By Jeff Long

"Star Trek" debuted on NBC-TV in 1966, and was created by the late Gene Roddenberry. "The Orville," inspired by "Star Trek," began its first season on Fox this past September, and was created by Seth MacFarlane, who also stars in the series. Both sci-fi series feature a crew on an intergalactic starship facing regular adventures with other cultures in the universe.

Both Roddenberry and MacFarlane are atheists. The word "atheism" simply means "not a theist," not a person who accepts a divine hand in the universe.

Roddenberry, for his part, was careful about his belief system, writing episodes and hiring others to do so with a mandate not to offend a television audience that was larger half a century ago and more outwardly religious. Viewers had far fewer choices in the mid-1960s: ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and perhaps a UHF channel. And it was difficult to pick the last one up unless your rabbit ears (indoor antenna, for younger readers) were turned a certain way and swathed in aluminum foil.

With so many potential eyeballs tuning in, Roddenberry couldn't afford to lose anyone and hope to stay on the air. He knew openly advertising his atheism in writing "Star Trek," which aired until 1969, was bad business. As a result, he treated religion in the series carefully, even gently. In a splendid episode ("Bread and Circuses," original air date, March 1968), written by Roddenberry, the crew lands on a planet that had developed a culture remarkably similar to ancient Rome -- except with all modern conveniences, including televised gladiator contests. The guest protagonist, a former champion gladiator, refused to fight in the games because he had become a follower of the sun. The Star Trek crew was mystified in a pantheistic belief in the sun, realizing only at the end of the screenplay that the gladiator believed in the Son, the Son of God. "Of course," Captain Kirk mused, "Caesar and Christ. Rome had them both." It was a cleverly devised tale -- and Roddenberry's atheism was hidden underneath a well-written story.

Seth MacFarlane operates in a much different time. The America of 2018 is not the United States of the late 1960s. Today, the viewer has hundreds of choices when it comes to TV programming. It is so easy to watch on so many platforms, and a television show can afford to appeal to only a niche audience. With that reality in mind, MacFarlane is free to trumpet his point of view, secure in the knowledge people of faith, in the main, probably aren't watching his program anyway. And he doesn't need them to stay on the air. In the finale of this current season of "The Orville" ("Bad Idolatry," 2018), MacFarlane likens religious faith to mythology, to idol worship. He alludes to faith as a primitive point of cultural evolution. "Yes," MacFarlane the screenwriter proffers, "we must have faith -- in reason, in discovery, and in the endurance of the logical mind."

In the episode referenced above, MacFarlane posits an all-powerful and corrupt religious leader wearing the finery of office (a bishop-like figure with a miter on his head and garbed in white and gold vestments) nonchalantly sipping ceremonial wine, being viciously judgmental, and crucifying those who refuse to believe. Roddenberry wouldn't have gotten anywhere near that sort of depiction -- but, as I say, times have changed.

I'm not angry at Seth MacFarlane. "The Orville" is entertaining, while below the quality of the original "Star Trek." He has a point of view. I'll keep watching, while rejecting his premise: People of faith are trapped in an outmoded understanding.

I can't prove the God in whom I trust. Neither can MacFarlane disprove a superior being. It's a stalemate. Billy Graham's organization puts out a publication called "Decision." That's where it is for each of us. Each of us must choose what side of the stalemate, must decide which end of the religious faith/no-faith spectrum, to reside. I have a friend who claims atheism that I believe I'd trust with my life. The stalemate doesn't have to be contentious -- not so long as we keep talking with each other.