'Why does God need a Starship?' Religion in SciFi

I always found amusing the schtick in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land to the effect that the faithful go to whatever heaven they believe in . . .

In line with that, i once read a short about people in the theater business who realized it was the end of the world when God's stage hands began putting away the props--it really sank in with them when Connecticutt had been packed away . . .

I once authored a story about a time machine: It was set up to reach like a hand into the past, retrieving the lost objects of history. It did pretty well until it plucked Jesus from the tomb in the hour of his resurection. I abandoned the tale before its completion because of a nagging worry I may have subconsciously stolen the idea from another writer. Who or where I could never determine.

Try Sherri S. Tepper, "Grass". She examines the "sacredness" of human life from a feminist viewpoint. One of her characters postulates that God sees the human race as a virus.

It's a cookbook! It's a cookbook!

cav-

Well, of course there is CS Lewis' trilogy which is a sort of sci fi/fantasy christian treatise - "Out of the Silent Planet", "Voyage to Venus" (also published as "Perelandra") and "That Hideous Strength" - these are actually very interesting examinations of a number of ideas - though I have not read them for many years, so I am unsure if they are better in the eye of memory. I disagreed with a lot of his thinking but found it all interesting.

Philip K. Dick: The Divine Invasion. Also, I loved Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which Blade Runner was based on...lots of interesting stuff there about humans playing God....here is a link, which also mentions Valis, a precursor novel to The Divine Invasion:

http://www.philipkdick.com/divine.htm

There was a great short story that I read back in the 50's that I have talked about on dozens of occasions throughout the years.

It was about a guy who determines that time travel is possible -- but that the research and development costs to make the time travel machine would be astonomical.

So he gets an astronomical amount of money together -- and builds a time machine -- and on his first trip back to the past, he uses some gold he brought with him to finance investments that he knew would yield an astronomical amount of money in the future when he needed it.

Can't remember anything but the plot -- but if anyone knows who wrote the story -- I'd love to have that information.

1. UU's are cool. I flirted with that faith while I was in New Hampshire.

2. Can we expand this to cinema--if so "The Matrix" becomes fair game.

God is usually everywhere in Science Fiction.
This started when scientists replaced philosophers as the Askers of the Important Questions.

Solaris, the planet, may be God: or rather the sea-mother-Goddess, maker of all things and feelings.

Stranger in a Strange Land is an obvious analogy of the Second Coming.

Similar Christian analogies appear in "Do Androids Dream on Electric Sheep?" (mostly in the "other novel" that was not part of Blade Runner), and so do the big onthological problems of mankind (which is the central theme of the movie).

Okay... a days worth of responses...

yeah, Matrix. I'd thought of that once, but completely forgotten about it this morning before the second cuppa.

Stranger in a Strange Land, originally titled The Heretic. Another story of a guy condemned to death fro preaching without a licence. good, good. I grok.

Edgar, there was a short novel called The Man Who Folded Himself (author forgotten for now) where a time traveller encounters earlier and future versions of himself, but he (they) have never been able to exactly visit the ressurection.

'Any unexplained technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic' -Clarke
Any unexplained technology alos makes for miracles.


How about the Bene Gesserit seeding the universe with religious myth for the future emergancy needs of the sisters...?

Keep it up guys (and gals)! I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Let us know how it turns out boss, an' if ya work up a text, i think we'd be interested in seeing it, if you have no demure . . .

Solid, Seal.

I like it . . . somebody give that man a cee-gar . . .

File off the serial numbers... and I can use it again?

My mother was a navy brat. She tells of handing in the same school paper three years in a row at three different schools...