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Date Posted: 00:54:45 06/12/03 Thu
Author: andrewsfan
Subject: Re: Religion in SF
In reply to: LZ 's message, "Religion in SF" on 14:12:00 06/11/03 Wed

I'm not sure I agree with the author that religion is a part of human nature, spirituality, perhaps but not necessarily religion. Now, does he mean religion as a belief in God or as a structured practice of worship? A belief in a higher power may be a part of human society but a given to our nature?

Quote -

"The honest depicter of human life will include the religious aspect of that life. This is not to say that stories need to be about religion, any more than stories about our contemporary culture need to be about cars. But the cars need to be present, at least by implication, and if a character doesn't know how to drive, we'd need to know why."

Not driving may be unusual but to need to explain why a character doesn't drive? It would depend on the story. Yes, I'm being picky. I'm taking exception to the idea that because religion is a given in Mr. Card's view of the world it doesn't mean it should be a given in every writer's world. Anymore than a lack of it needs to be explained.

I'm drawing a blank on specific Voyager episodes.

I've always likened the Klingons to Vikings - is a code of honor a "religion"?

Plenty of moral themes - Redemption seems to be a big Trek theme.

Sorry - brain is still muddled.

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Replies:

[> Science Fiction and Religion -- andrewsfan, 17:13:27 06/12/03 Thu


Do you think a lack of religion in science fiction has to do with the view that science and religion are somehow incompatible? I'm not saying the two *are* incompatible, I'm wondering if some authors (or readers)hold that view.

[Edit]




[> [> Re: Science Fiction and Religion -- LZ, 18:23:02 06/12/03 Thu

I think, to that point, Card's right. Many science fiction readers and writers have either abandoned a view that pure science, universe understanding is mutually exclusive to "religion" in the popular sense, that of an organized, ritualized ascription, subscription to a higher Creator being. Most science fiction if it does mention religion, tends to take a dim view of ritualized expressions

(ie. Tom and Harry's 'fooling around' with Tuvok's temple holodeck program)

-- for crying out loud the man uses the program as a prayer and meditative *ritual* center to connect with his heritage. If you had respect for him, and his heritage, would *you* mess with his cultural, or religious, iconography?

But he is 'permitted' to be the butt of a joke between two humans who have "evolved" beyond the need to connect with a spiritual center in their culture. *frown* That is the writer-perspective creeping in, I'm pretty sure, a disdain for the organized ritualized religion.

Janeway did the most 'open' acceptance of another culture's meditative and religious ritualisms when she went through "Sacred Ground" to recover Kes. However there was an authorial distancing here too for the character. This wasn't Janeway's expression, but someone else's compelling. In the end, she had neither adopted, nor condemned (kudos at least for that) the society's belief system. But her own inherent view was never quite expressed.

[Edit]


[> [> [> Re: Science Fiction and Religion -- AF, 21:47:01 06/12/03 Thu


If it were two mature adult crewmembers who mocked Tuvok's beliefs perhaps, but Tom and Harry are very often jerks (especially when acting together). The issue of lack of organized religion in SF I think might stem from a lack of an understanding of organized religion by the SF writer. After all, you would have to have some grounding or appreciation of a religious sect in order to extrapolate a futuristic version of an organized relgion. I use the term organized to mean a group belief system with rules and rituals.

I hate to bring up the name *g* but Chakotay might be an example. It's just that he was isolated in the Delta Quadrant so he appeared not to be part of a group belief system.

[Edit]







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