# Jesus on Star Trek **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126 "2009-09-22T19:49:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/21 "2009-09-22T22:49:11Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > But in one of the old episodes, the one with the bored Adonis no one mourns for, I think, Kirk says something like “Earth doesn’t need gods. One is enough”. I can’t imagine the writers were referring to any God but the Christian one… I doubt the network censors would’ve allowed it to air with the line “Earth doesn’t need _any_ gods.” Adding “One is enough” made it acceptable to 1960s audiences. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/22 "2009-09-22T22:59:09Z")
What about the animated one where they meet that guy who was possibly the Devil? But he really wasn’t because that society was testing him or something. And they’d been cast out from Earth as witches? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/23 "2009-09-22T23:01:54Z")
“Jesus on Star Trek!” sounds like an expletive. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/24 "2009-09-22T23:15:19Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > It wasn’t that the Earth-copy was 2500 year behind, it was that the Roman Empire never fell. But they had 20th century technology. And English. Not Latin. Even the self-identified **Romans** speak English. A language that, in our timeline, evolved in an environment for which the fall of Rome was a necessary precondition. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/25 "2009-09-22T23:16:33Z")
“Excuse me . . . Why does God need a starship?” ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/26 "2009-09-22T23:24:19Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > “Excuse me . . . Why does God need a starship?” In the novelization of ST5, McCoy says something like “Hmmm, a being claiming to be God, imprisoned and trying to deceive humans into freeing him… doesn’t that sound a bit too familiar?” ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/27 "2009-09-22T23:37:02Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > I doubt the network censors would’ve allowed it to air with the line “Earth doesn’t need _any_ gods.” Adding “One is enough” made it acceptable to 1960s audiences. Kirk does not specify which God–it is assumed he meant the Christian one, but he could have been referring to Yahweh or Allah. Any Abrahamic version will do (for the show’s purposes). ST:TOS poses lots of metaphysical questions while not mentioning Christianity or Jesus. Perhaps that’s why I like it so much. (that wiki page is something else, though!). As for the Romans speaking English, well, ALL the alien life forms speak English in Star Trek world. Nothing odd about that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/28 "2009-09-23T01:23:38Z")
I like the idea of Tribbles speaking English. They say “Purr. Purr. Purr.” and all sound like Lorenzo Music. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/29 "2009-09-23T01:30:44Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > I like the idea of Tribbles speaking English. They say “Purr. Purr. Purr.” and all sound like Lorenzo Music. They sing, too. _To everything, purr purr purr… There is a season, purr purr purr… And a time for every purr-pose…_ And so forth. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/30 "2009-09-23T01:33:31Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > What about the animated one where they meet that guy who was possibly the Devil? But he really wasn’t because that society was testing him or something. And they’d been cast out from Earth as witches? I recall that episode; _The Magics of Megas-Tu_. The animated episodes aren’t canon though. The devil guy, named Lucian is one of a race of beings who visited Earth long ago and helped create the myths behind magic. They live in a realm where thought defines reality, and technology doesn’t work; thus all the “magic” trappings. Basically Lucien would be the Devil without Jesus/God, except he wasn’t especially bad. Can you imagine the reaction if they’d put out an episode where it turned out Jesus was an alien? That sort of thing is pretty much restricted to written sci-fi. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/31 "2009-09-23T01:36:10Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Can you imagine the reaction if they’d put out an episode where it turned out Jesus was an alien? That sort of thing is pretty much restricted to written sci-fi. TNG sorta-vaguely touched on this in the second-season premiere (called ‘The Child’, as I recall). ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/32 "2009-09-23T01:37:26Z")
Tell me if I’m crazy, but was Dr. McCoy an athiest? Specifically, I remember a line from Spock to Kirk, something like, “Captain, I was under the impression that Dr. McCoy does not believe in a god.” I can’t recall the episode, and I may have misheard the line (I know it was a boring episode, because I specifically remember thinking, “did they just say McCoy’s an athiest? Eh, I’d rewind it, but that would only prolong this crap”), so I’m having some trouble googling it. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/33 "2009-09-23T02:13:52Z")
Thanks, **Der Trihs**. Not ST but Twilight Zone did an episode where an alien comes down and he cures illnesses but humans mistrust him and murder him, and it’s very Christ-like. (To be fair, in TZ most of the time the aliens are out to get us.) ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/34 "2009-09-23T02:51:20Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Can you imagine the reaction if they’d put out an episode where it turned out Jesus was an alien? That sort of thing is pretty much restricted to written sci-fi. If not Jesus, how about God+Gods+Spacetime in the form of Q? ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/35 "2009-09-23T03:08:49Z")
Though they are not canonical, I definitely remember some Christians – Catholic nuns, if I recall correctly – establishing a mission on a newly discovered planet in one of the ST:TNG books. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/36 "2009-09-23T04:19:50Z")
The catholic church is still rolling along in 2160 or so, as Dr Phlox talked about going to mass at St Peter’s during Enterprise. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/37 "2009-09-23T04:39:45Z")
Christmas has survived into the 23rd and 24th centuries. There have been episodes of TOS and Voyager which have featured or made references to “the ship’s Christmas party.” And Picard experienced a fantasy Christmas celebration with an illusory family while in the Nexus in "Generations."Although that doesn’t have to mean Christianity survives, as many of today’s Christmas traditions are taken from pagan observations rather than from the Bible. Christmas may survive more as a secular festival of peace and goodwill to all of mankind’s fellow sentients than as a religious celebration. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/38 "2009-09-23T04:41:03Z")
This wasn’t about Jesus particularly, but there was a TNG episode, “Who Watches the Watchers”, about these Federation sociologists who are observing a primitive society, the Mintakans. There’s an accident, and the natives discover the Federation people and become convinced that Captain Picard’s a god. So, Captain Picard and one of the sociologists are talking about the incident, and the following conversation occurs: > [@](#): > > Captain Picard: Dr. Barron, I cannot, I will not impose a set of commandments on these people. To do so violates the very essence of the prime directive. > > Dr. Barron: Like it or not, we have rekindled the Mintakans’ belief in the Overseer. > > Commander Riker: Then are you saying that this belief will eventually become a religion? > > Dr. Barron: It’s inevitable. And without guidance, that religion could degenerate into inquisitions, holy wars, chaos. > > Captain Picard: Horrifying… Dr. Barron, your report describes how rational these people are. Millennia ago, they abandoned their belief in the supernatural. Now you are asking me to sabotage that achievement, to send them back into the dark ages of superstition and ignorance and fear? No! So, that sort of gives you an idea of the way religion was looked at on The Next Generation. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/39 "2009-09-23T04:46:27Z")
Jesus indeed _was_ on Star Trek, kinda. [Proof](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055047/) ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126/40 "2009-09-23T04:48:53Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > “Jesus on Star Trek!” sounds like an expletive. 😃 Made me giggle. For the past few hours. Thank you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jesus-on-star-trek/511126.md?page=3)