Space is defined, according to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, as "the limitless area in which all things exist and move." It is the collection of all matter into a single functioning unit. Within this unit, the many distinctly different parts work together to keep the whole intact.
It is in this manner that the Enterprise functions. She is the crew's world, the delicate, self-sufficient vessel of their existence. The members, each different in ethnic background and personality, work together to keep her operating properly and to insure their survival, acting as a unified driving force of the ship.
The humanists, who follow the basic moral outline set forth by Paul Kurtz in Humanist Manifestos I and II, believe that such a driving force can exist in the world in which we live. Kurtz asserts that "they deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic grounds. Man has reached a turning point in history where the best option is to transcend the limits of national sovereignty and to move towards building a world community in which all sectors of the human family can participate" To accomplish this they "look towards the development of a system of world law and a world order based upon transnational federal government."2 The Enterprise is symbolic of this unity, and her crew are the representatives of all the world's nations.
The recent Star Trek movies have dealt with three closely related objectives that the humanists feel must be reached before a unified world government can exist: 1) having faith in man, 2) finding purpose for existence, and 3) deciding the role of God in that existence. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin describes the first objective, faith in man, as being the fervent conviction that mankind as an organized whole possesses a future; a future consisting of not merely successive years, but of higher states to be achieved by struggle, not only for survival, but for some form of higher life.3
The one crew member on the Enterprise that best depicts this struggle for a higher life is Mr. Spock, the half-human, half-Vulcan First Officer. He is torn between his preferred Vulcan nature, which dictates that emotions serve no purpose and should be eliminated, and his ever-present human nature, which dictates that emotions are a necessary part of the whole and should be honored. It is in Star Trek - The Motion Picture that this inner conflict is resolved.
Spock has been on Vulcan, his home planet, undergoing the Kalinahr, the Vulcan ritual in which all emotions are released, and has nearly completed his training when we first see him in the movie. He is disturbed by a "consciousness" from space during the final phases and is unable to finish. Since he fails the Kalinahr, he leaves Vulcan in search of the "consciousness" because he believes that it holds his "answers."
He finds, once he is aboard the Enterprise, that the "consciousness" lies within an enormous energy cloud that is headed towards Earth. Spock senses that the "being" inside is extremely intelligent and is capable of emitting only "pure logic." Because of his desire and failure to achieve such a state, he is deeply intrigued by the "being."
During the long encounter with the "being," in which the Enterprise becomes trapped, Spock discovers the answer for which he has been searching. He tells Captain Kirk that logic and knowledge are not enough; without emotions, there is only emptiness. This realization is based upon one of the beliefs of humanists that "reason should be balanced with compassion and the whole person fulfilled."4
The answers he found were concealed in the resolution of his confusion between what he was and what he wanted to be. This confused state is similar to that of many humans today, torn between the need to be self-reliant and the need to be subservient. The Enterprise being trapped in the "being" was symbolic of this state on the global level. The humanists believe, as is depicted by the Enterprise's eventual escape, that the only way to resolve the situation is to choose the path of self-reliance.
The second objective, finding purpose for existence, is a problem that has faced man since early times. The humanists find the answer to this problem in their faith in man. They submit that
...men can find plenty of scope and meaning in their lives through freely enjoying the rich and varied potentialities of this luxurious earth; through preserving, extending and adding to the values of civilization; through contributing to the progress and happiness of mankind during billions and billions of years; or through helping to evolve a new species surpassing man.5In general, man's purpose is to make improvements in himself.
Indeed, one of the major problems man has to face is his feeling about death. Most people get depressed or try to avoid the subject when it is mentioned. In doing this, they have trouble realizing any satisfactory purpose for life because they view death as the absolute end. It becomes evident then, as Kirk states in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, that "how we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life."
In Star Trek II, Kirk represents the leaders of all the world's nations. He is stuggling to save the Enterprise, symbolic of the world, and her crew, its citizens, from what seems like certain destruction. When he is asked by Lieutenant Saavik, a Vulcan cadet training for a starship command, if he has ever faced death, he replies, "No, not like this." It is a question that too many people tend to ignore because their religions state that the end of man on Earth is inevitable. When it comes to the annihilation of the human race, however, Kirk has the right idea when he says, "I do not believe in a no win situation."
On the individual level, Kirk has to deal with another type of death, that of his close friend, Spock. All people must face this at some point in their lives. Kirk had an advantage that most do not have: He knew Spock died to save the Enterprise and her crew from being destroyed because, as Spock said before he died, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one." Spock's action follows the concept that "...to commit oneself to Humanist values is to put the welfare of human beings first."6
The final objective, the role of God, is the most controversial, if not the most important, of the three. If man were to accept a faith in himself and to believe that man holds his own destiny, the way in which he views God would be drastically changed. He would no longer be the omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient being that He is believed to be. Though some humanists deny the existence of God, only a modification of present beliefs is necessary to accomplish their goal. In reevaluating the current concept of God, three main areas must be considered: 1) His existence, 2) the creation of life, and 3) the salvation of man.
When Gene Roddenberry was creating the character Spock, he made two columns on a page. In one column, he wrote questions and in the other, he wrote Spock's answers. When God was mentioned in his notes, Spock corrected, "Its proper name is The Consciousness."7 This statement proposes that God does not exist physically, but as a feeling within people, as a consciousness. This would seem logical since, as Captain Decker, the Executive Officer of the Enterprise in Star Trek, stated, "We all create God in our own image."
