"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission to seek out new worlds; to explore new lives and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before." Since its inception on 1966, Star Trek has gone to where no other TV series have gone before. Although it has a sluggish start on 1966-1969, this series is able to develop loyal viewers and. eventually, its own universe.

The influence of Star Trek can be seen when NASA decided to name its first shuttle craft according to the famous starship in the Star Trek: Enterprise. Also, it is able to tempt many prominent characters to make appearance in one or more episodes. They appeared not because they were invited, but because they asked for it! Another great influence is in how this series motivate many persons to bring fiction into reality. It was told that when Dr. Stephen Hawking tour the engineering set of Enterprise, he paused near warp engine, smiled and said, "I’m working on that."

Because of its capability to influence many people, we need to examine what is in the heart of this series.

It is not surprising to find that Star Trek found its foundation of humanity on the evolution theory. As the story assumes the galaxy as its stage where the story unfold, the evolution is not affect only humanity on planet Earth, but it also true on other planets in the entire galaxy. In the entire story of Star Trek, humanoid is assumed as of the same origin despite of the vast distances separating planets and solar systems. Man and other humanoids are decent of common ancestry, the humanoid species that lived in this galaxy some 4 billion years ago. This species apparently seeded the oceans of many class M planets with genetic material, from which a number of humanoid forms eventually evolved (pan-spermia). The story goes further to say that when scientist is able to decode the DNA sequences on various humanoids, it contains a message of peace and goodwill. This means that Gene Roddenberry assumes the position of what now called naturalistic evolution as the basic philosophy of this famous series.

Naturalistic evolution teaches that while organic materials and even living organisms came to earth in cosmic dust, the instructions for the evolution of higher organisms were then provided by some higher intelligence from outside the earth. In this sense, naturalistic evolution not only denies creationism as taught in the Bible, it also denies theism by advocating higher intelligence in place of God, the Creator. In the Star Trek series, the idea of God is viewed as developed out of primitive intelligence which view cosmic phenomena as representing God, where in fact it is simply a result of alien higher technology and power. For instance, Apollo, the god of light in ancient Greek myth, is a humanoid entity that came to earth from outer space and received adulation from the ancient Greeks.

On one hand, naturalistic evolution tries to answer the question on "what is then the purpose of life" that left unanswered by Darwinistic evolution and pre-biotic evolution; but on the other hand, naturalistic evolution finds the chief end of man as lies within himself, and so presenting man as independent and capable of achieving what he wants.

God is presented as merely another creatures, the one with higher intelligent. While occasionally reference to the religion and religious aspect of society will be made, it is simply viewed as part of culture, some times it is even considered as a primitive one, negligible, and irrelevant to humanity. Gene Roddenberry on 1975 even made a remark (when he was scripting Star Trek episode The God Thing), "We begin pondering the notion that perhaps mankind has finally evolved to the point where it has outgrown its needs for gods, competent to account for its own behavior without the religiously imposed concepts of fear, guilt or divine intervention." Apparently, this script did not make it to the screen. However, in various episodes of Star Trek, the same idea can be seen clearly. In Who Mourns for Adonais Apollo is a powerful extraterrestrial being who visited Earth some 5,000 years ago and worshipped as god, together with other extraterrestrial beings such as Zeus, Artemis, Athena and Aphrodite. While Star Trek limited the calling of names only to the mythical figures, it does not mean that it takes religions seriously. It seems that it only tries not to offend official religions. Throughout its various episodes, religions are presented usually as primitive and irrelevant and cultural affair, and sometimes as another way to explain powerful extraterrestrial beings. Human is capable of many powerful things that religion falsely attributed only to God. It seems that Star Trek lives the saying: What was once known as religion is now science.

