A hand holding a cone with raspberry ice cream
Morality and Ethics

Ice Cream Dilemma Poll Results

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Hi everyone! You may remember that last Wednesday I ran a poll asking readers to vote in relation to a fabricated scenario involving ice cream.

In case you missed it, this was the scenario:

It’s been a hard day at work and I’m feeling drained. As I leave work, I say a prayer to thank God for the blessings of the day, and ask Him to lift my spirits and give me peace throughout the evening.

A few minutes later, the thought enters my mind that I would like to buy a tub of my favourite ice cream. It’s on the more expensive end of the ice cream spectrum, but I pop into the ice cream parlour to buy a tub on my way home.

For the rest of my journey home, I feel a little guilty about buying the ice cream and wonder whether that money might have been better spent on my kids or put towards something of more lasting value for my home.

So, the question is: Should I have bought the ice cream?

The results are in, and here they are:

Ice cream dilemma poll results.png

Interesting! With 11 votes cast, it’s not as easy to analyse the results as it would be with a much higher number of participants. But there are two things which I feel are notable about the results:

  1. Two people (independently of each other) added comments saying the desire for ice cream should have prompted a further prayer about whether to go ahead and buy it.
  2. A broad diversity of opinion was expressed. This suggests to me that such a scenario is not black and white, and that even among people with similar beliefs there are countless different ways in which one could feel they ‘should’ behave when faced with a dilemma like this.

Thanks to all who voted and to all who didn’t vote but took an interest in the poll. I’ll be back with more Praise and Prose reflections soon.

God bless you all and have a great long weekend!