Is Star Trek A Religion?

"Star Trek has long been described as a cult phenomenon...but is it an actual cult? Some anthropologists think so. Following the example of anthropologist Margaret Mead, they lived among the natives and studied their rituals-that is, they went to Star Trek conventions and fan clubs. Here's what they found.

Their conclusions? Writes cultural anthropologist Michael Jindra in the journal Sociology of Religion:

When I undertook this research, my first intention was to focus on how ST [Star Trek] draws a picture of the future that is attractive to many Americans. But early on I realized I was dealing with something much bigger and more complex than I had anticipated...it had features that paralleled a religious-type movement: an origin myth, a set of beliefs, an organization, and some of the most active and creative members to be found anywhere...Religion often points us to another world; ST does the same.

Even Futurama floated the concept of a "Church of Trek" in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before." (Trek Priest: "And Scotty beamed them to the Klingon ship where they would be no Tribble at all." Congregation: "All power to the engines.")

Still a nonbeliever? Let's consider this point-by-point:"
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"This part of the article told me all I needed

"Mining will fundamentally change the Moon's atmosphere"

There is no Lunar atmosphere of anything more than negligible outgassing.

IF, and it's a huge if, we could find a way to convert the lunar surface, devoid of life, to enough energy to fuel the entire planet, and do so in a cost-effective way, while it wouldn't end war, it would go a long way to making the lives of everyone better and peace a more concrete option.

Star Trek had some of the worst sci-fi science I've seen in awhile. I know I'm the only one, but while it was better than a couple of the worst ST movies, it was about what I expected. All fiction, little science" - qazplm

"We're very close, as a matter of fact. Again, I invite you to take a look at the Polywell technology, and do keep in mind that the success these guys have had has been accomplished with mere peanuts in the way of funding. It works, it's just that the demonstration models are too small to be economical, as the power output increases at a geometric rate with the device's radius.

If we were spending even 1/20th of what we're spending on stupid bullshit like windmills and solar panels to develop actually economical sources of power like this, I have no doubt that we could use this as the sole source of power for our civilization in 15 or 20 years. Unlike with the fuck-tarded "green" nonsense, this technology has a vast physical potential.

But leave it up to the US Congress to spend hundreds of billions on the "practical" goal of running a modern society on hopelessly low-density sources of power like wind and solar, while they balk at more than a few pennies for "unrealistic" fusion technologies that have been demonstrated to work, and could clearly provide more energy than we'd know what to do with." - TylerFromNE

"The Vulcan capital Why is it that artists create these extraordinary scenes of "other world" cities, dramatic and beautiful architecture, but it's always ONLY in the movies. Why can't we build it and live in it for real? - I've always wondered about that. We live and work in big ugly boxes, in dirty congested cities, and everybody thinks it's normal. Why do we waste most of our resources on making weapons and war, and money and things nobody needs, rather than bettering our planet and exploring the universe?

I'm sorry, I know this isn't your topic, but when I see these pictures, I can't help but think about how humankind thinks it is so "superior" to all other creatures on Earth (uh the image of God? What a joke). In reality, the human monkey hasn't developed the wisdom and compassion part of the brain to overcome the reptilian part and we are headed for the fate of the Neanderthals.

So.. we bide our time in this orange corner of cyberspace, in a sort of hellish limbo, waiting and hoping for some major change in the human conscious. I don't see it coming. I sometimes wonder where the next "superior" species on Earth will evolve from after we are gone. Insects maybe? Birds?" - Anna M

"There is no comparision The Father of the US Tokamak program says the Tokamak wont work, Dr Robert Hirsch. Fmr Dir US Atomic Energy Commission.

The Tokamak means the DT fuel cycle, and the attendant thermal cycle and hardware. The shock absorbers (plasma dont wanna go in no perfect circle), the lithium, and if the Tritium production is a few % off the whole thing is unworkable.

Now on the Polywell side we find that the alphas exit thru 8 funny cusps, after no more than 1000 circuits of the machine, that means that 8.68 MeV isnt hitting that magnets, creating sputtering, instead the 8.68 MeV is being very convenient and showing up at 8 collection spots.

Yeah no thermal cycle for Polywell, no water, no steam, turbines, pumps, back up thermal systems etc.

1000MW PB-11 Polywell, 8 magnets 1.5m radius, vacuum chamber 4-5m, in a 10 meter square concrete building.

Polywell has hit a way higher plasma density level than any Tokamak design, exponentially more.

Polywell designs have the potential to be tweaked for different fuels, and to use water injection for a getting out of Earths gravity well in a QED style fusion rocket." - Roger Fox

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/31/737221/-On-diversity,-NASA-lags-behind.-New-Poll.-Star-Trek-News