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A child is falling into a well: what do you do?

PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
Estro Felino said:
Interesting.
That's a very sad story, and I can see how evil traumatizes people and change them.
It makes them lose the innocence.

But whenever I think of evil, I think of the will of destroying other people's lives.
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Well, there is the will, and then there is doing it.

Christianity claims that just the will to do harm is a sin. Yet most professing Christians see only the actual doing of harm as a sin. My friend gave up much in his life to keep from doing the harm that was done to him, to someone else. I greatly admire him for that. Not even the poison injected into his psyche as a child could make him become the evil that was done to him.

This does give me hope for humanity. Although it's getting harder and harder to maintain it as I see my fellow humans become ever more selfish and mean-spirited within this Darwinian economic nightmare that we have created and imprisoned ourselves in.
 
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Estro Felino

Estro Felino

Believer in free will
Premium Member
PureX said:
Although it's getting harder and harder to maintain it as I see my fellow humans become ever more selfish and mean-spirited within this Darwinian economic nightmare that we have created and imprisoned ourselves in.
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We nothing.
Replace we with they. They did that.
The fact that I didn't do it and they did it, makes me sleep at night. Makes my conscience clear.

Their conscience is as dark as the night.
There is no reason why the 90% of the resources and lands are owned by 5-10% of the American citizens.
 
Quintessence

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
How did I catch this human child?

The scenario doesn't make sense to me. If a human child is in the process of falling down a well, how exactly is someone supposed to catch them? Are we already at the bottom of the well? Are we assumed to leap into the well after them and die too? How old is this human child? What if we're not physically capable of catching them?

I mean, odds are really good I wouldn't be catching a human child falling down a well for all of the above reasons. Just saying, as any good philosopher would (that is, by nitpicking and overanalyzing the premise and pointing out its faults).
 
PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
Estro Felino said:
We nothing.
Replace we with they. They did that.
The fact that I didn't do it and they did it, makes me sleep at night. Makes my conscience clear.

Their conscience is as dark as the night.
There is no reason why the 90% of the resources and lands are owned by 5-10% of the American citizens.
Click to expand...
We all play our part in it.
 
OnlQQker

OnlQQker

Member
I have 2 instances that relate, so the second time it happened I was even more unprepared...

The first was a family child of 2 years old, out for a walk and one parent was talking to another person around a lake in the woods.
The child though standing close to the family, suddenly took a different direction and had one foot about to step onto the lake. I caught her very quickly before her ankle even got wet.

The second, approx 1 year later.

Up at a swimming pool, one family member talking to the swimming lifeguard, and the 4 year old boy just slipped into the water from the side without anybody at all noticing, I watched him actually sink to the bottom before jumping in and scooping him out.

It's never happened since, but I'm still surprised I didn't act as quick as I did with the other child around the lake.

I believe it's just natural reaction to grab the child falling into the well, even though technically you're not saving that life, just prolonging it.

When I was a kid I slipped down a deep ditch, a tuft of grass I held onto stopped me falling further, in my mind it was bottomless and caused me extremely great distress, I remember it clearly, more so cuz my dad stood at the top and just laughed. I pulled myself out from the hold I had on the grass, I thought any moment it would just snap and I would plummet down into a bottomless pit...
Maybe that had something to do with my 2 reactions above later on in life!


I still don't think many people would just stand there and watch a child fall down a well though!
 
Nakosis

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
an anarchist said:
You immediately catch the child, of course.

Why though? Did you consider the reward from the child‘s parents before you stretched forth your hand? No, you did not. There is something inherent in you that caused you to grab the child without forethought.

Mencius, a Confucian teacher, believed this scenario showed the innate goodness of man. What say you?
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Vasopressin.

It is a hormone which causes protective behavior.
What is shows is evolutionary development of a species which supports its survival.
 
Twilight Hue

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
an anarchist said:
You immediately catch the child, of course.

Why though? Did you consider the reward from the child‘s parents before you stretched forth your hand? No, you did not. There is something inherent in you that caused you to grab the child without forethought.

Mencius, a Confucian teacher, believed this scenario showed the innate goodness of man. What say you?
Click to expand...
It's far too simple.

While unquestionably most would attempt to save a child falling into a well, there are those out there in the world however that might find significant benefit in seeing a child fall into a well and will do nothing to save such a child.
 
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