Heading Out to Eden
The original series Star Trek episode “The Way to Eden” follows the misadventures of a small band of space hippies. Jonesing for harmony and easy living, the far-out free spirits steal an Enterprise shuttlecraft and head out to a paradise planet named Eden.
Living up to its reputation, Eden is a verdant world, abundant in beauty and natural resources. However, when the cosmic misfits finally arrive at their new paradise home, they discover a horrifying truth—everything, from the soil on the ground to the fruit on the trees, is composed of acid. The hippies learn, too late for many in their group, that the planet is no paradise after all and that constant exposure to the poisonous environment will soon claim their lives.
The seekers of paradise in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) are subjected to a different kind of divine disappointment. Spock’s half-brother, Sybok, hijacks the Enterprise, steers it past the Galactic Barrier and parks it in orbit around a blue-green tie-dye planet known as Sha Ka Ree (the Vulcan word for Eden). Whereas the space hippies yearn for a paradise without God, Sybok seeks a paradise with God.
Unfortunately, Sybok makes the costly mistake of listening to the wrong voice. The entity they encounter on Sha Ka Ree isn’t the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but claims to be “one god [with] many faces,” revealing numerous religious figures from Earth and other planets. The rapid-fire display of visages infers that true religion is a mélange of beliefs a la the precepts of Joseph Campbell’s comparative mythology (the philosophical bedrock for George Lucas’ mystical Force in the Star Wars movies). This thinly veiled brand of heresy preaches an all-inclusive gospel that stands in direct opposition to the Bible, which emphatically states that there is only one God (Eph. 4:6) and one way to heaven…Jesus (John 14:6).
In lieu of the one true God, the landing party has discovered a deceptive, diabolical energy being with formidable powers and an all-consuming desire to escape the ages-old prison it’s been banished to—presumably to commit acts of terror on an epic scale throughout the universe. The evil demigod schemes to take control of the Enterprise under the guise of conducting intergalactic missionary work, which prompts Kirk’s classic query, “Excuse me…but what does God need with a starship?”
When it becomes evident that Kirk isn’t going to yield control of his ship, the belligerent creature attacks the landing party. Though the entity shakes off the effects of a photon torpedo, it fails to bear up under a point-blank phaser beam barrage courtesy of Spock aboard a commandeered Klingon Bird of Prey. One less false god in the universe!
These two Trek tales pose some salient questions about the nature of God and an eternal paradise, such as: does one really have to travel millions of light-years to find God? Also, why is everyone looking for God in Eden—God resides in heaven, not in that ancient utopia.
The characters in both stories proceed from a false assumption that Eden still exists: Eden was destroyed when Adam and Eve sinned and God evicted them from the garden (Gen. 3:23 & 24). Ironically, those who seek the enticements and infinite pleasures of Eden unwittingly seek their own destruction, for when Eden’s gates were sealed, two other eternal destinations were forged…heaven and hell. Bottom line: no matter how spectacular it appears in the brochure, any paradise without God is just beachfront property around the lake of fire.
Instead of searching for some fabled Shangri-La, the characters in these stories should’ve been seeking first the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33). So, when others are heading out to Eden, I’ll be heading out to heaven. Yea, brother!
July 1999
Living up to its reputation, Eden is a verdant world, abundant in beauty and natural resources. However, when the cosmic misfits finally arrive at their new paradise home, they discover a horrifying truth—everything, from the soil on the ground to the fruit on the trees, is composed of acid. The hippies learn, too late for many in their group, that the planet is no paradise after all and that constant exposure to the poisonous environment will soon claim their lives.
The seekers of paradise in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) are subjected to a different kind of divine disappointment. Spock’s half-brother, Sybok, hijacks the Enterprise, steers it past the Galactic Barrier and parks it in orbit around a blue-green tie-dye planet known as Sha Ka Ree (the Vulcan word for Eden). Whereas the space hippies yearn for a paradise without God, Sybok seeks a paradise with God.
