Which Is Worse Killing Or Hating?

rhinefire · Mar 15, 2017

Example: A person fatally shoots a bank teller during a robbery versus a person that hates some people because they are "different"? Which is the better person?

Captain Adverse · Mar 15, 2017

I'm answering the title, since your example is poorly worded.

Hatred can be unlearned. Death is not currently correctable.

chromium · Mar 15, 2017

Hate when kept to oneself is just one's own problem. When directed at others, such as killing, it becomes others' problem

Excon · Mar 15, 2017

Hate is an emotion.

Killing someone is actually an action.

It depends on your subjective viewpoint as well what you are discussing.

joG · Mar 15, 2017

You mean because the dead don't know after the dying is done, while a destroyed life takes years of pain to finish?

ashurbanipal · Mar 15, 2017

Hmmm...we could change up the example even further. Suppose a person is driving along a road they don't realize is icy, and as a result, they wreck, killing a pedestrian. In such a case, at best, one could say the driver is culpable for being negligent, but we wouldn't judge that person to be a bad person in the same way we would someone who was constantly yelling out racial slurs.

The point is that there are two distinct readings of "better." An act can be morally worse or better, or consequentially worse or better.

Gaius46 · Mar 15, 2017

If you're talking only about unjustifiable killings then killing is worse than hate.

rhinefire · Mar 15, 2017

Many people have been returned from the dead.

mike2810 · Mar 15, 2017

compared to the numbers that have died and not "returned from the dead", yours is a pretty weak counterpoint.

Care to quantify "many" and provide supporting documentation?

Worldometers - real time world statistics
Birth & Death Rates | Ecology Global Network

approx. 55.3 million deaths per year world wide.

how many came back from the dead?

fredmertzz · Mar 27, 2017

Worse in what way? Guilt? Societal consequences?

Does the person act on the hatred? I.E. though they don't kill, do they imprison those who they hate due to the difference?

This question is not answerable with an absolute.

I will subjectively answer the question you asked: fatally shooting someone is worse than silently hating a group of people.

Eric7216 · Mar 27, 2017

If you mean premeditated killing then the answer is clearly killing. People have the freedom to hate and I would not want to see that freedom taken away. One of our most basic freedoms. But one doesn't have the freedom to take a life. Even "accidental" killing, due to negligence, stupidity, etc. is worse than hate.

_Sal · Apr 1, 2017

clearly killing is worse

Angel · May 5, 2017

And worst of all, the name-caller. You apparently don't know this.

As for the topic, well, we all know what's wrong with killing, but will someone kindly tell me what's wrong with hatred?

Thoreau72 · May 5, 2017

Which is worse, torturing a person or condoning torture by others?

jdog · May 5, 2017

Silly question, everyone hates, if they say they don't they are either a liar, or mentally ill. It is only when thoughts turn to actions that criminality occurs.

jdog · May 5, 2017

Every tax paying American has condoned the torture of others... It is the old issue of sins of commission vs. sins of omission.

Slingshot Bob · May 5, 2017

Killing is bad, killing is wrong, there should be a new word for it....killing is, badong!

Casper · May 5, 2017

Me thinks you did not think this out real well before posting it. Just saying...........

Thoreau72 · May 6, 2017

Some of us tax payers have objected by writing their elected representatives, allowing one's conscience to be clear at least.

Others remain silent. The former is not condoning it, the latter is.

Which Is Worse Killing Or Hating?

Classical Liberal Sage