Federation making contact with the Hindu Deities

[Acenos]

What would it be like for a TOS era federation ship or the Enterprise encountering massive ark floating in space that matches up with the Hindu world turtle or Terry Pratchet's Discworld?

Like, it would be comprised with an Artificial habitat resembling the hemisphere of a Class M planet, with pillars underneath roughly resembling elephants with the actual "Ship" resembling a tortoise. The artificial sun and moon being on a ring resembling an ouroboros around the ark that rotates to simulate a day and night cycle. The surface area of the habitat would have the same surface area earth. The entire ark is also heavily ornate. showing off, not just their engineering but also their artistic capabilities in their culture.

The inhabitants of this ark would be non other than the deities of the Hindu religion. the situation is pretty much "Who mourns for Adonias" except with Hindu gods and that they're all still alive. They would also possess advanced technology. all having been described from the Baghavad-gita. The federation vessel encountering craft that may must have been interpreted by the ancient Indians as the flying chariots and the floating fortresses known as the Vimanas.

I wonder how first contact would play out in this circumstance?

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't know

 

[Tim Thomason]

Same as every other first contact. It'll be remarkable, but not too crazy, given prior contacts with Apollo, Kukulkan, the Sky Spirits, and the Megans.

 

[Sci]

I think asking what would happen if the Federation made contact with the God or Gods of living religions is a very problematic premise that risks being pretty offensive to any actual believers in those religions.

 

[publiusr]

The vimana are interesting. Ancient Aliens may be woo, but I love the spaceship art. I wonder who does the CGI for them.

 

[Finn]

Not going to happen, especially if none of the production crew and especially the writers are Hindu or whatever. It’s best to stay away and leave it to those within the faith.

 

[Timo]

I think asking what would happen if the Federation made contact with the God or Gods of living religions is a very problematic premise that risks being pretty offensive to any actual believers in those religions.

Well, no wars were started over ST5:TFF.

Trek isn't particularly afraid of being offensive, even if at the same time it tends to be quite conservative. It just isn't at the forefront of offensiveness - but meeting major religious figures including supernatural ones isn't exactly avant-garde, any more than showing two men kissing is, even though those can insult a major percentage of the world's population in a big way (I could say "still" but that might imply some sort of an upcoming change or even a change in progress, and that's not really the case).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Sci]

Well, no wars were started over ST5:TFF.

Not the same; the entity that appears at the climax of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is established as an energy being posing as God, not the Real McCoy.

 

[Timo]

And? The movie says that God is an evil energy being; either that's offensive, or then nothing is.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tim Thomason]

Not going to happen, especially if none of the production crew and especially the writers are Hindu or whatever. It’s best to stay away and leave it to those within the faith.

In 1997, Xena tried to a respectful episode ("The Way") involving her meeting with the Hindu Gods in much the same way she regularly dealt with the Greek Gods. It did not go well and led to mass protests.

So, they decided to go the much less controversial route of making Christianity the bad guys in later seasons.

 

[Finn]

In 1997, Xena tried to a respectful episode ("The Way") involving her meeting with the Hindu Gods in much the same way she regularly dealt with the Greek Gods. It did not go well and led to mass protests.

So, they decided to go the much less controversial route of making Christianity the bad guys in later seasons.

I forgot about that. Yeah

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

posing as God, not the Real McCoy.

That's also how i rationalize The God Thing.

 

[Shawnster]

I think asking what would happen if the Federation made contact with the God or Gods of living religions is a very problematic premise that risks being pretty offensive to any actual believers in those religions.

Well, no wars were started over ST5:TFF.

Trek isn't particularly afraid of being offensive, even if at the same time it tends to be quite conservative. It just isn't at the forefront of offensiveness - but meeting major religious figures including supernatural ones isn't exactly avant-garde, any more than showing two men kissing is, even though those can insult a major percentage of the world's population in a big way (I could say "still" but that might imply some sort of an upcoming change or even a change in progress, and that's not really the case).

Timo Saloniemi

Not the same; the entity that appears at the climax of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is established as an energy being posing as God, not the Real McCoy.

And that's how meeting the Hindu gods would be written - they are ancient aliens that visited Earth millennia ago and humans started a religion based upon the encounter. We even saw something similar (in reverse) in the opening of Star Trek: Beyond.

Apollo was never discredited. In fact, the episode makes it very clear that the Enterprise crew willingly accepted the idea that Apollo and his people were aliens that lived in ancient Greece and humans started worshipping them. As stated, Star Trek V portrayed "God" as an alien energy being. Christ somehow visited System 892 in "Bread and Circuses."

Some cultures do take offense, however, when they feel their religion is mocked. I wasn't aware Hindu cultures reacted as negatively as Muslim cultures do when Mohammad is mocked.

 

[Sci]

Some cultures do take offense, however, when they feel their religion is mocked. I wasn't aware Hindu cultures reacted as negatively as Muslim cultures do when Mohammad is mocked.

I'm not making any claims about any particular religions adherents being more or less angry than others over things like this. I am making a generalized claim that story premises like these are inherently problematic and risk being offensive.

In particular, care should be given to the question of who is telling the story, for whom the story is being told, and of what is meant by the story being told. A bunch of white guys making a story for other white guys where the gods of older white guys turn out to just be aliens is just not the same thing as a bunch of white guys making a story for a multicultural audience where the gods of a formerly colonized POC nation turn out to just be aliens.

 

[EmoBorg]

Some cultures do take offense, however, when they feel their religion is mocked. I wasn't aware Hindu cultures reacted as negatively as Muslim cultures do when Mohammad is mocked.

The Hindu Right has created a toxic atmosphere in recent decades. Non Hindu protrayals of Hindu Gods are often lambasted nowdays.

 

[at Quark's]

Well, no wars were started over ST5:TFF.

Trek isn't particularly afraid of being offensive, even if at the same time it tends to be quite conservative. It just isn't at the forefront of offensiveness - but meeting major religious figures including supernatural ones isn't exactly avant-garde, any more than showing two men kissing is, even though those can insult a major percentage of the world's population in a big way (I could say "still" but that might imply some sort of an upcoming change or even a change in progress, and that's not really the case).

Timo Saloniemi

I agree that it's not particularly avant-garde these days and that they probably wouldn't do it solely for those reasons already.

However, I think the 'offensiveness factor' alone (for lack of a better word) would be quite sufficient for Our Heroes to never meet Islamic religious figures .

 

[Henoch]

Minus the Hindu connection, it's For The World Is Hollow and I Have Touched The Sky.

 

[ChallengerHK]

And? The movie says that God is an evil energy being; either that's offensive, or then nothing is.

I never interpreted what they find as God. In interpreted it as the supernaturally powerful entity of the week (Trelane, Q, Ayleborne) pretending to be God to get Sybok's buy-in, hence Kirk's "What does God need with a starship?" line.

 

[Timo]

The issue there is that this is the charitable interpretation. Since when did that work with fanatics?

(In ST5:TFF for one, it seems.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Like a Hindu version of Who Mourns for Adoinas? Neat in theory, they'd have to be careful not to wander into stereotype territory in 2020.