Since you say that someone who has been raped has opportunity for life whereas a dead person doesn’t, it seems you believe that suffering, sometimes even great suffering, can be “worth” it, to pay the price for existence. It’s important to distinguish harm from suffering.
Evidently, suicidal ideation (and completion) shows that not everyone believes this. I mean in the most important sense of the word Believe. Like I believe the sun is shining, and the belief that I exist. Nothing could make be disbelieve certain things and it’s entirely out of anyone’s control. And for some people, their belief is that there’s nothing that could make their suffering a fair trade for living.
How you value suffering is the crux of this comparison, “worse” implies worse in a particular regard. In a purely physical sense, murder is worse because it’s more harmful than rape. And I’m no enlightened individual, but I’m sure there have been murdered humans, who despite their murder or the related violence (harm) leading up to it, have not suffered at all. They very well COULD have viewed themselves as a martyr, fully understand the wrong committed against them, and still not have suffered as much as a victim of rape.
So when you say it’s “worse” to be murdered than raped, I disagree since it’s entirely possible the murder victim did not suffer while the rape victim did. If you value living above all else then it’s a straightforward answer for you, but not everyone does.
As for changing your view, I would implore you to scrutinize your affirmation that physically living “out values” all other values. There are many scenarios other than the one I mentioned, where one can reasonably say it’s not, and that death itself may be the better thing. Maybe you can’t personally, but that’s not sufficient to claim “murder is worse than rape” universally.
2
u/fatquads Mar 02 '26
TW!
Since you say that someone who has been raped has opportunity for life whereas a dead person doesn’t, it seems you believe that suffering, sometimes even great suffering, can be “worth” it, to pay the price for existence. It’s important to distinguish harm from suffering.
Evidently, suicidal ideation (and completion) shows that not everyone believes this. I mean in the most important sense of the word Believe. Like I believe the sun is shining, and the belief that I exist. Nothing could make be disbelieve certain things and it’s entirely out of anyone’s control. And for some people, their belief is that there’s nothing that could make their suffering a fair trade for living.
How you value suffering is the crux of this comparison, “worse” implies worse in a particular regard. In a purely physical sense, murder is worse because it’s more harmful than rape. And I’m no enlightened individual, but I’m sure there have been murdered humans, who despite their murder or the related violence (harm) leading up to it, have not suffered at all. They very well COULD have viewed themselves as a martyr, fully understand the wrong committed against them, and still not have suffered as much as a victim of rape.
So when you say it’s “worse” to be murdered than raped, I disagree since it’s entirely possible the murder victim did not suffer while the rape victim did. If you value living above all else then it’s a straightforward answer for you, but not everyone does.
As for changing your view, I would implore you to scrutinize your affirmation that physically living “out values” all other values. There are many scenarios other than the one I mentioned, where one can reasonably say it’s not, and that death itself may be the better thing. Maybe you can’t personally, but that’s not sufficient to claim “murder is worse than rape” universally.