Unfortunately, Sybok makes the costly mistake of listening to the wrong voice. The entity they encounter on Sha Ka Ree isn’t the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but claims to be “one god [with] many faces,” revealing numerous religious figures from Earth and other planets. The rapid-fire display of visages infers that true religion is a mélange of beliefs a la the precepts of Joseph Campbell’s comparative mythology (the philosophical bedrock for George Lucas’ mystical Force in the Star Wars movies). This thinly veiled brand of heresy preaches an all-inclusive gospel that stands in direct opposition to the Bible, which emphatically states that there is only one God (Eph. 4:6) and one way to heaven…Jesus (John 14:6).
In lieu of the one true God, the landing party has discovered a deceptive, diabolical energy being with formidable powers and an all-consuming desire to escape the ages-old prison it’s been banished to—presumably to commit acts of terror on an epic scale throughout the universe. The evil demigod schemes to take control of the Enterprise under the guise of conducting intergalactic missionary work, which prompts Kirk’s classic query, “Excuse me…but what does God need with a starship?”
When it becomes evident that Kirk isn’t going to yield control of his ship, the belligerent creature attacks the landing party. Though the entity shakes off the effects of a photon torpedo, it fails to bear up under a point-blank phaser beam barrage courtesy of Spock aboard a commandeered Klingon Bird of Prey. One less false god in the universe!
These two Trek tales pose some salient questions about the nature of God and an eternal paradise, such as: does one really have to travel millions of light-years to find God? Also, why is everyone looking for God in Eden—God resides in heaven, not in that ancient utopia.
The characters in both stories proceed from a false assumption that Eden still exists: Eden was destroyed when Adam and Eve sinned and God evicted them from the garden (Gen. 3:23 & 24). Ironically, those who seek the enticements and infinite pleasures of Eden unwittingly seek their own destruction, for when Eden’s gates were sealed, two other eternal destinations were forged…heaven and hell. Bottom line: no matter how spectacular it appears in the brochure, any paradise without God is just beachfront property around the lake of fire.
Instead of searching for some fabled Shangri-La, the characters in these stories should’ve been seeking first the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33). So, when others are heading out to Eden, I’ll be heading out to heaven. Yea, brother!
July 1999
Does God Have a Prime Directive, Part 2
21/02/19 22:59 Filed in: Star Trek
Last time, several questions were raised concerning God’s Prime Directive (PD). After establishing the existence of a divine PD, the first query was, “Does God violate His own Prime Directive?” Of course He does. Miracles, angels disguised as humans and other heavenly interventions have occurred at various times and in sundry places throughout human history.
But is it really necessary for us to see these signs and wonders in order to believe? As the apostle Paul was fond of saying, “Certainly not!” The Bible attests that creation itself is an adequate testimony of God’s existence and magnificence (Romans 1:20).
God’s purpose in creating a PD was to challenge His people to live by faith, not by sight (II Corinthians 5:7). To believe in a God we can’t see is faith in its purest form. But would we even need faith if He appeared to us every day? Our free will could be influenced by such epiphanies, right?
In Star Trek, when Kirk, Picard, etc. violate the PD, it’s usually to assist beings embroiled in a bitter conflict or to rectify some injustice. In the same way, even though it might be hard for us to see at times, God is continually orchestrating events and circumstances for our benefit (Romans 8:28). This side of Glory, we may never know why God breaks His own mandate of non-interference, but we can rest assured that it’s for our own good—His ways are higher than ours, after all (Isaiah 55:9).
Another question was, “If God violates His own Prime Directive, is that a sin?” The answer is a resounding no. As a theology professor of mine was fond of saying, “God is God, and He can do as He jolly well pleases!” Since God is the ultimate authority and judge over all creation, He knows when it’s appropriate to involve Himself in human affairs and when it isn’t. It’s logical to conclude that the One who forged the universe has a well-defined set of intervention guidelines.
The final question posed was, “If God sins when He breaks His own Prime Directive, who enforces His punishment?” This is another fallacious supposition. Since the violation of the PD for righteous purposes isn’t a sin, the point is moot. God is incapable of sinning (James 1:13), and since there’s no entity greater than Him (Jeremiah 10:6&7), this line of faulty reasoning will be discarded with great haste.
