I’d say it’s clearly both. Sybok had been following this person, claiming to be God, all this time, and finds out it was just some alien who is being held prisoner at the center of the galaxy. This alien then reveals that they have, in their time, worn the faces of many different gods for many different people.
The plot was pretty easy to follow. I just saw it again recently, and it’s just as terrible as you remember.
Actually, it didn’t. At the end of the film, the god character says that it had “worn many faces,” which sounds pretty open ambiguous to me. Nothing clearly stated that it wasn’t any human god, and it certainly appeared to be human.
I have found all of Star Trek to be pretty strongly atheist. While many characters, themselves, have individual, spiritual or religious beliefs, the show always seems to portray the idea of religion as bogus, something to be socially evolved beyond. Every God always turns out to be some kind of alien that could be explained by something rational.
You’re essentially saying that he didn’t have to say who he was to be who you want him to be because he says he has a lot of forms and looked human. Thor appeared human. Zeus appeared human. Why couldn’t he have been appearing as Zeus? Or as a god in any of the many planets that had people who looked exactly like humans on them?
Memory Alpha always puts god in quotes. I usually defer to their judgment because they do a hell of a lot of research.
You’re the one who chose to specify a particular god of earth (presumably the Abraham God, worshiped in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). I just said “God” and that he had claimed to wear many faces. I didn’t specify which god of earth, although to answer your question, Zeus and his son Apollo (as well as all of the Greek gods of Olympus) have already appeared elsewhere in Star Trek. We know who they are, and they are a different type of alien.
And this has nothing to do with what I want. It has to do with what was in the film.
I really don’t care what memory Alpha says. The film was pretty pretty clear. I just saw it. I really don’t wanna argue with you anymore about this. We’re just gonna have to agree to disagree. Some website isn’t going to change my mind about what I saw with my own eyeballs. i’ve seen them film a million times. I know what happens in it. 
Edit: I like you, and I think this is a silly thing to argue about. We’re not gonna agree on this, so I think we should move on.
I’d say it’s clearly both. Sybok had been following this person, claiming to be God, all this time, and finds out it was just some alien who is being held prisoner at the center of the galaxy. This alien then reveals that they have, in their time, worn the faces of many different gods for many different people.
The plot was pretty easy to follow. I just saw it again recently, and it’s just as terrible as you remember.
Right, but that doesn’t mean it’s the monotheistic god of humans. And the movie took very great care to say it wasn’t. It was a god Sybok believed in.
I’d have liked it to be an atheistic movie, but it was not.
Actually, it didn’t. At the end of the film, the god character says that it had “worn many faces,” which sounds pretty open ambiguous to me. Nothing clearly stated that it wasn’t any human god, and it certainly appeared to be human.
I have found all of Star Trek to be pretty strongly atheist. While many characters, themselves, have individual, spiritual or religious beliefs, the show always seems to portray the idea of religion as bogus, something to be socially evolved beyond. Every God always turns out to be some kind of alien that could be explained by something rational.
You’re essentially saying that he didn’t have to say who he was to be who you want him to be because he says he has a lot of forms and looked human. Thor appeared human. Zeus appeared human. Why couldn’t he have been appearing as Zeus? Or as a god in any of the many planets that had people who looked exactly like humans on them?
Memory Alpha always puts god in quotes. I usually defer to their judgment because they do a hell of a lot of research.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/God_(Sha_Ka_Ree)
You’re the one who chose to specify a particular god of earth (presumably the Abraham God, worshiped in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). I just said “God” and that he had claimed to wear many faces. I didn’t specify which god of earth, although to answer your question, Zeus and his son Apollo (as well as all of the Greek gods of Olympus) have already appeared elsewhere in Star Trek. We know who they are, and they are a different type of alien.
And this has nothing to do with what I want. It has to do with what was in the film.
Yes, and, again, the film never made it explicit. Even Memory Alpha says so.
I really don’t care what memory Alpha says. The film was pretty pretty clear. I just saw it. I really don’t wanna argue with you anymore about this. We’re just gonna have to agree to disagree. Some website isn’t going to change my mind about what I saw with my own eyeballs. i’ve seen them film a million times. I know what happens in it. 
Edit: I like you, and I think this is a silly thing to argue about. We’re not gonna agree on this, so I think we should move on.