Does religion and science fiction mix?

[Cartoonist]

I've read tons of SF in my life. I can recall only minor instances of religion being presented favorably. If a story does involve religion, it is usually in the form of some evil authority.

What are some SF books you've read that have religion as a theme?

[neeksgeek]

1. Frank Herbert's Dune is one

The book, not the 1984 movie. And the sequels as well, though I didn’t like them much.

Here’s a link to a Wikipedia article on the religions of Dune.

[Cartoonist]

7. I get the religious trappings

But what god did they worship?

[neeksgeek]

10. It's been a while since I read it...

But my impression was that the Fremen (the Zensunni Wanderers) were basically followers of Islam, such as it might be ten thousand years from now. I remember at least one reference to the Creator, and also Shaitan (Satan). There are references to Christians and late in the series, Jews, presumably those people worship the same god they do now. Some of the other factions - the Guild, the Harkonnens - seem mostly to have worshipped power.

Of course when the Fremen refer to The Maker, they mean the giant sandworms.

[Act_of_Reparation]

23. The primary religion centers around the Abrahamic God.

The Orange Catholic Bible, the main religious next in the series, combines elements from most of Earth's major religions into something novel.

[Igel]

2. You could consider "Speaker for the Dead" to be mostly religious.

SF reflects the writer.

Orson Scott Card is religious; you don't find religion disfavorably displayed, by and large. That goes for the Alvin Maker series, either. It's not a current recognizable religion, to be sure.

I'm not sure what to say about Simmon's Hyperion Cantos with the Shrike and the little cross-shaped resurrection parasites. It sort of takes on the rump Catholic Church at the time, but makes it almost a victim (from what I remember).


It's similar to how political ideologies are portrayed. SF reflects the writer.

[Cartoonist]

5. I used to like Card

I like his stories, but not the man.

In Speaker, didn't he have the natives use the Bibles they were given as TP?

He's a Mormon, right? In his book The Lost Boys, he portrays a couple of missionaries as complete loons.

[Voltaire2]

15. His first book was the only one worth reading.

[Onyrleft]

3. Robert Heinlein's Job is one.

I'm not sure exactly what screwed up Orson Scott Card, but I have my suspicions.

[JackintheGreen]

4. Favorable, or a least neutral, example include

Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow
Miller’s Canticle for Leibowitz
leGuin’s Hainish Cycle (Left Hand of Darkness, for example)
Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light

And while not a book, how about Star Trek DS9’s portrayal of the Bajoran religion

[qazplm135]

6. not a book

but both Deep Space Nine and Battlestar Galactica present religion favorably and enhance the overall story.

[Major Nikon]

8. Does scientology count?

[Cartoonist]

9. Not by my definition

Religion requires an exclusive deity.

[3Hotdogs]

11. So Hindus ain't got no religion?

What about the Romans?

Religion: Attempted explanation of the unknown.

[Cartoonist]

12. You kidding me?

Hindus hold the record for number of Gods in their pantheon with Rome a close second.

[Voltaire2]

13. They also consider all of their gods to just

be different manifestations of the one god Brahman, or at least some Hindus hold this view. There are also Hindu atheists.

[Major Nikon]

14. That definition would exclude quite a few religions

Include those of many Native Americans and other indigenous cultures, traditional Chinese, along with various sects of many mainstream religions.

[Cartoonist]

16. How do you figure?

Almost all of them have a creator myth.

[Major Nikon]

20. Many Native American and indigenous religions are pantheistic

And within the realm of many religions you have those who do not subscribe to the idea of a deity.

[Cartoonist]

22. Anthropomorphic pantheism

Animal spirits, water spirits, the Great Spirit. That's not pantheism. As soon as you assign a personality, a myth is born.

As for those religions that don't have a deity, perhaps they are more a philosophy, like Buddhism.

I am no expert on world religions, especially Asian religions. Name one that you think is a religion that does not meet my definition. I'll look it up and get back to you.

[Major Nikon]

24. You can't lump all Native American beliefs together and call them the same

The term "Great Spirit" is not as cut and dried as you make it out to be and in many, if not most cases absolutely describes a non-anthropomorphic force of nature. There was a huge diverse set of views which spans the spectrum of monotheistic, polytheistic, pantheistic, and combinations of two or all of these things at different times.

Possibly the biggest examples are the Lakota and Algonquian tribes who at times subscribed to a spirit force found in all things. As is the case with most indigenous tribes that lacked writing, oral history changed the nature of their beliefs over time.

Just because a religion incorporates mythology, doesn't make the religion deistic. Many Native American tribes knew there myths were just that. They were used as teaching tools to describe their views of spiritual forces which they well understood were incomprehensible.

Buddhism most certainly includes non-deistic beliefs. Although gods were believed to exists, they were viewed as non-omnipotent. Religion includes philosophy by most definitions. It's not really a case of them being more like a philosophy, they all are a philosophy.

[DetlefK]

17. "The Algebraist" and "Surface Detail" by Iain Banks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Algebraist

This novel is about a treasure-hunt for the original script of a theater-play "The Algebraist" that is said to contain a secret. The novel mentions a nihilistic religion that states that reality is just a simulation, so nothing really matters.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_Detail

This novel deals with the question whether it's ethical to create an artificial hell for tormenting evil-doers and it deals with the question what concepts like soul and individuality mean when it's possible to copy and download a person's mind.

[Cartoonist]

18. Great writer. Too bad he's gone.

I was really into him and thought I read all his work. What you describe does not sound familiar. I must have missed those.

[DetlefK]

19. Have you read "The Wasp Factory"?

It's about a teenager in an insulated coastal village in Scotland. He was maimed as a small child in an accident and has unbeknownst to his single father turned into a psychopath who kills other children.

The novel explores this alternate interpretation of reality he has created for himself, his emotional trauma and his investigation what really happened to him back then.

It's a dark, depressing read, but it's also fascinating in a morbid way, because Banks clearly put a lot of thought into how an insane person thinks.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Remember his science fiction was listed as "Iain M. Banks"

I can recommend those 2 above - and all his science fiction (most of the rest of his fiction too, though one or two I'm not that keen on).

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

25. There was one movie... man swallowed by whale... guy loses family but gets a new one...

... wicked cities destroyed by fire.. and some global water something or other....

I can't remember the name of the movie right now tho.. shoot!

[rampartc]

26. game of theones has several religions

the seven and the fire god among them.

s r Delaney has 2 religions in "stars in my pocket" the family and the sygn.

[catrose]

27. Chalion series by Lois McMaster Bujold

[captain queeg]

28. I think Childhoods End, somewhat

At least it gives some tie-in to religious beliefs, or alternate explanations of where they come from. It’s been a long time, but the overlords and the overmind (I think that was the term?)

[Cartoonist]

29. Been a long time since I read it

They made a TV series of it. I have the DVD but haven't watched it.

[sweetloukillbot]

30. The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

A lot of her stuff had mainline Protestant trappings, but Doomsday Book is pretty explicit in it's Faith.

[quickesst]

31. if anyone has ever read....

The Masters of Solitude
Novel by Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin

..... they will be familiar with the Kriss, a post apocalyptic abomination of Christianity. The only novel I have ever read that made me feel as though I was part of the main characters quest.