# Battlestar Galactica (S3 E07) Warning: SPOILERS!!



## tellville (Nov 14, 2006)

For those of you who have seen this episode:

Do you think Helo was right in preventing the extermination of the Cylon race? Or do you think the right decision would have been to exterminate the Cylon race?

Basically, I'm asking what would have been the right thing to do for a Christian?

Remember, Helo had to kill 5 Cylons to save potentially millions to billions of other Cyclons.


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## Bladestunner316 (Nov 14, 2006)

I think he was justified. I saw only that bit and have not seen most of all the episodes. But I just got done watching it. Biological genocide is not justfiable by any means even the captain thought so.


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## ChristianTrader (Nov 14, 2006)

tellville said:


> For those of you who have seen this episode:
> 
> Do you think Helo was right in preventing the extermination of the Cylon race? Or do you think the right decision would have been to exterminate the Cylon race?
> 
> ...



1)They are not humans, so this it would be akin to killing all the mosquitoes in order to avoid the diseases that they carry.

2)Pres. Ros was correct in pointing out that he was never on the surface and was not aware of what exactly they were capable of.

3)I do not see how one could call it potential genocide. It was a purely self preservation move. It is us or them.

CT


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## wsw201 (Nov 14, 2006)

Helo was wrong. Now the Cylons are going to find earth and enslave all of us!!


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## Scott (Nov 14, 2006)

It is hard to conduct ethical thinking in the world of Battlestar b/c the nature of reality is unclear. The humans are polytheistic, believing they were created by the Lords of Kobol. Are they right in terms of what is real in the Battlestar world? Some of the Cylons appear to be monotheistic, although they ebrace strange doctrines. Are they right? Do either the humans or Cylons have souls? Who created the souls - the Lords of Kobol, the Cylon god, or something else?


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## Scott (Nov 16, 2006)

No further interaction? Whether Helo's decision was right depends on some ethical standard. What standard is correct in the Battlestar world? Something in the scrolls relating to the Lords of Kobol? Something in Cylon doctrine? Something else altogether?

If we impose a Christian standard, then we assume that the humans were created by God in his image and the humans' current religion of polytheism is false. The Cylons were created by man and are not in His image. Destroying them is destroying machines. Their architecture may be nearly identical to humans, but the key ethical difference between man and machine is that man is created in God's image with a reasonable soul. Machine is not, even if the machine were to perfectly mimic man's biological organization. 

Now, all this changes if one takes the Battlestar lore as normative for the production. I am not sure where the Lords of Kobol came from. They have a Greek flavor. Anyway, you would have the typical ethical incoherence of polytheism.


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## wsw201 (Nov 16, 2006)

Helo's ethic is based on the fact that he is married to a Cylon! His misguided ethic sees them as humans just as he sees Boomer as human. Appearance makes the difference. If all Cylons looked like the soldiers (big ol' robots) then I don't think he would have a problem wiping them out.


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## Scott (Nov 16, 2006)

I think a basic question necessary to answer any ethical question here is what is a human in the Battlestar world? Could be a number of things:

[1] Creation of the pantheon of gods of the Lords of Kobol (which I expect will be just more people in the end - a sort of secular revelation). But let's assume they are like Greek gods and created people.
[2] The product of the evolution of a godless universe.
[3] The creation of a monotheistic god who is not the Christian god (the one described by Caprica Six or one similar).
[4] Created in the image of the true and living God (the Christian God). In this case the human's polytheism would be error.

If 1 or 2 are the case, then the fact that Boomer is a Cylon may not matter that much. I suppose she has as much right, or lack thereof, to ethics as anyone else. Then again, ethics become arbitrary. 

If 3 is the case, then it would depend on the nature of that being.

If 4 is the case, then Boomer and the Cylons are not made in the image of God and they may do with her (or as Adama would say, at least in the beginning, "it") and other Cylons as they wish.


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