what happened to the old gods, the ones that no one believes in anymore?

[ChadwickHenryWard]

5. I think it's a hilarious artifact of religious thinking.

It's such a sneering dismissal of other people's religion that you think only an atheist could be saying that. Then you find out that Jesus and Kirk are BFFs, and it's just too funny how provincial that spacefaring society really is. The humor comes from the fact that we could just as sneeringly dismiss the Christian faith.

It's as though they're saying, "the Greek gods were just fabricated by a cynical priesthood to frighten and control the masses, and hide from them the truth... of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!" I would really like to believe that they were being ironic, but I don't truly think that's the case.

And when you get right down to it, he may as well believe in the Greek pantheon. Would that really be any more absurd if he did? It's a laughably primitive and dangerously outdated set of ideas - a mere leftover from an early epoch. But, when once you make First Contact, doesn't it become clear that all living religions are just as absurd and out-of-date? In a world where there's no scarcity, disease, or war, how is that monotheistic faith is sticking around?