Do you love sci-fi and religion? You’re not alone.

America ^ | James T. Keane

[NetAddicted]

Peruse later.

[muir_redwoods]

A bit too on the nose maybe but “The Star” by Arthur Clarke fits in here.

[Daveinyork]

May the Schwartz be with you.

[reviled downesdad]

Missed CS Lewis. Also Lewis and Tolken debated Christianity,not sure if Tolken accepted Christ.

[PIF]

Very obscure

Philip Mann

The Eye of the Queen
https://www.amazon.com/Eye-Queen-Phillip-Mann/dp/0877954623/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31MW8YAGLTXNG&keywords=Philip+Mann+eye+of+the+queen&qid=1667130122&sprefix=philip+mann+eye+of+the+queen%2Caps%2C110&sr=8-1

Anthropologist goes to distant planet to study primitive non-humans, discovers God.

[Tax-chick]

“Ok what living organism lives centuries?”

Trees.

[scrabblehack]

Blish - terrible writer or terrible editor? Maybe it doesn’t matter but he did apologize for calling McCoy “Doc.” He said he had written “Bones” but the editor changed it to “Doc.”

More modern editors of Star Trek novels and novelettes are accepting “Bones” though.

[Dr. Sivana]

Star Trek in definitely not what you would categorize as hard sci-fi.

Your original statement didn't include the "hard" qualifier. I knew someone decades ago who put Star Trek et al as "Science Fiction" and the more realistic stuff as "s-f", which he preferred. There is not yet an agreed upon vocabulary.

[Dr. Sivana]

Ah, well. It was still a good show.

It was. Almost all series television outside the most mundane warm family dramas require a huge helping of disbelief. Perry Mason would get the dramatic murders that a top criminal law attorney MIGHT get once in a lifetime, his happened 39 times a year, and he was doing simple contracts and wills as well. Plus, his rates were low even after his reputation was established. You just go with it.

[sima_yi]

...Solo was bragging that he took the Falcon through a "shortcut"

I always took it as that his run was shorter in distance because the Falcon was a better ship and he was a better pilot. I never thought he was talking about time.

[married21]

Tolkien was Catholic. He talked Lewis into Christianity. His argument came from myths (in the non-pejorative sense of a story of how things came to be). He said Christianity had the best myth. He was bummed when Lewis became Episcopalian instead of Catholic.

[ExGeeEye]

The "anthology" movie, Solo, not only explains but portrays it, while also serving as an origin story for Han, his friendship with Chewbacca, and possibly the Rebellion.

[Telepathic Intruder]

My original statement referred to “good” science fiction, which is an opinion of course. Specifically, sci-fi in which the story is based on and built around realistic science. I don’t consider something like Star Wars even science ficiton, more like space fantasy. The “suspension of disbelief” will only stretch so far, and spaceships maneuvering like airplanes and asteroid fields acting like potato storms all add up into something that isn’t believable anymore, and ruins the immersion into the story.

[MayflowerMadam]

I love Christianity, but not “religion” in general.
I despise sci-fi.

[glennaro]

Interesting commentary, although it's good to bear in mind that these are two distinct genres
To me, there seems to me to be a more significant correlation between religious beliefs and quantum physics.

[Dr. Sivana]

The “suspension of disbelief” will only stretch so far, and spaceships maneuvering like airplanes and asteroid fields acting like potato storms all add up into something that isn’t believable anymore, and ruins the immersion into the story. The audience of ten year old boys buy into it, and the stories get more and more fantastic.

I grew up on DC Superhero comics, and Superman, Flash and most of the Silver Age Heroes tried to place a veneer of "science" around the character. If you read the original one page Superman story, a real attempt is made to come up with a serious "scientific" explanation for his then quite limited powers (e.g. could jump far, but not yet fly). What happens with series is powers accrue, and both heroes and villains get stronger. Attempts to further explain Supes' powers falls into the realm of pseudo-science-silliness and before you know it, he's blowing out suns like birthday candles.



I know this is far afield from science fiction, but the genres are intertwined. "Realistic" science fiction set into the future can only guess at the outcomes of further study of physics. Even early masters like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne were pretty light on the science part, though they have to be considered foundational to modern science fiction.

[Zionist Conspirator]

To put it crudely, if Christianity is a fantasy religion, then Judaism is a science fiction religion. If the former is individualistic, magical, and salvationist, the latter is collective, technical, and this-worldly.

That doesn't sound right. First of all, sacramental Xianity is very collectivist. And second, there's plenty of miracles, supernaturalism, and (while magic is forbidden) qabbalah in Judaism. And as for "this worldly?" This guy seems to have never heard of ha`olam haba'.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Tolkien was Catholic. He talked Lewis into Christianity. His argument came from myths (in the non-pejorative sense of a story of how things came to be). He said Christianity had the best myth.

Translation: he didn't believe in Adam and Eve.

[TexasBarak]

ERB wrote John Carter (and Tarzan and everything else he did) purely to make money- he didn’t have some overall “artistic vision” he was pursuing. He’d have been thrilled with a huge check from someone making a movie from his books. The real crime is the Starship Troopers movie.

[married21]

Do you want to believe that he wasn’t a faithful Christian, despite lifelong evidence of Christian faith? Are you trying to emphasize that those who do not interpret Genesis as a literal history book are not truly Christian? Well, Tolkien still gets the credit for helping Lewis find Jesus anyway.