The Depiction of Religion in Science Fiction Stories by Zisker

OTHER SCIENCE FICTION SERIES

The Depiction of Religion in Science Fiction Stories

POSTED BY: ZISKER
UPDATED: Thursday, June 22, 2006 20:26
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Thursday, June 15, 2006 6:40 AM

WARNING! WARNING! Here be Spoliers for Clarke's "The Star", Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God" and Kress's "Trinity". I’ll hide the plot outlines, but the conclusions might give the ‘bigger point’ away anyway. So you’ve been warned.

Some of the most profoundly disturbing theories/thoughts/ideas about theology and spirituality that I've ever read have been found in science fiction stories. These are theories that make Mal's view of "I don't believe in God" or "I've turned my back on God since he's turned his back on me" seem like nothin'.

In Firefly, we have Mal representing one of two theories:
1. God does not exist.
2. God exists, but he's a bastard and I choose to have nothing to do with him. This one is more likely because he says that God isn’t welcome on his boat, not that God doesn’t exist.

The following three stories have far more chilling ideas about religion:

1. Arthur C. Clarke "The Star": God can seem to be a bastard for doing things we consider horrible and do not understand, therefore causing us to question our faith.

Select to view spoiler:

This is the story of a Catholic Priest trying to cope with a possible loss of faith in light of the realization that an intelligent, advanced and pacifistic alien culture was destroyed when the supernova that was seen as the Star of Bethlehem went – well, nova. He tries to reconcile his faith in God and God’s Love with the fact that God not only allowed, but caused this benevolent civilization to be destroyed so that he could announce His son being born on Earth.

This story has the most in common with Mal’s loss of faith because a) the individual had faith and b) God did something that he does not understand. Mal had faith and lost it. God’s actions in both stories could be explained away by the faithful as “God’s plan we can’t comprehend” or what not. But if you don’t believe that . . .God really comes off looking like a sadistic jerk.

2. Ted Chiang “Hell is the Absence of God”: God exists, but He doesn’t care about you. That said, you will still Love Him and Love Him infinitely despite this fact. You don’t even really have a choice in the matter. He is not merciful, or just or loving – but You, His creation, will Love him with Everything in your puny mortal soul because That’s the Way It Is.

This is the most profoundly disturbing thing I have ever read about religion. It literally left me sweating freezing bullets.

Select to view spoiler:

The main story (there are three intertwined) follows the story of a man who loses his wife in an ‘angel incident’ (they appear praising God and inadvertently kill, maim or save random souls) and so treks to a place where angel incidents are common so that he can be hit by the light of God and be reunited with his wife in heaven. Even though he’s hit by the light of God, he still goes to hell. But he’s full of love for God anyway.

It’s definitely worth reading if you’ve never read it. I can’t begin to get into all the subtle things going on in that story in just a post, but the end result terrified me. Maybe other people read it differently? Any other theories about it? The conclusion I came to is more frightening to me than God can be a bastard – it’s that God doesn’t care, but you do and you have no choice about it. In Firefly, at least Mal has the freedom to say “Nuts to you, God, I’ll be in my bunk”.

3. Nancy Kress “Trinity”: God doesn’t even know we exist.

Select to view spoiler:

Once you get past the weird twincest and telepathy (which, hey, the way some shippers look at River and Simon might not take that much for this crowd), it gets into interesting theological ground. The younger sister of a disgraced geneticist joins a strange cult and the older sister tracks down their previously unknown younger brother who is a clone of the younger sister – but male. Still with me? The cult is using emotionally sensitive tanks to manipulate reality via twincest telepathy to lure God out of hiding and prove His existence. They succeed – but God is really, really surprised to see us.

Given Mal’s Christian upbringing (surmised from the cross-kissing in the original pilot) we can assume that he believes God knows we’re here. Prayer can work, yadda yadda. In fact, Mal seems to take the loss at Serenity Valley as a PERSONAL affront to him on God’s part. But what if God didn’t know we were here? What are the theological/moral ramifications of that? I mean, we don’t know about all the microscopic organism that live in our skin to say nothing of the dust mites and the potential struggle going on in your pillowcase. Does it matter? Does it mean we’re more insignificant than we thought we were? Or is it freeing?

This last one isn’t as scary to me as Chiang’s idea, but it does raise a number of questions.

Any thoughts? Different readings? Suggestions for other science fiction stories that deal with religious themes?

One day.
One plan.
One army of Browncoats.

