Talk:Chaplain

Roddenberry v. Reality, or, Why Are There Chaplains in Star Trek?
I wrote the article with two main groups of reasoning. First, logic (not Vulcan "logic," real logic): Prylars as civilian contractors came from it being simpler to just bring them aboard and have them sign a waiver than have Starfleet Academy put together a chaplains' corps curriculum.
 * Following Bajor's admittance into the Federation, there would be Bajoran officers and enlisted in Starfleet.
 * Bajorans are predominantly very religious, although obviously this will vary by individual (I play and write Kanril Eleya as religious but quite secular).
 * Bajoran officers and enlisted in Starfleet who are religious would logically want to attend services while on deployment.
 * Someone would need to administer those services.

Second, I personally find the Federation more believable as a government that is not atheist, but rather secular (basically, check your Bible at the door of the Federation Council chamber and pick it up again when you leave). Yes, Roddenberry was an atheist and tried to make humanity's outlook in the setting adhere to humanism, but as much as I respect the setting he came up with, Roddenberry himself just a guy like so many in Hollywood: an ego case with a lot of really good ideas, a lot of really stupid ideas, and some degree of difficulty telling which was which. A species is too big to be put into one bucket, as it were, and I don't feel humans are likely to become universally atheist ever. And frankly the episodes that pushed it were some of Star Trek's worst IMHO:  would have been better served by being an exploration of the consequences of violating the Prime Directive rather than the atheism Author Tract it ended up as. --StarSword (talk) 19:38, February 8, 2014 (UTC)