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Another Perspective
Religious Science Fiction?
Since when do atheism and science fiction go hand in hand?
A magazine I frequently write for (not this one) recently published a review of a book of essays advocating atheism. The reviewer pointed out with some enthusiasm that a large number of the contributors were science-fiction writers.
This left me somewhat nonplussed. I publish a good deal of science fiction myself, I have also read quite a lot of it, and I am quite unable to see why writing it should be held to particularly qualify anyone to answer the question of whether or not there is a God.
I don’t know if it is an actual requirement for the job, but certainly a number of astronauts are believers and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon, is a lay preacher.
I would be inclined to take their feelings about Cosmology with more respect than those of even the best-published science-fiction writer.
Historically the contribution of the Catholic Church to astronomy was massive and unequalled. Without it astronomy might very well never have grown out of astrology at all. Cathedrals in Bologna, Florence, Paris, Rome and elsewhere were designed in the 17th and 18th centuries to function as solar observatories. Kepler was assisted by a number of Jesuit astronomers, including Father Paul Guldin and Father Zucchi, and by Giovanni Cassini, who had studied under Jesuits. Cassini and Jesuit colleagues were eventually able to confirm Kepler’s theory on the Earth having an elliptical orbit. J.L. Heilbron of the University of California has written:
The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial aid and social support to the study of astronomy over six centuries, from the recovery of ancient learning during the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, than any other, and, probably, all other, institutions.
Science fiction is, by definition, fiction, that is, it deals with things which are the product of a writer’s imagination and are not literally true. In any event, what is and what is not science fiction is hard to define. Simply to say it is about science is meaningless, and while some science-fiction writers are qualified scientists, many are not. Probably even fewer are trained theologians.
There is a dividing line between science fiction and fantasy that has never been properly marked. No one would call The Lord of the Rings (whose author was a devout Catholic) science-fiction although it deals with strange creatures in an imaginary world, or at least an imaginary phase of Earth’s history.
Actually, many science-fiction writers may well be religious believers. The typical themes of science-fiction do not call upon the writer to nail his religious or anti-religious colors to the mast. The number of either religious or anti-religious works of science-fiction is relatively small. C. S. Lewis is probably the best known of the small band of writers who set out to write specifically Christian science fiction with Out of the Silent Planet and Voyage to Venus (also published as Perelanda). His third book in this trilogy, That Hideous Strength, about a University and powerful government department being taken over by devil-worshipers who are finally overcome with the help of Merlin, cannot really be called science fiction. The Man-Kzin Wars, a series to which I contribute, has fierce carnivorous aliens, and at times touches on the problems of their beliefs and of converting them. James Blish also wrote some “religious” stories but these, such as one ending with the conversion of Satan after God hands His job over to him, are really too fanciful to count as serious religious works. There are a lot of stories about deals with the Devil that come into the same category.
The total of “religious” science fiction that is published and also worth reading is small, which is perhaps simply a reflection of the fact that little religious art of high quality is being produced in any area today.
Science fiction it seems is not a particularly suitable vehicle for either religious or anti-religious propagandizing. H. G. Wells wrote one anti-God story, “The Island of Doctor Moreau” — it could also be read, depending on the reader’s preferences, as an anti-Darwinian story — which he later disparaged as “an exercise in youthful blasphemy,” but he also wrote several stories inclined the other way.
To write good religious science fiction, or indeed good religious fiction of any kind, is a challenge but one that it would be worthwhile trying to meet. It seems a pity the field has been apparently abandoned to pernicious rubbish like The Da Vinci Code, though this seems already, mercifully, to have faded away. In this, as in other areas, we could do with another C. S. Lewis to re-state the principles of Christianity in terms to stir the imagination.
About the Author
Hal G.P. Colebatch’s “Immram,” Counterstrike, is being published by Australian publisher Imaginites.
