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Religion and Star Trek

In ST's future, Human religion isn't dead, it's just less popular and deemphasized and is no longer a central aspect of human culture. The general attitude seems to have shifted from encouraging the religious majority to tolerate the nonreligious minority to encouraging the nonreligious majority to tolerate the religious minority, The roles have changed as to who is the minority and who is expected to do the tolerating.
 
There are two types of people...those who believe in binary choices, and those who don't.
A sliding scale, with a infinite number of unique positions and possibilities.
You don't seem to know what atheism actually is
Basically, a belief that there is no God, agnostics are neutral on the subject.
I certainly think the man who said:
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Could be safely considred Atheistic in his thinking.
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Less Picard is a atheist, and more he has a specific problem with the Minitaken's former belief system. Based of the report that he read.
 
Interestingly, Braga is an atheist so it's interesting that he might have agreed to let Berman put in some of the religious aspects. The only ENT episode which actually talked about religion was written by Manny Coto.
Berman is senior to Braga, so he would have the final word on goes into a script. Not that it matters, atheist sci-fi writers are surprisingly willing to often stick either outright religious experiences in their work or at least something that is open to interpretation by the audience of "is it religious or something explainable being attributed to religion?"

Ron Moore is an atheist and he wrote the script for Rightful Heir, which is sort of a Second Coming story, not to mention he developed the story for Barge of the Dead, a portion of which is actually set in Klingon Hell. And then there's BSG in which religion, prophecy and chosen ones were very much part of the central theme.

Outside of Trek, sci-fi author Robert J Sawyer is an atheist and his work is considered by many to be "hard science" yet he typically inserts religious material into his work. Granted, most of the time it's science triumphing over religion, but there are a few times where it borders a bit too closely to being open to interpretation where he's almost flat-out suggesting a higher power definitely is involved. His novel Fossil Hunter actually does have a sub-plot told from the perspective of a god-like entity.

In Doctor Who, former showrunner Russell T Davies is an atheist was frequently inserting religious imagery into the show, most infamously by having the Doctor save the say because humanity had faith in him in the episode Last of the Time Lords. I'm not sure the religious beliefs of current showrunner Steven Moffat, though considering he depicts Christianity of the future turning into a military force as being the only way to stay relevant to human society, I don't get the impression he's very religious. Yet he frequently has religious-themed episodes or story arcs, most recently an entire season's arc was about the afterlife, though with a very atheistic ending to it.
 
No...he just doesn't believe in a primitive form of organized religion. It doesn't contradict the agnostic views that he expresses in "Where Silence Has Lease". Atheism means you believe there's nothing beyond this life. Picard dismissed that view in WSHL.

I bet there are some atheists that would disagree with this statement. I've learned when someone says "I'm X" to let them describe what they believe X is. I'm sure there are Atheists that believe something survives, transcends death.
 
Atheism means you believe there's nothing beyond this life.

Yeah, no. Atheism means you don't believe in a God or Gods. There are plenty of atheists who believe in supernatural things that aren't necessarily god-requiring. Ghosts, UFOs, psychic phenomena, etc. etc. "Atheist" /= "skeptic." (It helps, but it's not required.)

What you've done is like when people (usually creationists) conflate accepting the Big Bang hypothesis with accepting Evolution. The two aren't related issues, even though comprehending and understanding the one can further comprehension and acceptance of the other. Disproving the BB, for instance, wouldn't disprove evolution.
 
I'm not sure the religious beliefs of current showrunner Steven Moffat, though considering he depicts Christianity of the future turning into a military force as being the only way to stay relevant to human society, I don't get the impression he's very religious. Yet he frequently has religious-themed episodes or story arcs, most recently an entire season's arc was about the afterlife, though with a very atheistic ending to it.
And the conclusion to that arc was by far the worst hour of Doctor Who since 2005. OTOH, Moffat redeemed himself with the following seasons christmas special, which was one of the best episodes since he took over as showrunner, and also had some amusing religious overtones.

I didn't much care for RTD's depiction of The Doctor as (a) god (sorta) but it worked for the show.
 
Berman is senior to Braga, so he would have the final word on goes into a script. Not that it matters, atheist sci-fi writers are surprisingly willing to often stick either outright religious experiences in their work or at least something that is open to interpretation by the audience of "is it religious or something explainable being attributed to religion?"

Ron Moore is an atheist and he wrote the script for Rightful Heir, which is sort of a Second Coming story, not to mention he developed the story for Barge of the Dead, a portion of which is actually set in Klingon Hell. And then there's BSG in which religion, prophecy and chosen ones were very much part of the central theme.

Outside of Trek, sci-fi author Robert J Sawyer is an atheist and his work is considered by many to be "hard science" yet he typically inserts religious material into his work. Granted, most of the time it's science triumphing over religion, but there are a few times where it borders a bit too closely to being open to interpretation where he's almost flat-out suggesting a higher power definitely is involved. His novel Fossil Hunter actually does have a sub-plot told from the perspective of a god-like entity.

In Doctor Who, former showrunner Russell T Davies is an atheist was frequently inserting religious imagery into the show, most infamously by having the Doctor save the say because humanity had faith in him in the episode Last of the Time Lords. I'm not sure the religious beliefs of current showrunner Steven Moffat, though considering he depicts Christianity of the future turning into a military force as being the only way to stay relevant to human society, I don't get the impression he's very religious. Yet he frequently has religious-themed episodes or story arcs, most recently an entire season's arc was about the afterlife, though with a very atheistic ending to it.