The origin of God’s PD began a long time ago, in a galaxy… Oops, wrong sci-fi franchise. For eons, God had been glorified by angels, cherubim, seraphim and other heavenly creatures (aliens?). These beings had no choice but to magnify God because they were created for that specific purpose. But that kind of obligatory worship was hallow to God, who desired pure praise from a people willing to exalt Him not because they had to, but because they wanted to. God’s solution was to initiate the Human Experiment.
God created human beings and gave us the right to decide our own destiny—this is often referred to as free moral agency. Given a free choice, would we worship God or things (ourselves, money, nature, etc.)? Tragically, before our progenitors had even settled into their new, paradise home, they sinned and were evicted from the Garden of Eden. In an astoundingly short period of time, the created had turned their backs on the Creator. The day we exchanged eternal contentment in God’s presence for an empty promise of divinity, presented as a delicious piece of fruit by the father of lies (John 8:44), forever altered our destiny as a species.
Knowing that our fallen, sinful nature (Romans 3:23) would always prevent us from attaining His righteous standards, God decided to change the conditions of the test (a la Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru simulation in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.) But the price for entering a new variable into the Human Experiment would run high: in order to redeem humanity, God would have to sacrifice…Himself.
When the fullness of time had come (Galatians 4:4), Jesus, God’s only Son, entered the world in order to cure the human race of its terminal sin condition. And at that very moment, God made first contact with the very people He created.
April 1997
But is it really necessary for us to see these signs and wonders in order to believe? As the apostle Paul was fond of saying, “Certainly not!” The Bible attests that creation itself is an adequate testimony of God’s existence and magnificence (Romans 1:20).
God’s purpose in creating a PD was to challenge His people to live by faith, not by sight (II Corinthians 5:7). To believe in a God we can’t see is faith in its purest form. But would we even need faith if He appeared to us every day? Our free will could be influenced by such epiphanies, right?
In Star Trek, when Kirk, Picard, etc. violate the PD, it’s usually to assist beings embroiled in a bitter conflict or to rectify some injustice. In the same way, even though it might be hard for us to see at times, God is continually orchestrating events and circumstances for our benefit (Romans 8:28). This side of Glory, we may never know why God breaks His own mandate of non-interference, but we can rest assured that it’s for our own good—His ways are higher than ours, after all (Isaiah 55:9).
Another question was, “If God violates His own Prime Directive, is that a sin?” The answer is a resounding no. As a theology professor of mine was fond of saying, “God is God, and He can do as He jolly well pleases!” Since God is the ultimate authority and judge over all creation, He knows when it’s appropriate to involve Himself in human affairs and when it isn’t. It’s logical to conclude that the One who forged the universe has a well-defined set of intervention guidelines.
The final question posed was, “If God sins when He breaks His own Prime Directive, who enforces His punishment?” This is another fallacious supposition. Since the violation of the PD for righteous purposes isn’t a sin, the point is moot. God is incapable of sinning (James 1:13), and since there’s no entity greater than Him (Jeremiah 10:6&7), this line of faulty reasoning will be discarded with great haste.
The origin of God’s PD began a long time ago, in a galaxy… Oops, wrong sci-fi franchise. For eons, God had been glorified by angels, cherubim, seraphim and other heavenly creatures (aliens?). These beings had no choice but to magnify God because they were created for that specific purpose. But that kind of obligatory worship was hallow to God, who desired pure praise from a people willing to exalt Him not because they had to, but because they wanted to. God’s solution was to initiate the Human Experiment.
God created human beings and gave us the right to decide our own destiny—this is often referred to as free moral agency. Given a free choice, would we worship God or things (ourselves, money, nature, etc.)? Tragically, before our progenitors had even settled into their new, paradise home, they sinned and were evicted from the Garden of Eden. In an astoundingly short period of time, the created had turned their backs on the Creator. The day we exchanged eternal contentment in God’s presence for an empty promise of divinity, presented as a delicious piece of fruit by the father of lies (John 8:44), forever altered our destiny as a species.
Knowing that our fallen, sinful nature (Romans 3:23) would always prevent us from attaining His righteous standards, God decided to change the conditions of the test (a la Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru simulation in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.) But the price for entering a new variable into the Human Experiment would run high: in order to redeem humanity, God would have to sacrifice…Himself.
When the fullness of time had come (Galatians 4:4), Jesus, God’s only Son, entered the world in order to cure the human race of its terminal sin condition. And at that very moment, God made first contact with the very people He created.
