Star Trek hugs religion as the company’s captain begins to pray, and is rational

By Joshua Tyler | Updated 5 seconds ago

Star Trek has had a complicated and changing relationship with religion. This week, he closed the circle when the company’s captain stood on his knees and began to recite the prayer of the Lord in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Premiere of season 3.

Newer assistants of Trek whose only exposure to the franchise has been the secular extremism of Star Trek: Discovery It may have been surprised by that, but the Trekkies have not had been.

Modern pop culture deals with the great ancient franchise as if it were Aunt Ataist, but that is totally false. That notion comes from a line pronounced by Captain Picard in the Star Trek: The next generation Episode “Who observes the observers.”

Speaking about the state of humanity in the future, the Picard line was: “We have overcome the need for religion.”

That line precisely reflected the views of the creator of Star Trek Gene Roddenberry, which was an open and declared atheist. However, when Trek He debuted on television in the 1960s, 90% of the American population was firmly Christian, and an atheist television program was impossible.

These early travel episodes generally avoid directly addressing the belief in God, however, the little we know about Captain Kirk’s beliefs as a character suggests that, at least at that time, he was being written as a believer of Christ.

In the episode of season 2 “who cries for Adonis”, when he faces a Greek god, Kirk says: “Humanity has no need for gods. We find the quite appropriate.”

Read that line too fast, and I might think that Kirk is saying that humans no longer need God, but the plural form of the word is key. The line is actually a declaration of faith in the type of monotheism practiced by Christians.

When facing a being who claims to be a Jehovah himself in Star Trek V: The Final FrontierJames T. Kirk is open to the possibility, but is also ready to question its validity. When that being is not up to the one described in the Christian Bible, Kirk faces the wrath of the rays to ask: “What does God need with a spacecraft?”

Kirk was written as rationalist and skeptical first. Whatever other beliefs that had arose from that. It was rational, moderate and perhaps also Christian.

And if Star Trek has an official religion, that’s what it is. Rationalism. No atheism.

Although Captain Picard and the next generation team were atheists in their views, that was also rooted in the rationalist methodology.

Things were very different in the series that followed Next generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Religion is the central question of all that series, focused on a planet full of believers and a Star Trek captain, Ben Sisko, who can be a God himself.

Sisko adopts a rationalist approach to his own divinity, resisting the faithful and focusing on doing things through logical thinking. However, his first Bajoran officer, Kira Nerys, bases all his life around religious belief. Numerous episodes of the program are dedicated to follow her while praying in temples and common with priests.

There is nothing rational in Kira, but the rational is to respect and support their right to believe things that provide a positive framework in which she builds her life. Without his faith, after the life of the horror he has led, Kira would fall apart.

The Federation insists on calling the gods that Kira believes in aliens, but in behavior and power, they fit the definition of God and any being. Kira’s religion and the gods that love are as real as the nose on your face.

Who can say that Christopher’s Pike is not?

The new atheist movement, which I helped defend in my previous days and more naive as a journalist online, argued that the existence of God cannot be proven. Therefore, it is not rational to believe in him. Star Trek has always argued that while it is true, the existence of God cannot be proven (unless you are low), it cannot be refuted either.

In the end, it may be that Star Trek’s opinion is the most rational approach. One that encourages people to adopt the most beneficial ideas for their well -being, whether atheism, belief or something else.

In the 60s, Star Trek was a moderately Christian program, rooted in the best versions of those values.

In the 80s, as atheism was launched as a movement, he examined how a future could be without religion.

In the 90s, Star Trek preached tolerance and coexistence between believers and non -believers, mutual respect for the beliefs or non -beliefs of others.

In the 2000s, the franchise skewed towards secular fundamentalism and a rejection of faith in favor of good vibrations and projectile emotionalism.

Now here we are again, turning the tide, with the business captain hugging his father’s religion and turning to God in a moment of fear and despair.

For Star Trek, it is a return to rational consistency after a brief period of madness. It is a sign that times are changing. The new atheist movement that emptied the churches is weakening.

Some atheists, like me, who pressed for an atheist world, are beginning to admit that it may not be a good idea. Others like me assumed that, if only people applied the logic of cold Vulcan reality, things would improve.

It is the type of classic error that Spock could have committed. It does not take into account the human factor and assumes that all people are able to be logical. That opinion is not rational. With age and experience, the world has learned that many cannot and many will not apply intellectually rigorous thought. Trying to force it through the brainwashing of the media has only led to a cultural disaster.

I do not need a god to moderate my behavior or guide my path, but many do it. If that is you, you are in good company because Captain Pike does it too.

The future of humanity is one of the infinite possibilities. Star Trek is at its best when everyone is considered, with a rational approach for a future of infinite possibilities in infinite combinations