Comments on: Guest Blogger - Morality Quiz

by: Will

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 21:46:27 +0000

Wow, that was a really tough quiz. I agree with Lacey that it was hard because you have time to think about it now, but you wouldn’t if it was in real life. I also agree with Steven T. that most of the situations in the test were too extreme and that they should have some situations that were more plausible in real life. Even though I’d like to say I could kill the one to save the others, I really don’t know what I would do if I was in that situation in real life. All I know is that it would be a very tough decision. It would make sense to me though to kill the baby because even if I didn’t, it would still die. Now, I’m saying that that would make sense, I’m not saying I would be able to do it. In the article you told us to read, it was really cool how the 3 year old accidently fell in the gorilla’s cage and the gorilla saved it and took it to where i could be returned to a zookeeper. Also, I found this article about the subway samaritan on washingtonpost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/04/AR2007010401756.html). It talked about how a man, with two daughters standing on the platform, jumped on top of a man having a seizure. They then fell into a ditch that helped the two survive! Now, the man who saved the other is regarded as a New York City hero! That, to me, is a great example of morals and empathy because he knew if he didn’t try to save the man, the man would surely die if the train did not brake.

by: Steven T

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:36:52 +0000

good point lacey, I think that somehow they should create a morality quiz that can assess your morality based on real situations. I imagine that anyone would panic in those situations and their morals may momentarily be forgotten. I think that the quiz would be more accurate if they had questions about situations that are more likely to happen and would allow the person time to consider options. The life or death questions are a bit extreme and may not result in accurate conclusions

by: Lacey

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:02:58 +0000

This was a hard quiz to take. I think it was so hard, because we had time to think about what we would do. However, in the real life situations you don’t really have time to think about the consequences, we act on impulse. I mean if you were really in these situations and the baby started crying you wouldnt stop and say ok what should i do. YOU PANIC, and as a result probably kill the baby. However, I do agree with ben here. I do think these questions are some what foolish, because all of us would probablly never want to kill anyone, and honestly we dont really know what we would do, because we are not panicing and acting on impulse, we are logically thinking about our answers!

by: Stephen d

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:15:59 +0000

I personally had a really hard time taking this quiz. But as long as I know Jesus and except him as my lord and savior everything would be alright. I really would not want to kill anyone to save my own life but if you really think about it than when your really in one of these situations than you and I both would have a different thought in what to do. If someone asked you if you were a Christian and he had a gun and was threatening to kill you if you said yes what would you say? I really would not know what to say. I want to say that I am but I would never know untill I was actally put in the situation.

by: Steven T

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:15:53 +0000

i dont really know what to think of the quiz. I would feel awful being the cause of someones death but i mean, if i said no to any of those questions then i think it would be worse. Letting one person live and letting many others die because you couldnt bring yourself to kill somone is almost a sign of weakness. I think that people hesistate to answer the questions because its not something they have ever been faced with. They wouldnt ever think of killing someone but if you said you wouldnt kill the lone person in the questions then your still killing someone….actually the “group” in each question because you could have saved them but you passed up the chance. i noticed alot of people said the quiz was tough but really its quite easy if you consider that doing nothing to save someone when you could have is the same as killing them

That was a really interesting quiz

by: Kat J.

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:27:00 +0000

I just took that quiz and I found it so hard to make the descision. My heart went out to the other people but I could not deliberately shove a person onto a train track and watch them get killed. It really makes me think of what are the morality questions that we have in our highschool lives. Like for example, it can be like gossip for girls. Something like, you want to come on top of the situation but it could cost you your frienship with your bestfriend. Though that is not a severe as the quiz, I can infer that that is what morality is in our highschool lives.

