Quote:
Originally posted by manasecret
But if, say, your mother was the one with the gun to her head and you were the one being asked the question, I think it would be far nobler to say No and sacrifice your soul to hell for your mother's life than to say Yes to uphold your beliefs.
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An interesting idea. Of course, this begs the question of whether you actually would go to Hell for doing that. If a religious person were put in that situation, we could easily imagine him or her continuing to have every faith in God's existence even when answering "No" to the question. So if this person still actually believed in God, would he or she be sent to Hell?
And of course, this was all done with the intention of saving someone else's life. Condemnation in Hell seems rather harsh and inappropriate for such an action.
Now here's where things get tricky: suppose a person in our hypothetical situation goes through the same thought process as I just did and concludes that answering "No" wouldn't actually lead to burning in Hell. Thus, it wouldn't really be a sacrifice to say "No" in order to save your mother's life.
But does that somehow make the act less noble?