[Enterprise Captain]

Originally Posted by I-Am-Zim

Thanks martok. Very well said. Especially since 95% of the Earth's population believes in a supreme being in one form or another. For me personally, it's hard to believe that the other 5% seems to believe that the rest of us suffer from some sort of mass delusion. So the question of the OP is quite logical. However, whether Vulcans, Romulans, or Tatoomulans believe in a deity has never really been explored to any significant degree in Star Trek.

I would like to point out that just because the majority of the Earth's population believes in a supreme being (Can you please provide a link for that 95% to 5% statistic?) it doesn't make that belief any more or less correct. The majority of the Earth's population once believed the Earth was flat. Also I wouldn't say that all non believers believe that believers are suffering from some sort of mass delusion. It's seems that because of one earlier debate on this board which brought up Dawkin's "God Delusion" the word "delusion" has been thrown around a lot when it comes to topics of religion. It also seems that because I tried to clarify Dawkin's position to some believers on this board some people seem to think that I believe all believers are suffering from a delusion and that they are delusional but that is not the case. I was baptized Christian and my parents choose one of the Minister's daughters at the Hungarian Reformed Christian Church I attended to be my Godmother. I went to a camp run by that same church for 10 days every summer starting at 5 years old. I had my confirmation when I was 12 and continued to attend church on a regular basis until about 16. I personally don't need to classify faith in to another category and I wouldn't call my parents, my Godmother, the congregation at the church I attended or my fellow campers delusional. With that said my position after all those years of religious teaching is that God most likely doesn't exist. When I tell believers my story they all seem to say something on the lines of "I'm sorry you lost your faith." But the truth is looking back now at all those years of religious teaching I don't think I ever had faith. I always found myself questioning what I was being told in my head, it just never clicked for me. Now that I'm older I have further examined the religion I was taught and find that many aspects don't appeal to me. When it comes to the God depicted in the Christian Bible weather he/she/it exists or not I won't support him/her/it. God's son Jesus though seems to have been a much more reasonable and moral fellow. I find Thomas Jefferson's Bible "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" interesting. Jefferson toke Jesus's story and removed all of Jesus's claims of divinity out and left the moral teachings. To bring this post back on topic I read here on Wikipedia that:

Although Roddenberry was raised as a Southern Baptist, he instead considered himself a humanist and agnostic. He saw religion as the cause of many wars and human suffering. Brannon Braga said that Roddenberry made it known to the writers of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation that religion and mystical thinking were not to be included, and that in Roddenberry's vision of Earth's future, everyone was an atheist and better for it

To clarify I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with Roddenberry's position. I'm pointing it out to show why most likely the discussion of "Do the Vulcans and Romulans believe in God" was not brought up in Star Trek.

[NCC_1701A]

"Although Roddenberry was raised as a Southern Baptist, he instead considered himself a humanist and agnostic. He saw religion as the cause of many wars and human suffering. Brannon Braga said that Roddenberry made it known to the writers of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation that religion and mystical thinking were not to be included, and that in Roddenberry's vision of Earth's future, everyone was an atheist and better for it"

I am glad they failed to listen to him and religion was included to some degree. Religion has been around since the begining of recorded history and it would be implusible for star trek to represent the future and not include religion in some capacity. Religion may not be as dominant in some parts of the world today but I do not believe it will ever disappear.

[kevin]

GR had a solid enough point about Religion and it's indeed why it was never dwelt upon (in humans - in other races then it was indeed brought in from time to time) but I think in Star Trek he was going down the route that Religion had become a personal matter - or internal to the individual rather than guiding a society more directly.

That said, since the bulk of TOS was set far from Earth then we can't rule out that religion still had a place in the lives of 23rd/24th Century humans. There are clues it's still there, even in TOS.

GR just decided it would not be at the forefront.

[horatio]

Trek has implied that religion still exits in the future and that it doesn't have much of an influence upon public life.
Seems pretty natural to me as religion is an inherently human thing which has has always existed so why should it become exticnt in a few hundred years.
An alliance of hundreds of planets with potentially thousands of different believes cannot work together with political religion.