Evangelizing in galaxies

[Davey]

Given the fact that tomorrow is Christmas, I wondered how the religious convictions of Earthlings could have been introduced into SG1 and SGA. How would the folks in Atlantis celebrate Christmas among other humans who as humans may or may not have had a similar mainstream religion?
How would committed Christians working in Pegasus or the Milky Way have experienced their religion in a place that no human could have ever imagined possible?

[StargateMillennium]

I will say this as a foreigner in a white country but I believe celebrations would be similar to what I have experienced. First thing to note is that Christmas is a widely known/celebrated/acknowledged holiday. Even in locations such as East Asian like China and Japan, to the Middle East, to even Africa, Christmas is acknowledged.

I say acknowledged because I don't want to give the wrong impression with the word celebrate. Most parts of China does not consider Christmas a national holiday. They won't give you the day off but people will decorate or exchange just for the fun of it. Though, I hear in many places it is not called Christmas even though everything else remains the same.

I bring up me being an outsider part because when my family had foreign holidays we would celebrate only with each other cuz we know everyone else neither knows nor cares. Those that are close to me know what day it is and we may send them a presents. But it is most kept in-house.

I believe that is probably how it would be on Atlantis especially since they have ppl from all around the world. Those who celebrate a holiday would gather ppl who celebrate the same holiday and party and may even send out presents or whatever to ppl who at least know about it. Shepard would probably send a gift to Teyla and Ronon and explain to them what Christmas is before grabbing McKay and going to party, and that's assumgin he can't convince those two to join them. Because of how widely known Christmas is, it's likely that most of Atlantis would have at least some part in the festivities.

But for less known or less celebrated holiday, those that celebrate would do as I mentioned, gather those who celebrate the same holiday and maybe some of their friends and do their own private party.

[Falcon Horus]

I always imagine that everyone in Atlantis would celebrate all the festivities and holidays together, cause there's no part of me that believes that any of them would skip on a good time.

I mean, I don't celebrate Christmas but I'm not complaining about the cheer going around or the mandatory days off from work.

I celebrate Solstice/Yule.

[DigiFluid]

I think that, at least in our galaxy, regular folk might be just a little sick of people who show up announcing that their god is the "true" god that everyone must worship.

[Falcon Horus]

I think that, at least in our galaxy, regular folk might be just a little sick of people who show up announcing that their god is the "true" god that everyone must worship.

LOL!!

I have this image of a local pointing at the stargate, "There's the door, and take your god with you."

[Platschu]

Here is a nice little Babylon 5 scene about the religions of Earth :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hg_TRynRIs

Even if you haven't watched BSG, here is an important scene when Baltar talks about God and His plans. Only watch it if you won't be troubled by criticism :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECBNRh6-jK8
I believe this is one of the best dialogue about the religion vs. science.

I doubt that we don't have to evangelize the galaxy like the Ori tried. Honestly most of the religions don't know how to react to other planets and aliens. Maybe one day we will find out. If God exists, He must have created lots of different worlds just because our holy books don't mention them.

Back to SG reality. Just imagine how shocking it would be to meet other cultures on distant planets. Even if they had origins from Earth, their whole culture, their beliefs could have been altered by the dominant Asgard or Goa'uld. But how religions started? They have observed some biological changes (like puberty so they introduced initiations) or some regulat astrological changes (like seasons, solar esclipses). And even these can be influenced in every solar system. What if a planet is much larger? Less season or a deadly season? If there are moons, there could be some weird moon cycle related believes (like in the Earth 2 series)

By the way the SG teams were focused on diplomatic missions as well. Sometimes it has meant not just eating or drinking with the guests, but also to have khmm.... sexual intercourse. This is such a bond what was universal between cultures. I know they tried to start the Kirk routine for O'Neill (see Brief Candle) and Daniel (see Hathor) in season 1-2, but then the focus was moved to acquire war technologies.