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Brian Mc| 10.7.10 @ 6:39AM
It might preclude that the same can be said for the 'horror' genre in the movies. I find it hard to believe that faced with some dark alien, someone would not want to ask God for a little help now and again. When God is invoked indirectly by the actor when they amateurishly brandish a crucifix, God gets spanked by the demon after a slight scuffle. We won't even bring up the mad preachers dementedly yammering to the point that we are led to believe we should be more terrified of them than the true monsters. Furthermore, let's not even bring up the "Matrix" Trilogy. More positive references to the Creator whether in Sci-Fi, Horror or other far-stretch themes would lend them more credence and bigger audiences. This 'good vs. evil' (but...let's keep God out of it) approach to entertainment is something that brings a smirk to my face whenever I witness it.
the permanent newbie| 10.7.10 @ 6:59AM
Brian, you are beyond right! It's as if our "creatives" can no longer conceive of anything outside of a few narrow and quite worked-out veins anymore. The best - worst? - example that instantly comes to my mind is Lost, which leaped out of the gate as the most original, intriguing sci-fi in years of mass media, and ended up a tired good-vs.-evil, yet somehow godless, supernatural fantasy with a deep yawn of deja vu to it (and the good and evil forces respectively wearing white and black shirts! I mean, for the Love of Life Orchestra, don't they pay those TV writers a lot?).
But on a more positive note, the most influential fantastic fiction of our time features an artfully woven thread of traditional Christianity that ties up a long, complex story in a perfectly satisfying bow that Lewis himself would have admired. Of course I mean the Harry Potter saga. It's not science fiction, but while a lot of the sci-fi guys are atheists, many of today's fantasists are straight-up pagans, if not diabolists...
Coriolanus| 10.11.10 @ 3:36PM
Have you read Harry Potter? It boggles the mind that anyone could accuse Harry Potter of containing any aspect of traditional Christianity. At best it is a story of lesser evil (Harry Potter, the ethically challenged orphan and aspiring wizard) vanquishing greater evil (Lord Voldemort, the leader of the dark wizards).
Alan Brooks| 10.8.10 @ 12:43AM
"Buzz Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon, is a lay preacher."
God wanted Armstrong, not Aldrin, to be first?
Appleby| 10.7.10 @ 7:01AM
There is a rather telling scene in the movie Independence Day in which the Jeff Goldblums Jewish father leads a small group of people hiding out from the alien/Earthman attack in Jewish prayers. To one thoroughly cowed government employee who joins in, saying humbly that he is not Jewish, the reply is a soothing *Nobody is perfect.*
And in a non-SF category, the otherwise morality-free movie Titanic has a scene or two showing prayer, including one in which a group of people are praying the Rosary.
P.S. I have always wondered if Tom Bombadil is not a God figure. If I win the lottery and have lots of time, I would love to follow this trail and see where it led.
Matthew| 10.7.10 @ 3:06PM
Appleby:
Bombadil and Goldberry are Adam and Eve without the Fall. They are in harmony with nature. They seek no power and evil has no hold on them.
JG| 10.9.10 @ 12:11AM
OMG - It all makes sense!!!! Yes. I totally believe that. But maybe Goldenberry is more of a holyspirit carector. You know.. Tom appears to care but does keep some distance, while GB is more directly interactive with the charectors. Good comment.
AndaO| 10.7.10 @ 7:56AM
The 1632 Ring of Fire series by Eric Flint and various other authors features characters that are devout across a number of religious denominations.
Ryan| 10.7.10 @ 8:13AM
It's also a core element to some of the stories - how a modern-day priest has to respond to the authority of the Vatican; and how a Protestant pastor - before there were really any - has to deal with his own situation.
JimH| 10.7.10 @ 8:56AM
You could say that Frankenstein was the first SF novel with a religious theme in it. Man doing what should be left to God. Some of Heinlein’s work had explicitly religious themes such as JOB or The Cat Who Walked Through Walls. Much fantasy writing has religious, though not necessarily Judeo-Christian elements. Often God or Gods are participants in the story (Fritz Lieber’s Fafrd and the Grey Mouser series or Pratchett’s Discworld). And of course there are stories with gods we would rather not meet such as H.P. Lovecraft’s. A lot of SF and fantasy has fun with religious practices if not belief itself. Though I do think it was Heinlein who said ‘One man’s religion is another man’s belly laugh’.
Petronius| 10.7.10 @ 9:08AM
Good stuff and best company on this thread. Thank you all.
The Harry Potter books will stand alone on the overarching theme of the series. Here is a young man confronting and defeating spiritual evil. And it does exist. Even the fundies wince at that.
I recommend Catherine Kurtz. Her Deryni Chronicles and the Camber series are a melding of Celtic Catholicism, proto Masonry, and psycho kinesis in a post Arthurian era of a single British Isle that never broke apart. Enjoy.
