BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: Mormons in Space
With the new Battlestar Galactica set to debut on the Sci-Fi Channel in January of 2005, I hearken back to the 1970's original where Starbuck wasn't a "Stardoe," Boomer was a black guy, and the ship looked more like a spaceborne tank and less like a radiator.
This new series, which made its two-part miniseries debut in late 2003, updated the show so that it looks alot like alot of other sci-fi shows. The Cylons "look like us" (ie, they're androids...duh), their ships resemble the shadow vessels of Babylon 5, Starbuck (now a Stardoe) resembles Tasha Yar of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1st season) fame, Colonel Tigh is now white and looking more like Senator John McCain, Boomer's also had a sex change and looks like Hoshi from Star Trek: Enterprise, and Baltar has gone from outright self-agrandizing traitor to a sympathetic character who was duped by a real live barbie doll. The cylons are an army of terminators bringing "Judgment Day" down upon their creators, obviously having never read Asimov or his laws of robotics.
Underlying all of this though is still some rather peculiar "space dogma" that comes straight out of Mormonism. From the "Quorum of the Twelve" (leaders or their representatives of the 12 worlds), a word-for-word title of the LDS counsel comprised of 12 "living apostles" to the Lords of Kobol, which is obviously taken from Kolob, the mythical star/planet where the god of Mormonism resides (see Abraham chapter 3), alot of the underlying religious beliefs of these 12 "tribes of humans" is obviously heavily borrowed from the Mormons.
In the original series, Adama performs a wedding ceremony between his son Apollo and Serina (Boxey's mother) and "seals" them "for time and all the eternities." This reflects, with a minor modification, the Mormon temple rite that seals a couple "for time and eternity."
In another episode, a character named Count Iblis (pronounced ee-blee; Lucifer's name in the Koran) is being chased around the galaxy by a group of evolved aliens that look like women wearing sparkling white burkas, but have very deep masculine voices. When Apollo and Starbuck and one other are abducted out of their vipers by these beings, among other things they are told, "As you are, we once were; as we are, you may become." This bit of theistic evolution comes from a paraphrasing of Brigham Young's infamous words: "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." (This despite what God Himself has to say on the matter in Isaiah 40:18, 25; 41:4; 42:8; & esp. 43:10-11; not to mention 44:6, 24; 45:21-22; 46:5,9; 48:11-12; & 55:8-9 KJV.)
All of this just goes to show that, while Mormonism may make lousy theology, I guess it serves to make reasonably good science fiction, unlike L. Ron Hubbard's books (Battlefield Earth series); he of Scientology fame (DIANETICS), who once declared, "If a man really wants to make alot of money, he should start his own religion." Looks like Joe Smith, Jr. was way ahead of you.
This new series, which made its two-part miniseries debut in late 2003, updated the show so that it looks alot like alot of other sci-fi shows. The Cylons "look like us" (ie, they're androids...duh), their ships resemble the shadow vessels of Babylon 5, Starbuck (now a Stardoe) resembles Tasha Yar of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1st season) fame, Colonel Tigh is now white and looking more like Senator John McCain, Boomer's also had a sex change and looks like Hoshi from Star Trek: Enterprise, and Baltar has gone from outright self-agrandizing traitor to a sympathetic character who was duped by a real live barbie doll. The cylons are an army of terminators bringing "Judgment Day" down upon their creators, obviously having never read Asimov or his laws of robotics.
Underlying all of this though is still some rather peculiar "space dogma" that comes straight out of Mormonism. From the "Quorum of the Twelve" (leaders or their representatives of the 12 worlds), a word-for-word title of the LDS counsel comprised of 12 "living apostles" to the Lords of Kobol, which is obviously taken from Kolob, the mythical star/planet where the god of Mormonism resides (see Abraham chapter 3), alot of the underlying religious beliefs of these 12 "tribes of humans" is obviously heavily borrowed from the Mormons.
In the original series, Adama performs a wedding ceremony between his son Apollo and Serina (Boxey's mother) and "seals" them "for time and all the eternities." This reflects, with a minor modification, the Mormon temple rite that seals a couple "for time and eternity."
In another episode, a character named Count Iblis (pronounced ee-blee; Lucifer's name in the Koran) is being chased around the galaxy by a group of evolved aliens that look like women wearing sparkling white burkas, but have very deep masculine voices. When Apollo and Starbuck and one other are abducted out of their vipers by these beings, among other things they are told, "As you are, we once were; as we are, you may become." This bit of theistic evolution comes from a paraphrasing of Brigham Young's infamous words: "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." (This despite what God Himself has to say on the matter in Isaiah 40:18, 25; 41:4; 42:8; & esp. 43:10-11; not to mention 44:6, 24; 45:21-22; 46:5,9; 48:11-12; & 55:8-9 KJV.)
All of this just goes to show that, while Mormonism may make lousy theology, I guess it serves to make reasonably good science fiction, unlike L. Ron Hubbard's books (Battlefield Earth series); he of Scientology fame (DIANETICS), who once declared, "If a man really wants to make alot of money, he should start his own religion." Looks like Joe Smith, Jr. was way ahead of you.
posted by Postmann | 9:32 PM
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