We have previously noted the religious and spiritual themes on Lost. As any viewer of the SciFi Channel’s Battlestar Galatica will note, it too is exploring some pretty interesting religious themes. Carmen Andres, who blogs on religion in popular culture at in the open space explores the themes in some depth:
Battlestar Galatica is no stranger to the exploration of faith and religion in the human (and Cylon) experience. The original series supposedly built itself around Mormon theology, but the current incarnation plays fast and free with elements of monotheism (hints at Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths), polytheism (Greek mythology in particular) and elements of Eastern religions (in particular, reincarnation). But in the promotional campaign leading up to this fourth and final season, BSG got a little more direct with . . . an intentional allusion to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
With the central characters placed in an intentional pose of the painting, the writers are more or less inviting the series’ fans and viewers to consider the characters and the story, at the very least, in the context of this biblical allusion if not within a fuller biblical context. The series’ executive producer alluded to its biblical symbolism when he discussed this promotional photo, and the commercials running during the breaks in last week’s episode used the photo and language related to its biblical context (in particular, the word “savior”).
Where are they going with all this? Heh, that’s anyone’s guess (and, believe me, folks are guessing). But it does lead to some interesting speculation and rumination.
Read it all here. Professor James McGrath offers some interesting observations on “reading Bart Ehrman’s book, God’s Problem nearly simultaneously with the premiere of season 4 of Battlestar Galactica” here.