Religious systems in Sci-Fi

[Rufus Coppertop]

Hello everyone,

Thinking in my side project, it came to my mind that I haven't encountered decent religious systems in my little exposure to Sci-Fi. All my experiences have been cult-like organizations with a somewhat evil side.

On the other hand, it must be difficult to think about a comprehensive system of beliefs that succesfully blends with advanced technology and understanding of the wacky yet real physics of an interplanetary or intergalactic setting.

I'd love to recieve opinions and/or examples of what may be successful attempts to build a realistic and not cult-like religion in a sci-fi context.

Thanks!

I'm not aware of any Sci-Fi with decent religious systems invented for Sci-Fi or comprehensive systems of belief that successfully blend with advanced technology but here's a question that might be worth asking.................

Do comprehensive belief systems NEED to blend successfully with advanced technology and current understanding of physics?

Here we have a planet with billions of people, an absolutely dandy moon, some lovely gas giants further out and some of them have rings and we've got physics and quantum erasure experiments and quantum this and that and we've got serious scientists seriously studying and theorizing about possibly viable lines of research that might eventually lead to warp drive.

Nanotechnology is in its infancy but it does already exist in an embryonic form.

We have all of this now. Right now.

And we also have Tantric Buddhism and Sufiism and Qabalah, and Roman Catholicism and even ritual magic in the full, authentic tradition of the Solomonic grimoires.

Maybe Sci-Fi would be much more fun and much more realistic if there were belief systems that didn't blend with advanced technology but stick out like a sore thumb.

One of things I always found off-putting about the Federation in Star Trek was the appallingly bland dress sense of humans and the utterly sterile conformity of human society.

 

[Aknot]

A creation that I've liked is from the game Coriolis. Mysticism and Icon worship in what has been called "Arabian Nights in Space".
Coriolis
Game Studio's Forum

 

[Justin Swanton]

I'm not aware of any Sci-Fi with decent religious systems invented for Sci-Fi or comprehensive systems of belief that successfully blend with advanced technology but here's a question that might be worth asking.................

Do comprehensive belief systems NEED to blend successfully with advanced technology and current understanding of physics?

Here we have a planet with billions of people, an absolutely dandy moon, some lovely gas giants further out and some of them have rings and we've got physics and quantum erasure experiments and quantum this and that and we've got serious scientists seriously studying and theorizing about possibly viable lines of research that might eventually lead to warp drive.

Nanotechnology is in its infancy but it does already exist in an embryonic form.

We have all of this now. Right now.

And we also have Tantric Buddhism and Sufiism and Qabalah, and Roman Catholicism and even ritual magic in the full, authentic tradition of the Solomonic grimoires.

Maybe Sci-Fi would be much more fun and much more realistic if there were belief systems that didn't blend with advanced technology but stick out like a sore thumb.

In the real world the two certainly can blend. As a Catholic I personally suffer no disconnect between science/physics/technology and faith. It's not permitted to discuss this topic on the forum so I'll leave it at that.

 

[Rufus Coppertop]

In the real world the two certainly can blend. As a Catholic I personally suffer no disconnect between science/physics/technology and faith. It's not permitted to discuss this topic on the forum so I'll leave it at that.

Maybe it's a topic that has a habit of deteriorating into flame wars and lowering the tone of the establishment.

Okay. So it's not permitted. I'll also leave it alone.

 

[Extollager]

Has anyone else read The Book of Strange New Things? I have to admit that I don't remember it well. I read an interlibrary loan copy that I returned on time years ago. The book held my interest.

As for Tolkien -- this thread isn't the place for extended discussion of the religious element in LotR; that would belong on the Tolkien subforum. I wish people interested in this topic would go here

https://efanzines.com/PortableStorage/PortableStorage-06.pdf

to read an article (by me, Dale Nelson, beginning on page 30) that I think really does help to explain what Tolkien was up to. The key word is typology, which is a way of contemplation that is now largely forgotten but was pervasive in the Middle Ages, the period of Tolkien's professional literary studies. I took some pains over this article to try to help readers make some of the imaginative and intellectual adjustment necessary. The carvings by Gislebertus are wonderful.

 

[Justin Swanton]

Has anyone else read The Book of Strange New Things? I have to admit that I don't remember it well. I read an interlibrary loan copy that I returned on time years ago. The book held my interest.

As for Tolkien -- this thread isn't the place for extended discussion of the religious element in LotR; that would belong on the Tolkien subforum. I wish people interested in this topic would go here

https://efanzines.com/PortableStorage/PortableStorage-06.pdf

to read an article (by me, Dale Nelson, beginning on page 30) that I think really does help to explain what Tolkien was up to. The key word is typology, which is a way of contemplation that is now largely forgotten but was pervasive in the Middle Ages, the period of Tolkien's professional literary studies. I took some pains over this article to try to help readers make some of the imaginative and intellectual adjustment necessary. The carvings by Gislebertus are wonderful.

Excellent article. I'm familiar with typology (termed modality in Catholic exegesis).

 

[farntfar]

A couple of fairly clear examples of religions in well known SF television.

There are considerable pointers to God in the new Battlestar Galactica. (I think I'm quoting more or less correctly from Baltar in the last episode, "... God ... though she doesn't like to be called that.")
Also in both the old and the new BSG, they often speak of the "Lords of Kobol" who were presumably gods of some sort.

