if i am actually in the Star Trek world, I’d rather put my faith in the prophets…
did you see they actually make a whole fleet disappear when you pray to them?
Nope, guess I missed that one.
Picard ( speaking as the A-1 character that represents the goody two-shoes principles of the 24th cent. He is the moral center of the show and the character that we are supposed to hear his words and “get the point”) states in the proto-vulcan episode “Who Watches the Watchers” that religion is false, ignorant and the idea of the proo-vulcan haveing one is insane. I am not quoteing…but do a search on google for Picard and religion and the scene comes up on two you tube clips. ( at work so I can’t access to quote directly)
But in the episode, the human’s pretty much all agree with this as given fact. Picard clearly states for the camera that belief in rekligion is stupid and ignorant and dangerous and enslaves the culture to the horror of servtitude to irrational thought. ( I paraphrase…watch the episode clips I talked about)
Sure Chakotay ( a fringe federation citizen …aka terrotist) has “religion” and vulcans have ceremomy…taht I don’t think we can call religion. But for the most part ot looks like Human religion is considered stupid ( adm it seems that others are as well…they jsut acr sensitive to as not to offend…mostly)
Deep space nine pretty much says that humans are all athiests. BUT they seem to show toolerance for Bajor and Klingon religions out of curtesy…but by no means to they belive at all.
BTW being an athiest… I still think that this episode is rather heavy handed. I don’t go so far in my beliefs as to have such contempt for the idea of religion that Picard seems to feel.
i mean they feel Qs are just weirdo aliens, Qs! so if Qs aren’t godly enough for them, I guess prophets aren’t either.
Really that makes me dislike Picard a lot.
When I first saw that episode, I took it that Picard was just vehemently against the idea of being a “god” to/for the people more than anything else and he was voicing frustrations at being asked to do so. shrugs
Edit: Here’s a clip from the article Badger posted.
This video of picard making the old ladies at your mom’s church cry
Yes…that is the way it looks at first.
Buth when prompted to give them a set of rules so they can florish Picard is speaking that teh absense of ANY religion is an achievent ( and he say is like it’s the expectation of any modern society) Not just the act of not worshioing them.
Above I linked the whole scene. Listen to the way Riker and Picard cringe at teh words religion and even speak of a lack of one being an achievement.
But watch the scene where he rants. He doesn’t spek simply of not likeing the idea of HIM being a god. He speaks to the general idea of religion. He speaks that they are rational ( and achievement) by becomeing an athiest society. They talk about how “they” are now rational for abandoning their belief in the supernatural/religion.
The doctor tells picard that they would form a religion and mentions the posiiblilty of holy wars, inquisitions, and superstiion. At what point Picard says “this is horrible” ( he isn’t speaking becasue it’s false…he is saying that the idea of a religion at all is false. The tone is very clear)
Then Patrick Stewart says he will not sabotage their ACHIEVEMENT of abandoning the irrational and will not send them back “into the dark ages of superstition, ignorance and fear.”
He is not speaking of a time when they used to worship him…he is speaking of when they used to have a religion.
“What does GOD need with a Starship”- James T Kirk
Seeing this scene… was the moment I became an atheist - rpfunk .
For me V is the most anti-religious Trek of all, but I don’t think Shatner was endorsing atheism. In that scene Sybok realizes that in his search for God, he lead his followers to a false god and to their destruction. When “God” shows him his own face Sybok knows it was his pride that was his down fall. I think what Shatner was trying to convey with the grandeur of Yosemite and the existential camp fire song was that you can find God without religion.
I think one of the reasons that the movie didn’t translate well is that Kirk is too much of a bad-ass to convey any semblance of humility.
Now with poll! 
It’s fascinating to me how widely opinion varies on this. I suppose it’s fitting, though. Like religion, people are looking at the same evidence and coming up with drastically different interpretations.