase the whole believer population to keep living (religion stops being a factor at this point), its could I live with myself knowing that because of me billions of people, millions of families stopped existing. Sad to say, I guess I would NOT press the button. I would like to spend a day with my family before I went though.

It's a play on moral consequence, and is entirely inapplicable when morally it's a lose lose situation for someone like myself who would neither choose to push the red button to see religious people vanish, nor see myself vanish. So morally, it wouldn't matter either way you choose to go because one would have to force me into the situation outside my own free will.. Thus, It can be considered self-defense to push the red button in order maintain natural moral self preservation.. Secondly there is a flaw in argument considering both atheists and theists have this red Button, so what happens if they both push it at the same time? The other flaw is that there will always be someone to push the button, and thus making it a worthless question to ask.

So how about we refine this question to would you push the red button to rid the world of all the radical extremists, nut cases, or anyone with a Theocritus agenda. Hence, how about a button that simply gets rid of all the bad people in this world to whom are intentionally dangerous to the masses? You know, kidnappers, rapists, murderers, fascists, terrorists, racists, hate groups, ectra..

[Tom62]

It would be a very lonely planet if I would push the button. If only the crazy theists would disappear then the choice would have been much easier (good riddance to them). So I won't push that button either.

[Sophus]

Btw, Muslims don't think they're worshiping a God any different from Christians or Jews. They just think they know Him better. They see themselves as being more enlightened.

It would be a very lonely planet if I would push the button. If only the crazy theists would disappear then the choice would have been much easier (good riddance to them). So I won't push that button either.

So not existing yourself is better? I don't understand this choice. Either way there's a sacrifice but only one matters. If you press the button you can still appreciate what's left in the world. If you don't exist you cannot appreciate or do anything.

[_7654_]

Ahh, seemingly difficult question, but it is not. I will not push the button. Getting rid of believers is not a solution. Educating and enlightening them is. And whether i will have to disappear as a direct result of not pushing the button , and my act of not pushing it will never be known is of no consequence to the argument.

An i am aware, that the theist party might be entirely willing to push the button. But i think, since morality does not come from religion, and they are as much human as i am, they will not push that button. Because pushing it is equally as wrong for them, as it is for us. It might be a justified wrong, but it is a wrong, and at that moment, it will clash with their dormant human morality.

I think well of humans, humanity is great, religion and socio-economic pressures pressure it to perform so poorly in the field of moral behavior.

[TheJackel]

The critical flaw in this is that if nobody pushes the button the entire human species goes extinct LMAO

[Tom62]

Btw, Muslims don't think they're worshiping a God any different from Christians or Jews. They just think they know Him better. They see themselves as being more enlightened.

It would be a very lonely planet if I would push the button. If only the crazy theists would disappear then the choice would have been much easier (good riddance to them). So I won't push that button either.

So not existing yourself is better? I don't understand this choice. Either way there's a sacrifice but only one matters. If you press the button you can still appreciate what's left in the world. If you don't exist you cannot appreciate or do anything.

OK, you made a very good point. However, I would not like that my wife disappears. On the other hand, I'm sure that she doesn't want me to disappear either. That makes it a loose-loose situation that can only be solved by a flip of a coin   .

[Squid]

I tend to be the bane of people presenting moral dilemma thought experiments.  I ask too many questions.  

I've seen/heard this type of thought experiment before, I think I've even seen a very similar version on a TV show that involved receiving money or the like.  It also reminds me of the trolley problem a bit too.

[Sophus]

OK, you made a very good point. However, I would not like that my wife disappears. On the other hand, I'm sure that she doesn't want me to disappear either. That makes it a loose-loose situation that can only be solved by a flip of a coin  

[Gawen]

Strange that as I write this I'm listening to a band called Lamb of God and the song is "Laid to Rest"...

The guy has three separate questions. But let's just say I would push a button so I don't cease to exist...and leave it at that.

[Cecilie]

The title of this thread reminds me of the movie 'The Box'. Never saw it though. Is it any good?

You see what I did there? I changed the subject for no reason at all.

[teifuani]

The headline of this thread reminds me of the movie 'The Box'. Never saw it though. Is it any good?

You see what I did there? I changed the subject for no reason at all.

I can't say anything about the movie, but the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson it was based on was amazing. The last line gave me chills.

[Cecilie]

The headline of this thread reminds me of the movie 'The Box'. Never saw it though. Is it any good?

You see what I did there? I changed the subject for no reason at all.

I can't say anything about the movie, but the short story "Button, Button" by Richard Matheson it was based on was amazing.

[Davin]

What's it about? Don't tell me all the details if I decide that I want to read it.  

The last line is: "Cecilie, answer the door."