What do you all think of the connection between real life religions and the new enemy in the TV show Stargate?

Question

In the TV show Stargate-SG1 the new enemy seems to parallel real life religious zealots amazingly well. The Ori are a group of "aliens" that lived billions of years ago and eventually evolved to understand the nature of the universe so well that they exist only as beings of energy. The thing is that they evolved from the original humans in another galaxy but the culture split ideologically and parted ways when these ascended beings realized that they could gain power in their godly dimension when the unascended humans worshipped them. It seems that the Ori were all about this so they went about creating a race of humans with their technology to worship them and increase their power. The Alterians (the other side of the fence) felt it was wrong to selfishly increase their power by using humans to worship them. While both races were still mortals it seems that the Ori created a plague to infect the Alterians so being worried that they would be wiped out, created a genetic code on (more)

-Earth that would eventually unfold into a second coming of the Alterian race. Essentially they created us by setting up a genetic code like a self extracting zip file. The Alterians moved off to another galaxy to allow us to evolve independently. Eventually the Alterian race managed to defeat the plague and / or ascend before they were all wiped out. They now exist as ascended beings of energy outside of our understanding. Some of these ascended beings were in disagreement though over the power of the Ori. The Ori would eventually try and destroy them with the power they gained from their worshipers. So 1 Alterian decided to return to a human form as Merlin (from king Arthur) and the reason he seemed to have magical powers was his understanding of everything. He returned to the physical world in order to build a weapon that was capable of killing ascended beings. The Alterians intervened though because they were afraid of what the weapon could do. (more)

Eventually our present day Stargate team finds one of Merlin’s devices which turns out to be used for communication. They were playing with it trying to get it to work when they accidentially contacted the humans of the Ori galaxy. This alerted the Ori of our existence in this galaxy and now they are bent on making us their worshipers. The way they work is to take the most devout of their followers and impart them with amazing technology which makes the priors (priests) to appear to have supernatural powers. The people prey to the Ori constantly through the book of origin (their bible). The book of origin talks of the power and benevolence of the Ori and the priors speak verses from the book nonstop to explain every action they do. This past week the prior took a story and changed the meaning in order to justify wiping out a few hundred people that at first refused to follow origin but then gave in and agreed to follow. (more)

The prior decided to kill them anyway because he was upset that he could not find the Stargate team that was hiding in the village.

The leader of the human army was appalled that the prior was using the story in this way but he couldn’t do anything. The people of the Ori army are generally good people and only carry out the will because they are doing what’s right. The priors are the true fanatics but they are the ones that follow the true meaning of the book of origin the least by changing the meaning to whatever fits the situation. The book of origin tells them about how the faithful will be rewarded with ascension at the end of their lives but in reality it is a trick because if the Ori helped people ascend they would have to share power.

In other words the book of origin is a complete lie used as a mechanism of control over all of these people and they willingly die in the name of their religion. The book actually preaches decent morals but is used ultimately for the control.

The connection seems to bring to light a lot of things. Do you think that it is possible the bible parallels the book of origin in the way I described? Granted it preaches a decent set of moral guidelines but the truth of the book may be lacking in the same way. Perhaps the overall reason the book was published, to teach people how to ascend to heaven, is a complete lie and was only designed to appeal to your sense of morality as the method used to extend control over the people that “chose” to follow?

PS sorry i didnt mean to confine the connection to just the bible, all religions.

Answer 1

I wonder if Christians are even capable of seeing themselves in the Ori.

Answer 2

I think Stargate has used Religion from the beginning. But if you really look at it religion has been used all over the place, The Goa'uld possed as gods and so did the asgard. The Goa'uld Have definatly been using religion, i mean, sokor even made a planet that was based on Hell. I think its not just the Ori, but alot of stargate uses religion.

Answer 3

Maybe you should read Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett. Similar theme of gods gaining power with more believers, but much funnier.

Answer 4

I doubt if it's a coincidence. Science fiction is often used to discuss issues in the real world and how they may well impact society yet to happen.

Answer 5

If you don't see radical Islam in the Ori then you aren't watching too closely.

Answer 6

I think most people would prefer to believe what they see on tv programs than seek the real thing.

Answer 7

I watch this show and its just meant for entertainment purposes. Nothing more.

Answer 8

That show is for nerds. Huge, huge nerds.

Answer 9

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