Picard sure didn't like the idea of praying

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commandrix@reddit

Q was known for getting on Picard's nerves. Him pretending to be an old-style Earth monk on what was supposed to be a multi-cultural starship probably set Picard's teeth on edge even more.

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Firestorm238@reddit

I mean Sisko did end up as a deity himself…

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commandrix@reddit

Yeah, the punch was something that could have easily been retconned into, "Sisko was actually able to 'bruise' Q because Sisko is half Prophet."

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I don't know. At no point does the show indicate that Sisko had any actual powers of his own. Everything suggests he only acts as something of a conduit for the Wormhole Alien's powers. Hell, even his will isn't his own as he's repeatedly pushed towards doing what the Wormhole Aliens want and not what he wants.

I think it would've been cool to see another meeting between Sisko and Picard after Sisko realizes that the Wormhole Aliens are doing the same thing to him as the Borg did to Picard.

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Boudyro@reddit

That's not remotely what the Prophets were doing with Sisko. From their perspective everything along what Sisko perceived as his personal timeline was all happening right now.

Whenever he gets riled up and agonizing over the choices before him they are puzzled by it as they are literally watching him do it and see the consequences from it all at the same time. Like watching a teenager bitching about how milk is gross and he's never gonna drink it again while he's actively drinking it, and sitting on the toilet with the squirts.

The hack writing on this point never makes it clear if he's damned with predestination or if they are seeing all the possible choices and results at once. It's why they are confused my him choosing to linger at Jennifer's death. It's clearly painful and unpleasant for him, so why does he choose to live in that time and place?

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ZapMaster117@reddit

Sisko did the absolutely wrong thing, Q knew he was easy to rile up and get a reaction from. Sisko just lucked out that Vash, who drew him there, was gone.

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Demolisher05@reddit

If anything, Q likely found Sisko boring for being so easy to provoke

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Sea-Quality4726@reddit

Picard fired a full torpedo spread at Q a few minutes after this. Sisko just responded to a punch with a punch.

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Waste-Dragonfruit229@reddit

Sisko's actual smart move was being written into a storyline with the Wormhole Aliens, making Q episodes awkward and hard to fit in.

Punching Q was Sisko's dumbest move. It made sense, though. Sisko was dumb as hell early on.

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Keepontyping@reddit

And yet he dreams of Christmas morning with children in the Nexus.

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Anon84925@reddit

Smart man.

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brazzers-official@reddit

Religion is the root of almost all instrumentalized suffering and violence in history. We globally need to move on as a society. An enlightened culture is an atheist culture

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Stargazer1701d@reddit

Later, Picard got pretty heated when the Mintakans were calling him a god and one of the planet's observers suggested he use that belief. The man risked his life to prove he wasn't a god.

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Gmodelinsane@reddit

gif

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docnig@reddit

You doubt me?

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Hot_Ad_787@reddit

Damn I forgot about this Obi Wan crossover

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Available-Evidence-4@reddit

In Star Trek lore, most of the humans in the 23/24th century are secular humanists, atheists, or agnostics. Organized religion is somewhat a relic of the past. (At least for humans) Q is doing this as a way to insult Picard and the human race by poking fun at their past superstitious beliefs.

This is also an attitude shared by the creator Gene Roddenberry.

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ShimizuKaito@reddit

A prayer in a public starship! God has no place within these bulkheads!

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medicus_au@reddit

What does God need with a starship?

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Anthrolithos@reddit

Sperglord god: "Sha-ka-reeeeeeeeeeeee?"

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disp0sableacc0unt@reddit

I'm pretty sure Picard isn't against prayer, he's just pissed at Q doing his mockery routine.

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Mega-Steve@reddit

"Crap in one hand, pray in the other, and see which fills up first!" - Jean-Luc Picard

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SpoonicusRascality@reddit

I use this line regularly. One of my all time favorite Picard moments.

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spaghettibolegdeh@reddit

He just was annoyed by Q.

Trek is fairly secular, but Picard isn't "anti-prayer" lol

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LeicaM6guy@reddit

They were smart enough to do away with that whole organized religion thing a long time ago.

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ZapMaster117@reddit

So Bajor is dumb 🤔

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TigerIll6480@reddit

Bajor had highly advanced aliens that had made themselves known to the population of Bajor over the centuries. The Orbs were evidence of that interaction.

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ZapMaster117@reddit

Which all lead to organized religion, so back to the other guy's point is Bajor dumb?

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Quardener@reddit

I would argue it stops being “religion” what your gods are actually weird wormhole aliens, but the bajorans don’t know that.

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LeicaM6guy@reddit

If someone wants to send me some Orbs I’m willing to reconsider the notion.

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ZapMaster117@reddit

So then organized religion isn't dumb if people have access to something that gives them hallucinations?

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gizmoglitch@reddit

The show consistently showed seemingly omnipotent beings (Q from the very first episode) as species with technology they had yet to learn, and they even disproved deities with the same tech as them who were taking advantage of early civilizations through ignorance.

I don't know how anyone living in the Trek universe could believe in God (as we see it in present day) as the truth and answer to the universe.

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LeicaM6guy@reddit

My impression was that, generally speaking, they didn't. There were certain cultural elements to religion that stayed (Christmas, etc) but organized religion on the whole seemed to be about as popular as Esperanto. There were outliers - Sisko once said "There are... things I believe" - but for the most part it seemed like humanity had moved on.

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tcrex2525@reddit

Praying is just wishing with extra steps… 🤷‍♂️