Intelligent Design| 10.7.10 @ 9:14AM
An excellent book to read is "Signature in the Cell" by Stephen C. Meyer. It presents very convincing scientific evidence for intelligent design. A friend who is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology tells me evolution is still valid, but I'm not so sure. In fact, we could have been designed by a higher form of intelligent life from a different galaxy, other than God. But who designed the designer?
Bill| 10.7.10 @ 9:21AM
H.G. Wells wrote stories that have long been classified as science fiction without saying the first reliable thing about scientific matters. A modern writer named Frank Peretti writes expressly Christian science fiction/fantasy. Arthur C. Clarke wrote stories like The Nine Million Names of God and a novel, Childhood's End, that have themes with religious overtones.
Ryan| 10.7.10 @ 10:00AM
I think that you're viewing Wells far too closely through modern eyes. He was practically a Victorian writer, when we were seeing some great leaps and bounds in scientific discovery.
Most modern sci-fi isn't all that reliable and mostly theoretical. It always has been and always will be.
JP| 10.7.10 @ 12:08PM
Wells was a classic Progressive whose political views as well as moral views led him to accept Fascism as the only acceptable future for Mankind. Clark was just your average secularist; he was a very talented scientist who saw Science as the only means of salvation for the human race. I did enjoy Childhood's End, despite its rather bleak outlook.
S in Severn| 10.7.10 @ 10:11AM
Rober Silverberg, writing during the "Golden Age" of the 1950s, wrote a series of stories that are almost a precusor to the universe created by Gene Roddenberry in "Star Trek," in both "universes" the crews of their respective ships of exploration come across cultures similar to our own, ones that had "both Caesar and Christ."
In the Silverberg story, it becomes almost a retelling of "Moby Dick" in that the ship's captain, is chasing "something" across the universe and "just missing" really being there to see and hear Christ.
In science fiction, by intent or happenstance, there are numerous retelling of religious stories, fables and history. Very, very few have the overt message that "there is no 'beyond' what we know.
If anything, most SciFi writing raise the question of the dividing line between miracle and magical, and what is only advanced technology. And if it IS advance technology, who created it, and who created the creators?
KyMouse| 10.7.10 @ 10:16AM
A large part of the appeal of writing science fiction is the creating of a different creation -- one is free to create new worlds, new beings, even new laws of physics, etc. The writer becomes, in effect, the god of that imaginary world. That feeling might be very popular among writers who have no interest in, or are rebelling against, the God of that bestseller, the Bible.
Ryan| 10.7.10 @ 3:08PM
What author doesn't do that?
Cylar| 10.8.10 @ 6:13AM
CS Lewis.
Louis Jenkins| 10.7.10 @ 10:21AM
Science fiction is entertainment. Of course what was viewed as sci-fi many years ago is becoming more fact as time passes. However, the question of what is morale always plays around the edges of any work.
A Kindle owning fan| 10.7.10 @ 10:55AM
Yo Hal, why aren't all of these http://www.amazon.com/Man-Kzin.....1416509062 available to read on the Kindle?
Please make them available on the Kindle asap.
Thanks
A Loyal Fan
Hal Colebatch| 10.9.10 @ 12:56PM
I don't control when books are published,b ut I gather the paperback of Man-Kzin Wars XII will be out shortly. Ask my publisher, Baen Books, to hurry them along and re-issue thge out-of-prints. And raise the possibiulity of z film wehile you're at it!
Steve A| 10.7.10 @ 11:09AM
As for the atheist crowd, I simply offer these FACTS:
1) there are only 2 possible scenarios:
a) there is a God / Creator
b) there is not a God / Creator.
2) you, the individual reading this, are
certainly NOT the creator.
3) your belief, one way or the other, has ZERO
impact on reality.
In other words, if you simply choose not to believe in a God, it does not make it so.
My "opinion" is that to suggest that this is all some kind of cosmic accident is so absurd that it defies any kind of rational analysis. Plus, for ultra liberals, how can Obama be the Messiah if there is no God ??
Al Adab| 10.7.10 @ 11:26AM
Probably grew out of Heinlein, Sttranger in a Strange Land, for example. His social welfare state was atheistic. Maybe a study of Kzinti religious reformation following the discovery of Ringworld might serve to enlighten. Of late too much sci-fi has become fantasy which blurs the definition. Alternative history ala Turtledove is fun, but doesn't rise to the hard science fiction level or Clarke or Asimov.
