Let me suggest a radical alternative to killing Hitler or Stalin as children. If we could go back in time, how about if instead we befriended them and did our best to set them onto a better course? Not foolproof, I’ll grant, but it would have a very good chance of working. The beauty of it is that we wouldn’t have to become monsters ourselves.

I’m with mikespeir.

That’s what really disturbs me about this comic – the idea that the best way to deal with perspectives that you disagree with and think are dangerous is through violence. That just feeds into the whole myth of redemptive violence, that somehow if we respond to violence with more violence that will actually make things better in the long run.

I know this is counter-cultural and perhaps even a little absurd, but I truly believe that abusive power, violence and oppression will never be overcome with more of the same. Rather, I am convinced that power can only be overcome through weakness, violence through peace, and oppression through a willingness to suffer for the love of others. Evil cannot be overcome with more evil, since even if you win, you’ve already become the very thing you were resisting. Instead we must overcome evil with good. To me this is the whole message and lived example of Jesus. You could say it sums up and defines my faith.

Silly comic.

Usually I’d be all “WOO DOCTOR WHO AND ATHEISM” because they always seem to go together… then I watched the 5th Doctor serial “Snakedance” today, which came across as a thinly veiled commentary on the cynicism of science over the dangerous reality of faith. And it made me upset.

Hold it right there, Richard Wade!!! Do I hear your correctly? Are you saying that humans (East and West as a whole) are inherently selfish?

No, you did not hear me correctly. I didn’t say anything yes or no about people being inherently anything. I was describing the behaviors that are causing these two groups to be in loggerheads at the present time, and I was saying that only becoming willing to change those behaviors in themselves instead of blaming the other side for having those behaviors will make things better. There’s the old saying that when you point your finger at someone else there are three fingers pointing back at you.

People are inherently people. That is far too complex, too wide and too changeable a set of traits and potential traits to narrow down to inherently selfish, selfless, good, bad, or whatever.

Once upon a time, there were two brothers in Kittyhawk, North Carolina, who sat around going, “wouldn’t it be cool if we could fly?”

Where would we be now if they’d thought it was too silly to dream?

But if it’s not your thing, that’s cool with me.

I was just playing with you. Thinking out loud. No judgments. Just some Sunday afternoon fun with Dr. Who. Sorry if you were offended.

That’s a pretty selfish perspective.

I Like Tea, do you have kids? If you did, I’ll bet you’ll have a different answer.

Besides, all human motives are basically self-serving. I don’t care how we try to justify our behaviors, good or bad. Can’t we just admit that, for crying out loud?

if Hitler had survived the war, and he had been on trial at Nuremberg, would you have approved of the death penalty?

No. It wouldn’t have done anything for the millions of dead people.

If that drunk driver happens to be the person that ends the life of one of my kids, I don’t know if I could see him as any less evil than Stalin.

That’s a pretty selfish perspective.

This has come to sound like an adolescent sci-fi fantasy.

To be fair, that’s the idea behind Dr. Who.

I’m not talking about making “predictions”. I’m talking about looking backward into history and changing it, which, of course, we cannot do.

And, just to offend you even more – if I could know, with absolute certainty, that someone would kill my kid – yes, I’d kill him first. Because that is my job as a parent.

And that is my last word on this foolish, foolish matter. This has come to sound like an adolescent sci-fi fantasy.

if Hitler had survived the war, and he had been on trial at Nuremberg, would you have approved of the death penalty?

No, I would not. But I also would not defend him.

There’s a difference between Stalin and a drunk driver, Linda. Come on.

If that drunk driver happens to be the person that ends the life of one of my kids, I don’t know if I could see him as any less evil than Stalin.