I'm sure some of you Philosophy Majors know what's coming in this one, simply because most of you will recognize the problem from the title.

For those of you who don't, I'm going to fill in the gaps. "The Trolly Problem", is a thought experiment in both moralism and ethics. At the heart of the problem, in all variations, is that you are given the option to choose a course of action deciding whether one person dies, or five.

The original problem goes something like thise:
"Following the precedings of a trial in which the man was found innocent, a group of rioters displeased with the verdict has taken five captives from the city, and promised to kill them if the man is not executed for his supposed crimes. As a magistrate for the city in question, you can decide whether to execute an innocent man, or allow the captives to to die."

The more common form of the problem, and thus the reason for its title, removes the human element and ability to reason with the rioters or conduct a rescue mission. It goes something like this:
"A rogue trolly is barreling down the tracks at an astounding speed. The track splits into two, before cutting through a mountain in two areas. In either valley the track goes through, there is either a group of five men, or a single man. You know that even with warning, no one will be able to run out of thier valley before the trolly kills them. However, you find yourself next to a switch that allows you to decide which path it takes. What do you do?"

And the final variation:
"A rogue mine cart filled with rocks is barreling down a set of tracks that cuts through a valley. You find yourself on a bridge over the tracks in question in the company of a very fat man of around 350 lbs. Inside the valley is a group of 5 children aged 4-5 playing games on the track. Knowing that the children will not escape before they are all crushed by the heavy cart, you have the option to push the Fatman onto the tracks. Which you know will kill him, but also stop the cart or cause it to derail saving the children. What do you do?"

I pose these questions to both Atheist and Theists alike, to be answered honeslty. Because in the battle for moralism, their seems to be a trend of analogies about how sacraficing yourself for others in a form of altruism for the good of a larger population is a good thing. But then again, there is little mention of whether we can expect the same idea to prevail when we have to sacrafice someone else. Or perhaps, when someone else deems it necassary to sacrafice us.