Ends justifying the means? October 19, 2004
Posted by BatWeasel in : General , trackbackOk, my turn for a serious post for once. I was reading an article from Newsweek this morning about stem cell research and it’s impact on the presidential campaign, and a quote from a senator really caught my eye: “There is no greater way to promote life than to find a way to defeat death and disease,” says pro-life Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch. “Stem-cell research may provide a way to do that.”
This quote really disturbed me. This senator is saying the rightness or wrongness of embryonic stem-cell research is irrelevant because it has the potential to “defeat death and disease.” And the article overall agreed with him. And most movies I’ve watched lately would agree too (guy does bad things to accomplish good goal, happy ending). If the ends are right, then why analyze the means?
I think I understand now why I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy so much. Characters in that book do things just because they are right, regardless of personal risk. “Just because it was right” is hardly considered a valid motive anymore, but in Middle Earth it’s a matter of course. I think it’s a huge division between Christians and the world. Christians are to do things because they are right in obedience to God, even to the point of sacrificing our lives, and are to avoid things that are wrong simply because they are wrong. The ends you are trying to accomplish shouldn’t even come into it when you are deciding on your course of action, but I find them creeping in anyway. It’s scary.
Comments»
I believe it was get fuzzy that brought us the wonderful quote “Your end justified my mean”