by: Sebastiana

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:00:37 +0000

I have to say that quiz was cool. But you never know what your going to do in a situation like that. However how does this make us moral or unmoral. To tell you guys I am very very sensitive on lives. Take for example a baby I would never smother a baby to save other people. I grew up around babies being born and you have to see a joy on a mothers face to know that. But see we never know whats going to happen next. I think that at times we make the choice because we think its going to be right on quizes. Also choices right now are made on what would are friends do or parents do? I would have to agree with Caroline and Mary Claire on the fact that I would never want the guilt of someone dieing on my behalf I would rather die. Its like a doctor if you were doing surgery on one and they were about to die and you accidently cut the wrong vien and they died. How would you feel. I remember a couple of years ago my mom had a case and she had a mother who was high risked. Her baby ended up not living. When I she came home cause I always ask her was it a boy or a girl. She said that it was not alive. Now being a doctor or even a cop you cant let things like that get to you. I learned that from the best. All of the 9th grade should be able to relate this question to a Seperate Peace. After 15 years Gene still had that guilt of Finny dieing on his behalf now. I have to say Rose you did a good job on this by the way.

by: ben

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:53:07 +0000

Thank you for clarifying that this was an attempt on quantitative analysis. however Becasue of the limited answer options a true analysis can not be obtained.Because the most important option is not presented. Take the first question for example. I would do the second option but that would leave the assumption that all would die. Not only would i not smuther the baby but i would also take a further action of running through the street to distract the men away from the others. This is only because of my love for God and his people and my willingness to follow his commandment of “Thou shalt not kill”

by: Jennifer M

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:52:38 +0000

Rose, i took the quiz and was actually very startled at the feedback. Almost every question had a 50-50 ratio, thats alot of people willing to make a desicion that would cause someone their life.
Anna, Mary Claire, and Caroline make a good point though i would much rather have the choice to switch spots with the person about to be killed because if i did kill them or choose something that resulted in them diening i would never be able to forgive myself. I really enjoyed taking this quiz becaseu it made me pause and take a look at how i would react ion several situations, but i also thought about how i would act on impulse because if i was having to choose from pushing someone off of a boat and saving the rest of us then I’d have to make that desicion very quickly which makes this quiz even harder to answer with a “yes, i would push them off” or a “No, i couldn’t push them off”.
Ben, i agree with Miss Baker in the fact that these questions are definetley NOT foolish or unnecessary at all. The quiz was trying to get the numerical data as to how many people would be willing to sacrafice oneself instead of saving yourself with the result of harming others.

by: jake

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:11:43 +0000

I need to step in, and strongly agree with ben here. I have nothing wrong with understanding how moral decisions are made but i disagree with the manner in which this quiz tries to measure it. There are plenty of other ways to to see how someone makes moral decisions, other than asking them whether they would KILL a baby. I think the everyday questions would apply better, such as something like: You buy something with cash, and the cashier gives you back seven dollars more than he was supposed to and doesn’t notice. Do you tell him and give back the money, or pocket the cash? That can show you what kind of decisions a person will make, without putting uncofortable situations upon them. And honestly, i feel no need in asking unnecissary questions like these anyway. Besides no one knows exactly how they will behave unless they are put in that situation.

by: Miss Baker

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:07:18 +0000

Ben,

Quantitative analysis to people’s reactions to situations are certainly within the realm of science as are qualitative predictions that are made based on the analysis. Moral decisions and values based off of the research are not.

I heartily disagree that these are foolish and unlearned questions. The value of understanding how moral decisions are made can be greatly beneficial, especially in times of war.

I found most of the student comments to this post to be rather interesting. We face these kind of moral situations daily and the overwhelming response is not to sacrifice oneself. The response is to turn away. Look at my previous post which links to an article on Darfur entitled “Psychic Numbing”. Is this the correct, moral response to make? Science can definitely not answer that question.

by: ben

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:11:59 +0000

The Bible says that one shouldnot ask “foolish and unlearned questions.”
I believe that these are those types of questions because they dont benefit our cause for Christ and are not benefitting life. I am not sure what this post has to do with science because it seems to deal with the supernatural or your spirituality. Could i get clarification on that.