The Feds are paranoid about genetic engineering for "improvements" or major changes, but it appears they're ok with genetic tinkering to correct genetic diseases. Not sure how the Vulcans fit into this; they trot out IDIC, but they sure don't engineer *themselves* to be very different. Hell, they mostly all have the same *haircut.*
You are right to point out that the language used is a "Lingua Franca".
Despite what characters like Picard say, religion is clearly still rampagingly popular in the 25th century. The Bajorans and Klingons, for example, are blisteringly religious; and while humans don't seem all that demonstrative about it, there are clearly still a bunch of human religions. If "tribal" faiths such as Chacotay's are still out there, it's a safe bet that there are Catholics and Mormons and Hindus and such.
So we could safely assume that Federation is not fond of -
[Assuming an afterlife] Now you have L. Ron Hubbard spinning in his grave.
...And the Federation scientists immediately invented the way to turn dynamo with Hubbard rotations, thus finally making him useful for a change!
Probably a lot of AI priests.
Lower Decks are a very rare case of loving desconstruction; they make fun of cliches and weak parts of original, while respecting its spirit.
Not being willing to die and fearing death is a different things. I admit, that the borderline is relatively thin, but essentially it could be drawn at rationality. If someone is willing to do anything to get even a totally false hope of avoiding death (like giving his money to strangerly dressed men, who sprout nonsence about talking snakes, winged wheels with eyes, ect.) - then he is fearing death to irrational, instinctive degree.
The idea is even more dangerous for mounted units. In 1937 the mule that my father was riding was upset when he was wounded and threw its rider who fell backwards on his rifle. By incredible luck, Artillery Sergeant Manuel Miranda fell into a deep stream and lived to procreate.
Proof of access to an afterlife that looks desirable.
The second and third is essentially our attempts to rationalize our own mortality, born out of self-preservation instincst of primates. Since we did not exactly have instincts, but still have self-preservation fears, we attempt to rationalize them into existence of afterlife. And religions discovered that it's a great way of getting into other peoples pockets, by playing on their fear of death. No pockets to steal from (i.e. a post-scarity future) - significanly less interest from religion to play with people's fears. And if religions lost interest in scaring peoples, it would stand to reason that peoples would simply outlive the fear itself.
Post scarcity doesnt mean no pockets. Replicators cant make land, for instance. Or provide services. There will always be an economy.
The universe of Star Trek is DAMN scary,from mundane threats like Klingons and pirates to Borg, Doomsday Machines, Vger, space "gods" of all kinds, other universes invading, time travel warfare, etc. Religions will find fertile ground.
Now that you list it out like that, Star Trek seems like a very "Roman" setting.
Transporter accident
I suspect there are laws against just that sort of thing. Plus: we only see the episodes that feature "successful" transporter cloning. Perhaps, just offscreen, transpo-clones are an hourly occurrence, but they virtually always result in the clone not being just messed up, but horrifically so. Imagine the transporter accident from TMP was a regular result when someone tries to make a clone.
There is a significant difference between "not thinking like you" and "actively wishing for the destruction of your existing society"
Possibly like one of John Portman's atrium hotels. This is the San Francisco Hyatt Regency.
Most of which got defeated by humans when they started to misbehave. It's more an argumet against being religious in Star Trek universe; the god you worship may very well turns out to be sufficiently advanced alien bratty manchind, who got his ass already kicked by Enterprise crew.
A lot of 'em *didn't,* though. The Metrons, Organians, Thasians, V-Ger, Whale Probe, Prophets, Trelane's folks, Nagilum, Douwd, Caretaker, cosmic Koala... these folks showed up, did their thing and were *not* defeated by Our Heroes. Often enough they simply used the crew for whatever purpose then lost interest or were finished with that purpose and wandered off.
Usually the ones that weren't acting like total jerks. Anyway, the concept of gods as merely "sufficiently advances aliens" kinda undermine the whole concept of religion; you can never be sure that more advanced alien wouldn't appear and chase your "god" away. Human irrationality also have limits; god-like beings running around (and sometimes being kicked for being a jerks by mere mortals) would likely dissuade most peoples from believing in any gods (or at very least from letting any priest into their pockets)
At least twice ("Way to Eden" and STV) Trek showed people rather easily following cult leaders. Dukat become a follower of the Pah Wraiths, knowing full well what they were. In the present day there are at least a few "religions" based on friggen' UFOs. Somebody displaying *actual* godlike power, even if that power can be matched by a fully charged phaser bank, is doubtless going to make a *lot* of people go weak in the knees.
I agree, that there alwasy would be some peoples irrational (or just plainly stupid) enough to believe in anything. But any large-scale organized religion would be kinda hard to run in thd situation, when the core beliefs could be always threatened to be disproved. Just imagine, that someone belived in Holy Abracadabra the Greatest, who would someday return on his shining chariot and took the faithful souls to Heaven - and then it become apparent, that Abracadabra was merely an alien researcher, who spend some time on ancient Earth, all his "wonders" were just products of tehnology, not even very advanced, and all his "mystical words of wisdom" were just poorly translated and misunderstood mundane advices (like "the unclean heretics must be drown in His Holy Water before the day of Great Feast, to stop the plague of doubt from spreading" was initially "wash your hands before eaing, to prevent disease spread"). Would this someone be eager to follow some other religion after such revelation?
A challenge: explain to some current day zealot that the founder of his faith was, rather than a prophet of the one true god who got The Truth told to him directly by an angel, was in reality a murderous schizo. That explanation is quite satisfactory to explain the whole deal and makes more sense than the religious one. See how far that gets you on convincing said zealot to abandon said religion and take up a life of Vulcan-like reason and rationality and non-violence.
You can "believe" anything if you believe in believing it result in probability of personal gain that out weight the costs. Pascals wager is the right mentality.
You can't derived a ought out of a what. Utilitarianism is emotionally meaningless to most and offers its believers nothing in terms of "utility" while other "modern/po-mo" belief complexes are equally nonfunctional. From that perspective there is no clearly superior system.
The Greek Gods were occasionally kicked for being a jerk by mere mortals. Their beliefs still managed to last over a thousand years here on Earth.
You think that cyberpunk is what the future should look like? My dude, please seek therapy!
Not speaking for others, but "should" could mean "this is morally right" or it could mean "if current trends continue, it should end up like this."
