The original Star Trek series sort of addressed this question in an episode in which Kirk and his bridge team were going to be killed by an alien race because they discovered that humans have a violent past and we have murdered each other.
In that episode, Kirk launches into a soliloquy about laws and religion that provides morals and alternatives to our violent nature.
This was one of the ‘preachy’ episodes that Star Trek got into with social issues instead of being an ordinary, entertaining TV show.
Nonetheless, the message was powerful and still applies. If we DON’T take religion with us when we venture into the stars, that’s more telling about the kind of people we will have become, than the kind of people we are.
This was one of the ‘preachy’ episodes that Star Trek got into with social issues instead of being an ordinary, entertaining TV show.
Nonetheless, the message was powerful and still applies. If we DON’T take religion with us when we venture into the stars, that’s more telling about the kind of people we will have become, than the kind of people we are.
I disagree completely. The episode you cite is secular humanist to the core, regarding religion--all religions, without any concern as to whether or not one of them is "true"--as a purely utilitarian tool for civilizing peoples. If this is all (or even primarily) that religion is for, then religion is completely false.
The morality of "Star Trek" is groundless humanist morality. It regards man as an end in himself and religion as something to be used in the service of a non-Theistic, purely rational morality, which allegedly exists objectively even if there is no G-d (chas vechalilah!). This is totally wrong, as apart from Divine decree no objective morality does or even can exist.
Perhaps you will remember in the episode where they meet the ancient Greek "gxd" Ap*ll* that Kirk tells him "we have no need of gods." Rodenberry (a staunch secular humanist) probably meant the statement to end there, but apparently someone else at NBC had the writers add "we find the One quite sufficient" to placate the "rubes."
Religion has only one use: to be true. If it isn't true, it is useless, however useful it may be in enforcing purely subjective hang-ups that masquerade as some sort of "objective morality."