ERB Reader| 10.7.10 @ 11:41AM
Star Wars has its own fanciful religion built into the storyline, the force. But that religion is based on real ones – Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The “force” is Chi, the so-called life-force. A Jedi knight is probably similar to a Zen Master. When a great Jedi died he became part of the great continuum of the life-force, sort of like an “ascended master.” Eastern religions seem to work well in science fiction, at least to an American audience. I suppose Christianity would make everything too real sounding and betray the fiction part, most specifically to a publisher. After all, publishers traditionally have ruled what is acceptable science fiction.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.7.10 @ 11:56AM
ERB,
"Publishers" are going the way of the do dos and the newspapers.
For a couple of thousand dollars any writer can publish today, in E-book format...then have it promoted among thousands of web-sites....if it is timely or fascinating....or both.
As most of you will note...most novels are set on the east coast...or the west coast.
Duh,
Why do you suppose that happens?
Duh,
Because the publishers are there...and their screeners live there.
It is a whole new world, writers. Have fun.
Vern Crisler | 10.7.10 @ 11:41AM
Cordwainer Smith wrote successful religious science fiction......
Occam's Tool| 10.7.10 @ 1:35PM
What is the "Dune" series, if not religious science fiction? ("Maud-Dib, Mahdi!!" "Shai-Hulud permitting.")
But the two best science fiction novels addressing specific topics about the nature of good, evil and G-d are "A Canticle for Liebowitz" and "A Case of Conscience." Both are masterpieces.
Karl Jay| 10.7.10 @ 11:42AM
I just finished reading the four books in the "Hyperion" series by Dan Simmons. The Catholic Church becomes a significant center of interest in these books...particularly in the last two. It's a little surprising that these books were not mentioned by the Mr. Colebatch...and I'm wondering why. My son-in-law [who recommended the books to me] works for a health care company run by the church, and mentioned that many of the people he works with have read the books...to say the least, these books could be called "controversial."
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.7.10 @ 11:46AM
Al Adab,
The article this morning ...FORCED...me to dust off an old manuscript...."The Son of Man", and begin writing it again. It was/is the most difficult project I have ever undertaken.
I have sold LOTs of books, (mostly under a pen-name of course). It is the story of the very last human being alive in the universe.
I have decided to take another hack at it. Maybe released next year.
...Hah...talk about alternative history...WHOAH!
Al Adab| 10.7.10 @ 3:55PM
Hello Ken,
I've been having great fun with "Len" up at the doomsday election thread. I think I might enjoy reading through your work. The hard stuff is what I find appealing, although Independant Texas might make for good stories. Selling oil to arabia, shipping planes to the US. Things like that.
Senor Mick| 10.7.10 @ 12:00PM
Ain't no atheists in foxholes. Nor in space dropships, or imperial battlecrusiers, by extension.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.7.10 @ 12:23PM
Senor,
Well said, Sir!
MOS was 71331| 10.10.10 @ 11:18PM
I shared an office with two transmitter engineers at the Altair radar on the Kwajalein Atoll. The lead transmitter engineer had been an enlisted soldier in the German Army in World War II serving mostly in Russia and captured during the Battle of the Bulge. The other transmitter engineer had been a signal corps officer in the US Army assigned to the Anzio beachhead soon after our landings there. The second engineer told me he hadn't done any praying when German artillery fire pinned him in a foxhole.
I was a software engineer at the radar, and I had been an US army engineer officer from 1966 to 1973, the first two years active and the rest in the reserves. [Hence my "name": MOS (military occupational specialty), 7 for airborne qualified, 1331 for combat engineer troop leader.] I chose my dogtag listing as atheist, after reading an Ayn Rand essay explaining her contention that the burden of proof is on the person asserting God exists. The army never sent me to Viet Nam, so I don't know whether I'd have prayed if I'd been in combat.
James Pawlak | 10.7.10 @ 12:24PM
The first two are very troubling and mind energizing stories!
1. A Matter Of Conscience by (?) James Blish
2. A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
3. Post: Catholic Church, Science & Universities
Link: http://crusaderknight.blogspot.....ities.html
4. Short story: "The Devil And Simon Flagg";
Steve B | 10.7.10 @ 1:38PM
Add Anthony Boucher's classic short story, "The Quest for St. Aquin."
