Christian Space Opera Part II

[blockaderunner]

I apologize to Dayton and Neroon for steering the previous thread off course. We were discussing Christian Space Opera and not Christian "Rock". Now, on to topic.

I think the idea of any type of Christian fiction, be it sci-fi or fantasy, is rediculous. SF&F has traditionally been a progressive genre and has offered harsh criticism of establishments like governments and organized religion. War Of The Worlds was a criticism of British imperialism which, among other things, promised the word of God to the backwards "savages" of India, China, and Africa. And even my 8 year old daughter can swap out Big Brother with the Vatican in Orwell's 1984. Somehow, taking the idea of swearing unquestioning loyalty to an invisible deity and using hateful and exclusionary tatics to justify that loyalty and shoehorning that in a space opera format just doesn't work.
But hey. All's not lost. You want Christian fantasy literature? Might I recommend the Bible?

 

[Neroon]

If you are really interested in the topic, you need to leave out the editorializing on religion. I know there are differing views on its legitimacy, but you're straddling the line with that last line of your post. It doesn't really have anything to do with the actual topic, does it? That's more fit for TNZ or Misc.

 

[Admiral2]

It's too bad I didn't get to weigh in on this in the original thread, but I'll give my two cents now.

Dayton, the best way to find the answer to your question is to write your novel and try to sell it. If publishers won't go for it, self-publish it and see if it has any takers.

 

[Shawnster]

I think the idea of any type of Christian fiction, be it sci-fi or fantasy, is rediculous. SF&F has traditionally been a progressive genre ...

Not wanting to stir the pot or get into a religious debate in this particular topic but:

Gregor Johann Mendel (July 20, 1822[1] – January 6, 1884) was a German speaking Austrian Augustinian priest and scientist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants. Mendel showed that the inheritance of traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him. The significance of Mendel's work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century. Its rediscovery prompted the foundation of the discipline of genetics.

Despite all the negatives associated with religion, here is one example of a religious individual who contributed significantly to modern science. Perhaps Dayton could draw from this historical example of a religious man contributing to the advance of science in some future setting.

I'm getting the impression, based on Dayton's other topics, that he's thinking of massive stories with lots of characters, planet or several star-system wide settings and an epic story. That would be one direction but perhaps a story focused on a simple, humble, devout man of faith that makes a big discovery or major contribution to science or life would also work.

Hard Sci-Fi writer Ben Bova's novel Jupiter focuses on a devoutly religious man that bucks the religious police/moral majority of the future after intelligent life is discovered in Jupiter's atmosphere. Dayton (and anyone else), you might want to read that novel also (I highly recommend all of Bova's Grand Tour series).

 

[Kolrad]

I avoided the first thread about this intentionally, because I figured it would develop into a stress-inducing argument. But when something gets a "Part II," I guess I'm compelled to check it out.

Anyway, I don't know what sort of story in particular Dayton has in mind (it needs to be a good one, regardless of ideology, or it's not likely to find a market with anyone!), but one of the things I love about science fiction is how it allows us to explore the implications of ideas from angles we haven't thought of. I don't think there's any requirement of science fiction that declares religion or any other point of view "out of bounds."

I'm a Christian, and I have greatly enjoyed stories like "Who Watches the Watchers," which Gene Roddenberry said he was very fond of as he felt it got across his views on humanity, science, and religion very well. I find the interplay of monotheistic Cylons and polytheistic humans on Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica fascinating. Stories written from an atheistic or agnostic point of view often make very valid points about religion and the failings of the religious.

The movie based on Carl Sagan's Contact makes me cry, as it makes me realize that even someone who starts from a different place than me when it comes to understanding the universe encounters the same feelings of doubt, loneliness, and beauty when confronted with a huge universe.

I have also found it rewarding to read science fiction (and fantasy) written by authors who have a religious framework. C.S. Lewis's Protestantism, Tolkien's Catholicism, Orson Scott Card's Mormonism all come through subtly and powerfully in their writing.

Often I see themes in science fiction that resonate with me as a Christian in unexpected places (and quite possibly in ways not intended by the author). In the morality plays of The Twilight Zone I have seen stories about things like human depravity, grace, and rebirth. The new Doctor Who presents a character who is at once a committed humanist and reminiscent in some interesting ways of a relational God. Harlan Ellison's classic story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" speaks to us on many, many levels, but when I last read it, I was struck with what it revealed about the horror of man creating a god in his own image, only to find that god returning the favor.

Hopefully I haven't lost everyone with my rambling. My main point is that science fiction is about exploring ideas, letting us look at them in unexpected ways. It has both challenged and strengthened my faith by making me think about it. The artificial divider of "sacred" and "secular" doesn't work very well for science fiction, since I don't think it acknowledges those boundaries.

 

[Prince of Space]

I also avoided the original thread since, this being the internet, it was doubtful that any serious discussion of Christian literature was actually taking place. Obviously, believers in Jesus have as much right, and as many interesting ideas, as anyone else in writing in any genre. And it's disappointing in this enlightened age that centuries-old prejudices against Christians are still being dredged up. Perhaps the OP should get out more; I think he'll find most Christians to be not only kind, self-effacing, and sincere, but also intelligent, informed, and not at all afraid of new ideas.

 

[Neroon]

I avoided the first thread about this intentionally, because I figured it would develop into a stress-inducing argument. But when something gets a "Part II," I guess I'm compelled to check it out.

Actually, it was a very well conducted thread, and one with plenty of good resources for some suggested reading material.

 

[PurpleBuddha]

I think the idea of any type of Christian fiction, be it sci-fi or fantasy, is rediculous. SF&F has traditionally been a progressive genre ...

