If you were stuck outside on a freezing night, would you burn a sacred text to keep warm?

I would burn you if needed.

This hypothetical wreaks of flame-bait…

I’d do what I needed to survive.

I think I would rather eat it than burn it.
It is bound to be full of hot stuff.

I think that most would burn a lot more than that if it came down to survival.

yes i would

Me, too.

I would burn my own arm to live if I needed to.

@J0E then you would be warm and have something to eat

Yes. There’s more than one copy. Same goes with a flag…it’s not like I would be doing it to say “piss on the USA” or Christianity or whatever, it’s for survival. I’d say that’s a legitimate reason.

@sndfreQ By bringing touchy issues into the open, we may make them less potent and people more tolerant. Remember only a few decades ago the issue of sex sparked arguments.

I would use my 50 foot canada flag to build a shelter then steal your books and burn them

Yes I would. Then I would say a prayer of thanks to Bahá’u’lláh for watching over me.

Like others, I’d burn the books.

Catholic here, and yes, I would do it to save my own life.

@SuperMouse GA just for taking the time to type the accents.

Of course, without one second of hesitation.

I’d also burn the declaration of independance :)

Yes.

In Judaism, you can flout the proscriptions if the survival of a human being is at stake, so yes, I would. Oh hell, I would in any case if my tootsies were cold.

Yeah, but if Napoleon had been able to use Atomic weapons, who would have won World War Two, Batman, or Superman?

If on a winter’s night a traveller….

Absolutely. Living is better than words in a book.

No. I don’t think so.

There is nothing sacred to me. I’d burn any religious text, or any national flag.
Hell, I’d burn some of the pictures of myself that I keep in my wallet. It’s not like the burning signifies, to me, hatred or even disrespect for that object or what it represents. It’s just burning something.

What @Sarcasm said.

Okay, if it were the only copy of a text that proved that accepted texts which had provoked hatred and destruction were wrong and untrue,
I’d sacrifice some toes.

@FireMadeFlesh so if I was to say that for my religion, burning of sacred text meant eternal damnation for my soul, would that mean that those who don’t share my beliefs are going to tolerate my answer simply by the fact that we’re having a collective discussion?

I just don’t see how someone who holds their very personal (and different) beliefs would be in an advantageous situation trying to rationalize their devotion to others who would take an otherwise “common sense” approach to your hypothesis. These kinds of values are extremely subjective, and can often fall outside the frameworks of western thought and religion.

And I must say that I find fault with your supposition that nationalism and flag burning is tantamount to the burning of a believer’s sacred texts, and find it a tenuous analogy at best…apples and oranges.

Yes, it would be neat. Suppose I survive then I could honestly say that I had been saved by the Lord.

I dont think god would mind if I used “his” stuff to keep warm. After all he is supposed to be benevolent. Not sure about everyone else. As for the national flag. I’d use it to keep warm as a blanket. Assuming it’s made of cloth.

@sndfreQ Of course I would respect your answer. This is not the question to argue religious views. I never equated a sacred text with a national flag, I just thought of it as something completely separate so non-believers are not excluded from the question.

Yes, I would. Things can be symbols, but they are not the real thing. Burning a symbol for fun is a symbol for disrespect. But burning a symbol because you need to burn something or freeze is just common sense.

No text is of itself sacred- it is the thoughts contained in it that are sacred, and these cannot be destroyed by burning one copy. As a christian, I would have no problem burning a bible for that purpose. However, one bible would not burn for that long. By the way, I think burning a Qu’ran would give off more heat. Believing it will certainly guarantee you of heat in the future…..................

I beg to differ-in some religions there are such things as sacred texts-they may not be the “off the shelf” variety of mass printed copies of their scriptures but nonetheless are considered a record or that religion. I guess where I’m getting rubbed on this argument is the details-whether one person’s common sense is equivalent to another’s using religious beliefs they ascribe to as the tipping point. I just don’t see that as a fair argument. What if that stack of Bibles were actiually the Dead Sea Scrolls or some other relic (like an idol, a shrine or other “burbable” symbols) that represented something beyond the words or the physical object? Does that make a difference in the argument?

I know I’m characterizing this discussion somewhat differently from the rest, I’m just of the mind that when you pit “common sense” against religious beliefs/tenets, “we” start to head down a slippery slope in terms of how we judge others.

As shown in the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ there are plenty of volumes of tax law around that we can burn while sparing the Gutenberg bible…

To answer your question: Yes, I see no problem with modern prints of holy books in an emergency situation. The holy books still exist and can be reprinted. The question gets more tricky if rare old and valuable documents are involved.

In principal I also see no problem with burning a flag. You can’t destroy the idea of a democratic country by burning one of its symbol. The idea, if it’s a good one will still be around. But I do see a problem if such acts are committed to hurt people’s feelings on purpose and not to get warm during a cold night. The symbol represents something that’s dear to some people. Science blogger PZ Myer’s “great desecration of a god-damned cracker” would be such a negative example.

@sndfreQ That is fair enough. My only concern is that you immediately labelled this question as “flame bait”, but so far you are the only one to take offence.
I also think comparing common sense, or other forms of reason, against religion may determine the validity of both common sense and religion – but that is just the way I like to work. I accept that others may not want to make such a comparison.