JP| 10.7.10 @ 12:24PM
I think the heart of the matter goes back to an abrupt dichotomy between Reason and Revealation that began with Kant and progressed quickly through the 19th and 20th Centuries. Kant's investigations into the nature of Reason and Knowledge, while becoming quite dated continues to hang over philosophy to this day. The only major intellectual figure who attempted to resurrect the old classical unity between Reason and Revealation was Pope John Paul II (see his encylical Fides et Ratio).
Reason has had its time on the stage. But, as the late thinker Alan Bloom once said, we live in a world tainted by Nietzsche. Enlightenment was too successfull in that it demythologized religion. Most people, even orthodox christians have a difficult time reconciling thier faith to the modern/post modern dispensation. Only Islam remaiins immune to Enlightenment (or, as they prefer to call it, The West).
Today's secularists are like children. They are so enamoured with thier technological toys, and are filled with such pride in Man's achievements that they rarely if ever have a case of " the doubts". You won't find a Pascal or Max Weber amongst them.
We can also see the politcal ramifications of this division amongst fellow Republicans. Libertarians and Secular Humanists are on one side of the aisle, orthodox Christians are on the other.
Albert| 10.7.10 @ 12:33PM
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, said on many occasions that stories are and should be about PEOPLE. Not science, not technology, not supernatural powers (which belong in the fantasy genre, not science fiction), or even religion. Isaac Azimov agreed with Roddenberry and said so. That Heinlein agreed with this idea as well is obvious from his works. Far too much science fiction (including post-Roddenberry Star Trek) focuses on things, on powers, on machines, on technology, or on science. People in such stories are merely a framework around which the science and technology is focused, and this is backwards. Good science fiction uses science and technology as vehicles to tell a story about people, and there is nothing inherently anti-religious about this. Good religious stories are about people, people of faith and dedication, not religion per se.
Roy| 10.8.10 @ 1:08AM
I didn't know this. Interesting, and borne out by the fact that when Asimov broke his own rule by writing books about "psychohistory", he produced the worst books of his career.
Le Cracquere| 10.8.10 @ 10:23AM
Sure. But unless speculative fiction has SOMETHING penetrating to say about the religious urge that appears to be hardwired into us, its attempt to be "about people" will be incomplete--or ultimately shallow. Roddenberry's Star Trek is a textbook case [duck].
Luminaria| 10.11.10 @ 12:31PM
Roddenberry was specifically a secular agnostic - and not particularly fond of organized religion. Several episodes specifically lampooned organized religions, either of "ancient Earth" or other "alien cultures" - but the message was clear. Later incarnations, which came after the Original Series, particularly Next Generation, and Deep Space 9, after Roddenberry left the helm, were much more empathetic with the concept that people were spiritual as well as social and intellectual. .... we shall not speak of Voyager & Enterprise... Poor wee things... LOL
MikeN| 10.7.10 @ 12:49PM
Babylon 5
The writer doesn't appear to be particularly religious, but his classical grounding is solid, and the material he did put in annoyed many liberals.
Gretchen| 10.7.10 @ 3:16PM
I'm glad SOMEBODY mentioned Babylon 5! It was an excellent show. I do remember some religious characters -- wasn't Delin some kind of High Priestess?
Francis W. Porretto | 10.7.10 @ 1:22PM
The great difficulty with religious fiction is twofold:
1. Most persons who attempt it don't have much writing talent;
2. The tendency to make the religious message overbearing is frequently triumphant over good fictional balance.
I've tried it. Indeed, these days I write almost nothing else. And I'm here to tell you: nothing I've ever put my hand to is harder. But also: nothing I've ever put my hand to has been more satisfying.
Brian Mc| 10.7.10 @ 5:29PM
Well said, F...to write fantasy about a reality which people consider far from fantasy must be quite difficult and daunting to say the least. You're bound to get it 'wrong' in someone's eyes.
Fred| 10.7.10 @ 1:35PM
If I'm not mistaken (and I could be), I believe Roddenberry was an atheist or agnostic. He considered himself a secular humanist. Albert's right about most of the post Roddenberry Star Trek series getting bogged down in technobabble, but I would say that's not as true of Deep Space Nine. Among other things it explored Bajoran spirituality (true the "prophets" were called "wormhole aliens" by the federation, but there was always some ambiguity about their nature). It also had frequent allusions to, and even episodes based on, literature. I particularly remember an episode based on "The Red Badge of Courage" and another on "Paradise Lost." If that's not religious, it definitely does show a willingness to explore aspects of human nature other than technological development.