Not wanting to stir the pot or get into a religious debate in this particular topic but:

Gregor Johann Mendel (July 20, 1822[1] – January 6, 1884) was a German speaking Austrian Augustinian priest and scientist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants. Mendel showed that the inheritance of traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him. The significance of Mendel's work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century. Its rediscovery prompted the foundation of the discipline of genetics.

Despite all the negatives associated with religion, here is one example of a religious individual who contributed significantly to modern science. Perhaps Dayton could draw from this historical example of a religious man contributing to the advance of science in some future setting.

So it was a religious based discovery?

 

[Shawnster]

No. I didn't say that at all. My point was there is a historical precedent that shows a man can be both a man of science and have a strong Christian faith. As Kolrad and Prince of Space both so eloquently stated it seems there is a strong anti-religion sentiment on the Internet that tends to belittle anyone who claims to believe in God as someone who is unintelligent and unenlightened.

My point was to point to a person of historical note that found room for both God and science in his life and was able to contribute to the advancement of man and our understanding of the physical universe. I'm sure there are also people in the present that fall in this same category. No doubt there will also be people in the future that can and will also fall into this category. A speculative fiction story about such a person from our future could be written very well.

 

[Kolrad]

I avoided the first thread about this intentionally, because I figured it would develop into a stress-inducing argument. But when something gets a "Part II," I guess I'm compelled to check it out.

Actually, it was a very well conducted thread, and one with plenty of good resources for some suggested reading material.

Glad to hear that, then. Shame on me for jumping to conclusions instead of following my own advice!

 

[Trent Roman]

As Kolrad and Prince of Space both so eloquently stated it seems there is a strong anti-religion sentiment on the Internet that tends to belittle anyone who claims to believe in God as someone who is unintelligent and unenlightened.

Right, because there's no historical precedent for scorn of belief as an epistomology, particularly amongst scientists, before the Internet came around.

My point was there is a historical precedent that shows a man can be both a man of science and have a strong Christian faith.

But Mendel is a rather exceptional figure, not someone who can be taken as a standard. If you subscribe to the Merton Thesis, you can say he was the intellectual heir of a tradition, itself uncommon, represented by some of the early Puritans or apologists like William Paley, that saw scientific inquiry as a praise-worthy endeavour for illuminating the complexity of "creation", the same way deconstructing a machine can make one gain in appreciation for the skills of the engineer who built it in the first place. But like I said, it was a historical anomaly, by and large; by the time Mendel did his work, the Puritans had forsaken science in exchange for the narrow-minded, mean-spirited parochialism they're best remembered for today, while Paley died in obscurity, to be revived only to serve as a champion for the anti-evolutionary crusaders of the late nineteenth century.

Plus, and this may have been part of PurpleBuddha's argument, there's the fact that Mendel's work never touched on any theologically controversial territory; his genetics research was largely independant of his faith, except for the appreciative element I mentioned above. It either never occured to him to make the logical extension of his research to humans, or else he deliberately shied away from it given contemporary controversies. (He too died with his work unrecognized, though he certainly deserved better.)

When I think of individuals who pursued both science and religion, even when the two seemed to come in conflict, I think of figures like Bacon (who was a Franciscan friar) or Newton, who never seemed to have flagged in their faith even as they adapted it and/or their research in consequence. But mentioning these names, rather than Mendel's, brings the baggage you seem to want to elide: Bacon was constantly in and out of seclusion for his unorthodox views, while Newton spent all his life hiding his radical religious views because he feared (and rightly so) persecution as a heretic. Or else there are those, like Galileo and Darwin, who were theologically active initially (Darwin studied to become a clergyman), but whose sympathy with faith diminshed or failed altogether in light of their discoveries and the hostile reaction to them from mainstream religious establishments. Do not mistake exceptional individuals like Mendel for broad historical patterns.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Nerys Myk]

Isn't the subject supposed to be Christian Science Fiction rather than Christian Scientists?

 

[Trent Roman]

Well, yes, but I think this speaks to the root of the problem, a basic ideological incompability. You can't really seperate the dearth of Christian-themed science-fiction from its historical causes, any more than you could seperate the dearth of overtly Christian pornography from Christian attitudes towards sex.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Hunter X]

It's not space opera, but Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time series is a pretty good--and rare--example of Christian-influenced science-fiction. I always felt that she married scientific theories and tropes such as tesseracts, time travel and DNA mitochondria with spiritual themes and a fascination of the wild mysteries of the universe.

That said, there's an important difference between Christian science fiction and science fiction written by a Christian, a distinction that exists in many other areas of art, even life in general. I believe this series falls under the latter catagory.

 

[Nerys Myk]

My taste in "Christian" SF tend to run towards things like Behold the Man, Jesus On Mars and the Father Carmody stories.

 

[Kolrad]

Ray Bradbury wrote a pretty interesting story about a couple of spacemen landing on a planet and discovering that Jesus had just been there; he was apparently making the rounds of all the planets.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Ray Bradbury wrote a pretty interesting story about a couple of spacemen landing on a planet and discovering that Jesus had just been there; he was apparently making the rounds of all the planets.

Or there's Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star," in which a starship discovers the supernova remnant of the Star of Bethleham -- and a Jesuit aboard the ship wrestles with his faith when they discover the ruins of the civilization that was destroyed there. How does he deal with John 3:16 -- the "For god so loved the world" bit -- with the evidence before him of divine genocide? Rather thought provoking.

 

[Neroon]

I was thinking of "The Star" this morning. Sounds like a very intriguing read, and I'm glad someone brought it up, because I've been meaning to find a copy of it.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Fortunately, Neroon, the complete text of "The Star" is available online.

 

[Neroon]

Fortunately, Neroon, the complete text of "The Star" is available online.

Excellent! Thanks for the link!

(makes note to read over lunch today)