In Star Trek II, the Federation has found a way to create life from lifelessness: the Genesis Project. It is a concept that takes away from religion the belief that only God can create life. It is no longer beyond the scope of man to perform such a task. The cells of living organisms can be altered and reproduced by humans. As the mysteries of life are slowly solved, the need to rely on the belief in a supernatural creator decreases.
The Genesis Project is also significant because it yields to the needs of two current theories of the origin of life: the Big Bang and creation. The Big Bang theory is supported by the fact that an explosion occurred, due to the detonation of the Genesis Torpedo, which produced a solar system containing life. The creation theory is maintained because there was a creator, man.
Through Star Trek II and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Spock becomes a parallel of Jesus. This should not seem peculiar because the moral teachings of the humanist philosophers are basically the same as those of Christianity. Man's salvation, however, is believed to be in his own hands instead of God's. The sacrifice that Spock makes in order to save the Enterprise, again symbolic of the world, is the same as that made by Jesus in the Christian religion. Each died by his own choice in order to assure the salvation of his people. Both believed in what Spock said logic dictates: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one."
This parallel is also discovered in what Kirk says after Spock dies. In Star Trek II, he quotes the last line of Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."8 Then, in Star Trek III, he replies to a trainee who asked if there would be a celebration when they returned to Earth: "God knows there should. This time we have paid for the party with our dearest blood."
The aftermath of Spock's death is similar to the aftermath of Christ's death. The same basic questions are being asked. In a conversation with Kirk in Star Trek III, Sarek, Spock's father, condemns him for leaving Spock on the Genesis planet. He says, "Spock trusted you and you denied him his future." When Kirk, bewildered, replies that he saw no future, Sarek becomes upset and exclaims that only the body was dead and that he should have taken the body to Vulcan. Kirk, still baffled, asks why, and Sarek replies, "Because he asked you to. He entrusted you with his very essence, with everything that was not of the body. He asked you to bring him to us and to bring that which he gave you, his living spirit."
This last statement is a summary of the attitude that the Christians have towards Jesus and his teachings. They claim that man should do as He asked for the simple reason that He taught and practiced goodness and entrusted man to carry out His teachings and practices. He gave man "that which was not of the body," His "living spirit."
Why, some may ask, should a movie based upon humanistic principles contain what would appear to be a religious statement? The answer to this lies in what Kirk told the Starfleet Commander in Star Trek III: "You don't have to believe. I'm not even sure that I do, but if there is a chance that Spock has an eternal soul, then it is my responsibility." Kirk, representing a global voice, is saying that if the human race has a chance of a glorious and peaceful future, whether we believe in it or not, it is our responsibility to make sure it has every conceivable opportunity to exist. As for God's role in this future, it can be said that "whatever feelings humanists have towards the mysterium fascinans and the mysterium tremendum of the universe, whether they call it God and whether God is dead or alive for them, they categorically deny that man's destiny depends on any external power, call it God or the Universe or Nature,"9 and, "while there is much we do not know, humans are responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves."10
Such aspirations as a unified world government, faith in man, finding purpose in life, and deciding the role of God may seem to some pompous ventures, but, while their goals for the human race are high ones, the humanists realize the limitations of man.
We should not be carried away wishfully by the lure of the possible, nor believe that it can easily become actual. In the nature of things, we are still frail animals, and though capable of creating wonders, we are still prone to error, limited by power, finite in an infinite universe. Although we may tap new sources of energy, there are doubtless powers which we must recognize and appreciate as beyond our control. There is a serene unfathomableness in the universe, far greater than man. We are insignificant by the measure of eternity.11
The picture of a humanistic world that Star Trek shows is not a totally undesirable one, though reaching a reasonably close situation in our world would be slowed by controversy from the religious community (in particular the Christian community). The humanists feel that our purpose is to achieve and to live in such a civilization, one in which all men and women of all races are equal, in which logic and reason are balanced with emotion instead of being dominated by it, and in which the unknown is appreciated instead of worshiped. If, indeed, we ever reach this goal, we will begin a new epoch in our eternal mission to explore ourselves and what we wish to become, hence, "to boldly go where no man has gone before."
2Paul Kurtz, Humanist Manifestos I and II (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1973), p. 21.
3Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, 1969), p. 192.
4Kurtz, Humanist Manifestos I and II, p. 18.
5Corliss Lamont, The Philosophy of Humanism (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1965), p. 108.
6Antony Flew, "Scientific Humanism," p. 112, quoted in J. Wesley Robb, The Reverent Skeptic (New York: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1979), p. 8.
7Gene Roddenberry, "Spock and Gaan," Futurist, Feb. 1985, p. 39.
8Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, 1948), p. 416.
9Alfred Braunthal, Salvation and the Perfect Society (Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1979), p. 328.
10Kurtz, Humanist Manifestos I and II, p. 16.
11Paul Kurtz, The Fullness of Life (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1973), p. 213.
Dickens, Charles. Tale of Two Cities. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, 1948.
Gerrold, David. The World of Star Trek. New York: Ballantine Books, 1973.
Kurtz, Paul (ed.). Humanist Manifestos I and II. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1973.
Kurtz, Paul. The Fullness of Life. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1973.
Lamont, Corliss. The Philosophy of Humanism. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1965.
Robb, J. Wesley. The Reverent Skeptic. New York: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1979.
Roddenberry, Gene. "Spock and Gann," Futurist, Feb. 1985, 39.
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Future of Man. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated, 1969.