Some religious writers don't always have stories that align with their beliefs. JRR Tolkien is well-known for being a devout Catholic. The Silmarillion reads like Genesis. Yet when it talks about the fate of Men (humans), he says their souls travel and we don't know where they go. A surprisingly agnostic view.
 
I always found it odd that the only people allowed to have religious beliefs in TNG and post era were alien or "exotic" cultures.
 
I am a gay man who is also a Christian Protestant. I also live in an area which would not accept me, because they are bigoted Southerners.

My philosophy is live and let live. If people do not realize I am a Christian by my actions, then my words to them about my faith would mean nothing.

Star Trek should find some way to include faith more than it does. Just as I hope ST will, one day, include gay characters positively. I enjoy watching DS9 episodes (did I just say that?) which depict those of faith as rational, professional beings.
Those are good points. I could see the difference in attitude of Uhura and Kassidy as being differences in personality and perspective. Uhura is a Starfleet officer who's had different experiences and probably more education than Kassidy, as well as just the differences between any two people.
I never found it strange that Kassidy had a racial identity. Equality doesn't necessarily mean homogenization.
It's true that Renaissance fairs celebrate what was historically a really hard time, but as the put upon were suffering from a class problem as opposed to racial, etc. then it's less controversial. I'd say another good comparison is the romanticized look at the Old South in Gone with the Wind. Having grown up in the rural south, I can assure you that many people still glamorize that time despite - or horrifyingly, even because of - slavery.
 
I always found it odd that the only people allowed to have religious beliefs in TNG and post era were alien or "exotic" cultures.

Humans are "allowed to" have religious beliefs but often faced the same smug condescension and being ostracized as our world's nonreligious often face. Even some of the "aliens" face that sort treatment. Remember the sniggering by the non-Betazoids before a during Laxwana Troi's naked wedding?
 
Berman is senior to Braga, so he would have the final word on goes into a script. Not that it matters, atheist sci-fi writers are surprisingly willing to often stick either outright religious experiences in their work or at least something that is open to interpretation by the audience of "is it religious or something explainable being attributed to religion?".

It's a mistake to assume that writers of fiction are dead set on only writing about things they do or don't believe in. Just because Braga may be an atheist doesn't mean he's going to automatically veto any story ideas that contradict his own beliefs. As a book editor, I routinely work with authors whose religious beliefs are different than mine; doesn't mean I try to squash any ideas I don't agree with. "I"m sorry, you have angels in this story. I don't believe in angels so you'll have to make them aliens instead."

Beyond that, fiction is just that. It doesn't have to reflect one's personal cosmology. I write about vampires and werewolves all the time. Doesn't mean I believe they're real. Nor, as a reader, have I ever balked at religious themes or concepts in fiction.

Crosses and holy water burn vampires? Fine, I'll buy that as plot device. You don't need to be Christian to enjoy a Dracula movie. And few atheists are going to reject said movie because there's a cross in it. :)

Sometimes a good story is just a story.
 
Humans are "allowed to" have religious beliefs but often faced the same smug condescension and being ostracized as our world's nonreligious often face. Even some of the "aliens" face that sort treatment. Remember the sniggering by the non-Betazoids before a during Laxwana Troi's naked wedding?
To be fair, the Betazed wedding tradition had nothing to do with religion.

I wouldn't call the majority culture's view of religion "condescending" (TNG was a little full of itself on occasion) but rather that it was as "alien" as breathing chlorine or silicon based life forms.
 
To be fair, the Betazed wedding tradition had nothing to do with religion.

I wouldn't call the majority culture's view of religion "condescending" (TNG was a little full of itself on occasion) but rather that it was as "alien" as breathing chlorine or silicon based life forms.

There was also that admiral in ST III who seemed a little dubious of "Vulcan mysticism." He didn't come off as condescending, though, just unwilling to make decisions on the basis of some quasi-religious notion he had trouble wrapping his head around.
 
There was also that admiral in ST III who seemed a little dubious of "Vulcan mysticism." He didn't come off as condescending, though, just unwilling to make decisions on the basis of some quasi-religious notion he had trouble wrapping his head around.
A good point. I believe that the ST writers may have imagined religious education to have been basically a niche academic pursuit in the 24th century, something that was discussed in the colleges of Oxford instead of around the Sunday dinner table on Easter weekend.
 
I think it's fair to say that Starfleet has a generally secular orientation, although that doesn't mean that religion has entirely gone the way of the dinosaur, but may be more of an individual thing. There was a generic sort of chapel on Kirk's Enterprise after all.
 
And then there's BSG in which religion, prophecy and chosen ones were very much part of the central theme.
And most importantly, were left mysterious and unexplained.

I bet there are some atheists that would disagree with this statement. I've learned when someone says "I'm X" to let them describe what they believe X is. I'm sure there are Atheists that believe something survives, transcends death.

If that's the case, then atheists need to stop telling me what it means to be agnostic! :p I definitely reject the binary choice idea. What passes for my belief system is based around not making a choice!

Crosses and holy water burn vampires? Fine, I'll buy that as plot device. You don't need to be Christian to enjoy a Dracula movie.

OTOH, if you're Jewish, you may have issues dealing with vampires (50:10):

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There was a generic sort of chapel on Kirk's Enterprise after all.

I forgot about that Chapel!

But also a sort of generic one....
 
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