[NekoNinja]

This story may sound familiar, considering that it is basically from a book I am reading, but it to me it seems to confirm something I already thought.


Somewhere out in the galaxy there is a small town of people who inhabit a planet with other intelligent life. The town is closed off from them by a large electric fence that stand between them, and encloses the town. From this town a young priest has been going out to visit these aliens to convert them to Catholicism. One day a group of them cling him to a tree for several days until he dies. The death was intentional.

The small town is outraged. These aliens have killed some of them before, they have even tortured people, by cutting their bodies open while still alive until their bodies were deformed but somehow attached. The town had always feared them ever since the first time and no one had much even dared to think of going out the gate, but never had someone like a priest been killed. A peaceful and loving religious man who spread the word of God.

In rage, a man gathers together a group of men, and decide to go out and give justice to the murdering beasts. Surely the town wanted justice for the murdered man, as no being, human or not, should be allowed to kill with such violence, and an innocent priest at that!

They gather torches and weapons and head past the gate. Through their path they burn down the alien's forest and kill many of them. All the while they chant the name of God in honor of the town's murdered priest.


So would you label this as war or murder? And why?

Also do you consider war to be murder? If no, what is the difference?

[Erbse]

Also do you consider war to be murder? If no, what is the difference?

It's as the saying goes, unfortunately.

Kill a few, and you're a lunatic murderer, kill a hundred or thousands and you're a hero.

It's a giant double standard that humans seem to practice by nature, for as long as their response seems to be justified in their eyes. Technically it's all murder, though - in this case even with fanaticism involved.

EDIT: Note that such things as moral, murder, religion, principle of god etc. may not exist within their society. If these things weren't present in the Alien's society they hence would not view their actions in the light humans do.

[Kelly617]

I've always said I would have trouble dating someone in the army, or at least, someone who genuinely believed they could go into a warzone and shoot another human being.

Killing someone is killing someone. To an extent, killing someone in a wartime setting could be seen as self-defense, but I think what gets to me is that the person you're killing is ALSO acting in self-defense. If neither one of them threatened the other's life, then no one would have to die at all.

[Sputnik]

In a defensive war or in peace I am more than willing to kill in self-defence. In war there is the aggressor and the defender, and only one of them has the ability to kill in self-defence. As for what those ficticious villagers were doing, they were commiting an act of war (and slaughter). If the villagers had killed the aliens who came to the village to do harm, the villagers would have killed in self-defence. If the priest had not "invaded" the alien territory and tried to tell the aliens how to believe, then his actions would not have precipitated the war.

[Obsidean]

I would say it was war. The aliens were not in the "human" group. Thus, if the aliens kept killing the humans of course it is jusified to kill the aliens. If they didn't kill the aliens then the aliens would had kept killing the humans. Kill or be killed imo.

[AJ2011]

I am always dismayed by authors and producers who come up with stories and movies in which the alien species or AI robot is evil. It seems to me the projection of a disturbed mind rather than a depiction of a possible event. This is why I like the movie E.T. and the movies of a similar vein.

Back to the topic, I think war and murder are equivalent; the terms just describe scale. Both have justification for killing. It's just that with war, more people identify with the justification than for murder, which is usually describes the violent crime of one or few individuals.

Justification is the root of all evil. It is what causes "good" people to commit atrocities.

[Bote]

The 'aliens' are indigenous tribes, right? Because if not then the story is utterly stupid. It's complete bollocks to suggest that an alien life form has some sort of primitive cultural customs similar to those of humans. It's even greater gobbledygook to suggest that the spread of religion will be undertaken before biochemical control (i.e. the rule of bio primacy).

Murder and war are only different in terms of scale and lack of opposing voices (in war there are less people who condemn violence).

[Eylrid]

It's a false dichotomy. War and murder are not mutually exclusive. War is a prolonged fight between two or more groups of people. Murder is killing that is judged immoral.

The scenario in the OP is definitely war. The real question is whether or not it's murder: is the war moral or immoral?


Lewis Richardson discovered that there is a distinct relationship between the size of conflicts measured in casualties, and the expected time between conflicts of that size. This relationship applies to everything from single murders to the world wars. The only difference between an isolated murder and a war is one of scale.

[DarkyNWO]

Killing someone is never justified.

[Vaan]

So would you label this as war or murder? And why?

Also do you consider war to be murder? If no, what is the difference?

I'd consider it war and taking the lords name in vain

There is a difference between murder and killing, the difference is intent, if you go into say a warzone with the expressed intent to kill someone then that is murder, however if you go in not wanting to murder anyone but get put into a situation where you have to fight then that is not murder.

This is why soldiers can be charged with murder (if it's a civilian, or a POW)

The case you expressed is without a doubt murder due to the premeditation and expressed intent to murder the aliens