In Star Trek DS9 there is also the religion of the Prophets, on Bajor, who are both gods and physical(ish) entities in the wormhole.

 

[JunkMonkey]

A couple of fairly clear examples of religions in well known SF television.

There are considerable pointers to God in the new Battlestar Galactica. (I think I'm quoting more or less correctly from Baltar in the last episode, "... God ... though she doesn't like to be called that.")
Also in both the old and the new BSG, they often speak of the "Lords of Kobol" who were presumably gods of some sort.

In Star Trek DS9 there is also the religion of the Prophets, on Bajor, who are both gods and physical(ish) entities in the wormhole.

I always read the BSG reboot as a metaphor for the Iraq conflict and beyond - and it was interesting that they decided to play it out with the 'Good Guys' as pantheistic and the Cylons monotheist.

Babylon 5 explored religiosity from time to time sometimes quite interestingly (at least to an atheist like me) : Babylon 5 - Wikipedia

 

[psikeyhackr]

Babylon 5 explored religiosity from time to time sometimes quite interestingly (at least to an atheist like me) : Babylon 5 - Wikipedia

I found the Soul Hunter episode quite interesting.

But how many people have heard of Ian Stevenson?

Ian Stevenson’s Case for the Afterlife: Are We ‘Skeptics’ Really Just Cynics?

If you’re anything like me, with eyes that roll over to the back of your head whenever you hear words like “reincarnation” or “parapsychology,” if you suffer great paroxysms of despair for human intelligence whenever you catch a glimpse of that dandelion-colored cover of Heaven Is For Real or...

blogs.scientificamerican.com

 

[msstice]

the appallingly bland dress sense of humans

In my recollection, bizarre dresses were mandatory in '60s SF and TOS and the movies were no exception. Whenever there were functions where civilians were present, humans and aliens came dressed strangely.

sterile conformity of human society

Not in my recollection. A lot of SF is indeed filled with angsty teenage wish fulfillment about rebelling against perceived conformity, but IMO TOS and the movies were certainly not sterile and definitely not full of conformists.

 

[Parson]

I found the Soul Hunter episode quite interesting.

But how many people have heard of Ian Stevenson?

Ian Stevenson’s Case for the Afterlife: Are We ‘Skeptics’ Really Just Cynics?

If you’re anything like me, with eyes that roll over to the back of your head whenever you hear words like “reincarnation” or “parapsychology,” if you suffer great paroxysms of despair for human intelligence whenever you catch a glimpse of that dandelion-colored cover of Heaven Is For Real or...

blogs.scientificamerican.com

I found that interesting reading.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I found that interesting reading.

The universe is an interesting place. It is just so annoying that we have to wade through so much bullsh**.

"You mean I will have to spend eternity in hell for eating meat last Friday? "

"Well sh*t, I might as well add murder to the list. Prepare to die Sister Genevieve."

 

[Extollager]

As Parson says, it is an interesting column, yes, but the data, assuming them to be accurate, are susceptible of other explanations than transmigration of souls. For example, however bizarre the idea seems in the context of current scientific consensus, one could consider the possibility that the original violent events were "somehow" (that fatal word, I know!) encoded in some ultimately material medium that affected the development of the unborn and very young children, even to the extent of effecting (false) "memories" in their brains. I'm not saying that this is my own opinion. Other explanations are also possible. But it would be a shame to see a rush to judgment in this matter such as we have seen so much of elsewhere in recent years.

 

[psikeyhackr]

. But it would be a shame to see a rush to judgment in this matter such as we have seen so much of elsewhere in recent years.

Are We ‘Skeptics’ Really Just Cynics?​

Rush to judgement? Like believing 1360 ft skyscrapers could collapse straight down in less than 30 seconds without demanding data on the distributions of steel and concrete? LOL

 

[Parson]

"You mean I will have to spend eternity in hell for eating meat last Friday? "

"Well sh*t, I might as well add murder to the list. Prepare to die Sister Genevieve."

I'm a Protestant pastor not a Catholic Priest, but as I understand it, eating meat on Friday was a venial sin not a mortal sin. Eating meat on Friday didn't determine your final destination. It was not of the same category as murder, adultery, etc.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I'm a Protestant pastor not a Catholic Priest, but as I understand it, eating meat on Friday was a venial sin not a mortal sin. Eating meat on Friday didn't determine your final destination. It was not of the same category as murder, adultery, etc.

Well I went to Catholic schools and had to put up with a Sister Genevieve. Thought I would get into a fight with her over BS she was dishing out.

But because of SF I decided I was an agnostic in 7th grade. I have made a policy of not believing things but regard reincarnation as less illogical than the heaven/hell paradigm of Euro-Christianity.

 

[Brian G Turner]

(Coughs) Back on topic, please.

 

[psikeyhackr]

(Coughs) Back on topic, please.

Minbari are more logical than Catholics.

Science fiction is most important in how it relates to reality. As an entity unto itself it is merely entertainment. The words 'avatar' and 'reincarnation' are not used in The Matrix movies but the ideas are there.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Then there is religion in the Safehold series by Weber.

But it never addresses the issue of how God allowed aliens to wipe out most of the human race. Is their god more powerful than the humans'?

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

(Coughs) Back on topic, please.