Another Frontier: Religion of Star Trek
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The thesis seeks the answer to the question if Star Trek as a whole of TV and film production has a unified opinion on religion and if it projects this opinion clearly to the viewer. It shows which religious ideas and ideals it either endorses or rejects, and what its general attitude towards religion is. Star Trek is treated here as a single work of art, which should (and does) project singular message on any given topic. The thesis is divided into two bigger parts. The first of them is a cultural-historical background of the original serial and all its continuations. It tracks the important historical events in the second half of the 20th century and the social changes of those years, which had both potential and real bearing on the outlook and meaning of the television serial. It also goes into some detail to explain why some of the serials seem to slightly differ in their general view of religion. The cultural-historical discussion also shows that Star Trek itself became a religion. Evidence is given by showing that Star Trek matches all the criteria a religion has to fulfil to be viable to be called as such. The second and the more important part explores various Star Trek episodes and films to show that humans in Star Trek are generally atheists, later rather agnostics, believe in themselves, their own abilities and reason, and liberty. Star Trek sees religion as an inferior way of looking at the world, and although it is sympathetic to those who need it, it advocates for rationality over superstition. It does so namely by showing how humans react to all the various false deities and spiritual leaders in Star Trek, who are later exposed either as fraudulent impostors and oppressors, or as otherwise powerful beings, who are, however, unworthy of the title of a god. |
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