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Article by Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson is a professor of amateur science at a major imaginary university and a regular blogger at CHUD. He has been able to read and write for over seventeen years. 46 Comments
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Wow, I'm sort of stunned. I totally didn't expect to see your defence of God (As the epitome of secular humanism) on here, and I'm pleasantly surprised by that since the general reaction to religious content on this site runs from condesencion to muted anger. I agree with you (Though I do believe in God). Even if God doesn't exist, it's a very big universe and the assumption that *everything* out there must be immediately understandable to us, or is capable of immediately interacting with us has always seemed not only silly, but a dramatic cheat. I like that there was some inscrutability in this. I didn't really like the second half of the finale, however, in which everyone suddenly acts completely out of character all the time, and 38,000 people agree to become homeless hippies after spending X number of years trying to avoid that.
I didn't articulate that well enough. I guess what I was trying to say with the "God" comment was that arguing that people can't believe in nor talk about God in science fiction is kind of like arguing that you can't have Gay people in science fiction, or that there will be no black people in the future, or whatever. Does that make sense?
That was really well put. Thank you!
I love that you brought up DS9's wormhole aliens/Prophets in your article. That's often what I use (cause I'm a nerd) to describe how I think about God. The scientifically-minded on that show called them the "Wormhole aliens", the Bajorans called them The Prophets and worshipped them as Gods. The question wasn't "Do they exist?" The question was "What do we call them?" That's how I see God. Something got this Universe going. Religious people call it God. Non-believers are waiting to see exactly what it is so they can give it a scientific-sounding name.
And I agree with you about your thoughts on BSG. A lot of people I know didn't like the ending because of its spiritual bent. But that spirituality was there from the first episode. The whole WORLD of the show was spiritual and magical and included prophecies that were proved right. It's as though many fans of the show chose to ignore all that in the hopes that it would be proved wrong in the end. But that's no way to watch a show! I didn't watch Lord of the Rings expecting that there weren't ACTUALLY going to be any such thing as Hobbits and Elves just because I think hobbits and elves are stupid. I accepted the world as written, and using the logic of that world, I enjoyed the story. For some reason, when religion comes up, a lot of people can't seem to be able to do that…
I really enjoyed the finale.
One of the things I liked most about the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica was that it virtually never relied on the technobabble common in most modern science fiction TV. It was about the characters and not the tech.
And from the very beginning, the show was filled with religion, spirituality, prophecy, visions, oracles, gods, God, angels, etc. Let's not forget this was the show with a bunch of robots who, for the most part, followed a monotheistic religion and believed in "God."
And it was filled with events and things that could never really explained away as lucky accidents or coincidence. Example: the Galactica just happened to arrived at the Algae Planet right before it's sun went nova which pointed the way to the part of their journey?
Obviously, they were being nudged along. Pointed in the right direction. Call it destiny, God, divine intervention or whatever you want. But it was obviously there. From the beginning. Regardless of whether the characters believed in it or not. And some of them clearly didn't.
And yet, so many viewers seem surprised and shocked that, in the end, "God" did it. As if it that came out of nowhere and was just pulled out of a hat and thrown in at the last minute to tie up some loose ends.
I get the feeling that many thought that in the end, "God" would turn out to be something else. Something more substantial or science-based. Something that could be easily explained away.
Which would be the weaker ending? The "God did it" ending that had been building up since the mini-series or trying to explain it all away in the final 2-3 hours with a bunch of sci-fi tech talk? Something the show never really did in it's entire run.
And of course, the beauty of it all is that the God who doesn't like to be called that, is never really explained or proven to be divine or supernatural. We don't know what "God" was any more than we know what the Lords of Kobol were. Or what the angels were.
Maybe they were divine? Maybe not? Does it really matter?
It's up to the viewer to decide.
(If you've read any of the recent interviews from RDM regarding the finale, it's pretty clear that they are not saying that "God" is supposed to be supernatural. It's something ambiguous. I don't think the writers or RDM really even know what "God" is supposed to be. Read it here: http://www.tvguide.com/News/Battlestar-Galacticas… )
And as to this overall story being an issue of "intelligent design" or Creationism… well, that's kind of funny to me. Because the original Battlestar was inspired by the book "Chariots of the Gods" from back in the late '60s. Pop pseudoscience at it's best.
