Religion and Science Fiction

[Imitar]

I don't know if this is the correct place to put this, but my question is if it would be a real negative thing if I include religion/religious figures in my sci-fi novel?

 

[daisybee]

i don't think it would be a bad thing-where there are people there tends to be faith of some nature.

Have a look at The Sparrow and Children of God by Maria Doria Russell.

The whole idea of those books is religious missionaries in space I guess-and I think they are great works of speculative fiction.

 

[Tillane]

Not at all. I've had stories published in Gateway, which was (up until recently) a Christian SF site. My feeling would be simple: write what you want, then worry about the audience. Otherwise, you're compromising before you start...

 

[buskydudd]

Philip K. Dick had troubling, mysterious, and quite beautiful passages in some of his books that undoubtedly came from his spiritual turmoil. I think his was a confused and painful soul, but that he chose to deal with it, at least partly, in his work, is a gift to us. It has been to me. God grant him peace.

Spiritual matters do indeed have an honored place in science fiction literature.

 

[Toby Frost]

I'd say it depends how you treat it. So long as you deal with religion intelligently and well - and this probably means neither slamming it or praising it blindly, I suppose - I'd say yes. It is probably impossible to write about religion without offending someone, because every religion has nutters at its fringes. It's up to you to figure out what tone to take.

You could do a lot worse than read A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter Miller Jnr. (spelling probably very wrong!)

 

[lin robinson]

Done all the time. There have been a half-dozen anthologies of stories based on religious doctrine, at least.

Stuff like Lord of Light was the rage for awhile. Not a problem AT ALL.

 

[malakin]

Find me a future that doesn't include religion.

I'll wait over there ------------->

Come see me when you give up.

 

[chrispenycate]

While a world without personal belief might be difficult to imagine, humans being such effective deic generators, worlds without organised religion were the base menu of the "golden age" stories.
Nevertheless, religion has played an important role in the developement of human society, and assuming we are going to outgrow it because we will suddenly become rational enough as to no longer require it is abit like the "historical imperitive" of the communists; not supported by available evidence.
However, a number of excellent SF books have been centred around, or at least given a major role to, the religious beliefs of itheir societies or heroes – spring directly to mind "Father to the star" (Philip Jse Farmer, I think) "A case of conscience" (James Blish?) "Speaker for the dead" (Orson Scott Card)

Find me a future that doesn't include religion.

If I can limit "religion" to belief in one or more supernatural entities directing our various destinies, and eliminate belief in the eternal state, the spirit of mankind and other such secular faith systems and bases for morality, there are a number of examples; how about Huxley's "Brave new world"?

 

[Urlik]

include religion
Heinlein did it all the time
Revolt in 2100 and Stranger in a Strange Land are 2 that spring to mind

 

[TheUltimateChosenOne]

I include religious issues and beliefs in my short stories and novels. I think it makes the story more interesting and the characters more realistic. But I also have some characters who are like 'atheists'. I've done much research and study on different religions to get inspiration and ideas.
The more info you put about a character makes it more unique...in my opinion.

 

[Marcus15]

Babylon 5 had very spiritual underpinnings and most of it was written by an athiest. Joe Straszinski (sp?) treated religion with respect, or at least those who believe.
It's all too easy to slam religion but to delve into it without trashing it takes careful consideration.

 

[Archus]

I don't see anything wrong with it. Religion, or rather, spirituality, is a pursuit of truth. There are things in the human experience that cannot be directly explained by science alone. In such things, such as faith, whether it is in God or even another person, such entities should be explored because religion and spirituality is what is part of being human. If anything, it is necessary in sci-fi.

 

[Cheehwawa]

I dont think so. As long as you're not biased or anything.

I personally have this whole universe that I will pull my stories from, and one of the main premises is the Gods of humanity and where they came from. I think that my idea of origin is personally more believable than "Uranus came on the Earth and out sprung the Gigantes." I also managed to link it directly to the Grey aliens and all those supposed UFO sightings

 

[Urlik]

I dont think so. As long as you're not biased or anything.

