Episode 2 Season 2 New Eden

In the latest Star Trek episode named New Eden, the crew of the starship Discovery travel to Terralysium. It's inhabitants were 20th century humans who survived a war centuries earlier. The humans were transported by the Red Angel to this planet in another quadrant of the galaxy. While most of the centuries afterwards were influenced by science and disassociated themselves with religious beliefs, these humans were the opposite. They were deeply religious and found a way to fuse all of the major religions together such that not one religion would dominate. 

Just a little history of Star Trek. The creator Gene Roddenberry envisioned a future without religion and was ruled mainly by scientism. During Roddenberry's lifetime, none of the episodes openly discussed Christianity or one particular world religion. It was his view that the future that religion was considered superstitious. Morality would not be governed by sacred text but by a liberal agenda of universal ideals.

However, this episode shows a reversal to his original intent in the hope of revising an age old debate. It did have the officers quote a portion of the sacred scripture. Can religion lay claim to a total account of reality? That is, can science somehow exist alongside the claims of religion? 

The relationship between religion and science have always been complex. While in the centuries leading up to the 20th, religion and science have had an amicable relationship and at other times a relationship modeling a marriage that often has its challenges and good-sides. However, the 20th century became the zenith of separation between religion and science, especially the debates in the Americas showing a 'warfare' between the two. This was the environment Roddenberry lived in. It was no wonder 'his future' avoided this conflict by suggesting that the future was one that science and liberal ideals prospered. Although science fiction often provides a reality unlike one's own, giving us the freedom to escape this world. 

In the episode New Eden, the inhabitants of the planets have shunned science and adopted a theistic worldview. It is Michael Burnham who is a scientist, impassioned to have its inhabitants throw off their shackles of their superstition of the Red Angel, an angelic being who rescued the inhabitants a century earlier. We find out later that the Red Angel is Michael herself. It is Captain Pike who maintains the balancing act between cultural accommodation and revealing the evidence found in science. He reveals to Michael that his father was a science and a world religion teacher. In his family dinners, he would engage in debate with his father. 

The episode ended up favoring scientific evidence, as the inhabitants rediscover the benefits of electricity. I would have hoped that this episode should not propagate the conflict between religion and science. Religion is not superstition, not the least in the same categories as having a black cat walk past you. 

It was scientists like Isaac Newton who was a theist. He is the discoverer of classical mechanics. He owes his philosophical understanding of the universe based upon observation. If you could uncover the laws governing the world, based upon one's observation, perhaps you can understand the Maker. Perhaps I enjoy watching Star Trek because it raises the tensions that exists in popular culture. Roddenberry ignored religion by proposing a future absent of faith. In other sci-fi shows such as Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galatica, the militaristic humans lean towards religious conflicts and the science is absent. I'm just suggesting that how about having our sci-fi worlds struggle with religion and science. Let's see what kind of series will be willing to grapple with both?!