In a slight departure from the normal theme of this website I want to talk about sci-fi. I recently watched the final episode of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. The four year run of the Sci-Fi Channel’s remake of the 1970’s hit show came to its climactic conclusion. As a sci-fi fan I had watch every episode and was eagerly waiting for all of the loose ends to be tied up. The Sci-Fi Channel had promoted the event with the slogan “You will know the truth.” Well the truth came and exploded with the impact of a supernova across this atheist’s brain. Their “truth” was: God!

—Spoiler Warning—

For those that have no idea of what I’m talking about, Battlestar Galactica was an experiment in television. It was, in my opinion, one of the most violent, graphic, engaging and mysterious adventures in television history. The plot lines at times made episodes of “Lost” seem like a Disney movie. The show was about the last survivors of the human race fleeing from a robotic race that they had created, the Cylons. The Cylons had turned on their creators and destroyed the 12 planetary worlds of the humans and were now pursuing the lone survivors. The humans were trying to reach a mythic “13th tribe” that according to legend split off from the rest of civilization thousands of years prior. The home of the 13th tribe was called Earth.

In addition to all of the special effects, dramatic plot lines, very adult themes and all of the other things made the show exciting; BSG was heaped in lots of mysticism and religion. I realized this from the start but because the production value was so high and the plot was so good I watched anyway. Besides almost everyone (humans) practiced a polytheistic religion so I didn’t take it too seriously. Some of the main characters were atheists, so I was content. As the show moved on there was an increasing amount of emphasis on prophesies and the idea of destiny. All of this was mixed with healthy skepticism so it really didn’t bother me. Well in the end, they answered all of the impossible to answer mysteries they had created over the past four years with one answer, “It was the will of God.”

Instead of even attempting to describe any of the unanswered questions and crazy story lines they had created, they pretty much invoked a deus ex machina and had the main characters literally say, “It was in God’s plan.” I dug around and found an interview with Ron Moore, the executive producer and found these interesting comments:

“I sort of assumed that the Colonials would have a belief system and figured it would probably be polytheistic, that seemed to be what they referred to in the original… “But it wasn’t really until relatively late in the game that I sort of randomly gave the Cylons a belief system.” …”I was in the middle of creating the characters and I was working on some lines for Number Six (a Cylon character) and I thought it was interesting if she professed a belief in God, in a single God.”
…”There came this notion of this outside monotheistic belief of the one true God that could not tolerate others, that started to drive out pagan worship and that fit very nicely with what we were doing with the show.”

Ron Moore, executive producer

The end of the series also promotes the idea of Intelligent Design. We (modern-day humans) are descended from a Cylon-Human child that was part of the original landing party on Earth 150,000 years ago. In other words we didn’t evolve – at least not on Earth. We are also shown that this has been a cycle that had been going on for quite some time and that maybe this time the cycle will be broken. Yes, there are many elements of Eastern Hindu – Jainism – Buddhism in there as well. The idea that humans were “planted” on Earth in accordance to a plan is just a bit much for me to swallow. I love sci-fi, and BSG will always remain one of my favorite shows. But I’m disappointed and feel a bit let down with final episode. Once again, something that was so wonderful has been riuned by religion. The theists will probably have a field day with this one – and I can’t blame then. In the sci-fi world of Battlestar Galactica, God reigns supreme:(