Would you sacrifice a complete stranger for your religion?

Question

Suppose you are placed in the following hypothetical situation: You are kidnapped by some evil mastermind named Mr. Z. Mr. Z injects you with a poison that kills you in 1 hour. Nothing can stop you from dying.

Mr.Z introduces you to Vanessa. Vanessa trusts you and would follow any advice you give him. Mr.Z explains that you are to tell Vanessa not to follow your religion. It doesn't matter what options are open to Vanessa; you are to tell him that your religion is false and that Vanessa must never pursue that faith.

If you do that, Mr. Z frees Vanessa to continue life as usual, except that he is convinced your religion is false and will never convert to your religion. If you allow Vanessa one shred of belief in your religion, then Mr. Z tortures Vanessa for 45 minutes before killing him in front of your eyes. I know it's crazy rhetoric, but try to treat this as serious. Would you dissuade Vanessa from following your religion?

Answer 1

Please stop asking the same question. This has been asked many times before.

Answer 2

1. Vanessa clearly needs help, if he (you used him) will instantly believe anything i say

2. but for your thought experiment- my religion is a choice, one a person should make while informed, because once that choice is made there really is no going back. So if i have to say exactly "do not chose my religion, it is false, you must never pursue this faith" i have no problem with that. If Vanessa is truly dedicated to this faith, he will fight against those words and demand to learn. And if Vanessa then has the strength to break free of all of this and learn and believe, then well i guess he then died for his beliefs. i didn't kill him. You can disallow beliefs, but you can't force someone to not believe. Disallow simply means that there is a punishment for the action, which i would clearly make sure was known.

Edit: oh, and if vanessa was dissuaded, then that is also good. beliefs are personal and can't be inforced with good results. you have to believe something for yourself, not because someone just told you

Answer 3

Yes, it is crazy rehetoric.
If what you really want to know is whether or not my relationship with God is actually the most important thing to me, barring none., the answer is yes.
Do you think Peter wanted to be crucified? Paul?
Of course not, who would? But they knew without question, that it was better than to stop doing what they were asked to do by Christ - Teach His Word.
They could have stopped, and maybe not have been killed, but then this short flesh life would have been all they would have.
Death only takes a minute - eternity is eternity.
I sure hope I am never faced with death for being a Christian, but if I am, I would have to be killed - theres no other choice for me.

Answer 4

so I really ought to cajole Louie that my faith isn't nicely worth following, yet does Mr. X understand what my faith is. (i will anticipate that he does for this question.)' i'm a Celtic Pagan. we are about existence. and we believe that there is better than one direction to a non violent afterlife. so i might want to talk Louie out of being a Celtic Pagan and placed him on the line to East Indian Shamanism or Buddhism. this way I really have fulfilled my favor to save Louie from a painful lack of existence. and placed him on course to discover something that can help him attain religious enlightenment.

Answer 5

I would never try to impose my religion on someone else anyway, whether or not their life was on the line.

Answer 6

No I would encourage him to accept Jesus before it was to late better to die a christian than live a none believer

Answer 7

No, I would not sacrifice another person for my beliefs.