"Who Watches the Watchers?" Star Trek: TNG.

[coloradodem2005]

For those of you who like Star Trek and TNG, what did you think of the episode? Many believe that it is the essence of Star Trek. Part of the reason that I find this episode interesting is that it deals with religion. It seemed that Picard was calling the Mintakan religious beliefs paranoia and superstition. Would you believe that all religious beliefs are superstition? Do you think that is what Picard meant? I find it very interesting. Even though the episode does not focus on the hypocrisy of religion like DS9 has at times done. But what kind of message does this episode send? At least from your perspective.

[fugue]

1. I did think it was fairly anti-religion

It would've been one thing if the Mintakans hadn't been atheists already; if they'd had their own religion and only altered to "worship of the Picard" because of course their belief in him was paranoid and superstitious.

Of course, I'm very conflicted on this issue. I believe in freedom of belief, but . . . religion seems to me a relic from the days when we didn't understand how the world does work. We understand it now, so why are we holding onto a security blanket that is harboring all kinds of nasty germs? And most people won't take the effort to really be moral, so religion does serve a purpose in making them behave as if they were. Still . . . all the killing that has been done. . . .

I think the episode is very antireligious in general terms. I just can't decide if I agree with it.

[Gryffindor_Bookworm]

2. I will try to explain.

If there is no Divine, if there is no God/Goddess, if there is no power in the Universe beyond what humans can create, if there is nothing beyond life on earth, and if the pure rationalists are right about everything...

then we are utterly doomed. Human beings universally share only two things: the desire for love and the capacity to destroy ourselves.

If the highest purpose in life is to get up, go to work, come home, try to be kind along the way, watch TV, post on DU, have sex, and go to sleep before getting up to do it all again, then life has no purpose that matters, and we are all nothing more than ants marching along while hoping no greater force steps on us (tragedy, etc.).

If there is no Divine, then there is no meaning in anything. No, not even raising children. If we're all just drones meant to work 40 years, retire, and try to travel a little before we croak, then there is no meaning in your creating more drones to feed the meaningless system.

If I truly believed there was no God and nothing should be believed beyond what science can "prove," I would swiftly commit as painless of a suicide as I could.

I can't speak to "we," but that is why I "hold on to the security blanket."

[fugue]

5. I disagree

What's purposeless about being kind to each other? About striving to make the world a better place by the time we leave it than when we arrived in it? About learning all we can and passing that knowledge on?

To me, a deity robs life of meaning more than lends meaning to it. The deity made us for their own reasons; any meaning is theirs, not ours. Even if a deity exists, I think they should be told to take a hike while we go find our own meaning.

I of course speak only for myself, but I do wonder sometimes whether we nontheists should be more aggressive on the antireligion front. I believe in tolerating other people's beliefs, but the more I see of religion, the more I think it causes more harm than good. I mean real, visible harm--murder, hate crimes, genocide. If religious beliefs are doing such harm, should we tolerate them? But then, if we don't tolerate the evil of religion, haven't we become it?

[Ilsa]

3. I agree with Fugue.

Very anti-religious. Portrayed religious beliefs as illogical and superstitious and a foundation for violence.

[Nomad559]

4. Gene Roddenberry - Creator of Star Trek

http://www.visi.com/~markg/atheists.html

Gene Roddenberry, Creator of Star Trek (1921-1991)

See statements by Roddenberry in the March/April 1991 issue of The Humanist magazine, and the fall 1992 issue of Free Inquiry magazine. In these he explains how his purpose with Star Trek was to create a god-free, humanistic view of the universe.

"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."

[Deja Q]

6. Roddenberry would not be happy over paramount's fleecing of the ST fanbase

$140 per season of Trek is an outrage.

Paramount has copyrighted "warp" and "tricorder" and even went after IBM when they released "OS/2 Warp v3 in 1994.

If I bothered, I'm sure I could find a million more examples of Paramount's unfettered and insulting greed.