Q or the Supreme Being?

Who Do You Prefer?

As a long-time science fiction fan, I’ve come across countless stories of ordinary humans encountering advanced aliens. Many aliens in such stories are beyond our ability to understand their power. The mysterious aliens of “2001: A Space Odyssey” come to mind. We never see them, but their hidden interventions shape our development into intelligent beings. Their power transforms an ordinary man into a space-being, and they convert the planet Jupiter into another earth-like world (that part is in the sequel, “2010: The Year We Make Contact”).

While these aliens remain veiled and enigmatic, Q from Star Trek comes to mind immediately as a more relatable example. Q presents himself as a human, yet his powers are seemingly limitless. He can create at will something from nothing. He can change the course of time and even alter the “the universal constant of gravity” of the Universe. He’s immortal, but then again he is not. (At one point, Q had his powers taken away by the “Q continuum” and was made mortal.) This creates a contradiction of a sort: can you really be both immortal and mortal (even for only a short time)?

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Regardless of that little conundrum, I believe that Q is an example of how many modern humans like to envision a higher being. As an advanced alien, oddly as it sounds, Q is easier for many of us to grasp in these modern times. Q comes from “space,” which is something that exists in this universe, so we’re more comfortable with that. As such, I suspect, most “non-believers” of God prefer this idea of a higher being than the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Besides, a Q-like being provides many advantages for the modern human. While he from time to time stands in judgment of our deficiencies as a race, Q doesn’t present himself as a God. He doesn’t corner us with a bunch of laws and rules, and he doesn’t ask for worship. He doesn’t ask us to make sacrifices or change our way of life. And humanity’s reaction towards him (Captain Picard’s in particular) is not fearful awe or prostrate fear, but mostly distain and annoyance.

Photo by Davide Cantelli on Unsplash

Compare this with the Judeo-Christian God. We are told that God is beyond our mere human intellect and imagination. We can’t grasp him. He boggles the mind. Thinking about his nature for just a few moments demonstrates. Try to imagine a being who has always existed and always will. The Alpha and the Omega, he experiences all time and all the infinite possibilities within all those times all at once in his eternal present. The creator and prime mover of all existence, he sets all the definitions. A being who is not just all-powerful, he is might itself. He’s not just a loving Father, he is love itself. And with all that, he wants us to worship him. His laws lay down instructions on how to behave and worship him properly.

All this is a bit hard on the human ego. I mean to say, we are mere ashes and dust of the cosmos compared to God. That’s hard to identify with. Q is much more reflective of ourselves, and thus is much more relatable. We’re still hapless mortals compared to Q, but then there’s the catch. Even after experiencing his limitless powers, humans (in Star Trek) don’t really respect Q at all. That’s because he isn’t good, nor is he worthy of our worship and respect. He’s, well, not God. Q, by the way, can be both immortal and mortal because that’s how we are as well. Q merely mirrors our own lives. Q may die in this life, but his immortal soul will continue on like ours.

God, on the other hand, not only deserves our love and respect—we owe it to him. He expects us to give him his due—which is everything. He may have rules for us to follow, he may ask us to sacrifice our very lives, but he offers the one thing that Q and his ilk do not—eternal love combined with the joy that comes with that. In spite of our comparatively lowly status, God loves each one of us as if we were the only creature in all of creation. He’s not an impersonal god. In fact, he pitched his tent among us, the Word became flesh.

So, if you’re not convinced, and you still prefer Q over God, you’re left with a mystery. Without an infinite being behind it all, how did all this come to be? Where did all that we see and experience come from? Why are we alive?

Q does not answer those weighty questions. Not even with the number 42, the answer to “The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.”

If you only have Q, there is a God-sized gap in your worldview.

(Hint: The answer to ultimate question is a person, and his name is Jesus Christ.)

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