#startrek #lore #religion
Earth in Star Trek’s future is often referred to as a post-scarcity “utopia,” and it’s also a common belief that humanity has moved past religion. However, this is not totally accurate, but what is the status of religion on Earth in the 24th century?
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– CHAPTERS –
00:00 Intro
01:03 Portrayal of Faith in Star Trek
05:36 Religion & Star Trek’s Economy
09:26 Religion & Capitalism
11:31 Religion as a Philosophy
13:16 Outro
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I hope we get there before it's too late. All religion is harmful to intelligence. Old ignorance is still ignorance after all.
Hey, Tyler, Guys here.
No money in the future? Then, why are the Ferengi still obsessed with Gold Pressed Latnium.
What does God need with a Starship was an awesome line. Always wonder who wrote that line.
As a side note, I'd expect that a lot of humans would actively try to adopt alien religions. I'm guessing that there are more than a few non-Emissary humans that would follow the Prophets, especially after the wormhole was discovered.
Super interesting and well researched essay – many thanks!
one can only hope, Picard described it perfectly in "Who watches the watchers" Abandoning the belief in the supernatural is a cultural achievement and for a society to revert back to a time when they did believe in it is sending them into a dark age of superstition and ignorance and fear.
I like your Southern American accent.
Great topic. One of my favorite episodes is TNG's "Tapestry" where Q claims to be God and Picard's response to that LOL. As a religious man myself, I always think of my faith or ideals as more of a way of life and philosophy. Many like to think that all religion is just "Blind Faith" but I treat it as a "World view" behind the purpose of existence supported by observable data. I always found it interesting how humans in Star Trek have collected so much data while exploring but have been very cautious to not make any hard conclusions. Would Humans Star to worship Qs as Gods after learning about their power? Even if a majority don't, the idea of a being with that type of power made public would sends waves.
There is one correction to the assertion about the rise of Islam. Those did not and still do not account for the meteoric rise of the "ex-Muslim" movement. It's interesting becuase it's a world wide phenomenon. The fast growing "sect" of muslims is in fact, ex-muslims.
Much respect to you for calling China what it is… an authoritarian dictatorship, prolly something akin to a techno-dictatorship…so many ppl try to say they are socialist or communist, and the ccp is anything but…they some genocidal wack-nuts
I think this illustrates why DS9 is best Trek for me, because instead of handwaving away religion and money it incorporates them into its narrative and makes the world of Star Trek feel more authentic. There will always be people who want to believe in something beyond what is known and there will always be people who want something in return for their labor.
I am willing to believe that Starfleet officers choose to serve because they want to and not because of a paycheck, but if you go anywhere outside of the Federation you need to pay for things. The Ferengi wouldn't be able to obtain latinum of lots of other people weren't using it.
I always loved the Klingon creation story where they killed their gods. "They were more trouble than they were worth."
There's a great part in DS9 where Jake calles his father's role as "the emissary" as basically dumb or silly. And Sisko explains that it's not silly to the Bajorans. That they may see wormhole aliens, but the Bajorans see prophets, and there's no reason to dismiss that belief simply because they dont' share it. To me that nails what I think Ira Steven Behr's philsophy is for that show. A kind of "everyone is entitled to their own beleifs and there are many truths" philosophy of religion.
2:50 duhhh their trying to replacce us we gots to get t'breedin to protect oure kultur
6:50 everyone on DS9 would need some sort of UFPcoin digital wallet to pay their Dabo debts/ and convert gold pressed latinum
Hey Tyler I enjoy the channel and appreciate you. Point of clarification from a pastor on Christian tithing. In the New Testament tithing is a freewill offering. The apostles of Jesus explicitly condemn the giving of money for salvation. Rather, salvation happens through following Jesus – who sacrificed himself for the forgiveness of sins and was resurrected from the dead.
Sure there are a handful of shysters out there but they do not represent any real expression of Christianity. Protestants, Orthodox, and Roman Catholics all condemn the idea of receiving money for salvation.
But thank you for looking at this topic. You did a great job covering it.
Islam becoming THE major religion on earth by 2070????
NOT VERY DAMN LIKELY!!!!!🤮🤮🤮🤮👎👎👎👎
Religion is something logical among people like us, it won't dissappear per se, IMHO.
… and the "what if it's real?" fear of some people.
I would think that religions would evolve to become a cultural thing if nothing else. Litteral god-like beings are relatively common in the universe.
My theory has always been that a more conservative group of humans inhabit the colony worlds. They left earth some time ago but kept their religious views.
One thing I will point out that may be overlooked here on the original series the episode The Mark of Gideon where they had a planet that had massive overpopulation because of minimal dying from old age and no contraception, was at least in part a response to humanae vitae which was promulgated by Pope Paul VI earlier that year.
Whereas the Ferengi have made a religion out of libertarian capitalism.
I got two things to criticize about comparing the Federation to a socialist structure:
1.) Utopiaism is highly disfavored in socialist, Marxist, Communist, etc circles. People did utopian socialism and it failed. Literally Engles wrote about this.
2.) Outside of Leninist models, a centralized state like the Federation is not conducive to creating a stateless society. That's what communism is… moneyless and stateless. Even Lenin described the Soviet Union as a transitional structure to socialism and communism.
