Jeb Bush has made headlines by stating in an interview that, “Hell yeah,” he would kill baby Hitler if he could go back in time. “You gotta step up, man,” was his sole line of reasoning offered. Now this question of whether one should kill a baby Hitler if given the opportunity is a bogus question because it cannot be answered. To know the future is a power we don’t have, so we necessarily also don’t have the wisdom to morally handle the situation. We cannot determine how knowledge of future events would affect the morality of a situation.
That being said, Jeb’s answer to the question is concerning. “Hell yeah, I would!” seems to indicate that Mr. Jeb! does not understand a most basic tenant of Natural Law. It is always and everywhere wrong to do something immoral for the purpose of bringing about good. We cannot play God and pretend to know how to bring about good. God is the author of goodness, and mankind is the author of evil. No matter how much good we think we may bring about by performing some immoral action, it can never be justified. It is rather concerning indeed that our potential president doesn’t appear to understand this most simple truth.
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