'Why Not Question' : Religion and Star Trek

'Bread and Circuses', an episode from Classic Star Trek, dropped the heroes Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy, into a Roman based world. The only thing striking them odd about the whole thing was a spreading belief about sun worship. It did not jive with what they knew about Rome back on Earth.

At the end, when they were finally safe back on the bridge of the Enterprise, it was Uhura who informed them it wasn't about worshiping the sun, rather, the son of God. It clicked in Kirk's mind that Rome also had Christ and wow, the word was just getting around.

Unfortunately, in Star Trek Next Generation, any type of belief in God had been done away with and the galaxy, a hundred years later, was filled with atheists. Although the crew did, from time to time, run into beings with religious beliefs, any type of belief in God was completely ignored.

Which begs the question, what happened in those hundred years to destroy God in the eyes of humanity? A question not answered by the writers and giving the new show a different flavor from the original.