I'd also say that atheist science fiction isn't necessarily bad. Douglas Adams was a self-described "radical atheist" and much of the "Hitchhiker's Guide" was satire of religion and belief, but the original trilogy was absolutely hilarious. I think that's because even if you're a believer, life certainly seems absurd sometimes. So the "Hitchhiker" series does speak to a fundamental aspect of the human condition.
WellreadClem| 10.7.10 @ 1:41PM
May I recommend Philip K. Dick's Valis trilogy?
I thought all great SiFi was about systems of belief?
Gubble Gubble
Al Adab| 10.7.10 @ 2:04PM
Man in the High Castle.
cdc| 10.7.10 @ 2:30PM
The distinction between science fiction and fantasy fiction lies in Arthur C Clarke’s third law, “any suffciently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and Niven’s corralary “any rigorously defined magic is indistingushable from technology.” Basicly if the author tells you how the trick is done it is SciFi, the more detailed and directly based on known science the explanation the harder the scifi is considered. Because religion strenuously avoids explanations and limitations it is far more compatible with the hand wavy magic found in fantasy books.
Roy| 10.8.10 @ 1:21AM
This is an interesting argument but the premise "Because religion strenuously avoids explanations and limitations" is false. Christians have used up quite a few trees trying to explain these things, while admitting we never fully will be able to.
Christian like religions posit a being who is above the physical universe, the source of physical laws rather than their subject. So you ask Him for what you want and you may or may not get it. Explain that as rigorously as you want, it's not technology, which I control and which does what I want. It's of course also not "magic". It would have the exact same relationship with a future world as it does with the present world.
What DOES fit in better in fantasy is vague, new agey talk about "gods" who people build temples to, "worship", and then kill by whacking them really hard with a sword.
CalMark| 10.7.10 @ 3:04PM
"Science fiction" used to mean "nuts and bolts" stories about space travel, robots, and fantastic inventions. Sometime around the Age of Aquarius, it became an atheistic, nihilistic, pornographic vision of a hopeless future positing that humanity is inherently doomed and the only hope (or at least inevitable development) is an authoritarian nanny state to save us from ourselves.
Anything written after the "Golden Age" is, as far as this former Sci-Fi fan is concerned, not worth reading.
Ryan| 10.7.10 @ 3:13PM
Go read the stuff over at Baen publishing. You may be surprised.
Renaissance Nerd | 10.7.10 @ 7:51PM
Too right! Religion is treated with great seriousness by many of the current Baen authors, and especially by my favorite David Weber.
Thomas R| 10.8.10 @ 1:46AM
Actually science fiction always had a good deal of atheists in it, maybe a majority. Wells (except for a period during WWI), Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein were all atheists.
Also there are still Christians who write science fiction that still wins awards or gets praise in the general Sci-Fi/SF field. Jerry Pournelle, Gene Wolfe, John C. Wright (convert from atheism), and maybe a couple others I can't think of at this hour. Also Orson Scott Card if you count Mormons as Christians. (I'm not meaning to offend Mormons, I just know there's debate on it.
ChestertonianRambler | 10.9.10 @ 12:32PM
Glad to see someone mentioned Gene Wolfe; both Wolfe and Walter M. Miller are notable for writing stuff that unarguably stands at the pinacle of their genre but whose imagery and questions are saturated with Christianity.
EBT| 10.7.10 @ 3:24PM
An author who was well known in his time, fell out of currency, and is starting to be rediscovered is the great R. A. Lafferty. He was a serious Catholic and a great deal of his science fiction has religion overtones, and some is quite explicitly religious. Chief amongst these is his best-known and most generally available novel, "Past Master", which is something like Buck Rogers but with St. Thomas More as Buck. (No, I'm not doing it justice, and it's well worth reading.)
He also wrote some remarkable short fiction which can fairly be described as theological science fiction, exploring worlds in which creation has taken place on different terms, and our relationship with the Creator is different, than in the world we know. Try and find stories like "Snuffles", "World Abounding", "Nine Hundred Grandmothers", "Name of the Snake".
He was a wonderful writer and almost anything you can find by him will be worth it, but his religious material is uniquely interesting.
