Morality by Dr Who

Dr Who has become a favorite show of one of my sons, and I watched about half of it with the boys last night. The familiar badly synthesized shriek to "exterminate" brought back memories from my childhood and I was sucked in.

This double-episode final had it all - which naturally meant the end of the multi-verse was nigh and Dr Who and his multi-dimensional team of ordinary people were doing their best to save it.

Interestingly, the topic of euthanasia came up. With the Daleks attacking Earth, wholesale destruction had ensued and life looked grim. Earth had been moved to some other part of the galaxy and the human race was deemed to be having a bad time of it, with untold human suffering. So a crack team of secret agents sprung into action to initiate planetary euthanasia.

I forget the exact quote, but as the team prepared to explode carefully positioned nuclear bombs that would set off a chain reaction and destroy the planet, the agent explained that this plan had been prepared for the time when human suffering was deemed so great, it was better to destroy the planet than allow it to continue. Luckily (if that's the word I want) if the Daleks had a likely use for the planet, it became a bonus bargaining chip - back off or we destroy the planet for sure, before you can use it.

The Daleks were indeed going to use the planet, as part of a plan to destroy the universe and all other universes that existed in all other dimensions. So there was the logic - not only was it necessary to end human suffering by destroying the planet, but it also served as a bargaining chip, a noble reason and a in-yer-face final gesture of defiance. Some-thing for almost every-ones ethical philosophy in a modern world.

Naturally, the Dr thought this was a stupid idea. Presumably, so did the dolphins, many Catholics, and assorted other people with some sort of instinctive morality.

After helping avoid planetary euthanasia the writers threw in the issue of genocide in the name of self-defence, and had a half-human/half-time lord version of the Dr make a fatal mistake of committing genocide and wiping out every single Dalek. All the humans thought this was fine, and only the Dr realised that his half-clone must be severely punished.

The punishment was no more time travel and restricted for the remainder of his life (now that he was an aging part-human) on planet earth with the girl of his dreams. No doubt a tough penalty for genocide, especially if you were expecting a medal for winning the war, or perhaps 72 virgins. Hey, I said earlier there was some-thing for almost every-ones ethical philosophy in a modern world!

The issue of instinctive, or natural morality is an interesting one. How do people know right from wrong? How much of this is a product of our society and our heritage? Are there genes that determine different levels of selfishness and altruism? Are we also spiritual beings? These are matters for long and thoughtful blog posts. So, not this one then :-)

This one I shall restrict to a single idea. The importance of developing ones conscience.

Firstly, I would say that it would do us good to check our conscience before acting, as much as possible. At the very least, this raises the question of "what are the consequences of this action?" However, in today's society I could accept the argument that many people have suppressed their conscience, or it is badly formed. What to do then?

If you are a Catholic, a good place to start is paying attention to what comes out of the Vatican and reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church to provoke thought. And the latter part that sentence is very important: to provoke thought

There are two very important activities a good Catholic will do that helps develop their conscience that any person (atheist or otherwise) can also do. The first is a daily "examination of conscience" where you spend some time and review the days events and ask yourself questions about what you did and what you thought, and consider where you may have transgressed. By testing your conscience, you will find it begins to develop and you will begin to seek ways to alter your habitual thought patterns and ways of reacting to things, recognising the value in improvement and noticing reasons to change.

The second part of developing ones conscience is in the value of confession. The idea of confession is to face up to your wrongdoings, admit them and state how you will avoid such sin in the future. This must be sincere and you must be serious about seeking to improve. Whether you do that to God or just yourself, it is a productive way to temper your wrongs of the past with a way forward for the future.

I recommend to all they consider a daily "examination of conscience", and to Catholics, head for the confessional at least monthly.

Meanwhile, debate in the Tiger family continues on whether the half-Dr should have "exterminated" all of the Daleks. All Daleks died last night, and humans didn't think it too many.