Moses Maimonides, who lived nearly 900 years ago, wrote a book called The Guide for the Perplexed. In it, he said: "The human race contains such a variety of individuals that we cannot discover two persons exactly alike in any moral quality or external appearance. This great variety and necessity of social life are essential elements in man's nature." These are the same principles, the same philosophies, which are inherent in "Star Trek." 

But let's go back to what "Star Trek" really is. It started out as a television show - a good television show, but, nonetheless, a television show. Seventy-nine episodes of a series made for the purpose of selling toothpaste and soap. But it came from the heart and imagination of a very evolved human being. And the result is a very evolved television show of which we are all very proud. 

"Star Trek," the legend, is very different: it embraces peace and love and unity, and it says that civilization will reach maturity on the day it learns to value diversity in life and ideas. As Gene once put it: 

To be different is not necessarily to be ugly; to have a different idea is not necessarily to be wrong. The worst thing that could happen is for everyone to look and think and act alike. For if we cannot learn to appreciate the small variations between our own kind here on earth, then God help us when we get out into space and meet the variations that are almost certainly out there. 

Think about these words of Gene's. And also: 

What a terrible, boring world it would be if everyone agreed with everyone else. And if there weren't different shapes and colors and ideas. . . . My test for a wise human is when they [sic] take a positive delight when someone says, "I disagree with you because. . . ." 

What an opportunity this opens! 

Rodenberry's philosophy was to respect and cherish diversity.

IDIC basically states that we should delight in the differences amongst people, not hate people because they are different. It seems that the human race has found a large number of ways to hate (different sex, color, religion, nationality, political party, social class, etc) and has emphasized hate over co-operation, caring, and compassion. The result has been a world torn by big and small wars, religious and philosophical differences, and alienation of one person from another.

This has taken place on the level of nations, of course, but has also taken place on the level of individual people and on the level of entire cities.

Yet as the planet Vulcan, in science fiction, was facing the destruction of its culture due to warfare, the earth is facing the destruction of its culture due to the effects of pollution, inter-religious and inter-ethnic warfare, and widespread starvation and disease.

The human race is one people; Homo sapiens sapiens. Now what does this specifically mean? Science classifies organisms using a system called taxonomy. The levels used include Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and species. The further down the list you go the more alike organisms become.

At the species level any two organisms of the opposite sex (and assuming nothing is physically or medically wrong with them and they are both at the stage where their reproductive organs are fully functional) can mate and produce a "viable offspring" - a baby. This means any two people on the entire surface of the earth and of opposite sex, etc, can mate and have a baby.

t cannot be done with any other species and us. Humans cannot mate with any animal like dogs, horses, cows, etc, and produce a baby. The other animals are of different species.

Humans are of one single species, period. We are the same kind of animal.

Since Blacks, Whites, Native Americans, Hispanics and Orientals can get together, mate, and have children, then we are one people with the same set of problems- finding food, shelter, clothing, peace, and a chance for our children to have a better life than we have had.

The IDIC philosophy can go far to helping us develop a more positive attitude towards others. To delight in the differences between people does not mean to ignore the differences; rather, it means to acknowledge those differences, to respect the right of other people to be different, and, possibly, to even enjoy the differences. Cultures, for example, can differ in preferences for food, dance, and music. It does not hurt us to at least sample those differences at least once in our lives; we may think the food is too hot or too bland, and we may prefer other types of dancing and music, but we can learn to recognize the right of other people to have different foods, dance, and music, and that those differences do not make them any lower in status as a human being than are we.

There is a term called the "synergistic effect". This refers to putting together two or more items and the result of that combination is something even better than you expected. We can often get the same thing from differences in human cultures; IDIC holds that the result of the "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" is greater than the sum of its parts - a synergistic effect.

A good overview of the Vulcan philosophy from Star Trek.