Tenebris| 10.7.10 @ 4:57PM
The High House and The False House are two excellent "religious" sf books, now sadly out of print.
http://www.sff.net/people/james-stoddard/
Bob S| 10.7.10 @ 5:30PM
I have read (and re-read) C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. Fantastic books, esp. the third one. Would love to see a movie made from the third one, since the scenario around which it is constructed is happening right before our eyes (the use of a supposedly "scientific" organization intent on tyrannizing an entire nation- sounds an awful lot like the "Global Warming" crowd!).
Anommynous| 10.7.10 @ 6:35PM
The Space Trilogy should be required reading. Perelandra is a beautiful book, and as you note, That Hideous Strength is an important book because we're seeing many of the things described in that book unfolding before our very eyes. And C.S. Lewis really understands evil, better than just about anyone else. How many normal people are driven to do wicked things by their desire to be part of the Progressive Element, or what The American Spectator has called the Ruling Class, or the JournoList, or whatever group of self-appointed elites one wants to join?
Cylar| 10.8.10 @ 6:20AM
The Perelandra book was kind of frightening to me. I specifically recall the scene in which Dr Ransom is trying to persuade the native of the planet (who's completely innocent because her world never "fell" the way ours did) of the danger in being led astray by "Weston's body" - which appears to be demon-possessed but is charismatic and appealing. The native being doesn't seem to recognize the danger. Some parallels there with our world today.
Brian Mc| 10.7.10 @ 5:34PM
Again, I mentioned Hollywood movies as the burr in the saddle and the counterpoints attest to the written word...for the most part. Babylon 5...sounds like it might be worth a look.
Ann| 10.7.10 @ 5:48PM
What about the Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz? Yes, it is more fantasy, but it is based on the Catholic Church and the True Presence.
Anommynous| 10.7.10 @ 6:24PM
Jules Verne was a Roman Catholic! Without a doubt, he was a believer. His works weren't overtly religious and rarely delved into the supernatural, but they always showed an optimism in mankind and his technological progress, an optimism that is often absent from modern science fiction. Star Trek, I would say, is optimistic, but most successful science fiction franchises today instead depict a dystopian endpoint as the destination of mankind's technological progress. This goes beyond science fiction, though; I don't undertand the preference in modern society for dreary fiction.
Cylar| 10.8.10 @ 6:25AM
The major problem with Star Trek is its (unrealistic) portrayal of a humanity united under the banner of peace and technological progress, which has apparently done away with money or profit and put aside all of its centuries-old petty squabbles in favor of a peaceful exploration of the stars. Hah. And hah again. Will. Not. Happen. What's especially intriguing is how these enlightened humans of the future then venture out into the universe, and start having the same problems with other species, that they used to have among different human nations. Many of these alien empires still use money and are plenty interested in warfare & conquest. You'd think the United Federation of Planets could convince everyone to get along. It's like the "Q" character pointed out in the premier episode of Star Trek the Next Generation: "And then you ventured out into space and found new enemies to fight! The Klingons. The Romulans. It was the same old story, all over again." I always found it interesting how Roddenberry apparently never realized the way he was contradicting himself.
Le Cracquere| 10.8.10 @ 10:35AM
Maybe that's why I never warmed to Star Trek. It took all the really pressing human issues as solved (offscreen, in the past) or irrelevant. In the ST universe, humanity's main concern is the minutiae of post-eschaton maintenance, and alerting the galactic boondocks to the evils of having priorities that Gene Roddenberry didn't have.
The Big E| 10.7.10 @ 8:02PM
I don't know if you'd call it science fiction, or horror, or fantasy (I just refer to it by the now seldom used appellation - Speculative Fiction, which covers all three), but come on folks . . . am I the only one here who reads Dean Koontz?
The Big E| 10.7.10 @ 8:12PM
And as for something from Hollywood, how about "Signs?" Good old alien invasion science fiction, but in reality about the power of faith.
Svetlana| 10.7.10 @ 8:58PM
What about one of the most important novels of the 20th century?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T....._Margarita
In this book, God is everywhere to be found.
Leo Ladenson| 10.7.10 @ 9:11PM
How about Mary Doria Russell's two sf novels, The Sparrow (1996) and Children of God (1998)?
Roy| 10.8.10 @ 1:05AM
I don't really know Timothy Zahn's religious beliefs, but I enjoy his books because they depict people like us, as opposed to some SF writers who seem eager to depict future humans as nothing like us.
