Battlestar Galactica and Religion

1. Battlestar Galactica and Religion
RELI 2850

2. Religious Themes in Battlestar Galactica
• Number “Twelve”
• Exodus of Hebrews from Egypt
• Galactica as Noah’s Ark/Cathedral
• Number “Forty”
• Betrayal

4. Gaius and Caprica Six
• Baltar as Militant Atheist/Caprica Six as
Fundamentalist
• Quandary: Problem of Evil
• Baltar’s conversion
• Pairing of Baltar and Caprica Six

5. Sharon and Caprica Six

6. Cylon Models Sharon and Six
• Sharon linked to Goddess Athena, Helen of
Troy, and the Trojan Horse
• Six linked to Serpent and Mary Magdalene
• Both characters resonate with Eve from
Genesis and Lilith from Zohar

7. Eve
• Boomer-Sharon closer to Eve in Genesis
• Boomer’s eyes opened afterward
• Boomer struggles with her choice
• Caprica Six knew what she was doing
• Caprica Six sacrifices herself to save Baltar
• Caprica Six is both dominant and submissive

8. Eve
• Act of Redemption: Both Caprica Six and
Boomer-Sharon models try and find middle
ground between the humans and Cylons
trying to focus on new beginnings

9. Lilith
• Caprica Six clearly portrayed as Lilith in market
• Caprica Six’s physical appearance similar
• Caprica Six honestly loves Gaius
• Sharon seduces Helo and then betrays him
• Sharon is sexual dominant
• Sharon and Six possess immortality

10. Boomer’s Struggle
• Internal struggle between good will vs. wicked
passions
• Parallels with Manichaeans
• Cylon detector creates dichotomy

11. Intertextuality
• Text connects author – reader/text – text
• Every text and every reading depends on prior
codes
• Texts cannot be reduced to authorial intent
• Relationships between meaning inside and
outside texts