Believers

Last night, I sat down with my wife and sister to watch the next couple of installments of Babylon 5, which we are borrowing from Ralph Mazza, who is a friend of ours. I had heard good things about this television series, and so far, they are all being borne out. The second episode that we watched last night was called “Believers”. (For the Trekkies out there, this episode was written by David Gerrold, who wrote the classic Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles”.) Oh. My. What a powerful episode. The premise is quite simple, actually. A child of an alien couple is dying. The doctor on the Babylon 5 station says that a simple surgery will save him. However, the religious beliefs of this couple say that performing surgery will release the soul of the child, destroying him. So they refuse to allow the surgery to be performed. So, Dr. Franklin is trying to figure out a way to change their minds so that he can save this child’s life. It was powerful. But, at the end of the episode, I was sad. The different characters wanted to condemn the parents for the stand that they were taking. Don’t misunderstand; they loved their child greatly. They would sit with him and hold him while his breathing failed. They would cry over him and comfort him. But there are more important things than life. Principles worth dying for. What’s wrong with that? And try as they might, the different characters could not. Dr. Franklin merely asserted the validity of his beliefs over the parents, even to the point of disobeying Commander Sinclair, who decided that he would not overrule the parents’ decision. Commander Sinclair wanted to overrule them, but on what moral authority could he make that decision? And that’s the rub, isn’t it? If you believe in moral relativism, how can you condemn these parents? What makes your belief any better than theirs? The answer is simple: nothing. And I was sad, because I thought about all the people who are morally adrift, wanting to reach out, help others, and change the world…but they can’t, because they don’t have a firm moral position on which to stand. How very sad.