Sunday Trek

...to go where no believer has gone before...



Because I feel like including Star Trek in stuff, this post will poke a hole or two in the underlying vision of its atheist creator, Gene Roddenberry. To be sure, Star Trek is good, campy fun despite its inexact science, strange aliens with even stranger names wearing multi-coloured uni-tards and cloaks and its trite and leaden dialogue. Can one ignore Gene Roddenberry's bitter hatred not only of religion but of spirituality and absolute faith in science and technology?

"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."




"We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes."

Whoa! Bitter much?



It's all well and good to condemn people who use religion for motives that are less than altruistic or spiritually enlightening but to declare that religion drains people of free will or it is a sign of a malfunctioning brain  is hardly the sign of an objective mind but of one who can't live with the fact that, yes, there are functioning human beings in sovereign, democratic regions on the planet who understand the difference between free will and complete license. Did Mr. Roddenberry completely forget the bulk of Western thought and who devised it?


Whoops.


I want to make it clear I do not despise technology or science. I just don't think those two things will elevate man to a state of perfectibility. Look no further than the moron who cut you off and nearly caused an accident on the highway while he was texting or the couple who uses science to create a "designer baby". How has science and technology moved these people into making smart or moral decisions? Science and technology are neutral things which could be used for good or evil.  We live in a time of great technological advancements. Are we better off morally?



I think it is better to suggest that man's struggles to overcome his failings are ongoing and will not be resolved by "quick fixes". To extol the virtues of human beings, one must also understand them, not assume the dawn of a more technologically advanced age equals the moral or cultural fortitude needed to live in it.



But that's just what I think.