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I finished my paper on the aspects of human nature as portrayed by Star Trek. My my professor has posted all our papers on our class discussion board so we can read and comment on each others research.

Here's what he wrote about my paper:

Attached you will find Tina Dalton's paper on Star Trek.

Tina gave special attention to the executive creator of Star Trek (Gene Roddenberry) and his vision of the future, shaped by secular humanism. The paper touches on the origin of moral principles, the idea of rights, and the future of religion in a scientifically-trained future society.

Tina's reflections on Roddenberry's sub-creation has me returning to that question I often ask myself, "what is the future of religion?" As quality education spreads over the world and more people understand science and philosophy, how will religion evolve to meet our needs without offending our sense of logic? Will the future look something like the vision Roddenberry (and many other science fiction writers) had, in which religion is a footnote rather than a meaningful part of most characters' lives?

I've often imagined a science fiction scenario in which an alien race makes contact with humans, and the aliens have absolutely no interest in our science, our politics, or meeting any of our powerful people. No, they are only really interested in our religious beliefs and practices. Let's say there is a "religion gene" and people with it tend to reproduce more and get along with others a bit better. Over the long term, such a gene could eventually dominate a gene pool, perhaps even in a very scientifically advanced species. Anyway, Tina's paper got me thinking about that.


( Here's my paper: Star Trek and the Future of Humanity )