Would you die to save the lives of 1,000 strangers?

Question

I would, and I don't think I'm particularly heroic. Would you die if it meant saving everyone who has ever lived? I think that most of us would. (Humans die to save 1 or 2 strangers on a pretty regular basis on this planet).

What I'd like to understand is - who makes a bigger sacrifice? A "sinful" human who gives his life for a few people or an eternal "perfect" god who gave a portion of his existance for everyone on the planet?

Thank you.

p.s. Rev Kev - very fasinating thread you've posted. Thank you. I hope everyone reads it.

Answer 1

The sacrifice is the same. As a matter of fact, we are commanded to love one another in the same way Christ loved us, so much so we would die for one another.

"Greater love hath no man, than to lay down his life for his brother"

Be it man, or God, it is a GREAT sacrifice, no matter how you slice it.

Answer 2

Yes, I would.

As Diamond says, they're the same. We are commanded to love other as Jesus loved us, and the greatest love of all is to lay down one's life for a friend.

The big deal with Jesus' death isn't that it was a bigger sacrifice, but that it was a true and perfect sacrifice. I guess the confusion comes from different meanings of the term. You use it in your question in the secular sense, "Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim." According to Christianity, Jesus' death was a sacrifice in the religious sense, "The act of offering something to a deity in propitiation or homage, especially the ritual slaughter of an animal or a person." For thousands of years, people were unable to get to Heaven because of their sins. Priests would offer animals, the purest they could find, to God in expiation. The people, however, kept sinning, and in fact had a sinful nature - original sin. No matter how much they sacrificed, therefore, it could never be enough to counter this fundamental flaw. What they needed, then, was some sort of ultimate sacrifice. Something as good and pure as they were sinful. Jesus, being divine himself, without sin or blame of any kind, was this perfect sacrifice. (That is why is so often referred to as the 'lamb' in the Bible). He sacrificed himself to God the Father as expiation for our sins so that we might be found pure before God. A person might save someone else's life on earth, but Jesus saved our lives eternally. It wasn't that his sacrifice was harder than some people's have been, it's just that it was more important.

Answer 3

It'd be a hard decision to make, but I'd like to think I could have the fortitude to pull it off.

Sacrifice is such an interesting and frightening concept.

What's interesting is that the sinful martyr would go to Hell if he were not a Christian. Some Christians claim that some of the firefighters who perished at the World Trade Center are roasting right now in Hell. What a great way to treat heroes.

But then, I question the value of life for some people. I conducted an informal poll to see how valuable life is to some people:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmNgReEsHdOwPaq343qO6y7sy6IX?qid=20061107202625AAfJneA

I'm a little terrified at some of the answers.

Answer 4

Excellent question Thomas! I wish you would rise from the dead as we could use your wisdom and voice of reason right now.

I would die to save them. No doubt or hesitation. Humans make sacrifices. Gods can only play at mortality at best and will never know the joy and gratitude that can bring.

Answer 5

It is clear that a sinner with selfless love is better than an egoistic saint.
But how an egoistic man can become a saint, and how a sinner can have selfless love?
It seems that the good consequence of a human life is not dependent on what he claims to be, but on the real expression from his pure, kindly and radiant heart.

Answer 6

I hope I never have to find out, but i like to think I would if it was necessitated. I think God's sacrificetrumps any effort I would make. While I am pretty confident I would make the sacrifice with my own life, I can tell you now I would not sacrifice my children for anyone.

Answer 7

That is not a very good example.
There can be no correlation between the two because they happened for extremely different circumstances.

What about the fighting soldier who believes in God, fights for his country just to ensure everyone, even Atheists, have freedom? Much better example.

Answer 8

How come I can't offer myself to the god as a sacrifice to eradicate sin? You know, completely wipe the slate clean of the whole Eden thing?

I'd die for that if it really existed.

Answer 9

Since God knew what He was doing, and the human reacts out of faith... it would appear the human is making a bigger sacrifice.


Peace :)

Answer 10

particularly the complicated morality activity... I honestly have continually grown up assisting human beings, which incorporate putting my existence in threat for it. i've got come very close to dropping my own existence interior the approach, on extra desirable than one occasion. additionally, via seeing the extra 'unattractive' side of humanity, and my observations of something of the organic international; I honestly have become much less and extra emotionally in touch in existence. particularly the anomaly; something my father refers to as a walking contradiction. So, my answer to you would be circumstantial, and reckoning on those given situations, could be the two definite or no.