Souls, the Final Frontier: Human Intuitions of Mind in Star Trek

Abstract

In this article, the author investigates the religiously resonant nature of aspects of certain narratives within the popular science fiction mythology of Star Trek as well as the implications of the religiosity implicit in that mythology. Drawing on literature from social and evolutionary psychology as well as popular culture studies, the author claims that various Star Trek series both explicitly and implicitly utilize the religiously resonant concept of the soul. The use of the soul as a narrative device relies on most humans' psychological tendencies toward essentialist thinking and offline social reasoning. The author argues that by narratively affirming the idea of souls, Star Trek narratives occasionally constitute religiously resonant fantasy as opposed to depicting a fully rationalist and non-religious human future, as some anti-religionists argue.