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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ryan McReynolds: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Veers: [qb]I'm hoping they don't go way over the top and say Jesus was an alien. Hoo boy, the mail they'd get.[/qb][/QUOTE] That [i]was[/i] essentially the plot of "The God Thing," Gene Roddenberry's original story that ultimately evolved into [i]Star Trek: The Motion Picture[/i]. See <a href="http://www.well.com/user/sjroby/godthing.html">here</a> for more details. Note that the webpage refers to the off-and-on novelization of the abandoned script, but it has all the known information about the plot. [QUOTE] "I handed them a script and they turned it down," Roddenberry stated. "It was too controversial. It talked about concepts like, 'Who is God?' [In it] the Enterprise meets God in space; God is a life form, and I wanted to suggest that there may have been, at one time in the human beginning, an alien entity that early man believed was God, and kept those legends. But I also wanted to suggest that it might have been as much the Devil as it was God. After all, what kind of god would throw humans out of Paradise for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One of the Vulcans on board, in a very logical way, says, 'If this is your God, he's not very impressive. He's got so many psychological problems; he's so insecure. He demands worship every seven days. He goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. He's a pretty poor excuse for a supreme being.' Not surprisingly, that didn't sent [sic] the Paramount executives off crying with glee. But I think good science fiction, historically, has been used that way--to question everything." [/QUOTE] Ironically, I happened to just start on a "Human Religion in Star Trek" essay for my site right before I watched "Cold Front." It's coming along nicely, and naturally I'll post the link in this thread when I'm finished. Some of my research will help me in this post, anyway. :) As for the survival of religion, there is no evidence of any aside from Hinduism in the twenty-fourth century (though I'm sure they all still exist in varying proportions). So far, I have yet to find [i]any[/i] mention of Islam or Judaism, nor anything other than Christianity. "Bread and Circuses" suggests that Uhura is probably a Christian, while Kirk and McCoy are ambiguous. On the other hand, Pike only vaguely remembered hell as part of a childhood fable in "The Cage," so perhaps while there are religious people, it's a more private affair. "Who Mourns for Adonais?" has Kirk saying that humans abandoned polytheism for "the one," but doesn't specify which one that is... and surely he can't speak for [i]every[/i] human, since "Data's Day" shows that Hindus are still around. (Aside: anyone with taped episodes of [i]Star trek[/i] that deal with religious topics [not only specific religions], I'd love some quotes or even reminders of things I've forgotten for my essay. I'm thinking of "Tapestry," for one, but I'm sure there's others I missed...) In any case, Roddenberry describes how he wanted [i]Star Trek[/i] to reflect a humanistic ideal in which we had outgrown our needs for gods in issues of [i]Free Inquiry[/i] and [i]The Humanist[/i] from 1991, shortly before his death. [QUOTE] [i]"I condemn false prophets, I condemn the effort to take away the power of rational decision, to drain people of their free will--and a hell of a lot of money in the bargain. Religions vary in their degree of idiocy, but I reject them all. For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain."[/i] --Gene Roddenberry [/QUOTE] [/QB][/QUOTE]
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