I could have sworn that I’d blogged on The Mormon/Battlestar Galactica Connection, but I guess I hadn’t. Here’s a taste:
Glen Larson (creator and producer of Galactica) is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and many parallels between his church’s and the show’s mythologies can be found.The main characters in Galactica are the last remnants of the Twelve Colonies, which were founded by twelve tribes of humans who left their home planet of Kobol, which had become inhabitable because of either natural or man-made contamination. There was a “lost thirteenth tribe” who went a different direction than the rest and, as the story goes, ended up colonizing Earth. Commander Adama once delivered the following speech about their origins: “Our recorded history tells us we descended from a mother colony, a race that went out into space to establish colonies. Those of us assembled here now represent the only known surviving Colonists, save one. A sister world, far out in the universe, remembered to us only through ancient writings…” He goes on to assert that the “lost thirteenth tribe” colonized Earth. Something called “The Book of The Word” described the journey of the tribes of man away from Kobol.
In the Mormon church, The Book of Mormon describes the journey of a “thirteenth tribe” There were twelve tribes of Israel and the prophet Lehi took a remnant of the tribe of Joseph (creating a “lost thirteenth tribe”) and somehow travelled from the middle east to North America around 600 BC. They ended up splitting into two tribes, one of whom flourished and according to the book are the descendants of the American Indians. Additionally, the name Kobol is made up of the rearranged letters making up the word Kolob, which is the star “nearest unto the throne of God,” or the name of the planet where the Mormons’ god, Elohim, is from.
There’s another article on Battlestar Galactica and Mormonism by Michael Lorenzen. Read both.
Edit: The Mormon/Battlestar Galactica Connection no longer has its own link; it’s on Dr. Squid’s articles page.