Throughout this series, humankind is portrayed as superior race that has been able to overcome mistakes that lead to the misery and devastation of mankind in the past. In the Star Trek story line, there were mentioning of Eugenics wars (end of 1990s) and WW III (mid 21^st Century). These wars are the turning points in human history. From that time onward, humankind is some how united and work together toward universal peace. With the invention of warp drive that enables faster than light travel by Zefram Cochrane in 2061, mankind is now able to move to space. With fights and miseries left behind, mankind is now entering the golden age. Mankind now lives without material oriented, health conscious (e.g., the existence of non-alcoholic liquor that preserves all the taste of liquor without damaging effect of alcohol), and the ability of mankind to expand his territory to space (space is "the final frontier). Life is dedicated for science and universal peace.

In this series, the idea of reincarnation appear clearly although it is presented in rather subtle forms. In the 1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was released with the ending where Mr. Spock is dead. Yet the ending is created in such a way that his dead is rather ambiguous, and the answer is found in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock featuring the return of Spock from the dead; not because he was not dead, but because prior to his death, he kept his katra (living soul) in the mind of his friend, Dr. McCoy. Because of this when his body was retrieved, his soul can be successfully united with his body. Although this was considered as rare opportunity, it was still a possibility to do so. If this is considered simply to create suspense and to provide an opportunity for the sequel to continue, the following examples are definitely portray the idea of reincarnation in this series.

In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, we encounter a woman named Jadzia Dax. What unique of this woman is that she is a Trill.

A Trill is a joined species comprised of a humanoid host and a small vermiform symbiont that resides in an internal abdominal pocket of a host body. … Upon the death of a host body, a Trill symbiont can be transplanted into another host. … The resulting new joined life-form is considered to be another person, although it retains memories of previous joinings. In joining with previous hosts, Dax had been a mother three times and a father twice.

Compare this with what Shirley MacLaine said about her past lives:

"I know that I must have been many different people in many different times." She has claimed to be " a former prostitute, my own daughter’s daughter, and a male court jester who was beheaded by Louis XV of France … She was also remembered very clearly the feeling of living in Atlantis. … "I was a man, a great teacher, very much in love with my wife, … I couldn’t stand the thought of drowning, so I killed myself."

 

 

From our review on philosophy behind Star Trek, we find out that they fall very well into the parameter of New Age movement. Although "officially" New Age was unknown until early 1970s, the idea of New Age is not really new. The root of New Age can be traced back to Hinduism of India. In this sense we may call New Age a modern and far more complicated form of Hinduism because of its mixture with other religions; or better, New Age is a modern revival of ancient religious traditions, along with potpourri of influences: Eastern mysticism, modern philosophy and psychology, science and science fiction, and the counterculture of the 50s and 60s. Since New Age is a pure movement (i.e., without any organization), it is able to be an umbrella for several other movements. This also lends to its flexibility to penetrate almost all aspects of life in very subtle ways.

Several basic philosophies of New Age as have been mentioned in the review are monism, pantheism and naturalism. Monism is a belief of the oneness of reality. In the Eastern religions, Monism is a basic philosophy behind Buddhism and Hinduism. These two religions believe that the ultimate end of everything is when everything becomes one in unity, all reality is reduced to a single, unifying principle partaking of the same essence and reality. Buddhism for instance, considers the unity with the essence of the cosmos as the ultimate goal (nirvana).

Monism related closely to Pantheism, a belief that god and nature is one; everything is god, god is everything. God is the forces and laws of universe but is not a Being with personality. It also closely related to naturalism.

As mentioned above, Star Trek never explicitly deny the existence of God, yet it is very clear that this series consider man as simply a result of naturalistic evolution. In Star Trek, the idea of pan-spermia is a basic perspective on humanity. This is a direct confrontation with the teaching of Scripture. The Scripture clearly tells us that man is created by God in His image and likeness (Gen 1:26, 27). This is the basic of everything concerning mankind. By recognizing God as the Creator, man has a dignity and purpose in life, something that is lack in naturalistic evolution. While New Age and Star Trek try to paint a glorious goal of man’s life, it falls short in that they find the chief end of man in the exaltation of himself. This is a modern Babel (Gen. 11:1-9). They do not have answer to what is then the purpose of life if after achieving what he wants man must die. Although Star Trek tries to put altruism as the governing principle (in the form of Vulcan principle: the good of many exceeds the good of one) yet the definition of good is relative. Only in the Scripture man is presented with his real purpose of living and dignity. Man is not of nature, although physically he is of dust. Man becomes a living being only when God breaths His Spirit into man (Gen 2:7).

