June 3, 2008
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The Accidental Kill
A car ran into a bike race killing one person and injuring ten. Here is the link: Link
Recently Steven Curtis Chapman’s son ran over his little sister. Here is the link: Link
A girl that went to my high school ran over a kid in our school when she was coming home from a party. She continued to go to the school even though family and friends hated her for what happened. She always walked around in a daze.
If you had to pick between being run over today and being killed or running someone over and killing them, which would you pick?
Comments (143)
I guess being run over. Then I could pray that having these hips were for a reason! Maybe I would just dent the car and walk away!
That’s one messed up picture (video capture?). But yeah, I’d prefer to do the running over. Unless it was some “this person is going to save a bunch of people I care for” situation. Then I’d give my life up for that. But since you never really know, I’m sticking with the running over.
Also, I have kids and stuff so, it’s not just selfish old me I’m thinking about.
Hmm. “…dent the car and walk away” after being killed. Interesting.
Neither.
BTW> The driver of that car was drunk.
Oh gosh =/.
What kind of question is that? Picking between killing or getting killed? WTF? Are you high?
Running over and killing someone. Better them than me.
Dan, is that a trick question?
I’d love to hear the logic of wanting to die rather than accidentally kill someone.
@esch99 - Zombie!
@huginn - Amen to that
@EarthsAzureLight - Maybe that person wanted to commit suicide anyways? By being run over, he can set his family up for a fat lawsuit. =)
Ill go with biting the bullet. living with the pain of killing another due to a stupud drunken night would be terrible.
I would rather die than live with the guilt of killing somebody. That picture is horrifying.
I’d rather die myself than live with that.
What in the crap kinda question is this? Give me a break!
I agree with ninja… If I killed someone the guilt alone would be killer. I’ll take the former, and hope that all my good karma I’d accumulated over the years lets me come back as somthing good.
Recently Steven Curtis Chapman’s son ran over his little sister.
According to the article, the guy was backing out of his driveway. Ten bucks says he was driving a large car (Like a truck or a SUV).
Neither? Ouch.
That depends… pure accident or negligence? Mistakes happen, in which case I’d rather live. But in the case of the guy killing the biker, I would rather be killed. I couldn’t live with myself if I got drunk, fell asleep at the wheel and took out a bunch of people. That’s not an accident, you’re just an asshole.
Being run over.
I’d rather not have that guilt on my shoulders!!
Steven Curtis Chapman’s case is so sad. I just read the story in People magazine…
*HUGS*
Well, i was hit by a car when i was 17 while i was riding my bike…and i got a really nice settlement from it. So i would like to be the one who gets hit (they give you really nice pain killers in the hospital)
Well, I certainly don’t want to die.
I don’t want to kill anyone but of course I value my life more than anyone elses’. So I guess I’d rather run over someone else than be run over.
i’m gonna be honest here, my answer…
none of the above
@Chesschick01 - Yeah…but the scenario in the question was that you die from getting hit so pain killers really won’t help at all.
@huginn - Apparently death > guilt. Hmm….
@BeautifulB_227 - The scenario doesn’t call for a quick and merciful death. Pain killers would be nice for crushed limbs, collapsed lungs, and spilled intestines. =P
i’d rather get killed. I don’t think I can live with the grief of taking another person’s life. Then again, I won’t want someone to live with that grief so maybe I’m taking the easy way out.
@five11nation - Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And rather than taking one, you stood friggin’ still.
Yeah I would definitely prefer to die than to feel guilty about someone else’s death.. Although I suppose for someone else to hit me would give them the guilt, so it’s kind of a lose/lose situation.
@EarthsAzureLight - Could just be you don’t really think there is much worth living for?
Kill me.
Me being killed. I’d rather be hurt and/or killed then someone else.
I knew a woman that accidentally ran over a little boy probably 15 years ago and to this day she still walks aroud with this dazed, depressed look.
@shanella - oh…wow…I didn’t think of that……..
@huginn - that’s your view. in mine, i like to think of it as takin’ a freakin’ bulldozer and pavin’ a whole new road that I wanna walk through.
we’re entitled to our opinions, and i didn’t like the options. i don’t wanna kill anyone and i sure as hell don’t wanna be killed either.
what’s the problem again?