On June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.
http://www.serenityday.org/
http://forum.serenityday.org/

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Thursday, June 15, 2006 8:20 AM

FIVVER

A couple of books you might enjoy are Michael Moorcock's 'Behold the Man'. It won the 1967 Nebula award. A time traveller goes back to meet Jesus. Very dark.

Another one is Walter Miller's 'A Canticle for Leibowitz'. It takes place in a world devastated by nuclear war and is centered on a monastary in the southwest. It spans several centuries as humanity tries to rebuild civilization.

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Thursday, June 15, 2006 8:50 AM

CYBERSNARK

My favourite is the religion of The Way in original Andromeda (S1 & 2).

When the Systems Commonwealth (the greatest civilization in history, of which Earth was a recent member, though not the founder) collapsed, the Magog swept through the Known Worlds.

Magog are aliens who are kinda like Reavers; violent, inherently destructive, predatory, cannibalistic (yes, they even eat each other), and physically powerful. They're also intelligent, and have their own (highly advanced) technology. They reproduce by implanting eggs in a host creature. The eggs hatch (after absorbing enough genetic material from the host to enable genetic diversity) and the larvae eat their way out.

The host has to be alive as this happens (if the host dies, the eggs die).

Earth was bombed heavily in the Nietzschean Rebellion (which destroyed the Commonwealth), then swarms of Magog descended on the planet, eating and raping anyone outside of the well-defended Nietzschean slave camps.

One particular Magog injected his progeny into a holy man (exact religion unknown). Being unable to return to the swarmship with his victim (these raids were usually snatch-and-grab, but this guy got left behind), he kept watch over the human as the eggs gestated, taking shelter beneath a fig tree.

They got to talking. The concept of religion intrigued the Magog, so he had the human tell him about his religion. When the holy man was finished, they still had time, so he explained all the other Earthan religions he knew. The Magog absorbed the teachings of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Ghandi, and dozens of others. He learned of the Koran, the Torah, the Bible, the Mahabharata, the Gnostic texts. He learned the tenets of Animism, Shinto, Paganism, Satanism, Wicca. . .

Then he asked which belief system was the right one. The Holy Man could not answer. He explained Atheism last; admitting that there were those (the Nietzscheans as perfect examples) who believed that all these beliefs were false, that there was no Divine.

The Magog pondered this, and came to realize that there must be a Divine Being. The similarities between each of these beliefs were too much to be coincidence. As different as they were, all of these religions preached kindness, compassion, nobility, self-sacrifice in the name of one's family --qualities that even Atheists sought to embrace (even Nietzscheans consider parenthood to be the most exalted state possible).

Yet, if the Divine has no Avatar, no physical existence that can be proven, then it can only be known through its "children." Through their words. To attempt to describe Faith as being either "true" or "untrue" was itself a fallacy; the Universe is infinitely more complex than this.

Only one solution is possible: all faiths are true. Even if entirely imagined (in order to account for natural phenomena), they arise from the working of sapient minds --the Universe itself, defining itself. The Divine is not a being or a place, it is a state in which all things exist.

It is The Way.

All religions and beliefs embraced by living beings are simply paths, all leading to the same destination. Some are straight, some are twisted, some broad and easy, others narrow, but all lead closer to the Divine, and all are equally correct.

It is neither good nor evil, compassionate nor cruel. It created the sunlight and the fresh water, the laughter and hope of a child, and the thousand races scattered throughout the universe. It created the killing abyss between the stars, and the burning flames, the choking ash, and the intoxication of violence. It also created nightmares, because it created the Magog.

At this realization, the holy man wept; his student had acheived Enlightenment. The larvae were hatching, and with the last of his strength, the holy man baptised the Magog, who would henceforth be known as the Annointed One, Finder of the Way.

The Annointed One would have saved his victim/teacher if he could, but it was too late. With his dying breath, the holy one blessed the newborn Magog, forgiving them of the sin of their murderous existence.

Centuries passed, and Wayism became the dominant religion in the Known Worlds. Not through conquest or conversion, but simply by showing people that they were already Wayists, free to practice however they wish.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Thursday, June 15, 2006 8:50 AM

RABIT

Keep in mind that Arthur C Clarke is an athiest who believes that religion is a mental disease and those who have it should be treated appropriately. You'll see this a lot in his work. For example, in 3001 (the fourth book in his loosely tied 2001 series) humanity has come to this conclusion...

