Star Trek actor, John de Lancie, discusses being openly secular.

I really enjoyed this because it so closely reflects my own experience as a very young child dealing with my own doubts about religion and my realization that I was going to see forever the world differently than many of my peers.

Part of my goal on this blog is to dispel the notion that Atheists, Agnostics, and those living a secular lifestyle are amoral psychopaths who hate the gods and want to engage in drunken orgies everyday. 

(Okay well maybe there is a hint of truth to that last part.)

Hopefully by presenting evidence of reasonable, critically thinking individuals, who are living a life free of superstition and a religiously constructed prison of fear and shame, that I am helping to do that.

The world has lost perhaps its most famous icon for promoting logic and science. Mr. Spock aka Leonard Nimoy.

Courtesy of The New York Times:

Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83. 

His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

Mr. Nimoy announced that he had the disease last year, attributing it to years of smoking, a habit he had given up three decades earlier. He had been hospitalized earlier in the week. 

I am one of a vanishing breed who remembers actually watching Star Trek when it made its first appearance on television in the sixties.

I, of course, was too young to pick up on the not so subtle messages inserted in each episode against war, against organized religion, and against racism. Instead I was incredibly fascinated with the whole beaming of people on and off the Enterprise, and of course the space monsters, aliens, and green skinned women.

However as the years have gone by, and I have seen every TV episode multiple times, and each of the movies at least once, I have become incredibly impressed with the concept of the show and its amazing cast.

And of course for me the most impressive cast member was always Leonard Nimoy.

For an awkward, precocious child trying to make sense of the world, and questioning the "facts" being presented by the adults, I always found myself relating to Mr. Spock most of all.

But let's face it, EVERYBODY loves Spock.

Even the President of the United States.
 
I personally have always thought that this Mr. Spock quote was his best:

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

And one I should mention that I have adopted as a personal creed. Which of course puts me at odds with certain political ideologies I could name.

Finally I would offer Mr. Nimoy the traditional Vulcan send off of "Live long and Prosper" but considering the circumstances that would be.....illogical.

"To Be Takei." New documentary about the life of George Takei.

Courtesy of Fox News:  

Takei's life is the subject of a new documentary, "To Be Takei," which is available on Direct TV from July 3 to August 5 and will be released in theaters August 22. The film explores everything from Takei's childhood imprisonment in a Japanese internment camp to his relationship with his husband, Brad. 

"It documents my story, my life, from the time I was a child imprisoned in US camps, barbed-wire prison camps, simply because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor," Takei said. 

Takei preaches acceptance in diversity in every facet of life - which is why he posts "Star Wars" content as often as he shares "Star Trek" photos. 

"'Star Trek' was science fiction. 'Star Wars' is science fantasy, and that's a lot of fun too," Takei said. "We're a diverse country with many different races, many different religions, many different histories and backgrounds and we have to respect each other and that's the essential message of our documentary 'To Be Takei.'"

Seriously is there anybody who does not love George Takei?

I remember really being a fan of his during his Star Trek days, but what he is doing these days on social media is actually more impressive than the fact that as a gay Asian actor he played such in important role in an iconic television series that his still believed to this day.

By the way if you are not following George on Twitter you are really missing out.

New "documentary" would like you to ignore all of that science stuff on Cosmos, and allow them to give you the straight poop on the Copernican theory. Forget arguing against Evolution, these people are going old school.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A new documentary film, narrated by a former Star Trek actress, promotes the long-ago disproven idea that the sun revolves around the Earth. 

“Everything we think we know about our universe is wrong,” says actress Kate Mulgrew as she narrates the trailer for “The Principle.” 

The film, which is set to be released sometime this spring, was bankrolled in part by the ultra-conservative and anti-Semitic Robert Sungenis, who maintains the blog “Galileo Was Wrong.” In addition to Mulgrew, who played Capt. Kathryn Janeway in “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Star Trek: Nemeis,” the film features several scientists, including Michio Kaku, Lawrence Krauss, and Max Tegmart.

The scientists are of course quoted completely out of context to give the impression that they support this lunacy.

In fact one of them, Lawrence Krauss, went to the film's Facebook page , where he responded to concerns that he participated in the making of this film:

I didn't..but the good thing is that I am hoping that journalists contact me, in the rare chance that more than 3 people actually want to watch this garbage.. and I can tell them it is not worth watching..

The technique of interviewing scientists, and then taking their answers completely out of context, was also recently used by Ray "The banana man" Comfort on his incredibly deceptive piece of propaganda, "Evolution vs God."

I cannot however so easily dismiss Kate Mulgrew's participation as the narrator of this pseudo scientific piece of garbage.

I thought she was great as Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, and recently rediscovered her in "Orange is the New Black" as the incredibly intimidating 'Red' Reznikov.

I actually think that this is just a desperate attempt to ride on the coattails of Neil deGrasse Tyson's new Cosmos series by introducing a "documentary" which supposedly refutes what the Professor has been saying about scientific assertions.

