"Beware of Science Fiction"?

Self-identified Fundamentalist David Cloud has written a short piece on why you should "Beware of Science Fiction." (The reasons mostly boil down to "because it will make you a polyamorous nudist atheist who believes in evolution.") He singles out Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Kurt Vonnegut, and Gene Roddenberry as the worst offenders-- and the expiration date on those examples goes a long way toward showing how much Cloud actually knows about SF.

The piece reminded me quite a bit of James A. Herrick's slightly more subtle but no less damning critique of SF, Scientific Mythologies. In my review of Herrick's book for the Internet Review of Science Fiction, I called the author out for treating Christianity as monolothic, unchanging, and "traditional," while ignoring or dismissing Christianity's rich "tradition" of speculative theology. Cloud is clearly committing the same error here.

And, of course, my own The Gospel According to Science Fiction is a sort of counterargument in itself. On a certain live, Herrick and Cloud are right that much (though not all) SF may be in opposition to a particular kind of Christianity, but the world of religion in general, and Christianity in particular, is much bigger than that. And even self-identified atheists and agnostics have written some of the most profound theological SF of all time. SF is a wonderful place for speculative theology and religious exploration, which I believe are very valuable and powerful things.

[via BoingBoing]

Comments

[David Ellis]

Cloud also fails to note that there actually are quite a few Christian science fiction writers out there---enough that one can read SF as much as one likes and still contentedly avoid exposure to anyone who thinks differently from oneself.

Why anyone would want to do something so boring is another issue.

[John W. Morehead]

Unfortunately, this is not surprising. In 2007 Publishers Weekly commented on Christians and science fiction stating:

"While mainstream fantasy and science fiction fill shelves in general-interest bookstores, the genre has yet to really take off in the Christian market industry…Suspicion of the books as too dark or occult, combined with a primary demographic that isn't drawn to the edgy—white, evangelical American women of childbearing-to-empty-nest ages—make the books less than attractive to many Christian publishers and booksellers..."

There are several factors at work here, not least of which is a diminished or non-existent theology of imagination. Thankfully some of us think outside such boxes to see what might be possible taking The Inklings forward rather than constantly looking back at them as the only way it can be done.

[Brian Bennett]

Ray Bradbury was my initial thought of a science fiction master who is Christian. And of course in fantasy Tolkien and Lewis. In fact I used Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe as the launching point for my sermon this past Easter Sunday.

If the proclamation of the gospel is to take root, it cannot be a mere list of intellectual propositions, but a story into which the hearers are drawn. If we are to be brought into a story that promises a new reality, then science fiction/fantasy are good venues for such wranglings, even if they do get dark, and not biblically literal.

[Michael A. Bowie]

The science fiction book Lednorf's Dilemma by David Conn should be formally debated because it claims to be true.

[David Conn]

Michael A. Bowie is ony partially correct. I have not claimed that the book is true. I do say, however, that LEDNORF'S DILEMMA is based on many events and interviews that I have had with scientists, theologians, along with several persons who have honestly relayed their encounters with UFOs.
Also, The amazing event (whereby a witch predicted that an earthquake would hit right between the two Shell Oil facilities)on pages 180-183, was detailed on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle ninety minutes prior to the quake actually taking place. Also the event (that caused Africa to be the only continent with a heterosexual AIDS epidemic)actually happened, and was directly supported by way of an interview I had with a Peace Corps worker in 1965 at 38th and Barrett Ave. in Richmond CA.