God is not simply a cosmic energy, ultimate essence, or deified person. The Scripture clearly describes God as a personal Being, a Living God who enters into various relations with His creatures, relations which are indicative of several different attributes. God is self-existence, self-contained, All-perfect (Ps 18:26, 27; 33:11; 90:2; 94:8; 115:3; Isa 40:18; Dan 4:35; Prov 11:20; 12:22; Jonah 3:10; Mt 5:48; Jn 5:26; Acts 7:25; 17:29; Rm 11:33, 34; Eph 1:5). Portraying God as less than Who He is is a blasphemy.

This is a contrast to what is presented in Star Trek. The Scripture says, "It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment." (Heb 9:27). The death of man is the result of his sin (Rm 6:23), and man will one day present himself before the Lord to be judged. This Scripture description of man’s life and death is a contrast to the concept of reincarnation.

Reincarnation teaches that in his attempt to achieve perfection/bliss, the soul will be reborn according to previous karma. Better or worse, it depends totally on the karma. As a result, life is unending circle of dead and reborn. Man is hardly able to achieve nirvana, i.e., released from the circle of reincarnation. Even gods still subject to this circle and may fall to be a lesser being. A powerful tool in evangelizing people with such concept is the picture of a circle of reincarnation, broken in two points, the incarnation of God the Son and his resurrection and ascension to heaven. Without God man is hopeless. Reincarnation simply is an expression of the inability of man to comprehend the nature of mankind because of the wrong perspective. Man should be viewed from the perspective of God and not from himself.

Star Trek portrays man in the golden age (New Age’s Aquarian Age) as a great achievement based on human wisdom. It is assumed that man has learnt from history and evolved into higher view of life. Yet what is portrayed is simply the repetition of Biblical Babel (Gen 11). The point is without recognizing god in his life, everything he does is against God. Whatever achievement man has, without God it is pointless and will lead to self exaltation.

Sin is not simply a wrong or bad behavior; it is a pride in essence. In Star Trek man is portrayed almost as the center of universe. Man is finite, yet he is capable of doing great things, including altering history if he so wills. In Star Trek several times it is told that the crew of Enterprise go back in time to perform their duties. Only their wisdom not to interfere with the flow of history keeps them from changing history. Man in his knowledge is considered as able to decipher many secrets of universe and find that almost everything has a scientific explanation. Then everything will subject to man’s knowledge. Star Trek is a deification of man and therefore a sin against God.

Many features in Star Trek have influence and motivate the progress of science. The bridge of Enterprise for instance, has been studied numerous times by various defense and aerospace organizations for an efficient futuristic control room. At least one such computerized command center has actually been built, closely based on the design of the Enterprise bridge. Quantum singularity in Star Trek has been the focus of study by people such as Stephen Hawking, even postulated by him.

The problem is that with its New Age agenda it is a subtle invasion to mind to persuade man to be independent of God. Star Trek deceives man to ignore, at least to undermine God.

Alnor, William M. UFOs in the New Age Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992

Asherman, Allan The Star Trek Compendium New York: Pocket Books, 1986

Berkhof, Louis. Systematic Theology Grand Rapids: Wm Eerdmans Pub Co, 1986

Burns, Lanier. Humanity, Sin and Angel Unpublished classnotes. Dallas Theological Seminary, 1997

Chandler,Russell Understanding the New Age Dallas: Word Publishing, 1988

Irwin, Walter; G. B. Love (eds.) The Best of Trek New York: Penguin Books 1994

Okuda, Michael; Denise Okuda; Debie Mirek The Star Trek Encyclopedia New York: Pocket Books, 1994

Shatner, William; Chris Kreski. Star Trek: Movie Memories New York: HarperPrism, 1994

Solow, Herbert F.; Robert H. Justman. Inside Star Trek: The Real Story New York: Pocket Books, 1996