The finale is not meant to be an endorsement of intelligent design. It's an obvious resolution to the story arc of the series. This is humanity (and Cylons) making the same mistakes, over and over again. And each time they make those mistakes, they are given a chance start again. To get another chance to get it right. They are given a chance to reset/reboot.
Look, there were enough subtle hints that the destroyed Earth they found was not our Earth. And since our Earth was shown at the end of Season 3, there was no question they would get there/here. The questions was when they would arrive and how the Colonials and Cylons would interact with us. (Thankfully we didn't have a repeat of Galactica 1980.)
So the finale basically keeps the spirit of the "life here began out there" concept of the original Galactica series. And it keeps with the new Galactica's concept of the cyclical nature of humanity.
There is absolutely nothing surprising about how the show ended.
Also, when Baltar is bargaining with Cavil for Hera, he says as much. That he doesn't know what "God" is, but that something made all this happen, and you can call it what you want.
Thanks.
Yes, I got the impression that exchange between Baltar and Cavil was supposed to sort of explain the ambiguous nature of "God" and these "angels." The uncertainty of what they were and what they were doing but the certainty that they were there and they were doing something to guide humanity and the Cylons.
One other thing… humanity abandoning their technology. I think people are missing the obvious. Humanity was simply tired. Imagine surviving a holocaust that was essentially of your own making. And then being locked up inside a bunch spacecraft for years, being pursued by robots, always looking over your shoulder, and watching what was left of humanity getting picked off in an unending conflict.
Their population had dwindled. The number of ships had dwindled and what was left was falling apart.
And then, the Cylon threat, finally seemed over. And the Galactica, their only real and true means of protection was nothing but a blasted hulk. And there were only a handful of ships left. They really didn't have much left.
Remember a few episodes back when they were giving away the last tube of Felgercarb tooth paste? Their creature comforts were dwindling.
That was it. This was their last chance. They were looking for a home and they finally found it.
And just how long was their technology going to last? Do you think they were really going to be able to scrounge enough from what was left from that rag tag fleet to start New New Caprica? And make it last? (Because New Caprica really worked well for them.)
No, I think humanity was simply exhausted. They wanted to live again under an open sky and not be attached to a few remaining technological creature comforts that wouldn't have lasted and would not have guaranteed their survival.
It's not like they were saying that technology was evil. It was more an issue of them not needing it to be human. Not needing it to live. They were really trying to break with the past and start over. Truly start over.
The majority of religious content reacted to around here is in the context of politics.
No, it doesn't. Reading this comment, it sounds like you're putting sexuality and ethnicity on the same plane as a belief system.
Nothing surprising, except for the ham-fisted way of showing Starbuck was an "Angel."
The entire series dealt with people on the verge of death/extinction, and how they responded to that – whether it was through substance abuse, personal recklessness, accepting or rejecting of "God's Plan." At no point were there any solid answers given as to who was right and who was wrong, it was a question posed to the audience, and we got the chance to watch fairly well-written characters struggle or ignore questions of faith and spirtuality.
Until BSG turned into an episode of "Touched By an Angel" in the final scenes.
Ham-fisted, obvious, and not in keeping at all with the supposed complexity of the show.
A much more elegant way for that scene to go would have been for Starbuck to announce that she was done, give Apollo a hug, and walk off into the horizon. After all, Gaelin decided he was done, and went walkabout on his own, so there was precedence. As she gets further and further away, a little flash of light, and then she's gone. Was it magical? Did the sun glint off of something and we just lost sight of her? Did she just spontaneously combust?
It's open to interpretation. And way more elegant.
Oh yes, and the fact that the writers or RDM don't even know what "God" is supposed to be in the fictional universe they created is just piss-poor writing.
How can a writer expect to convince an audience of the truth or non-truth of their story, if they don't know it themselves?