I actually ran over someone before with my car. It wasn’t my fault and they didn’t get killed, but it still haunts me everytime I drive. I’ve even stopped playing Grand Theft Auto because of it. I’d rather get run over. Good post, Theo. – Lou
I’d rather be the person who died, but then who’s to say the driver feels guilt? I personally would, but not everyone would. Certainly the son of Steven Curtis Chapman must feel terrible about the accident with his sister – but it was an accident, and hopefully they are helping him to deal with that. It won’t be easy. The sleeping drunk probably doesn’t care who he hurts. A drunk hit my son’s 13 year old friend and killed him, and the drunk ran….took the police hours to find him, cowering under a bridge….then he got out on bail and fled to Mexico. He doesn’t care about that boy’s family…he just didn’t want to get in trouble.
That’s terrible about the bikers…what a horrifying scene.
die.
@five11nation - …we’re entitled to our opinions, and i didn’t like the options. i don’t wanna kill anyone and i sure as hell don’t wanna be killed either.
what’s the problem again?
Because in a true/false test, you don’t get credit for making up your own answer.
@huginn - first of all, this isn’t a true/false test. second, i don’t want any credit. and lastly, i never disresepcted you nor did i ask your opinion… btw, who made YOU the teacher?
Neither, but if it is my time to die, it is my time. I wouldn’t want to live knowing that I killed someone, accident or not. But maybe if I did, I could try my best to help others who are going through the same thing. There is a lot more I could say, but nahhh.
I’d be run over. I don’t think I could live with running someone over.
@five11nation - ”first of all, this isn’t a true/false test.”
The “true/false test” was an anology. The carry-over to this is that it’s a binary system: There are only two choices. The aim of this post is for us to choose for the better of two very bad options. The question isn’t whether you’d rather die or win a million dollars, it’s not whether you’d rather run someone over and have a pony.
In answering “neither,” you not only provide the obvious; you also defeat the purpose of the thread.
“second, i don’t want any credit. and lastly, i never disresepcted you nor did i ask your opinion…”
I’m still free to provide my views– just as you provided your lame non-answer.
@steph843 - agreed
@huginn - I love it.
I would so much rather be the one killed than the one doing the kiling. I’m not sure how I could live with myself for that.
@five11nation - If I were you, I would pay no mind to what huginn is saying. I agree that the question is just…bad. It sounds stupid. HAVING to choose between running someone over or getting run over yourself? No such scenario would ever come up in real life. It is physically impossible, and hence, stupid, imo.
@hecticmuse - thanks, man.
Rather do the killing. Guilt from vehicular manslaughter? Sure, it’d be bad, but is it worse than death?
I seriously doubt it
@huginn - and i’m free to tell you to go fuck yourself.
i rather die than live for the rest of my life knowing i killed someone, even if it was an accident. i don’t think i could live with the guilt.
I would rather die than take the life of someone else.
niether if i really had a choice….
@five11nation - and i’m free to tell you to go fuck yourself.
And I am free to call you an amoeba.
But seriously, you must percieve yourself to be on the losing end of a discussion when you employ such fancy language.
@five11nation - @huginn - you guys just need to hug it out. No shame in that.
@huginn - @five11nation - Yeah guys, chill a bit! It’s just thetheologianscafe, not an exam… or a barroom!
Now shake hands.
For starters the driver that hit the bicyclist was drunk, I hardly call that an accident.
But… If I could be hit and not die…. definatly that. But that isn’t the question. Honestly I don’t know if I could live with the guilt of hitting and killing someone. I mean heck, I backed into someones car the other day, I felt bad enough about that I dont think I could possibly imagine hitting and killing a person…
@huginn - Actually, I don’t perceive myself to be on the losing end at all.
By the way losing is spelled with one “o,” not two.
Using the “fancy language” — as you say — emphasizes my response to your disrespectful comments toward me.
I never started any disagreement with you. I never disrespected you or your opinions.
You are the one who felt the need to instigate hostility by taking the time to belittle someone for their personal choice.
I guess that makes you the better person, because you accomplished your mission of starting a fight, denigrating another individual, and making yourself seem superior over them.
If that’s what makes you feel better about yourself, have at it.
