Well, it's less likely to offend the viewing audience that way. I don't think they ever even hinted at Q being Jesus. If anything, they might have hinted at Satan, but I don't recall that.
You, sir, are correct. The concept of Hellfire is not of Biblical origin, but crept into Christianity gradually over the first 400 years or so. Getting back to the subject at hand ... I don't see Q impersonating Jesus as the Messiah, living with humanity for 33 years, giving his life as a sacrifice and then turning around and wanting to judge and condemn that same humanity as he did in Encounter at Farpoint and All Good Things.
Thing is, Q (as in de Lancie) is the only one in the Continuum who has any real interest in humanity. And since behaving in such a manner would be a bit out of character for him, well...
We met Satan in TAS' "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". He was a pretty nice guy, just a bit mishchievous and misunderstood. And totally jacked!
Because it was mentioned every other time we saw another Q. Besides, remember in Q Who Guinan comments that the other Q are "almost respectable." I don't know how many "almost respectable" people would try to manipulate a primitive species into worshipping them.
That doesn't have to be *the* devil. Just *a* devil. And even if it claimed to be Satan, doesn't mean it actually was. Although Satan regularly engages in just that sort of lies and deceit, so (pardon the pun) what the hell.
The Bible doesn't really say one way or the other, although I do wonder about John 10:16. It does state that God created the heavens right there in line one, so if extraterrestrial intelligent life is ever found, Christians will be cool with it.
There is absolutely nothing in the Bible which precludes the existence of aliens or any extraterrestrial life. Nowhere does it say that we are the only intelligent species in the universe. If aliens made contact with us right now, it wouldn't violate any tenet of my faith. I think most people would welcome it.
So what? Just because most Q are respectable during TNG does not mean that there could be no rogue Q in the Antiquity.
That was something that bothered me about the most recent version of V. The good-guy priest character seemed to feel that people had to choose between God and the Visitors and that never quite made sense to me. Why couldn't people believe in God and friendly aliens?
Did Quinn take an interest in Humanity? And, since it's established Q can time travel (so we're lead to believe by Q), nothing precludes a Q from traveling back in time. I stand corrected on my assumption you meant John DeLancie's Q and not just any Q.
I sometimes wonder about the extent of Q's powers, and their limits. In 'Farpoint when Picard and company were placed on trial by Q, did he actually take them off the ship, or did it all happen in their minds? Put there by Q? When they "returned" to the battle bridge, O'Brien at the helm wasn't even aware that they had left the ship. So did they? And if Q can put images and events into your mind, then his powers could be significantly less than they seem. I'm not suggesting that Q is completely powerless, he can board a starship moving at warp, he can bring objects into existence (or take them from somewhere), he can move objects like asteroids, and moved the Enterprise light years to encounter the Borg. But is he really omnipotent and omniscient? Or is it that most of what he does is a deception?
Not sure if it's been said, but the Trek lore has suggested Q, to have visited earth in the past. He was known as Loki in Norse mythology and as the "Father of Lies" to others. I would imagine that would make him less than a Jesus figure.
GR's God thing has Jesus in it and questions the nature of God in relation to the devil/satan and ultimate technology and reality. He could have been a rogue Metron or Organian. Or more specifically a member of a race produced by V'ger.