High School Debate & Views of Morality

[Adaryn]

Really? I am with spyraal on this one, I don't think young adults should be subjected to this nonsense. The question is a set-up. Why? Because the main factors in making the decision - what is moral and permissible - are defined by society. And society, as you know, does not carry objective morals. So really what is happening is people are allowing society's standards to become their own. If they answer yes or no it most likely is not due to cross referencing their thoughts with their feelings or anything like that, especially if yes. In fact, I would say that this question requires one to remove emotion from their thought process.

I do agree with this. This is pure rhetoric, has no basis on reality, and as you said doesn't take context into account. Feelings have no place in such debates. One is required to have the most wit, sense of repartee, the best logical arguments. It's like a political debate: completely disconnected from the reality, the facts of life, the feelings/emotions, and the most important, the context.
What if the Nazis threatened to kill the whole family unless they were giving up one of theirs as a sacrifice?
What if : several people hiding from murderers with a small baby, the baby starts to cry, the only way to save everyone is to strangle the baby so that he stops crying. (I believe this example comes from the same set of questions as the 'roller coaster' one mentionned by Bobo08 - don't remember where I read it either, probably on this forum)
There are tons of examples. These questions are dead-ends.

 

[T.C.]

Does that answer your question?

Yes