Isaac Asimov was an atheist, but I liked his "robot" books a lot better than the more atheist "Foundation" series, which started out saying that we were all the meaningless pawns of "psychohistory" and then devolved into the idea that we were all being mind controlled by an all powerful robot. His robot stories were just fun and had nothing much to do with religion or atheism.
I pretty much agree with Fred about Douglas Adams. It's certainly the case that, while he might have thought he was satirizing religion his books don't leave you thinking the world is the simple buttoned down place that scientism sometimes depicts.
Lastly I recently read an SF book "The Fox and The Lion" in which religion played a very sizable role.
Cylar| 10.8.10 @ 6:27AM
I couldn't get through any of Adams' books other than the "Hitch hiker" one. It just seemed to be all over the place, full of randomness and off-the-wall descriptions of things. Was the guy on drugs or something?
Yosemeti Sam| 10.8.10 @ 1:37AM
Arthur C. Clarke - 2001 & 2010.
MarvLS| 10.8.10 @ 11:10AM
Making a big deal out of the fact that many of the atheist essayists are sci-fi writers is just part of the continuing propagandistic tactic putting atheists on a higher intellectual ground than theists.
I find it ironic and laughable that many of these intellectual elites are asserting something as fact (the non-existence of God) which could only be known if they possessed all knowledge.
This means either they are grossly overstating their own knowledge (without knowing it) or they are God - who they insist doesn't exist.
Sounds to me like a good plot for a story: A group of intellectuals hell-bent (so to speak) on a quest to prove their own non-existence.
Kathy| 10.8.10 @ 9:02PM
Re: faith in SF: have a look at issue #25 of the free online magazine OG's Speculative Fiction (PDF available here: http://theopinionguy.com/OG25.pdf) and scroll down to page 23--the short story "Assumption".
Hal Colebatch| 10.9.10 @ 1:05PM
Quote a response - and it seems SF readers are in general more intelligent and polite than some in their responses. I would say there is a difference between "religious" sceicne-fiction a la Lewis and stories like A Canticle for Lebowitz which are actually about mundane politics or the many stories which have God (or the Devil) simply as a character.
Karl | 10.9.10 @ 10:13PM
A couple of stories with religious themes are "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke (astronauts discover a civilization that died in the nova when their sun became the Star of Bethlehem) and "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov (a computer, asked to solve the problem of undoing the heat death of the universe, comes up with a way to re-start everything -- "Let there be light")
Karl | 10.9.10 @ 10:17PM
One thing I've noticed in virtually all of TV and movie SF is a strong belief in vitalism. No matter what you do to people, no matter what kind of technology is available -- advanced medicine, transporters, etc -- there is some mysterious part of living things that disappears when people die, cannot be synthesized, and cannot be copied. If you put someone through a Star Trek transporter, for example, this vital essence has to be preserved, or the person arrives dead. If the writers weren't assuming some sort of vitalism, a Star Trek transporter would be perfectly capable of making copies of whoever had been transmitted through it.
Hal Colebatch| 10.11.10 @ 3:51AM
The point about "The Star" is that it is promoting atheism. I've trioed not to proletise in this article, but I am more interested in a Christian scence-fiction.
Dacron Mather| 10.11.10 @ 5:40PM
Who needs science fiction when there are two competing Geocentism conferences.?
The one for protestants ;
http://www.geocentricity.com/b.....nfrpt.html was held last, July, but thee is still time to register for another forthcomtng in November, organized by catholics who’d like to demote Galileo to a lower circle of hell :
http://www.galileowaswrong.com/galileowaswrong/
Galileo Was Wrong:
The Church Was Right
First Annual Catholic Conference on Geocentrism
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Hilton Garden Inn, South Bend, IN (near Notre Dame)
Registration opens at 7:45am
Conference begins at 8:30 & concludes at 10:30pm
Lunch provided between 12:00 & 1:00pm
Dinner break 6:00 – 7:30pm
If only these true believers had Jewish ,Islamic or Jain counterparts, it would be grand to arm them and the Lunacentrics with Puckle guns to face down the Turtles All The Way Downers.
jason taylor| 10.11.10 @ 9:53PM
From some of the comments, it is not clear whether by "religious or atheist science fiction" they mean "science fiction that has religion or atheism in it" or "science fiction that advocates religion or atheism". Those are two different things.
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