Science fiction and police fiction (private detective, police procedural, etc.) have always taken religion seriously and explored both religion and ethics in complex and thoughtful ways.
Star Trek never really took religion seriously. In fact it went almost unmentioned, except for the one episode in TOS set in the Rome like planet. I always thought that Roddenberry believed it was something childish that we’d outgrow. Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica on the other hand do take it very seriously, and are better fiction.
As far as religion goes, there seems to be a huge confusion both among scientists and those in the religious community that do not like what scientists say. The scientists themselves are partly to blame because they are hostile in return.
Science can only ever explain the “how”. Religion is there to explain the “why”. Sure, you might explain “why” planets rotate as they do and “why” life on earth is currently at its present state of evolution. But that isn’t really the answer to “why”. Just an answer to “how” it got that way. “How” the machine works, not why there is a machine in the first place.
Religious literalists cannot stand that which contradicts whatever intepretation they have chosen as their permanent programming. That results in conflicts like the creationist/evolution issue.
The Pope and many other religious leaders see no conflict between science and religion. because they understand the difference between the how and the why.
Science fiction often steps into the realm of the why and therefore requires religion.
I enjoyed the article and have seen one like it years ago. Still, the liberal bent in SCI-FI writings dominates that field. And we know that our liberal brothers and sisters have become , were always, in their core of cores, socialist pacifist secular humanists with a smidge of religious zeal to now dominate the global scene. I cannot see them ever, ever finally seeing the Light of John 3:16. Ever. Still, they will end up dominating us unless somehow a great revival of unity in the conservcenterlibertarian groups decide to rise up and stop liberal domination.