Lifeboat Ethics

There are already 50 people in the lifeboat. 100 people are dying in the water. You only have room for 10 of those 100 to be let into the lifeboat. "But which 10 do we let in? How do we choose? Do we pick the best 10, "first come, first served"? And what do we exclude to the 90 we exclude?"

I instantly turn around and have to ask the original fifty already in the boat, "Would any of you give up your life for any of these one hundred?" If we are talking in terms of society some of the original fifty would have nothing to live for once back on land. I would also have to ask those in the water the exact same question. I would half heartedly have some hope that few in the water and few in the boat would be a Christ follower willing to give up their life for others, hopefully making my choice easier. To choose only ten from the water is cruel and unusual for the picker, unless you just don't have a soul. In high hopes let's assume fifteen people willingly give up their life, leaving me with still a hard decision of eleven out of eighty five. I merely say eleven because I would be one of the ones willing to die. Not because I have nothing to live for but because it's what I'm commanded to do. I can assume those with an actual relationship with Christ would not only be willing but lining up to do so. So in case the survivors end up stranded on an island, I would choose one to be a Christian doctrinist with some hope of him/her leading people to follow in Christ's footsteps. But I know of the phrase "The blind cannot lead the blind." Two more of the ten left being people knowledgeable in the ways of creating civilizations. Four more would be men of real strength willing to obey others in authority. The other three would be those healthy enough to reproduce. The last one would be someone who can nurture the others, not necessarily a Christian, just someone with maternal instincts. After letting those ten onto the boat I address the ones already on the boat mentioning how I hope they will be content with letting others die. I turn and switch spots with the eleventh person joining the dead in the water.

The truth is: Dying for something or someone is easy, to live for someone or something is quite difficult, challenging.