By now, many of you will have heard that one of the Vatican’s astronomers has indicated that there might be life on other planets. Even that they might be without sin. Many of my favorite science fiction books involve the intersection of religion and space travel (Dune and Ender’s Game chief among them). But really, this is a classic theme and, I would argue, evidence of atheism among science fiction writers.
Perhaps not atheism but certainly doubt. To dream up a world where all the religions of earth had merged into one (the Orange Catholics), but still managed to find sectarian conflict with the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, only to then join forces against an off-shoot of the latter, requires more than a usual amount of doubt in one’s faith. Even Orson Scott Card’s science fictional religions are not Mormonism, and I liked his approach to Christian evangelism to other planets: Jesus, though he appeared as a Jewish man, came to save us all: Jew, Gentile, Formic, and Pequenino alike.
Then there’s Archangel, where Jehovah, whom the whole world of Samaria worships, rules with a laser fist from on high (yes, it’s a spaceship). And Silicon Karma which explores a technological afterlife created when we stopped believing in a spiritual one. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep explores at what point morality starts applying to inanimate objects, even as they have their own cult of personality (if not a full-blown religion).
What are some of your favorite intersections of religion and scifi? Where any of them instrumental in your exodus from the garden?
2 responses so far ↓
1 John // May 20, 2008 at 9:05 pm
SF has been one constant in my topsy turvy life o’ seeking. Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark probably laid much of the foundation for my pre-Mormon agnosticism and my present atheism. The genre has a whole has always encouraged me towards skepticism and serious questioning (of scientism as well as of religious dogmatism). At the same time, it has inspired more awe and wonder at the universe than any of the religious works I’ve read.
I’ve written about how Madeline L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time influenced me.
2 Elaine // May 21, 2008 at 6:44 am
Orson Scott Card’s “Pastwatch”, a novel of time travel, has some interesting religious content in it. If nothing else, he has an really interesting take on Joesph Smith’s “first vision” that might not sit too well with some Mormons but which I thought was rather clever.
Interesting experience…I mentioned this book during a class discussion in a Contemporary Theologies course I took in my last semester at university. We were talking about whether god (it was a Christian university, so the assumption for the discussion was that he does exist) is in the universe or outside of it, and I thought that this Card novel might have some bearing on the topic.
Long story a little shorter, I loaned the book to my professor at her request, she took it on spring break with her, and came back talking about how if she ever taught that class again, she would teach that novel as part of it. I don’t know if that has happened, but I thought it was kind of cool that I could turn her on to it…and to science fiction in general.
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