@steph843 - Ha, yeah. I guess I should have quit and apologized after I realized it was getting personal. Hugs are dangerous with guys, people can get the wrong idea. =P
@squeakysoul - -_-, yeah. I guess we looked at the ground rules here differently.
I thought it was a pity that he didn’t tap in some of the more interesting arguments that could have been used in defense of his position.
@five11nation - I never started any disagreement with you. I never disrespected you or your opinions.
Just as you critique the framework of Dan’s post, I critique the reasaonbility of your position. No disrespect was meant to your person.
You are the one who felt the need to instigate hostility by taking the time to belittle someone for their personal choice.
In a cafe, people chatter and other people chatter back. The TheologianCafe, in my view, is a place for discussion of views and opinions– not for posting one sentence resposnes.
Making fun of an argument is very different from criticizing a person’s personal character. I judge your position by my perception of its merits, and when challenged , I backed up my position.
I guess that makes you the better person, because you accomplished your mission of starting a fight, denigrating another individual, and making yourself seem superior over them.
Actually, I considered this a failure. Instead of talking about the pro’s and con’s of your position, you took it as a personal attack. I’m not a troll, I don’t eat people. I’m not doing this to stroke my ego.
If that’s what makes you feel better about yourself, have at it.
Ice cream makes me feel better. Not so much *this.*
I don’t drive, so , thank God, it’s virtually impossible for me to run over someone. I have been hit by cars 2 times so far. In both cases, it was the drivers fault.
Do I get to pick who I’d be running over? But since I don’t drive it’s not likely to come up. And I’ve already been hit by a car once.
I’d die first. Otherwise I’d live a slow death-by-guilt.
I would rather die, then live the rest of my life knowing I took someone else’s. (I just hope it’d be an instant death, and not slow and painful…)
@five11nation - @huginn -
Honestly, its not personal, but if someone asked if you liked 4 door cars or 2 door cars and you said “neither” how annoying that would be. It’s just kind of bad form to answer a well founded theological question with what you originally said. It’s an interesting thing that apparently the majority of Dan’s readers would rather die than accidentally kill someone else (or so they say, I seriously doubt the validity of it), and that fact could spur another discussion in itself.
Just posting that you don’t like the question doesn’t really serve much purpose, unless it was some humorous or clever remark.
If Dan posted, “If you had to vote in the presidential election, who would you vote for?” and you said “No one” it’s kind of trollish.
The question is designed to make you think about tough choices (really its a central theme of his blog)
In my opinion.
I demand a third option!
My parents would be devastated if I were killed, so I’d say I’d rather it be me running someone over. I can guarantee it was there fault, lol.
Either way someone is going to have a rough time.
neither. I wouldn’t want to live with killing someone even if it was an accident. I also wouldn’t want to leave my son motherless.
tough choice, but i’d think i’d rather… not be guilty. if i really had to choose, i’d want to be run over and get it over and done with.
I’d rather be ran over and killed. Guilt isn’t easy to deal with.
i guarantee that if i were to, say, accidentally kill someone else… i’d end up getting a fat prison term. fuck that. ehhh, depends, though. do i know and love the person i accidentally kill?
I’d like to live, thanks, even if it means I have to accidentally kill someone else.
@XINERGY - I have to agree, this was no accident, the driver was drunk. (and totally plastered in broad daylight, as well!)
My religion teaches me that I should save my own life above all else, so I would choose to live. (And choose the easiest way to answer this question)
@EarthsAzureLight - I agree with your sentiments, but presidential voting isn’t quite apt – I might say I won’t vote because I’m an anarchist, which is quite an answer to the question.
I would much rather run over lots of other people rather than get run over myself. Hopefully they would all be…
Let me not go there, I am sour on xanga today.
huh, from that picture, i’m just stunned how the person driving didn’t see the bikers?
seriously.
I don’t think i’d wanna have either 1 happen 2 me.
i would want to be run over because i wouldnt want to live with the guilt of killing somebody or paralyzing them for the rest of my life i would hate that
Thats something I don’t know if I could live with myself for happening. When I was in high school, a kid coming home from school hit an old woman crossing the road and broke her hip…and ten continued home. That blows me away, how could you keep going? Some people really just aren’t paying attention.
I’d definitely pick being ran over.