Personally I am pretty shocked that in this day and age there is anybody who would actually put forth a theory that was refuted over 500 years ago.

Sometimes those who play heroes in television and movies are equally heroic off the screen. It is my pleasure to present to you Sir Patrick Stewart.

This is incredibly emotional story comes from the blog of a young woman who is a HUGE Star Trek fan as well as the survivor of domestic abuse. She happened to get the opportunity to ask her hero Jean Luc Picard a question during a comic book convention.

THIS is the amazing response:

I went to Comicpalooza this weekend and I was full of nervous energy as I was standing in line to ask Sir Patrick Stewart a question at his panel. I first had to thank him for a speech he had given at amnesty international about domestic violence towards women . I had only seen it a few months ago but I was still dealing with my own personal experience with a similar issue, and I didn’t know what to call it. After seeing Patrick talk so personally about it I finally was able to correctly call it abuse, in my case sexual abuse that was going to quickly turn into physical abuse as well. I didn’t feel guilty or disgusting anymore. I finally didn’t feel responsible for the abuse that was put upon me. I was finally able to start my healing process and to put that part of my life behind me. 

After thanking him I asked him “Besides acting, what are you most proud of that you have done in you life (that you are willing to share with us)?”. Sir Patrick told us about how he couldn’t protect his mother from abuse in his household growing up and so in her name works with an organization called Refuge for safe houses for women and children to escape from abusive house holds. Sir Patrick Stewart learned only last year that his father had actually been suffering from PTSD after he returned from the military and was never properly treated. In his father’s name he works with an organization called Combat Stress to help those soldiers who are suffering from PTSD. 

They were about to move onto the next question when Sir Patrick looked at me and asked me “My Dear, are you okay?” I said yes, and that I was finally able to move on from that part of my life. He then passionately said that his mother had done nothing to provoke his father and that even if she had, violence was never, ever a choice a man should make. That it is in the power of men to stop violence towards women. The moderator then asked “Do you want a hug?” 

Sir Patrick didn’t even hesitate, he smiled, hopped off the stage and came over to embrace me in a hug. Which he held me there for a long while. He told me “You never have to go through that again, you’re safe now.” 

I couldn’t stop thanking him. His embrace was so warm and genuine. It was two people, two strangers, supporting and giving love. And when we pulled away he looked strait in my eyes, like he was promising that. He told me to take care. And I will.

Here is the video of their exchange. On it you can hear the passion with which this amazing gentleman discusses the importance for young men to recognize that it is up to THEM to stop the violence against women.

That is a very powerful message coming from an iconic figure who deserves every bit of the admiration and love that he receives from his fans.

We need many more just like him.

George Takei responds to those who protested outside of the Supreme Court during the hearings concerning the repeal of DOMA.

A Buzzfeed reporter had asked the protestors back in March to write their feelings on pad of paper.

Recently the amazing George Takei agreed to respond kind.

Here are a few more for your entertainment.

Ahh, a battle of the wits with the witless. Gotta love Sulu!

You can see more of his responses by heading on over to Buzzfeed.

This one is for you Trekkies.

Original Spock, Leonard Nimoy, schools newfangled Spock, Zachary Quinto, on the power of Spock.

I thought this was very imaginative and it is especially relevant to me because my daughter and I are big fans of the OLD Star Trek series, and when she was very little she used to lie in my bed and watch it with me before she would go to sleep back when they showed reruns every night before her bedtime.

The new Star Trek movie comes out the weekend after this next one, and I have been informed that I WILL be taking her, and we WILL see it at the IMAX theater here in town.

I also assume I WILL be paying for it, and I WILL sit in the middle of the theater where, according to my daughter, the civilized people sit to watch a film.

(Psst! Between you and me, I was going to see it anyway, but I just let her think she is calling the shots.)

Mr. Spock's amazing 1968 letter to a young biracial fan who felt isolated and all alone.

In 1968 Leonard Nimoy received a letter from a young fan, that he thought not only required a response but that the response be reprinted in a teen magazine called FAVE so that other bans dealing with similar problems could read it.

Here is how that letter appeared in FAVE in 1968:

Click here if image fails to enlarge.

Click here if image fails to enlarge.

You know I am ALWAYS more impressed by individuals who stood up for equality when it was still risky to do so. In 1968 Leonard Nimoy certainly ran the risk of turning off certain fans who were not yet ready to treat all people the same, but clearly he did not care.

He felt this young person's pain and responded to it like a human being. (Despite being half Vulcan of course.) And that is admirable on ANY planet.

I have always been a fan of Star Trek, and Spock was always my favorite, this just reinforces that I have good taste in TV shows and the actors who work on them.

(H/T to My Star Trek Scrapbook)

Just an early morning reminder of how cool your President is.

Live long and prosper Mr. President.