I personally have this whole universe that I will pull my stories from, and one of the main premises is the Gods of humanity and where they came from. I think that my idea of origin is personally more believable than "Uranus came on the Earth and out sprung the Gigantes." I also managed to link it directly to the Grey aliens and all those supposed UFO sightings

is it anything like Chariots of the Gods by Erich Von Daniken?

some of it is complete nonsense, but there is still a lot of questions in there that haven't been answered and are worth considering when writing a new SF story

 

[Cheehwawa]

I donno, I havent read that book. How does the whole god thing in that book go (idc about spoilers...)

 

[Urlik]

Chariots of the Gods isn't a story, it is a hypothesis that primitive man was visited by aliens and those visits were the inspiration for the Gods of the ancient religions.

 

[iansales]

It might as well be fiction. Von Däniken's hypothesis is not supported by ay facts.

 

[Urlik]

I wouldn't go as far as that.
in some ways, extraterrestrial visitation is as likely an explanation as any for the numerous visitors from the stars/heavens that make up the cast the world's religions.

the basic premise is that there are religious stories, myths and legends from all over the world that have many common themes (gods in strange flying craft, sons of heaven mating with the daughters of man, weapons of mass destruction) as well as many artifacts that seem to come from a more technologically advanced civilisation than any we credit with existing in our remote past.

the main thrust of the book is self critical and states that there is no proof to back the hypothesis, but asks that learned men from different branches science get together and look at the mysteries of the past with an open mind to try to find answers.

with the age and size of the universe it isn't an unreasonable hypothesis that extraterrestrials made contact with the primitive ancestors of homo sapien and taught them some basic rules for civilised society alongside other rules for healthy living.

even knowing that some of the mysteries have been answered, it is still an interesting read as many of the questions raised remain unanswered.

 

[iansales]

Chariots of the Gods was debunked decades ago. Much of von Däniken's "evidence" was doctored - such as colouring in bits of Mayan religious carvings so they more resemble a man in a rocket, and igonring the well-documented religious iconography of the Mayan civilisation.

I don't see how extraterrestial visitors is in any way a likely explanation. The commonality of themese may be because civilisations have common preoccupations - a reliance on the elements, geography and local flora and fauna. There's no need to imagine aliens just because several ancient civilisations all worshipped the Sun at the same point in their histories...

 

[Urlik]

Chariots of the Gods was debunked decades ago. Much of von Däniken's "evidence" was doctored - such as colouring in bits of Mayan religious carvings so they more resemble a man in a rocket, and igonring the well-documented religious iconography of the Mayan civilisation.

the illustration in the book is a black and white line drawing, it hasn't been coloured in at all, and Von Daniken doesn't offer evidence, he asks questions about the mysteries of our past.
there are many other things about our past that still haven't been satisfactorily answered that Von Daniken didn't mention.

I don't see how extraterrestial visitors is in any way a likely explanation. The commonality of themese may be because civilisations have common preoccupations - a reliance on the elements, geography and local flora and fauna. There's no need to imagine aliens just because several ancient civilisations all worshipped the Sun at the same point in their histories...

it isn't so much that they all worshipped the Sun at some point, but that they record dealings with Sons of Heaven who mated with the daughters of man.

Genesis 6
The Flood
1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with [n] man forever, for he is mortal [o] ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

Greek Mythology
Age of gods and humankind
Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and humankind moved together. These were the early days of the world when the groups mingled more freely than they did later. Most of these tales were later told by Ovid's Metamorphoses and they are often divided in two thematic groups: tales of love, and tales of punishment.
Tales of love often involve incest, or the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring.

why are extraterrestrials more unlikely than a Supreme being/God/Creator?
the Universe is a big place and many respected scientists believe that intelligent life has, does or will exist somewhere else out there.
what is preposterous about the idea that they visited us and helped shape homo sapiens as a race at a time when we, as a species, were not advanced enough to completely understand their nature, but still associated them with the stars?

why do so many of the Gods travell in flying chariots? especially those that are omnipotent who should not have any need for transport.
why do ancient texts describe wars fought with weapons of mass destruction that were unrecognisable untill the invention and use of atomic weapons?

but to clarify, I don't say that Von Daniken is correct in his hypothesis, but I am open to the possibility.