David Crumm of ReadtheSpirit.com recently interviewed me on on the gods of Star Trek, both fictional (the Sha Ka Ree demiurge) and real (Gene Roddenberry himself). On the question of Roddenberry's own religious views, I had this to say:
You'll often hear people say that Gene Roddenberry was an atheist. Any time that a god appears in Star Trek it's usually a bad god or a fake god. But the answer is more complicated than that. He really was an agnostic. I think it's rewriting history to say he was an atheist. In fact, what he said in interviews was more like, 'I believe God is in humankind.' That's a far cry from saying, 'I don't think God exists.' And if you understand that about his approach to the question of God, then you can see that he really was interested in something much more complicated.
Read the rest of the interview, plus an introduction linking my comments to the recent Pew Research survey's findings on the growing numbers of people claiming no religious affiliation, here.
And as for the new Star Trek—Robert J. Sawyer liked it, and that certainly bodes well. I should be seeing it this weekend, so check back next week for my thoughts on it.
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