Advanced Apathy

As a christian student living in a liberal, public school I have a lot of exposure to different perspectives on a variety of subjects. As a sci-fi junkie I have seen many shows, and read many books, concerning aliens and their interaction with us as either a harmonious relationship or a total war scenario.

However, I have noticed something that almost all science fiction movies/books/tv shows do. They ignore religion. Dont get me wrong, I understand that a short, 2-hour movie only has so much time to tell its story, and if it was to bring to the table a religous sentiment (either for or against) there would be little time for meaningful plot developement. So im not on my soapbox here to critisize unneedingly against media that would have to sacrifice quality for accuracy (as Hollywood has shown they have no problem doing). What I have a problem with is either:

1) Shows making exaggerated, unsubstantiated claims.

2) Glancing over religious topics when it would either add good content, or might be too much for the story.

3) Shown in the worst light possible because of a few crazies.

Lets look at an example to illustrate my point. Star Trek. In the ST series Voyager, captain Janeway is talking with her First mate about origins. They make the comment “..and as they’ve shown, Adam and Eve could not have possibly existed based on evolution” (im paraphrasing)

Wait what?

Thats right, the writers for ST actually had the guts to say that Adam and Eve could not have possibly existed, without giving and evidence besides “evolution showed it”. This annoys me because a lot of impressionable young kids watch this show, and arent even given evidence, much less the other side of the argument. There are many who will read that last sentence and ask what the big deal is, and I answer that its a big deal because the characters portrayed in the show are very moral, and decent people who have many Christ-like qualities. More young people than you might think have, and do look up to them as roll models for good. For them to say something like this, is brainwashing on the side of the writers.

Another thing I see as an issue is when Christianity is shown as us all being insane, or stupid for believing what we do. In almost any science fiction media, if you are shown a group of religious people, they are always fanatics/lunatics/terrorists. Never is the good and decent side of any faith shown meaningfully.

I could go on, but I think my point is clear. Science fiction is littered with examples of anti-religousness. I know the likelyhood of this ever changing is minimal at best, but if someone reads this and it makes them think, so much the better.

-Trenton Stahl

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