Christian Science Fiction

Wow, Mixing christianity and science. Thats bad enough, but Science Fiction? Thats like a punch in the face for me.

The Christian Filmmakers Academy, a project of Vision Forum Ministries, is a technical bootcamp for aspiring culture-changers to be held January 5-7 in San Antonio, Texas. Students will learn principles of scripting, casting, writing, directing, and marketing a Christian film — along with intense Christian worldview instruction.

I take it that “intense Christian worldview instruction” is the politically correct term for “indoctrination”.

The scariest thing about fundamentalist/evangelical Christianity is that they see EVERYTHING as a mechanism for converting people to their religion. Public schools, courtrooms, political office, movies, music, art, philosophy, history, business, foreign policy—the primary function of every aspect of our culture is for them just a way to lure in more sheep into the fold.

If I had to do a Christian-themed sci-fi, the fundagelicals would be the Borg.

Ryan Says:
January 4th, 2009 at 5:03 pm

Sigh, the only thing we have left if Fantasy, you know. Stuff with magic. But then again, Something tells me that these people will find away to “christianize” that too.

They already did. See: Chronicles of Narnia.

It’s fun to use your imagination, but I don’t know anyone who believes science fiction is anything but fiction.

(Outside of Scientologists, I mean.)

And Raelians, and a whole bunch of UFO-believing-nutcases, and apparently Joseph Smith & at least a few Mormons:

Belief in extraterrestial life in Mormonism has existed since its earliest days. It is taught that there are many deities governing planets throught the universe. Joseph Smith himself stated,

“…the great universe of stars has multiplied beyond the comprehension of men. Evidently each of these great systems is governed by divine law; with divine presiding Gods, for it would be unreasonable to assume that each was not so governed.”[1]

It is taught that these other planets are inhabited by human beings.[2]

I think that there are ways to insinuate Christianity into science fiction without ruining the genre. One example is the Sarah Connor Chronicles. There are Christian themes and characters in that show that do not detract from the entertainment value.

I like religion in my fiction, since religious metaphysics are at their root, very powerful fictional stories. Seeing them in fiction reinforces that idea.

“The popular genre has been responsible for persuading American thrill-and-chill-seekers that fictional speculation is reality — especially in regard to the creation of the universe, life on earth,…”

Oh the irony of literalist Christians complaining about such a thing.

“If I had to do a Christian-themed sci-fi, the fundagelicals would be the Borg.”

Wes, that’s perfect!

Another one of the great things about religion in science fiction is that it shows us what religion would look like if it were true.

Case in point: “Final Fantasy, the Spirits Within.” One of the scientists believes in spirits, so he develops an entire science based on empirically discovering spirits. He makes scanners that can see them, and he even powers some of his technology with non-sentient plant spirits.

In real life, because the supernatural isn’t true, the shamans who believe in souls go around telling us that souls cannot be empirically detected.

Well, they’ve never had much market penetrance in the SF community. I guess this is just like “Christian rock” – offer a neutered version of a genre that isn’t usually so compatible, and see if anyone will take it up as an alternative.

There is certainly room for religion in Sci-fi but you can’t come at it from a proselytizing angle or you lose your viewers.
Shepard Book from Firefly was a great overtly christian character, but the show did not revolve around either him or his religion. I’m fine with that. I accept that religious people exist and don’t mind them in my fiction.
However, these kooks clearly don’t mean to make stuff like that. They want bible centred, christian sci-fi. Therefore other beliefs must be shown to be wrong, non-religious good guys must eventually convert (and be shown to be better for it) and bad guys must not be christians. Of course, this isn’t remotely believable to a viewer and hence it won’t work as sci-fi.
Interesting shows dabble in grey, like Battlestar galactica, Firefly, Babylon 5, etc.
Even overtly black and white sci-fi such as star trek and star wars is actually rarely black and white. Hence goody Han Solo is hardly a christian soul (in fact he is a gambling, womanising, drug smuggler), and the Evil Klingon turn out to be deeply honourable and brave, while the noble federation make alliances with the unwholesome So’na to further their aims. And so on and on.

Still, i’m all for looney fundamentalists throwing their money into a deep dark hole. If they can’t spend it wisely, better they spend it making a show that won’t make it past pilot than trying to fund creationism in schools.

Where i can see it taking off is amongst looney christians themselves. Just as christian rock has. Of course, this won’t make the kind of money needed to hire quality actors and good effects.

Many classics SF books are overtly religious. A Case of Conscience (James Blish) and Canticle for Liebowitz (Walter Miller) are probably the most famous. “Case” is certainly pro-Christianity while “Canticle” is more ambivalent but written by a Catholic. Catholic priest/scientists have often been depicted in a positive light (e.g. Father Carmody in Philip Jose Farmer’s stories).

