The Christian Captain Pike, A False Religion, and The Divine Comet

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[agsilverradio]

Technicly, Sisko started off secular, but was converted to the Bajoran's religion.

[tba]

The central conflict reminds me of an old joke:
A preacher lives in a hurricane-prone area, and notices the waters from a storm have flooded the roads and are rising. He kneels on his porch in prayer, when a neighbor paddles up in a canoe and offers to evacuate the preacher.
The preacher declines, saying he has faith that God will rescue him.
A few hours pass, and the rising waters have driven the preacher to his attic. Another neighbor pulls up in a motorboat and offers to evacuate the preacher.
Again, the preacher declines, saying God will save him.
After another few hours, the waters have continued to rise, and the preacher is on his roof, praying hard. A helicopter descends and a National Guardsman lowers a ladder to the preacher, yelling that the levee is about to break, so this is the preacher's last chance to evacuate.
The preacher again refuses the offer, saying he has faith that God won't let him die.
Shortly after, the dam does indeed break, and the preacher drowns.
When he gets to the Pearly Gates, he asks God why He let the preacher drown. God gives the preacher a look, and says, "I sent two boats and a helicopter, what more did you want from me?"

Assuming that a presumable natural disaster is God's will simply because it occurs naturally is short-sighted. Pike could have responded to the Shepherd's question by asking how they could so easily conclude that maybe the Big E being on hand at just the right moment to deflect the comet and save the day was _not_ Deus Vult. I guess we wouldn't have much of an episode if the Shepherds saw wisdom in that, but still: if God's ultimate plan is unknowable (as both Pike and the Shepherd captain seem to agree), then deflecting the comet has at least as much chance of being the right choice as letting it impact, simply as a matter of probability. Even then, I'd still argue in favor of deflection, since it's hard to see how letting a violent extinction-level event happen to people with no way to resist it when you could have stopped it would be in line with the values of a merciful God.

[SuperNova]

No one
No one at all
Not a soul!
Lore reloaded: Enterprise No bloody A, B, C or D.

[Odisis_OG]

SNW has been an amazing series so far. They've captured what made trek great and brought it to this generation. I wish I didn't have to pay for paramount plus to see it because it would reach a larger audience.

[pimpinaintdeadho]

My second favorite episode of this season. SNW is turning out to be a little better than I had hoped. I just haven't dug the vibe of Kurtzman's work.

[notoriouswhitemoth]

It was a test of faith - and by valuing others' wellbeing over politically motivated dogma, Pike passed.

[src]

Weird how every villian of the week has superior tactical capability to the federations flagship but don't play a significant role on the galactic stage.

Very magnanimous of them to allow the federation, the klingons and the romulans to run a mock through out the galaxy as they do.

Take notes starfleet, these guys have non interference down to a fine art.

[madrabbit]

This is Trek at its best! It leaves this an unanswered question for we the viewers to ponder. The big question that it lays out is how do you know the will of God? If God wanted all those people dead then Pike could have done nothing to stop it. If it was God's will that they live then Pike and the Enterprise were sent by God to save them. The Shepherds show the folly "knowing God's will" and enforcing it on others...you could be wrong. I'm a Christian and that is a point I struggle with everyday as all Christians should.

[Nimariel]

It might also be interesting to do a video on Pike as a Gnostic Christ figure, discovering the knowledge of and continuously making the choice to complete his sacrifice. It could also compare/contrast to Sisko’s story as a divine instrument with a destiny.

[christophercole]

First, I would argue that of the prime universe Star Trek, Kirk, Sisko, and to some degree Janeway, were religious, if not specifically Christian. With Kirk it's hinted at a handful of times, Sisko goes from skeptic (at best) to enthusiastic of the Bajoran religion, and Janeway leaves the possibility open of being religious in the episode "Sacred Ground". I think Picard is not closed off to the idea of religion, but is perhaps more agnostic.

Second, what you are describing here is a rather historical debate within Christianity concerning the nature of God and how He relates to His creation. It's much too involved to get into with a comment, but to give a very brief overview, there are those within Christianity who believe that God has predetermined from eternity past every action, every decision, of every person who has ever lived, right down whether they will receive salvation or not. Within this belief, they state that humanity cannot act outside of God's will, that in fact humanity does not have any real ability to make free and independent choices. At best, they will say that humanity has the ability to choose what we would have chosen to do anyway, making us kind of like Data in that he could make all the choices he wanted within the confines of his programming, but do nothing outside of it.

There are others within Christianity who fully acknowledge God's sovereignty over His creation, but recognize as well that God created us with the capacity to make free and independent choices apart from what He would want us to do. There are tests of faith that, while God may know what we would choose to do, does not mean those choices we make are predetermined by Him.

This is just a general overview with plenty of variance within each system, but in your analysis of this SNW episode, I saw this debate within Christianity.

[christenorio]

Rememberof Triannons venerated the spheres through prayers and meditation, often taking months-long pilgrimages to see them. However, traveling through a sphere's cloaking barrier, landing on it, or going inside it were all terrible acts of desecration punishable by death. They stated upon boarding Enterprise NX-01 that among their beliefs included an aversion to invasive medical care; they therefore did not allow detailed bioscans, but this might have been a ploy to avoid detection of the organic explosives embedded within their bodies.

[joseaguilar]

This show needs more episodes. It's crazy that we are about to get to the season finale!

[AsbestosMuffins]

tbf, all pike knows is the comet is going to hit the planet and its got a weird alien device on it. they learn everything later. In the moment, being highly skeptical of people showing up saying everything is fine makes sense

[kingssman]

While I can't dive into the divine on this episode, Strange New Worlds in general has had some great episodes and stories. This may be the return of Trek old school Trek before television turned into streaming mini series.

[keithellison]

Ive been a trek fan since realizing leforge was the same guy from reading rainbow when I was 4, but this is my absolute favorite series.

[Paleorunner]

Spock flew the shuttle, we know Spock goes back in time on many occasions. Therefore it is a more logical answer that Spock simply put the message on the comet some time in his future but the overall past.

[henrikharbin]

I think it really helped that Pike was established as a Christian in Discovery. He could have gone ahead with his mission to destroy or divert M'Harnit and severely pissed off the Shepherds.
Side note: Ortegas was out of line when she called them "crazy space monks"... Pike would have Bern in the right if he would've said "belay that".
The crew got lucky that Uhura was on the landing party; if they had a NY an officer who knew nothing about music, they would never have got the clues they needed to complete the mission and save the planet.

[hardwing]

I think a better contrast would be the First Directive. Federation Officers believe that it is better to let civilisations die than to interfere. They can't know this. You already mentioned points to dispute this, but we have seen the willingness of the Federation to let worlds die for it. Because they believe that there are things worth letting this happen.

In the end we all believe in something and this thing might turn out to be as irrational as many other things, but it defines us. The Shepherds believe in the comet, the Federation believes in their rationality.

[dswynne]

I never thought that this episode was "religious", but only thought that it was some important cultural phenomenon that the antagonists were oath-bound to uphold. For all we know, the Preservers were the ones who set things into motion, which in turn led to this moment.

[sailingspark]

I have said this before. Strange New Worlds is the Trek we need, but not necessarily the Trek we deserve. IMHO the only good thing to come out of Discovery. Sorry, not sorry, I cannot stand Discovery.