Rabit

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Thursday, June 15, 2006 8:53 AM

CYBERSNARK

Same-time post! Make a wish.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Thursday, June 15, 2006 9:35 AM

ZISKER

That the TV series? I'd really like to look that up . . .

One day.
One plan.
One army of Browncoats.

On June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.
http://www.serenityday.org/
http://forum.serenityday.org/

Little or no free time, but want to help?
Help Spread the Signal: http://www.geocities.com/browncoatsignalcorps

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Friday, June 16, 2006 4:36 PM

RABIT

Quote:
Originally posted by Cybersnark:
Same-time post! Make a wish.

If wishes were horses...

Rabit

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Friday, June 16, 2006 8:39 PM

SHINY

Quote:

2. Ted Chiang “Hell is the Absence of God”

Ted Chiang's short stories are some of the best sci-fi I've ever read!

I highly recommend his short story "Stories of your life" (also the title of his collection of short stories)

---

I don't need a gorram back-spaceship driver!!!

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Saturday, June 17, 2006 6:20 AM

ZISKER

Quote:
Originally posted by Shiny:
Quote:

2. Ted Chiang “Hell is the Absence of God”

Ted Chiang's short stories are some of the best sci-fi I've ever read!

I highly recommend his short story "Stories of your life" (also the title of his collection of short stories)

---

I don't need a gorram back-spaceship driver!!!

They are! I wish he wrote more but, hey, quality over quantity. I read 'Story of your Life' but it left me cold, I don't know why - I guess I just couldn't get into the time-distortion aspect of it. Plus, I don't have kids yet so the mother-daughter bond just didn't grab me the way it might have other readers.

I've been trying to get his story collection - I'll probably break down and just get it off alibris.com one of these days.

One day.
One plan.
One army of Browncoats.

On June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.
http://www.serenityday.org/
http://forum.serenityday.org/

Little or no free time, but want to help?
Help Spread the Signal: http://www.geocities.com/browncoatsignalcorps

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Saturday, June 17, 2006 9:10 AM

CHRISTHECYNIC

In the bible god is a bit ... slow. He really doesn't know what's going on around him, but he's got ways of finding out.

Adam and Eve eat the fruit, god doesn't know, god first assumes, incorrectly, that someone told them they were naked (doesn't even occur to him they ate the fruit.)

Later Cain kills Abel, the bastard, and god says, "Where did you put your brother?"

Cain replies, "Am I my brother's Keeper?"

God ponders it for a moment, asks around, and then says, "The blood of your brother spoke to me and you're not gonna like what it said."

-

God has a habit of being a little out of it, never quite being up on the times. Then someone says a prayer or he asks a question and he catches up and unleashes a plague or some such.

That's just the bible though, not a lot of people like it all that much.

Outside of the bible but still in the biblical tradition similar things happen.

In the book of Enoch, which Jesus himself makes reference to (hows that for celebrity endorsement?) god doesn't seem to realize the angels are having sex with humans and teaching them naughty things (war and sorcery among other stuff) or at the very least chooses to ignore it until some of the good angels notice it and say, "Something must be done."

On the other hand I'm told that some Gnostics believed that there were two gods, the god of the Old Testament who created the world, whom they did not like much, and another god, the all seeing all knowing god of light and knowledge, whom they sought to rejoin.

-

Anyway my point is that god not knowing we're here isn't outside of the realm of religious possibility.

-

I tend to think that an omnipotent omniscient omni-benevolent god is an impossibility, I don't think a benevolent god would allow itself to be all powerful, when you think about what all powerful really means. The physical possibility of free will aside you can't be free in a place where something can do anything, because anything includes changing what you think and feel, as well as what you remember, and everything else that makes you you.

The bible was very clear about this issue, and in the Old Testament god was all powerful (though as I already said not all seeing), but not very nice. Why did the plagues of Egypt happen? The King James translation of the Old Testament says it was because, "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh." God had the power to control what people did and used that power to make it so they would give him an excuse to do impressive and terrible things.

Of course it goes on to say that when the people in the village next door ditch god to go to "strange gods" this is also the will of god. God is testing you, and when god has forced the village next door to start worshiping someone else you are to destroy that village, its people, its treasures, and its livestock. Have fun with that.

-

I do however believe in a caring god, an all seeing one no less, just not all powerful. I believe in a god that can create the world but not change a mind.

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Saturday, June 17, 2006 9:43 AM

CYBERSNARK

Tryin' something complicated and hoping the site doesn't implode again. . .

