Can a society of Devil Worshipers be anything other than Evil?

[hamishspence]

the crux of the thought experiment is simple — when faced with a choice where you can intervene to save the lives of other people at the cost of another person's life, which is the moral decision: to intervene or to refrain? Variations of the trolley problem usually change the number of people at risk and/or sacrificed, or the nature of the intervention, both of which can elicit different responses from different ethical frameworks (and/or gut feeling polls).

My preferred way of reframing it is the Airplane Problem:

there is a damaged airplane, it will crash - but you (the air traffic controller) can direct it to land in the spot with the least people.


The trolley problem is exactly the same - except instead of directing a plane, you are directing a train - via tracks, rather than the train itself.


Giving those directions, does not qualify as "murdering" the people you are directing the plane toward. Murder requires more than just killing - an element of malicious intent needs to be involved.