Idols

Image from Star Trek episode: “The Apple”

When I was young, I watched Star Trek- the original one with James T. Kirk. One episode that struck me was called "The Apple". It was about a primitive people living in a paradise. The people lived in leisure with no apparent cares and no obvious industry.

In an early scene, Captain Kirk and his crew save a woman who is drowning while everyone else simply sits and watches. It was as if they couldn't be bothered to move because her life was not important. Later the crew of the Enterprise is surprised when an alarm immediately mobilizes all the people to gather food and bring it to the mouth of a statue carved into the rock. They learn that the alarm was the call to feed their god. The people knew that if they did not feed their god in a timely manner, bad things happened.

Of course, by the end of the episode, the false god was debunked and the species living below ground is exposed. The entire story looks a lot like H.G. Wells "Time Machine".

With examples such as these, I believed that only a fool would believe in idols. Indeed, science fiction is full of tales of primitive people who believe in gods and the rational scientist heroes who know better and eventually expose the false gods for what they are - thus liberating the poor, ignorant, religious people. Rationalism to the rescue!

Stories like this, and a scientifically oriented father, made it hard for me to imagine any kind of personal relationship with God. God was "out there", the founder of the universe - not someone or something with which I could have a relationship.

As long as rationalism restrained my openness to a living God with whom I could actually have a two-way relationship, I was vulnerable to idols - especially the idol of control.

Over the next few weeks, I will explore this idol which has been with humanity from the very beginning. It is an idol I struggle with myself. I suspect you might too.