I know: he was a secular humanist, taking the Christian humanism of Erasmus and stripping it of Jesus. A good guess is that he confused secularism with short skirts on women and a rejection of sex rules. Gene Roddenberry was no saint of the Church.
Still: thank you Gene Roddenberry, because you were a humanist: better secular humanism than the hopeless, visionless new atheism. His fifty-year old creation: Star Trek, gave my generation a hopeful vision. To quote the title of an old science fiction book: the stars are ours.
Christians should never confuse humanism with secular humanism. Christians are humanists. We think being human matters and that people have a special status in God’s economy. While we must care for all of creation, people matter more. Our petty desires must give way to the importance of ecological balance and creation care, but (all things considered) one innocent human life is worth more than every polar bear on the planet.
We are humanists, because God loves humankind and made us in His image. We may not be the only rational species in this giant cosmos, but we are one of them. We are hopeful. People matter and the future for humankind is bright . . .not ending in doom, but paradise.
Because he was also a humanist, Roddenberry shared our optimism: the future will be bright. He did not (personally) see room for God in that future or truth in religion. He was limited in his imagination and his philosophic knowledge so his vision was uncertain. Still Roddenberry knew (correctly) that adventure and challenge are built into the human DNA.
We cannot (and must not) be satisfied with virtual accomplishment (look at my badges on Words with Friends!), but must do things in reality or we will cease to be fully human. We have bodies and not just minds. Roddenberry was right that our future (even in Paradise!) must be one of challenge. He did not understand that God does not want to control us to limit us, but to set us free to boldly go where no man has gone before!
Weirdling religious and atheist types can only imagine dystopia in our future. Nonsense. On the whole, the world is better, healthier, and wealthier and Gene Roddenberry saw this happening. Christians helped make this better future happen and secularists are our children in most cases. Christian democrats in Europe helped create a better future after World War II. . . and their children decided the “Christian” was no necessary.
We will see.
Still secularists and Christians agree: the stars can be ours. Gene Roddenberry had lived enough real life to know Utopia was impossible in this life and so attacked people striving for the “perfect society.” Rodenberry knew that the goal was unworthy. We need to be as good as we can be, but short of God existing, perfection would be tyrannical and sterile. Only God can be trusted to have the self-esteem (!) to ignore the jabs of Richard Dawkins and company. God gives us liberty, lets us misuse it, but knows liberty is gradually making us better.
We can reject God, but only by using the liberty God gave us.
Gene Roddenberry pictured a further up and further in view of the future. There is little in original Star Trek that is not possible, even if traditional Christianity is true. Alien life? Sure. Stellar travel? Why not!
The stars are God’s and we are God’s.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In