What do you think of religion in Speculative Fiction? Any specific examples you like? Dislike? Think it shouldn’t be in the genre at all? Think it should be in the genre more? Do tell.
Very complicated questions. But to sketch a response...
In general, I feel that to remove religion from either a fantasy or science fiction constructed setting seems too "early 20th Century leftism" -- the idea that religious belief is a delusional substitute for hard data and technocratic solutions. There's also the anti-religious folks mixing "belief in faith" with "belief in an organization." Sometimes those two are the same thing, but sometimes they're not. Although you can also take issue with "belief in faith" and "belief in an organization" for separate reasons. I'm only a Catholic is a loosely cultural sense nowadays, but my weak disbelief in God is a distinct issue from my distaste for the Catholic Church. Even then, I have fond memories of the monks and nuns who helped teach me as a kid, even if I take issue with the hierarchy they're a part of.
While there are and will always be flavors of atheism, I feel that the majority of humanity needs some sort of grand answer to the eternal questions we have. Even if it's not an organized religion, rare is the person who doesn't have a political ideal or a philosophical system to give bedrock to their lives. I may not believe in God or the divinity of Christ, but I still find the diverse and occasionally acrimonious various Christian philosophies interesting food for thought. So in a constructed world setting (an Avatar, a Star Wars) I find it weird and unrealistic when there isn't some sort of mention of what people believe or think in terms of spiritual affairs, more unrealistic than if all people believe in one faith.
That said, there's a definite resistance to religion in mainstream SF, both in terms of content and in fandom. Star Trek is explicitly atheistic humanism. Stargate is not much better. Star Wars has the Force, but it's a Members Only sort of thing that you need to be born into. nBSG featured religion at length, and I still see critiques over the inclusion of it. (Granted, the finale's bizarre swerve into Luddism aggravated that.) Babylon 5 allows for religion to exist in the future, but it's mostly background material. Although it has one particularly nice scene, even if it plays off the trope of aliens being culturally monolithic:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
2/3
Date: 2012-09-08 05:47 pm (UTC)Very complicated questions. But to sketch a response...
In general, I feel that to remove religion from either a fantasy or science fiction constructed setting seems too "early 20th Century leftism" -- the idea that religious belief is a delusional substitute for hard data and technocratic solutions. There's also the anti-religious folks mixing "belief in faith" with "belief in an organization." Sometimes those two are the same thing, but sometimes they're not. Although you can also take issue with "belief in faith" and "belief in an organization" for separate reasons. I'm only a Catholic is a loosely cultural sense nowadays, but my weak disbelief in God is a distinct issue from my distaste for the Catholic Church. Even then, I have fond memories of the monks and nuns who helped teach me as a kid, even if I take issue with the hierarchy they're a part of.
While there are and will always be flavors of atheism, I feel that the majority of humanity needs some sort of grand answer to the eternal questions we have. Even if it's not an organized religion, rare is the person who doesn't have a political ideal or a philosophical system to give bedrock to their lives. I may not believe in God or the divinity of Christ, but I still find the diverse and occasionally acrimonious various Christian philosophies interesting food for thought. So in a constructed world setting (an Avatar, a Star Wars) I find it weird and unrealistic when there isn't some sort of mention of what people believe or think in terms of spiritual affairs, more unrealistic than if all people believe in one faith.
That said, there's a definite resistance to religion in mainstream SF, both in terms of content and in fandom. Star Trek is explicitly atheistic humanism. Stargate is not much better. Star Wars has the Force, but it's a Members Only sort of thing that you need to be born into. nBSG featured religion at length, and I still see critiques over the inclusion of it. (Granted, the finale's bizarre swerve into Luddism aggravated that.) Babylon 5 allows for religion to exist in the future, but it's mostly background material. Although it has one particularly nice scene, even if it plays off the trope of aliens being culturally monolithic:
[Error: unknown template video]