Quote:
Originally posted by Zisker:
That the TV series? I'd really like to look that up . . .

Yeah, it's Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, though most of what I posted comes more from the website and background info revealed by TPTB. The worldbuilding for that show was truly incredible. On par with the entire Star Wars EU, or even our own 'verse.

There was one overtly Wayist character in the show; Rev Bem (short for the Reverend Behemiel Far-Traveller). He was a Magog, like the Annointed One, and it's from him that we know their policy toward conversions. Rev was eventually booted off the show (well, technically the actor was allergic to the makeup, but it's not like they tried too hard to replace him).

Quote:
Originally posted by christhecynic:
In the bible god is a bit ... slow.

I've said it before:
God = Jayne.

Quote:
"strange gods"

I like the quotes. The God we have is plenty strange enough.

EDIT: and now that the site's back, I can fix the bad bold tag.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Thursday, June 22, 2006 8:26 PM

GRRARRG

Well, congratulations chris, you've managed to caouse me to login and post for the second time in a year. Oh, and while we're on the subject of congratulations, my wife just had a baby today! Yay us!

Anyway, this is a hijack, so I must apologize, but I've heard so many people say similar things as you did, chris, and I really wanted to reply.

Quote:
Originally posted by christhecynic:
In the bible god is a bit ... slow. He really doesn't know what's going on around him, but he's got ways of finding out.

I disagree.

Quote:

Adam and Eve eat the fruit, god doesn't know, god first assumes, incorrectly, that someone told them they were naked (doesn't even occur to him they ate the fruit.)

If my son breaks the lamp, I can totally see myself asking him the question "did you break the lamp?" even if I alreay know the answer. Not to be mean, but to give him the opportunity to be honest and show me his remorse. You may disagree with that parenting style, but it doesn't mean I don't really know the answer to the question

Quote:

Later Cain kills Abel, the bastard, and god says, "Where did you put your brother?"

Cain replies, "Am I my brother's Keeper?"

God ponders it for a moment, asks around, and then says, "The blood of your brother spoke to me and you're not gonna like what it said."

see above

Quote:

I tend to think that an omnipotent omniscient omni-benevolent god is an impossibility, I don't think a benevolent god would allow itself to be all powerful, when you think about what all powerful really means. The physical possibility of free will aside you can't be free in a place where something can do anything, because anything includes changing what you think and feel, as well as what you remember, and everything else that makes you you.

The bible was very clear about this issue

the bible is only "very clear" on one issue as far as I can tell, and that is that there is a God and he had a kid named Jesus. The fact that everything else is interpreted differently seems to suggest that it's not "clear."

Quote:
, and in the Old Testament god was all powerful (though as I already said not all seeing),

again, no, he just has a parenting style that you probably wouldn't use

Quote:
but not very nice. Why did the plagues of Egypt happen? The King James translation of the Old Testament says it was because, "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh." God had the power to control what people did and used that power to make it so they would give him an excuse to do impressive and terrible things.

yeah, that's always seemed odd to me, too. Only thing I can think is that Pharaoh wanted his heart hardened - Pharaoh wanted to not feel any remorse about killing his slaves, so God allowed him to have the mindset that he wanted, which happened to also be a catalyst to inspire the Jews to get out of Egypt.

Quote:

Of course it goes on to say that when the people in the village next door ditch god to go to "strange gods" this is also the will of god. God is testing you, and when god has forced the village next door to start worshiping someone else you are to destroy that village, its people, its treasures, and its livestock. Have fun with that.

Umm... no. God does not force people to do bad things. Jesus talks about how God never tempts us, let alone forces us to sin. He allows us to be tempted. Before you say "that's the same thing" consider this: I don't want my kids to ever get hurt. But I will not lock them in a bubble all their lives. I have to let them live, and in the process get hurt, even though I would not hurt them myself.

Quote:

-

I do however believe in a caring god, an all seeing one no less, just not all powerful. I believe in a god that can create the world but not change a mind.

Logically, I can't find any necesary flaws in that belief, but I do believe that God has the power to change minds, but that he doesn't. At least, not fully. He'll nudge people in one direction or another, but he'll let them make the choice. And the fact that he COULD force us, but DOESN'T, makes me appreciate his love for us even more.

Oh, and don't be insulted if I don't reply to a reply right away - I'm not on very often. I'll try to check back before too long, if you're interested in continuing.

I mock you with my monkey pants.
Oh, yeah - check out my rock band: http://www.myspace.com/readyempire

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