What are you works? I would like to know?

Oh. Sorry to mislead. I haven’t published any of them. (Don’t worry. You’re not missing much.)

Are there really people out there who still have trouble differentiating science fiction from horror?

I need you to talk to the Sci-Fi Channel, DSimon. They don’t always seem to know the difference. It’s irksome to turn it on thinking I’m going to see Sci-Fi and get horror instead.

There have been SF movies that were obvious Christian propaganda. “Signs”, starring Mel Gibson as I recall, and the latest film version of Stanislaw Lem’s SOLARIS. The latest remake of I AM LEGEND with Will Smith changed the whole message and meaning of the story, with a “happy ending” at a military compound with a BIG church in the center. And there is the continuing rule, observed in many movies, that any character identified as an atheist must get religion by the end; witness “Chocolat” and “Flatliners” and “The Day After Tomorrow” (professed atheist saves one book out of the NY public Library- guess which book.)

There have been SF movies that were obvious Christian propaganda. “Signs”, starring Mel Gibson as I recall

With that movie, I think the difference was that Christianity was treated as a set of beliefs rather than a set of truths: the main character returns to his belief due to the events in the movie, but by attributing more significance to the events of the movie than there are. Note that none of the other characters convert.

In other words, it was a non-Christian movie (with literal space aliens, keep in mind) with a Christian character, not a Christian movie, in my judgement, and I wasn’t put off in the least by the ending.

I think it’s an excellent movie, and an excellent example of how Christian themes can be properly incorporated into non-Christian works.

Hi. I’m a Christian- had to check out the site and read everyone’s comments, since I’ve long been into the idea of Christian sci-fi. First off, every writer presents their beliefs through their work, or else they are not being true to themselves. Most of the early major scientists held a belief in Jesus/God, and that did not deter them from creating what we call the laws of science.
Battlestar Galactica was written by a mormon, Gary Larson. His show has mormon doctrine all through it. And it was a great show (I’m not pro-Mormon.) Fantasy? Tolkien was as CS Lewis described a card carrying Christian- he helped CS Lewis become a Christian. Did Tolkien ruin fantasy or define it?
Every writer has an agenda- to get people to suspend their disbelief and believe in their ideas, whether for the duration of a novel, a movie, or a series. To present ideas as possible fact is not new to science or science fiction. To me evolution is just as much science fiction as God is to many of you. It doesn’t make me any less intelligent or anti-science, it just means I like my science entirely proveable without piecing bits and pieces of ideas together to form a doctrine and tell people they must believe it or they are stupid. Even Tesla, the greatest scientific mind to ever grace our planet, held a belief in something supernatural, though he said he would choose buddhism, but in any case belief in the supernatural did not make him less intelligent or anti-science.

I’m gonna’ side with Kevin here. While the Christian SF I’ve read is mostly horrible, it’s a big genre and just because no one’s done a good book in that style yet doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.

And really, if SF is all about asking hard questions taking new ideas for a spin, then why *wouldn’t* it be a great forum to discuss religion in?

I mean, Joe Straczynski (Athiest) placed all kinds of religious aspects (Both pro and con) in Babylon 5, and Philip K. Dick spent, what, a half dozen novels or more asking the really tough questions about God and Religion. And the conclusions he came to were frequently the kind that would disturb both Athiests and religious folk. That’s a good thing, because when you become too complacent in your belief pattern, no matter what it is, you start to get prejudicial and closed-minded.

I mean, saying “You can’t have religious SF” is every bit as closed-minded as a militant Christian saying that he can’t read SF because it’s sinful for contradicting the bible.

My opinion. Your mileage may vary.

That’s a wild – and pretty funny – generalization. Certainly I’ve had some run ins with the “Children of the Corn” types, but speaking as a Christian myself I can say they annoy most of us as much as they annoy most of you.

On a related topic, my website recently did a roundtable discussion on this very topic, trying to reach a consensus as to whether “Christian SF” is even possible, much less valid and/or desireable. We went out of our way to be fair and evenhanded, and included an atheist and a religious Jew. The results were entertaining and a bit surprising.

If any of you are interested, check it out here http://www.republibot.com/content/roundtable-discussion-6-christian-science-fiction

I would agree that most Christian Science Fiction reads like a long preach but I think the exception is LEDNORF’S DILEMMA by David Conn. Also I think christian science fiction authors should move their characters with actions more than words. Even Jesus and the Prophet Nathan knew that when they told a story. But a good example of actions before words is in LOGIC’S END. But least we forget many atheist science fiction authors also seem to have a lot to say about everything too.