The future of Star Trek is secular. Franchise maker Gene Roddenberry was an outspoken atheist, and the series and its spin-offs have routinely criticized organized religion as manipulative, illogical, and detrimental to the evolution of a society. Individual members of the human race may have an undefined spirituality, a curiosity about the afterlife, or a sense of wonder about the unknown or unknowable, but specific religious beliefs are usually reserved for alien cultures.
But if Trek’s fervent pro-science and anti-superstition have remained constant, so have the attempts by various storytellers within the franchise to approach religion from other, more tolerant angles. And the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery‘Whistle talk’, Trek can present‘S most balanced view of faith yet.
Religion as a childhood fantasy
Somewhat limited by the norms and practices of 1960s television, Star Trek: The Original Series used sci-fi allegories to criticize religion as an institution that suppressed progress and expression. In two episodes (“The Return of the Archons” and “The Apple”), Captain James T. Kirk and his Company The crew encountered a planet where a population was forced into willful ignorance or oppression by a deity who turned out to be a computer, which Kirk summarily destroyed.
In the 1980s, however, the writers of Star Trek were free to take off the gloves and criticize religion directly. In the 1989 Next generation In the episode ‘Who Watches the Watchers’, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is mistaken for a god by a Bronze Age civilization for which religion is already a thing of the past. Picard feels aggrieved at being the catalyst for what he sees, in no uncertain terms, as societal decline, and steps in to reveal the truth to his new suitors, even risking his own life.
The point of Who Watches the Watchers, and Star Trek in general, is that people turn to the supernatural when there are questions they can’t answer, but the answers will always come eventually. The willingness to pursue those answers and the patience not to jump to conclusions are a sign of maturity. In contrast, coming up with palatable but unsupportable explanations for life’s mysteries is a sign of immaturitya phase we have to grow out of.
The gods of others
After Gene Roddenberry’s death in 1991, there was a gradual change in the way Star Trek stories approached religion. The human species was still beyond the evolutionary stage where religion was practiced, but many of their peers in the galactic community – such as the Klingons and the Bajorans – had strong religious beliefs. And these beliefs were explored in much more detail.
In Star Trek: Deep Space Ninethe human members of the commando team do everything they can to not only respect but also participate in the Klingon rituals of their comrade, Lieutenant Commander Worf. Prior to Worf’s wedding to Jadzia Dax, his colleagues Captain Sisko, Chief O’Brien and Dr. Bashir him for four days of fasting and physical exhaustion (although not without complaints). When Jadzia is murdered and Worf fears that her death has not earned her a place in Sto-Vo-Kor’s Klingon Valhalla, Bashir and O’Brien follow Worf on a possible suicide mission to gain glory in her honor. Worf’s friends are content to take the Klingon religion at face value, and Sto-Vo-Kor’s existence is never questioned.
During this Star Trek era, alien religious beliefs were not only tolerated, but validated. This is an important wrinkle in the case of the Bajoran religion Deep space nine, whose worshiped prophets are undeniably real: a species of non-corporeal beings who live outside of time and periodically intervene in the development of the nearby planet Bajor. Whether or not the Prophets did the things the Bajorans worship them for is not up for debate, only whether or not they should be treated with religious reverence. By means of DS9‘s exploration of Bajoran politics, religious power is as dangerous as the person wielding it wants it to be—not inherently malicious or infantilizing toward the people. But since the existence of the Bajoran gods can be scientifically proven, their value as an analogy to real religion is obviously limited.
Discovery’s middle ground
The streaming era of Star Trek under executive producer Alex Kurtzman, which began in 2017, has seen some new, minor references to religious practices in human society. For example, an unnamed background character serving aboard the USS Cerritos Star Trek: Lower Decks he can be seen wearing a hijab, indicating that some semblance of Islamic tradition is still observed in the 24th century. Not long after, we meet Captain Christopher Pike during the second season of Star Trek: Discoverywe learn that his father taught both science and comparative religion.
But ‘Whistle Speech’, which comes halfway through Discovery‘s fifth and final season returns fully to Original Series territory, a classic “weird alien religion” episode, and with a much more multi-faceted approach. Captain Burnham and her crew visit the planet Halem’no. which is virtually uninhabitable except within the radius of a tower-like device secretly installed by a Federation scientist centuries earlier. The surviving inhabitants of the planet are a peaceful and friendly pre-warp civilization who believe the towers are temples built by their gods.
Disguised as locals, Burnham and her friend and shipmate Lt. Sylvia Tilly joins the faithful Halem’nites for a ceremonial marathon to the towers in tribute to their divine saviors. It’s a joyful ritual that brings the entire community together, but there’s a shocking twist that Starfleet visitors only learn after the race is over. Tilly and the other winner of the marathon, a Halem’nite named Ravah, are locked in the tower, where they will eventually suffocate; a sacred sacrifice to keep the planet’s terrible storms at bay.
Although Starfleet officers are forbidden from interfering with the development of pre-warp civilizations, Burnham has no intention of letting Tilly (or Ravah) die to satisfy an arcane ritual. But instead of tearing down the entire society, as Kirk might have done, Burnham appeals directly to the community’s leader – Ravah’s father, Ohvahz – and begs him to stop the sacrifices, explaining that the tower will do its job regardless of whether or not his child gives his or her money. to live. Ohvahz is of course open to the idea of not killing his child, but he fears that the revelation that their temple is actually an alien artifact will destroy his community and lead to violent conflict. What is their civilization without their faith and traditions?
“Better off,” Picard would probably respond. But Burnham’s response is more measured.
Photo: Michael Gibson/Paramount Plus
“There’s still what you believe. Nothing we have shown you means that gods do not exist. All you know is that we’re there too. Beliefs can evolve. Denying that can cause almost as much chaos as the worst storm.”
It’s probably no coincidence that Ravah, the teen who would be sacrificed in this episode, is non-binary, a trait that isn’t controversial to Halem’nites but is condemned by many conservative religious groups here on Earth today. There is also a parallel with the climate crisis, as the Halem’nites will have to learn to maintain the alien weather tower to keep their world safe. Would Christianity collapse if their leaders recognized that some of their flock do not fit the gender identities described in their sacred texts, or that human intervention is necessary to undo man-made damage to the Earth? Probably not, and their intransigence only harms their community. There is no need to adhere to harmful policies or practices, nor is there any need to jettison an entire system of beliefs because of new, contradictory, or unexpected information.
Meanwhile, aboard Discovery, Dr. Hugh Culber tries to make sense of his own spiritual awakening, a sense of connection with a higher power that has stuck with him since an out-of-body experience during a recent mission. As a scientist, Culber’s first instinct is to investigate, understand, and catalog this sensation, but the explanation eludes him. He seeks advice from his friend Cleveland Booker, a non-human with a spiritual life of his own, who essentially asks him, “Why do you need to understand?” With this guidance, Culber decides that the value of his new spirituality lies in how it feels, and not where it comes from.
The approach to religion in “Whistlespeak” does not condemn religion broadly The original series or The next generationor rationalizing and tolerating faith as a whim of the other, such as Deep space nine. Instead, ‘Whistlespeak’ questions why a philosophy rooted in the unknowable should be attached to absolutes. Spirituality is what you make of it, whether on an individual or community level. Religion can cause harm, but it doesn’t have to, as long as leaders and believers are willing to embrace uncertainty. At least this way science and religion can find common ground.