RE religion & ETs.
While I've never come across any official utterances from the churches, I've
always understood that the prospect of intelligent ETs is exactly the same
as prospect of newly discovered human populations. Just as the discovery of
humans in the Americas had no particular impact on the Christian church
(apart from debates on whether the inhabitants were really human and
providing another mission field) I would not expect the discovery of ETs be
much different.
Is there any SF around that takes that sort of approach? Most that I've
seen takes a fairly simplistic (and unrealistic) approach like that
mentioned in "Jupiter".
Barry Haworth.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin P. Mulcahy [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 1:15 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "agnostic secular humanists"
Baranick, John [EDS/Minn] wrote:
> It just so happens I'm reading Ben Bova's "Jupiter", where in the
future,
> it's sort of the scientists against the religists?, and finding
new life
> forms on Jupiter isn't exactly the kind of thing the religious
factions want
> to be spending money on as it kind is kind of like forging the
nails for
> your own coffin. I
> John Baranick
This is the kind of science fiction depiction of religion that often
irks me.
Why would anyone assume that discovery of other intelligent life in
the universe
would in any way challenge the faith of all believers? Certainly
there might be
fundamentalists in any faith tradition who would be bothered, but an
awful lot
of religious people (myself for instance) would interpret the
existence of other
sentient life in the universe as simply another sign of the
plenitude of divine
love and creativity. Non-believers may certainly be critical of
believers, but
it seems unfair to ascribe to all believers attitudes that only some
actually
hold. Depicting all religious believers as narrow-minded
fundamentalists is
about as realistic as depicting all scientists as mad Faustian
figures. Good
science fiction ought to reflect the complexity and diversity of
human belief
and behavior and not settle for cliches and trite
oversimplifications.
--
Kevin P Mulcahy
Humanities Librarian & Instruction Coordinator
Alexander Library Rutgers University
169 College Avenue
New Brunswick NJ 08901-1163
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(732) 932-7129x129
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