If there is a plan for someone to die at my hand who am I to question that. I certainly will spend my life being very careful not to hurt anyone and that is all that I can do. If I choose to be killed or run over then I am choosing against the plan and doesn’t that mean that I am choosing a path of evil? Do everything with the best of intentions for those around you and except the concequences gracefully. (I think LOL)
Nice soul searching question!
Karen
@Alle_in_Ashe - prolly on a cell phone!
I’d want to die. I don’t think I could live with myself if I killed someone. It might drive me insane and I might kill myself anyway..
Running over someone else. I’m selfish like that. I have amazing plans for this weekend and don’t want to miss them.
Mustard.
there’s something very dark about this blog entry.
I’m assuming we’re talkin accidental incident…I’d say I’d rather be behind the wheel…it might haunt me for a while, but given that it was an accident I couldn’t treat it too personally cuz it could’ve been anyone or anything else that hit them or killed them by some other means…It’d suck as all hell that it was me, but it’s understood that some accidents can unfortunately be fatal…
I’d rather kill someone.
I’d feel guilty about it, sure. But I haven’t completed anything on this earth yet and I know I will change something.
I dunno. I’m not ready to die yet and I don’t believe in divine plans.
What kind of question is this?
Dying in innocence would be better than living in guilt.
i guess i’d rather be killed than kill, can’t really think of a good reason off the top of my head
eeek
That is horrible!
I bet you the douche bag photographer just kept taking pictures the whole time!
I would rather be run over by the car and killed. I would not want to live with the guilt of running over someone else.
And to that bike race v. car pic, that looks more than a little painful. And wouldn’t you have seen that coming up from far down the road so you could stop the car?
I’d rather die
I’d rather be run over. There’s no way I could live with myself and the guilt I’d carry after hitting and killing someone.
=/
@mileyfan08 - the driver was drunk. i heard about it on the news…
Do I get to pick who I run over in this scenario? Oh, pretty pretty please?
@xvery_merry_unbirthdayx - Well, that makes it a little less scary, at least it wasn’t planned for him to run into the bikers. It is still really bad, though….
Being run over.
that picture is almost cartoonish. i’m tempted to laugh.
This question has taken me all day to ponder…I like that! Needless to say, all life is precious. Under no circumstance is it acceptable to kill or be killed. To kill would leave us feeling helpless to scale the wall of guilt, so I’d rather die than have to deal..
that guy was drunk? it looks like the middle of the day, he’s drunk at 3pm or something? i mean, i’ve been drunk at 3pm, but i never decided driving or even riding a bike would be a good idea at the time.
also, that’s an amazing photo, though it looks like it was taken from a video.
neither thankyou.
but i don’t think i could live with myself if i ran over anyone else, so i suppose i would prefer being killed?
Being run over, definitely. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself knowing I had killed a life.
rather being killed than killing someone.
Kill.
Being run over. Personally, I am an extremely emotional person, especially when guilt is involved. If I ever feel guilty for any reason it’ll eat me up inside. I’d pick death over that.
I would rather be run over. I would hate to be responsible for someone else’s death.
if i chose the latter could i also choose who got run over?
Die..
Better them than me
I feel really really selfish for saying this.. but in all honesty I think I would rather run someone else over accidentally than me ran over. ._.;; But, in my defense, it seems that most people choose to be ran over because they don’t want to deal with the guilt.. maybe that choice is more selfish because they are choosing not to deal with guilt (sloth), not so much ending another life. Hmmm. *ponders* This is an awesome question to think about, but not an awesome one to answer!!
If it were an accident, I feel like I would be able to get over the trauma eventually. I just really love life and death is something I worry about so much I probably have a phobia of death.
Kobayashi Maru!!!!
What’m I supposed to say???
I would rather just not…….
I’ll leave this answer up to God
Actually it wasn’t an “accident” the driver was drunk and asleep.
@squeakysoul - Agreed.
@saintvi - ditto(?).
@fullmetalbunny - I don’t know what that means, but it made me laugh. Is it something bad?
@Infamous_Dewey - Ever seen Star Trek movies? The Kobayashi Maru was a test in Starfleet Academy- it simulated a space fight which invariably led to the player’s defeat. There WAS no right answer; it was designed only to see how an academy student would respond to a failed situation.
