Religions of Star Trek by Ross G. Kraemer, William Cassidy and Susan L. Schwartz

Star Trek is a popular franchise that has become a byword in Science Fiction and Science Fiction Television. Star Trek is also emblematic of the times it was produced in. The original series was firmly set in the 60's and the problems of the 60's. The Next Generation was updated for the 80's, and Deep Space Nine and Voyager took us into the 90's and the 22nd century.

One thing that Star Trek has occasionally delved into is religion. Is there religion in the time of Star Trek? And if so, what religion is it? And is there any truth in that religion?

Many of the early Star Trek stories dealt with deities who were not deities at all, but advanced aliens or other pretenders to the power and influence of Godhood. From Vaal in "The Apple" and Apollo in "Who Mourns for Adonais", Gods were portrayed as something that held humanity back, and that science and rationality were the way of the future. Mankind, it seems, had thrown off the yoke of religion, and it was science that brought us to the stars and kept us there.

Unbeknownst to many, Gene Roddenberry was an atheist who felt that science would bring humanity forward, but religion would hold us back. Occasionally, he'd throw a sop to the believing amongst the audience, such as Kirk telling Apollo that humanity no longer needed the gods, they found the one sufficient. But that by no means makes Kirk, or anyone else in the crew a believer. He could be saying, in effect, we have enough problems with the one we have already!

But humanity is just one race amongst the Federation. And the other races have their own conceptions of religion, from the Logical and Aescetic Vulcans to the Honorable warriors of the Klingons. But are any of the Gods of these races real? Are their any Gods or is there God in the Star Trek Universe?

In addition to talking about the races of the Federation and their religions, it looks among the stories of Star Trek to find any divinities and comes up with at least three, in the accepted versions of the word. The First is the Q Continuum, and the Q played by John DeLancie. Yes, he may spend time irritating the Enterprise crew, but he is immortal, omnipotent and omniscient. He more seems to represent the Divine Trickster spirit, but that doesn't make him any less a candidate for divinity. The second are the Travellers, like the one who saw in Wesley Crusher the ability to become one of them. Their powers are vast, and they seem to be unaffected by time, and they have the ability to see and hear anywhere in the universe. The Third are the Prophets of the Bajorans, who also seem to be very much like gods. They live outside of time, and their powers, too, are vast. More importantly, like the story of Jesus, Benjamin Sisko was born when his human father mated with a divine being, a female prophet who took over the body of his mother for the purpose of concieving him. And in the end, like Jesus, Benjamin Sisko fights the evil one, the Pah-wraith possessed Gul Dukat, and destroys him by sacrificing his own life, whereupon he is reborn in the Temple of the Prophets and will one day return again to his grieving wife, Kassidy Yates, and his son Jake.

Reading this book was fascinating, not only because it codified the sorts of religions found in Star Trek, from the very Buddhist Vulcans whose beliefs are more a philosophy than a true belief system (like certain kinds of Buddhism) to the Bajoran Prophets, which tend to be like Hinduism in their multiple Prophet/Gods. The Exploration of the religious beliefs of the various Federation peoples pales besides the discussion of several episodes where religion and beliefs are explored, from "Masks" to the movie "Star Trek: Generations". Even episodes that are not really about religion at all, like "Darmok", can inform us about religious language and the metaphores bound up within it.

Anyone who enjoys Star Trek will find this book fascinating and find much in it that can be mined to increase one's understanding of the place of religion in the Trek Universe, and in the episodes of the Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and some of Voyager as well. An excellent book that will leave you with much to think about, and a deeper understanding of the Star Trek Universe.