The older I get, the more I relate to Spock. He’s always been a favorite character of mine, but only more recently have I started seeing pieces of him in my own personality. I’m not always a very emotional person, often perhaps leaning a little too far into my cold analytical side. Spock is a skeptic who is not willing to accept things at face value. He is a man of two worlds, being half human and half alien. He has one nature that burns with emotion, and another that trades away emotion for pure logic. But he always tries to push down the emotion and rely on logic for his choices, giving him great personal control.
This focus on logic has made Spock into something of an icon as the rational scientist. He will always look for the objective truth, rather than be swept away by his own feelings or biases. Combine that with creator Gene Roddenberry’s humanistic views and dislike for religion, and you’ve just attracted a sizable audience of atheists rallying against what they see as irrational religions. I wanted to take this idea of a perfectly logical character a step further and consider what they might have to say on religion, without the anti-religious agenda. I can’t help but wonder, would Spock be a Christian?
Would All Aliens be Atheists?
What if aliens showed up to Earth today? If they managed to get here, they would obviously be much more technologically advanced than us. Despite what many might think, that doesn’t mean they would automatically be atheists. There’s an assumption made by many today that if these highly advanced aliens existed, they would have set aside all that religious nonsense and embraced pure science and logic. If this were to happen, my first question to ask would be, “What do they have to say about Jesus?” I think there would be good reason to think that intelligent life that makes it to Earth has a stronger theistic view than we do. Who knows? Maybe the aliens need Jesus too.
Theism is Logical
If an alien of pure logic like the Vulcans from Star Trek, were real, I think they might be theists. The case for God is not based on superstition, myth, or blind faith. There are Christians with blind faith, but they are ignoring the strong case we have. There are major philosophical and scientific reasons to believe that a divine creator exists. This universe had a point where everything began. All of time, space, and matter came into being, begging the question; How? Objective morality exists, but where did that come from? If there is no objective morality, then everything is relative, and up to opinions and feelings. That’s not an especially logical state of mind for right and wrong. A moral law requires a moral lawgiver. These are just a few of the reasons to believe in God that don’t appeal to emotion or even the Bible.
Naturalism is Not Logical
Spock is often praised for his skepticism. If the crew of the Enterprise encounters an alien with seemingly god-like power, Spock will be the first to doubt. But how far should we take that skepticism? Of course, we don’t want to be fooled by every magic trick and call it a miracle. But that does not then mean miracles do not exist. The skeptic would argue that there is nothing more to this universe than physics, biology, and chemistry. This view steps outside the realm of logic and rationality. To say that there is nothing but matter leaves too many questions not just unanswered, but unanswerable.
There is no way they can explain the origin of the universe as stated before. Naturalism leaves them with no rational explanation for how life began, given what we know about the likelihood of even the most simple, single-celled, organism coming about by chance. It leaves them with no concrete explanation for human consciousness. That they’re doing science at all to get the kind of technology required for interstellar travel means they believe the universe makes sense. Without God, we have no reason to think that our brains are trustworthy, let alone scientific laws. Naturalism takes away any kind of transcendent value, purpose, or morality, instead making everything subjective. They try to put all their eggs into the Darwinian evolution basket, but that theory, true or false, is not sufficient to answer the deeper questions in life.
Would Spock be a Christian?
So would Spock, or any other alien, be an atheist? I don’t necessarily think so. If they are fully aware of the information, and able to set aside any emotional or volitional bias, Theism is on the table. I’m not saying that all atheists are irrational or that Christians are the only smart people. Taking all the information we have available, Christianity is reasonable, and we have every right to think that if Spock were real, he’d be just as, if not more, likely to be a Christian than an atheist.
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