Whenever I think of the Federation of Planets, in the shows and movies as well as thoughts and intentions of the creators, I get liberal vibes hardcore. The most successful social democracy in their history and even post-capitalist… but it's still lib. Socialism is a bit more than progressive coolness and economic transition to a post-scarcity model. There's great deal to talk about hierarchy, watch is core point to socialism from the beginning. Federalism by its very nature is about enforced hierarchies via centralizing power. And, like how many Star Trek episodes point out, you see how the Federation fails this check because it's still too much like the United States and other irl countries.
But this video's about religion…
Well, people's relationship to religion was pretty different a couple hundred years ago. Don't be surprised that changes again some hundreds of years from too.
I feel like most people's idea of anarchism is "blow up everything and drive a car into a daycare center." In reality it is an actual philisophical stance, one that im not inclined to research and get into here. But there is thought behind it and means more than chaotic destruction
I wasn't going to weigh in on this subject, but hours later after watching this episode I find I'm still considering it.
It's interesting to note that many of the things religion was intended to guide us away from are absent in Trek Culture. No one smokes, or drinks to excess, nor engages in aspects of social decay such as cheating in relationships, acts of theft, or drug addictions. It feels to me that humans left behind the need for religious context, a weakness, as they embarked on the journey into the stars where they needed strength to be independent humans.
Jus my 2 cents….
It is a common misconception among those outside mainstream Christianity that by tithing, one is purchasing their way to heaven. Nothing could be further from the truth. The basic foundation of the belief is that there is nothing someone can do to earn or buy their salvation. It is already redeemed by the actions of Jesus Christ. His coming down to man, his sacrificial death and ultimate resurrection. Tithing is the way that Christendom functions on the Earth to pay for the necessities required for the upkeep of facilities, and to support those devoted to minister and carry on his message, whether in the local church, or on the mission field. To be sure, there are abuses of this through history because men are still men, and some will try seek take advantage to fleece the flock. But that does not change the basic ideal.
As an anarchist, thank you for approaching the topics of socialism, anarchism, and the connection between religious structure and capitalism, with a lot of respect. I like how you classed the USSR as 'Authoritarian Marxist' and not state-socialism, it shows an understanding of theoritical politics that I didn't expect you to have. Good shit my guy!
Federation is not socialist like you said. Pikards brother on Earth has his own vineyard. Siscos father on earth has his own restaurant. Thats private property free market system. And Starfleet is military organisation. Priority is duty.
All religion is and always will b bullshit.
DS9 has always pissed me off a little due to its stance on religion.
Belief in oneself is the way to go. Belief in other humans….well that's gonna b a stretch.
Excellent thoughts about Picard's personal views vs the "common man" of the Federation
Are you socialist?
Sky was blue and there was no god
Well, I think the question NEEDS to directed at all the races in the Star Trek; I'm terribly curious why every humanoid/etc. besides earthlings have exclusively one monolithic religion for an entire species population! That's unreal lol the most diverse it seems to get is The Prophets and The Pagh Wraiths
And look at all the good humanism and secularism has done for China lol dear God 😂
What the hell is the vjdeo? My friend, youre star trek videos are top notch but this half ass, half understood treatment of religion is no good. No good at all, my friend. Not even on opinion, your just addressing beliefs that no one holds to, i.e. thats definitively NOT the definition of tithing
There arw questions about the universe that the damn Q or The Traveler cant understand.
Post scarcity is not socialist and would never be brought about by socialism
You would never get a truly secular or disenchanted population. Superstition is a natural part of a healthy mind. Star Trek is at bottom about a rather annoying and silly form of Christian humanism. Given the number of gods and space elves humans have met I’m surprised entire new religions haven’t sprung up.
The satisfaction of material needs, even if this is possible in the future, does not do away with the variety of psychological, spiritual, or existential needs people have. In fact, no longer needing to concentrate on "making a living" can free people up to focus more on higher pursuits and questions about why we are here.
I present to you, this sacrificial commitment to the algorithm god, who needs all of the starships.
Who is the big booby green girl on your shelf
Your mentioning of how scientists can be religious puts me in mind of a true story that really illustrates that point:
In 1892 a young businessman was sharing a train car with an older gentleman. The young man was reading new scientific journals being published by the local university, and noticed the old man was reading the Bible. The young man chastised the old man for reading a bunch of "fables and fairy tales" and that science had shown such things to be useless.
The old man asked if science had really done that.
The young man assured him it had, but since he was getting off at the next stop perhaps the old man could give him his address so he could mail him the appropriate scientific documents?
The old man handed him his business card which read: Professor Doctor Louis Pasteur, Director General of the Institute of Scientific Investigations, National University of France.
Thank you for this thoughtful episode. However, having Kai Winn as the thumbnail for this video was unsettling lol. That woman was a mess, to put it mildly. Excellent actress though! Terrifying and arrogant and insecure and so many other things all portrayed very well throughout DS9. Thank you again for the video!
God be with you out there everybody. ✝️ 🙂
Q is like Satan haha. Not related I know haha
I didn’t turn to god for wealth, I turned to god for meaning
In the orinal Star Trek humans created the perfect society on Earth and they are christians.
Now what is interesting is how Christianity is so commonly tied with individualism and capitalism in American mindset. Eastern Orthodoxy makes a big emphasis on cooperation and the unity over individuality. This is why communism had a great leverage in Russia, for instance.
Extrapolating a percentage with a straight line is one of the best examples of how people latee declare statistics "a big lie"…
Seriously, You should have used an exponent at least.