James T. Kirk, angered by the idea that there could be such a thing as a no-win situation, hacked into the Academy computer and made the test winnable. He said there was no such thing as a no-win situation… and I’m inclined to believe that he was right, LOL. He became Captain Kirk, after all!
Anyway, this question reminded me of the Kobayashi Maru. No really good answer.
I’d rather be the one dead. But I have a martyr complex.
uhm.
Thats A pretty stupid question but i would say that i would want me to get ran over……!!
NE way but yeahhh….! / ?
Was this at your schoolll… Seriously.!
running over someone
I can’t live with the guilt of running someone over so, If I have to choose I rather be hit by a car.
@fullmetalbunny - gotcha.
thats just morbid!
if i choose to kill then that doesnt say anything good about me and if i choose to be killed then im dead!!!! Its bad both ways. So I would go with kill and get the hell away and live with my own remorse without dealing with other people’s hate. but then it gets so much more complicated what with dealing with your own demons and then God, heaven and hell etc etc etc…so wouldn’t being killed be just the same? If not a safer bet? am i over analyzing? hehehehe
@Southernlass - lol
@fullmetalbunny - You RULE for remembering that. RULE.
Wow, that’s a crazy photo. o.o
that’s such a hard one. if i was sober & it was an accident, i would choose running someone over & killing them. but if i was drunk & killd somoene i’d rather me get hit & die. it’s horrible the things that people are doing these days. does everyone need a breath a lizer in there car?! its horrible to think that the drinking age is 21, yet so many kids illegally get, drink. & drive under the inflence. i choose not to drink because i used to be a big partier, yes, at 16 i’m sober. insane? it may be but its the truth. i got very drunk & wouldnt let my friend drive. because we couldnt drive our drinks got drugged, and we passed out and got raped. i feel like either way it’s my fualt but alcohol is horrible these days, its a huge poison to society.
Ummm… how about getting run over but not necessarily having to die?
Man, way too hard. If I were to get hit, I could experiance reincarnation and probably end up in a better place than here where I am. However, if I were to die, I’d lose my friends. If I were to hit someone, I would have guilt based on who it was. However, I have no idea what would happen to me in school. It is impossible for me to decide.
being run over, for sure. i could never live with the guilt of being the one who did it.. i’d probably just end up killing myself anyways.
it’s interesting to read some of the responses…particularly the ones that say their choice is dependent on whether or not the incident in question was an accident. i live with the images from my accident and yes, i hit a person and she fell into a coma and died. she was running across the nj turnpike and was half drunk outta her mind. who would expect that? especially when it’s snowing at 3 am and it’s just you and a few semis on the road? i still despise her for deciding to run into my car. no guilt. call me heartless but it’s because i can never erase those haunting memories of her head crashing through my windshield at the innocent age of 17 but i’m dealing with it, day by day. and thankful that she didn’t take my life with hers. i may have not been able to drive for a few months but i forged ahead and even drove across country, three times.
with that being said, i will answer your question, which i rarely do but this one begs a response..
i would choose running someone over and killing them..
it is so terrible!!
Being killed over. :]
THAT IS SOOO SAD!!! OMG! IF I WAS THE PERSON THAT KILLED THOSE PPL I WOULD WANT TO KILL MYSELF! THAT IS SOOOO SAD!!!!!
Dear Dan: Personally, I’d rather be run over myself. What a terrible thing to have to live with… especially if it involved the death of a child through one’s own carelessness. That’s a nightmare scenario. That photograph is likewise as chilling a one as I’ve ever seen. How in God’s name did the driver not see that huge mass of cyclists?
thanks for posting this question! i love the ones that really make people think. i still feel guilty about a situation i put someone in that caused them to lose part of their finger. it hits me particularly because i’m a secretary… would i have become a secretary if it were part of my finger that was missing? would other aspects of my life have been different because of it as well? hard to say.
oh, and to answer the question, I’d rather die than live with the guilt. i think, from reading the others’ posts, 2/3 of the posters picked that option. (pardon me for not following the bantering between DC and the raven.)
I will take whatever God wants me too. If I die, I only ask the grace of entering heaven. If I kill someone, I only ask the grace of His forgiveness.