By Caleb Strom

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is famous for his optimistic vision of a future classless, post-scarcity socialist utopia of space explorers. He is also famous for having a critical attitude toward religion. Whenever religion is brought up in the part of Star Trek directed by him, it is usually to expose it as a false religion being propped up by a powerful alien with self-serving interests. Thus, early Star Trek episodes and films seemed to reinforce the narrative that religion is an inherently regressive force, holding back progress. After all, why does God need a starship?

After Roddenberry passed, the later series,  such as “Deep Space Nine,” have a more nuanced view of religion. The Bajoran religion plays a positive role by preserving Bajoran cultural identity during the Cardassian occupation of their homeworld. In the case of the capitalist Ferengi, on the other hand, religion is used to justify economic exploitation. Nevertheless, religion does not play a progressive role. The Ferengi worship of the economy, the Bajoran worship of the prophets, and the Klingon religion centered around the messiah-like Kahless the Unforgettable justify the status quo rather than encourage social change for the better. There is at least one notable exception to this portrayal of religion: the Vulcan religion.

The Vulcan religion is centered around a figure called Surak, who lived around 2,000 years before the events in the Star Trek universe took place. According to information that can be pieced together from various episodes, Surak lived during a time of great conflict and upheaval on the planet Vulcan called the Time of Awakening. He taught nonviolence and logic, which he believed was the best way to live. He also promoted a form of diversity and inclusion through the concept of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations). 

It could be argued that the teachings of Surak are more of a Vulcan philosophy than a religion, but they function as a religion in Vulcan society. Surak is considered an unquestionable authority on truth, and Surak’s followers practice religious rites such as telepathic mind-melds and storing souls in psychic containers (i.e., katric arks). Surak’s followers even have religious shrines and monasteries. Because of Surak, Vulcan society goes from being an aggressive and warfaring one to being the peaceful, spacefaring civilization of Mr. Spock. 

The Vulcan religion, with its philosophically Stoic call to an ethical life, is a counter-portrayal of the usually negative depiction of religion as something that holds back social progress in Star Trek. The tendency to view religion as either counterproductive or irrelevant to social progress is not unique to Gene Roddenberry. Early Marxists had the same opinion. Though not as anti-religious as is sometimes suggested,  Karl Marx called religion the opiate of the masses and believed that it was often used by the economic elites to control the proletariat. A common belief in early communist movements was that the emergence of socialism and, finally, stateless communism would coincide with a decline and disappearance of organized religion.

What if, on the other hand, there is a form of religion that is actually necessary for the progress of civilization and even its long-term survival?

The Fermi Paradox, well known in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), observes that the conditions necessary for life appear to be common in the universe and intelligence may be a natural outcome of biological evolution. This leads us to ask, “So, where is everybody?” A common answer to the Fermi paradox is that a civilization must pass through a “great filter” or bottleneck through which only a handful of civilizations make it. For example, if all civilizations go through the period of disruptive and rapid social and technological change such as that which characterized our 20th century, it is possible that most civilizations simply wipe themselves out in a nuclear war or by destabilizing the climate before their radio signals can be detected.

If each civilization does go through a period of instability where it is especially likely to self-destruct due to wars of aggression and environmental catastrophe from over-exploitation, a civilization that values peace and universal solidarity is more likely to survive this turbulent period than one that does not. What role would religion play in ensuring that peace and universal solidarity are valued? 

History gives us mixed examples. I will focus on Christian examples because that is my background. Although Nazism, for example, was not specifically Christian, some Nazis promoted something called  “positive Christianity,” which was used to give a seeming moral and social acceptability to their eugenic and nativist policies that ended in the Holocaust and fueled imperial ambitions. Outside of the Confessing Church, the German Protestant churches are themselves examples of religious institutions that failed to effectively challenge violence and oppression or promote peace and solidarity. 

On the other hand, throughout Christian history there are examples of religious movements that did challenge the status quo and did advocate for social change for the better. It was the work of Christian abolitionists like William Wilberforce, motivated by their faith, that eventually ended the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was a type of Christian nonviolence that inspired the civil rights movement of Martin Luther King Jr. The anti-Vietnam War movement also had religious roots, as, for example, in the case of Catholic priests Daniel and Philip Berrigan, who went to jail for their protests against the Vietnam War and later worked against nuclear annihilation. Another example is the influence of liberation theology in Latin America that served as a motivation for revolutions against right-wing dictators, such as the now-compromised Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. Despite numerous setbacks and betrayals, the movement to end slavery, the civil rights movement, opposition to war, and the influence of liberation theology have resulted in a world that is arguably more peaceful, just, and solidary than it would be otherwise.  

Today, the relationship between religion and progress is complicated. Religion seems to be simultaneously contributing to social progress and being used to justify oppressive or racist regimes and policies that are disrupting global solidarity and making the world less peaceful. The utopian vision at the core of Star Trek is a future where humanity overcomes violence and selfishness and unites together to explore the universe. Faith communities are not only in the crosshairs of hostile regimes but can be the vanguard of peaceful resistance to them. The question is whether the religion that dominates in the 21st century is one that advances us toward a peaceful and equitable future or not. Our long-term survival depends on the answer. 

Caleb Strom is a planetary scientist with a background in studying icy moons in the outer solar system. He also writes about science, faith, technology, their intersection, and how they can work together to create a better world.

Image credit: Britannica