April 1997
Does God Have a Prime Directive, Part 1
18/02/19 20:02 Filed in: Star Trek
“Could God create a stone so heavy that even He could not lift it?” You’ve probably heard that trite tidbit of sophistry at some point in your life. A staple of philosophical discussions for centuries, this so-called “Stone Paradox” is an utterly ridiculous paralogism.
Here’s a better question: “Can God establish an edict that He Himself must obey?” Even with our limited cognitive functioning and infinitesimally narrow understanding of God’s nature, the answer is obvious. As unfathomable as it seems, God has a Prime Directive.
The Prime Directive (hereafter PD) in Star Trek, which was surely established as a liberal-minded reaction against the colonizing mandates inherent in Manifest Destiny and other such expansionist agendas, stipulates that Starfleet officers shall in no way meddle in the affairs of impressionable alien species so as to prevent landing parties from destroying strange new worlds while in the process of exploring them. This binding dictate prohibits any Starfleet officer from tampering with the natural development of alien civilizations possessing a pre-warp drive level of technology in order to avoid the kind of cultural contamination witnessed in TOS episodes like “A Piece of the Action” and “Patterns of Force.”
Intended as a safeguard against the premature advancement of an alien race—which could kindle bloodletting, world wars or a nuclear holocaust—the PD is the guiding principle of the Federation. However, some Starfleet captains discovered chinks in the seemingly ironclad dictum and exploited them for personal gain (Captain Ronald Tracey in “The Omega Glory”) or altruistic purposes (Captain James T. Kirk on numerous occasions).
Even though, from a conceptual standpoint, a PD has its roots buried deep in Darwin’s theory of evolution, let’s suspend any theological objections to Trek’s prescription of non-interference for the sake of this argument. Since there’s little visual evidence to prove that a supernatural agency is at work in our world today, it’s logical to conclude that God has a PD. But how can we reconcile God’s supernatural interventions—the occasional undercover angel He dispatches to assist humans in desperate need or the various miracles He’s performed throughout the centuries?
In these instances, and many others recorded in the Bible, isn’t God breaking His own rules; in essence, violating His own Prime Directive? And wouldn’t such an infraction be considered a sin? And if so, who has the authority to punish God? To be continued…
March 1997
Here’s a better question: “Can God establish an edict that He Himself must obey?” Even with our limited cognitive functioning and infinitesimally narrow understanding of God’s nature, the answer is obvious. As unfathomable as it seems, God has a Prime Directive.
The Prime Directive (hereafter PD) in Star Trek, which was surely established as a liberal-minded reaction against the colonizing mandates inherent in Manifest Destiny and other such expansionist agendas, stipulates that Starfleet officers shall in no way meddle in the affairs of impressionable alien species so as to prevent landing parties from destroying strange new worlds while in the process of exploring them. This binding dictate prohibits any Starfleet officer from tampering with the natural development of alien civilizations possessing a pre-warp drive level of technology in order to avoid the kind of cultural contamination witnessed in TOS episodes like “A Piece of the Action” and “Patterns of Force.”
Intended as a safeguard against the premature advancement of an alien race—which could kindle bloodletting, world wars or a nuclear holocaust—the PD is the guiding principle of the Federation. However, some Starfleet captains discovered chinks in the seemingly ironclad dictum and exploited them for personal gain (Captain Ronald Tracey in “The Omega Glory”) or altruistic purposes (Captain James T. Kirk on numerous occasions).
Even though, from a conceptual standpoint, a PD has its roots buried deep in Darwin’s theory of evolution, let’s suspend any theological objections to Trek’s prescription of non-interference for the sake of this argument. Since there’s little visual evidence to prove that a supernatural agency is at work in our world today, it’s logical to conclude that God has a PD. But how can we reconcile God’s supernatural interventions—the occasional undercover angel He dispatches to assist humans in desperate need or the various miracles He’s performed throughout the centuries?
In these instances, and many others recorded in the Bible, isn’t God breaking His own rules; in essence, violating His own Prime Directive? And wouldn’t such an infraction be considered a sin? And if so, who has the authority to punish God? To be continued…
March 1997