If you had a gun to your head, what would you choo

quote:

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He had explained to his mother, after she had asked him to say grace, that like his father before him, he was an incorrigible agnostic, and suspected God was a hoax. "Suppose you had to choose right now," his mother once replied. "Suppose somebody put a gun to your head and forced you to choose, Ishmael. Is there a God or isn't there?"

"Nobody has a gun to my head, " Ishmael had answered her. "I don't have to choose, do I? That's the whole point, I don't have to know for certain one way or the other if-"

"Nobody knows Ishmael. What do you believe?"

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Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

If you had a gun to your head, what would you choose? To believe in God or not?

im not shore i would choose at all. if i had all the time in the world to decide, im sure i would find an adiqeut answer. but if i had a time limit, i dont think i'd decide.... i would tell them exactly where i stood at that point in time, and not think twice about it.

side note:

i would also make an attempt to take the gun from them, if the oppurtunity presented itself.

From the fact that most people want to live, I feel that most people, including myself, would say that they do believe in God. This, of course, is based on the assumption that the gunsman believes in God. What if he doesn't? Then, there is a good chance you are dead anyway. Then you have died a liar. Therefore, if I were able to think clearly in this situation, I would have to tell the truth and answer that I do not believe that there is a God.

Personal reasoning aside, because in that situation, your thoughts and beliefs would likely be clouded and the primary thought on your mind would be life, thereby changing the choices of the question from "God, No God" to "Life, Death"

Others would say that they believe in God, and, if that is the truth, their own life, as a real Christian would not be overly important as God has the outcome of this encounter already planned out anyway.

- Xaej

as an athiest,i would still choose to say that i dont belive in god,i'd rather go out with honor an dignaty.rather than go out a liar or live with the fact that a lie saved my life.
Also,why give the gunsman the satisfaction of you being at his mercy and you begging for your life.like i said,i'd rather go out with dignaty.
Of couse i want to live,but i just dont find it worth the humility.

People crack under pressure especially when someone is threatening your existence. You can act tuff and pretend that you would just mention what you feel but likely you'll cry and say i don't know. I'd ask him why he cares so much to go to such extreme measures(or at least that's what I'd want to say). This of course would be brave and stupid but likely he'd kill you anyways. Something unpredictable might save you, he/she may have never thought about it.

oblivion : Allow me to offer the point that that is what would say, or want to say, in a predetermined situation. Should you actually find yourself in this situation, as I said before, your judgement would surely be clouded and you would probably break down.

- Xaej

now that i think about it xaej an jacker_jones,you two are probably right.i would more that likely crack under pressure for fear of my life.but-as you are very inteligent humanbeings-you want to say the same thing,but would crack under pressure as i would,unless you can handle alot of pressure,or just dont give a fuck about your lives.
Also,i would still not be able to live with the fact that a lie saved my life(assuming he/she doesn't kill me)

That's true, and, as I admitted in my first post in this thread, I too would crack under pressure. And no one said anything about necessarily lying, I honestly have no idea what I would answer in that situation. You see, even if an athiest were to lie and say he does believe in god, or a christain lie and say he doesn't, what if the gunsman believes the other ? So you see, I don't see where lying would get one any farther than telling the truth. I think the best thing to do in this situation is as awakenedwraith said, get the gun away from your head

One final thought I leave you with : If you do lie, and it does save your life, true you may regret that. However, your life has been saved, at least you have been given the opportunity to regret it.

- Xaej

i just dont hink that i would crack. im not trying to be a badass, i just dont think i would. i am a very confident person, with reason to be.

I know, I know. But even if you don't "think" you'd crack, you still could. And I'm just saying, even if you don't crack, your judgement would surely be clouded. Besides, I said most people, not everyone.

- Xaej

The only way that someone wouldn't crack is if they either a had experience with guns in the face or b could truly accept the fact that they may die. To say that being confident day to day can prepare you for a gun in the face is ridiculous.

and accepting that i could, and will die at any moment? that is my reason for my confidence.

I seriously doubt that. There are people who live to 90 and feel they haven't lived a good enough life. What makes you think you've achieved this by 17. If you really were ready then why wouldn't you kill yourself?

loss of respect greatly increasing.....

" seriously doubt that. There are people who live to 90 and feel they haven't lived a good enough life. What makes you think you've achieved this by 17. "

ok. there are others out there have feel like they have not ived a good enough life to die, i am one of those people. but the majority of those people are also to stupid to contamplate any beside their naval cavity, let alone their mortalty. i have thought long and really fucking hard about my mortality and came to grips with the fact that war, lighting, car accidents, and jet FUCKING engines kill at complete randomness and there is NOTHING that i nor anybody else can do about that. i am also completly comfortable with this.

next dumbass thing you said:

"If you really were ready then why wouldn't you kill yourself?
"

i said ready to die, not wanting to die.

A gun pointed at your face is not a random accident. In a random accident you don't have a choice. You are going to die no matter what happens. With a gun pointed at your head there's many possible outcomes. To accept the fact your going to die in a random accident is accepting that there's zero possibility of survival.

If you're ready to die than you'd want to die. The only way you'd be ready is if you'd have accomplished everything desired and thus have no need for life.