A magazine I frequently write for (not this one) recentlypublished a review of a book of essays advocating atheism. Thereviewer pointed out with some enthusiasm that a large number ofthe contributors were science-fiction writers.
This left me somewhat nonplussed. I publish a good deal ofscience fiction myself, I have also read quite a lot of it, and Iam quite unable to see why writing it should be held toparticularly qualify anyone to answer the question of whether ornot 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 laypreacher.
I would be inclined to take their feelings about Cosmologywith more respect than those of even the best-publishedscience-fiction writer.
Historically the contribution of the Catholic Church toastronomy was massive and unequalled. Without it astronomy mightvery well never have grown out of astrology at all. Cathedrals inBologna, Florence, Paris, Rome and elsewhere were designed in the17th and 18th centuries to function as solar observatories. Keplerwas assisted by a number of Jesuit astronomers, including FatherPaul Guldin and Father Zucchi, and by Giovanni Cassini, who hadstudied under Jesuits. Cassini and Jesuit colleagues wereeventually able to confirm Kepler's theory on the Earth having anelliptical orbit. J.L. Heilbron of the University of California haswritten:
The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial aid andsocial support to the study of astronomy over six centuries, fromthe recovery of ancient learning during the late Middle Ages intothe Enlightenment, than any other, and, probably, all other,institutions.
Science fiction is, by definition, fiction, that is, itdeals with things which are the product of a writer's imaginationand are not literally true. In any event, what is and what is notscience fiction is hard to define. Simply to say it is aboutscience is meaningless, and while some science-fiction writers arequalified scientists, many are not. Probably even fewer are trainedtheologians.
There is a dividing line between science fiction andfantasy that has never been properly marked. No one would callThe Lord of the Rings (whose author was a devout Catholic)science-fiction although it deals with strange creatures in animaginary world, or at least an imaginary phase of Earth'shistory.
Actually, many science-fiction writers may well bereligious believers. The typical themes of science-fiction do notcall upon the writer to nail his religious or anti-religious colorsto the mast. The number of either religious or anti-religious worksof science-fiction is relatively small. C. S. Lewis is probably thebest known of the small band of writers who set out to writespecifically Christian science fiction with Out of the SilentPlanet and Voyage to Venus (also published asPerelanda). His third book in this trilogy, ThatHideous Strength, about a University and powerful governmentdepartment being taken over by devil-worshipers who are finallyovercome with the help of Merlin, cannot really be called sciencefiction. TheMan-Kzin Wars, a series to which I contribute, has fiercecarnivorous aliens, and at times touches on the problems of theirbeliefs and of converting them. James Blish also wrote some"religious" stories but these, such as one ending with theconversion of Satan after God hands His job over to him, are reallytoo fanciful to count as serious religious works. There are a lotof stories about deals with the Devil that come into the samecategory.
The total of "religious" science fiction that is publishedand also worth reading is small, which is perhaps simply areflection of the fact that little religious art of high quality isbeing produced in any area today.
Science fiction it seems is not a particularly suitablevehicle 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 ananti-Darwinian story -- which he later disparaged as "an exercisein youthful blasphemy," but he also wrote several stories inclinedthe other way.
To write good religious science fiction, or indeed goodreligious fiction of any kind, is a challenge but one that it wouldbe worthwhile trying to meet. It seems a pity the field has beenapparently abandoned to pernicious rubbish like The Da VinciCode, though this seems already, mercifully, to have fadedaway. In this, as in other areas, we could do with another C. S.Lewis to re-state the principles of Christianity in terms to stirthe imagination.
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