Killing Another, Or Sacrifice Your Soul

First published by Mercury Press on medium.com

“The Book of Questions”, by Gregory Stock, Ph.D — These are questions of a different sort — questions about you. They are about your values, your beliefs, and your life; love, money, sex, integrity, generosity, pride, and death are all here.

Here is an enjoyable way to find out more about yourself and others, and to confront ethical dilemmas in a concrete rather than an abstract form.

To respond to these questions, you will need to examine and interpret your past, project yourself into hypothetical situations, face difficult dilemmas and make painful choices.

These questions can be an avenue for individual growth, a tool for deepening relationships, a quick way to get to know a stranger, or merely a pleasant amusement.

Killing as little as possible is my motto

Certainly, I don’t want to kill in my auto

I can’t even imagine killing for money

Oh no, not me honey

Mosquitos, cockroaches I may pay

exterminators have cost me in my day

My exterminator is my hubby today!

For an all-expense paid, one-week vacation, anywhere in the world, would you be willing to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling off its wings? What about stepping on a cockroach? Gregory Stock, Ph.D

Not me. No vacation is worth it. I have killed a cockroach or two or several but never a butterfly on purpose and I can’t imagine pulling off its wings. The cockroaches with a baby are not good to have around as they as babies are vulnerable.

I lived in poverty conditions when a young mother with new babies. The landlord couldn’t get rid of cockroaches. Luckily I haven’t had them since, and my daughter is turning 50 this month.

Why does a beautiful creature merit more compassion than an ugly one? Does it damage us psychologically, when we destroy something we find beautiful?

How meaningful is the difference between pulling off the wings of an insect and stepping on it? Is the decision of how to kill something, a minor decision when balanced against the decision of whether or not to kill it at all? Gregory Stock, Ph.D

The Butterfly Effect (In chaos theory) — the phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere.” Oxford Dictionary

I saw the movie The Butterfly Effect in 2004, and it left an impression. I’m not sure if it had to do with beauty or ugly. Bedbugs were in my mother's day and now they are back. Not to the same degree as we have exterminators but they are back.

Sometimes I think of survival of the fittest and I have heard even when everyone else is gone, there will still be cockroaches. Sometimes it can be what we hear about the critters. I think that is how some people justify killing the wolf, and the bear for example.

Would you be willing to murder an innocent person if it would end hunger in the world? Gregory Stock, Ph.D

No. An innocent person? How would I know for sure what the outcome would be? Who would make such a request? What would the motive be?

I could maybe murder someone in self-defense but it wouldn’t be on purpose. It would be to save myself, a family member, or a friend in a life-or-death situation. And still, I wouldn’t know until in a situation like that.

Years ago, I had the experience of freezing and not being able to help. I said to a friend, “I would like to help, but I can’t.” While she was doing the splits with a canoe. One foot in and one foot out of the canoe and I was close by. I still hear about that from her several years later now and we laugh.

Would it torment you more to have the blood of an innocent person on your hands or to know you let millions of people die? What do you think of people who achieve great things by compromising their principles?

Many are willing to give their own lives, but not to take the life of another; is anything so important that you would sacrifice your own soul for it? Gregory Stock, Ph.D

I would not be tormented. Millions of people die when the world can feed all people of the world. I am not that powerful and don’t know anyone who is personally. And I am not responsible for that. Killing someone innocent would not be something I would never do as I would be responsible in that case.

My former in-laws supported a non-profit program that sent animals to other countries where people are starving to raise and make a living by having them. They donated their time to work there after retirement as they believed in the cause.

I visited with my husband and children and I have donated to this program.

Heifer International — “Heifer International is a development organization working to end hunger and poverty around the world by providing livestock and training to struggling communities.”

Food shelves and non-profit food programs and causes that feed and clothe people are also places that I support regularly. If I had more I would give more.