If you had to choose...

[Joeiss]

...Which would you pick? here is the question :

You are God. You are in control of creating all of the aspects of a child while it is forming in the mother's uterus. Now, here is the big question. You have to make a baby that is mentally ill. This baby will not be able to talk, other than various noises and shouts. It will be able to walk and run, but it doesn't really know what it is doing. Also, there are only two sets of couples that you can give this baby to.

Couple One - This couple attends church on a regular basis. They believe in you and they both pray every night. They are about to have their very first child, and hope and pray that everything will go just perfect. They want to have a perfect child, and one that can grow up to prosper and have his/her own family.

Couple Two - This couple does not attend church, except for Christmas and Easter Liturgies. They are not very religious, but they are still Christians. The mother used to be an alcoholic, but is in therapy and sessions to help her stop. The father hates all "retarded" people, and think that they should all die. They too want to have a perfect child, one who can grow up and prosper and have his/her own family.

Now, which couple do you give the metally ill child to? Will you give it to the first couple, because they will take great care of the baby. But they are great Christians, and shouldn't you reward them with a normal child for that? Or do you give the mentally ill child to the second family, with hopes that the father can change his attitude towards "slow" people, this creating a new person within himself. But, he might beat the child and treat it very poorly, creating a "hell on earth" situation for the mentally ill child.

So, what is you choice? Post your answer and reasons!!!

[BigJustinW]

Well, I couldn't make that decision... because I'm not God.

If both couples are having kids no matter what, that would make the decision harder.

[Joeiss]

Originally posted by BigJustinW
Well, I couldn't make that decision... because I'm not God.

If both couples are having kids no matter what, that would make the decision harder.

Bah. Pretend! Both couples are having a child, no matter what. One couple gets the mentally ill child, the other gets a child with a fullly functional brain and body.

[Xantar]

I hope there isn't any implication here that attending church regularly and praying every night equates to goodness. Don't get me wrong. In my personal experience, religious families raise wonderful children. It's just that sometimes they don't, so the correlation isn't strictly true.

I understand that the basis for this is that I'm God and should therefore reward my faithful followers, but I want it understood that I don't necessarily equate religiousness with goodness (this better not turn into another religion debate). For the sake of argument, let's say that I am omniscient and can see into the hearts of my followers so I know that the first couple is "better" than the second.

Anyways, if I were God, I'd say that I have a master plan and that I will give the child to one couple or the other according to whatever fits my plan best.

Since, apparently, I'm limited to just what's given here and I should ignore the rest of the universe, I would give the child to the first couple. The only difference specified here is that the man in the second couple hates retarded children. If given a normal child, both couples would do fine (other than the woman in the second couple having alcohol therapy which shouldn't matter that much).

Religious couples also tend to love their children no matter what. And if the first couple is really disappointed, they can try for another kid.

[Ginkasa]

I would give it to the first couple. They might worship "me" constantly and such but I know that they would be able to take better care of the child while the second couple might neglect it or even abuse it (the father might anyway).


I think that in this case its not really about rewarding the better Christians and punishing the worse ones, but knowing that I can trust the first couple and that they would take good care of the baby.

[TheGrimReaper]

Well when I read this I thought the first couple obviously, but if they are praying for a perfect child, the child who is mentally ill who is given to them, might turn them away from me forever.

It could go either way on each couple, but I would say give it to the first one, seeing as they have a stable life already, I think they could overcome this problem.

[Cyrax9]

I am NOT god, amnd I will NEVER BE god, theerefore I could not make this descision, not even in my wildest dreams could I try to make this decision.