Science fiction and religion

Science and religion often conflict, so science fiction and religion either has been avoided as a topic, or has produced some highly creative science fiction. Themes include conflict between traditional religious ideas and situations created by technology, the role of religion as a multigenerational means of conserving or banning ideas, and the adaptation of religion to speculative situations.

One humorous but thoughtful example is Arthur C. Clarke's short story, "The Nine Billion Names of God", in which a group of monks believe they are carrying out the deity's specific purpose for man, using a laborious technique. What happens when their task is accelerated with computer assistance?

The role of religious groups in conserving knowledge, and how humanity deals with a second chance, is the theme of Walter Miller Jr.'s novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz. In the Dark Ages of our own time, Catholic monks preserved classical knowledge. After a future nuclear apocalypse, the founder of the Order of St. Leibowitz saved books and other knowledge before his martyrdom. His successors did not always understand the significance of the relics they preserved, but they knew their duty, especially with artifaces of the Founder, be it an schematic drawing of an electronic circuit, or a Writing of "Dozen bagels, pound kraut."

Several intense works have presented the collision of fundamental ideas of good with utterly new situations, such as James Blish's A Case of Conscience, or with radically different ways of looking at holy events, as in Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Star." Blish examined aspects of Manichaeism in a society without original sin. Clarke's story looked at the challenge to faith that could be caused by insights into a fundamental miracle.

In science fiction, religions have been formed, sometimes deliberately and sometimes as a byproduct of other activity, for an assortment of reasons. Robert A. Heinlein formed a fake religion to cover an underground rebellion in Sixth Column.

Another novel revolving around the attempt to overthrow a cynical and corrupt priesthood is Heinlein's relatively obscure entry in the Future History series, Revolt in 2100, which is set in a future United States. In the bestselling novel Stranger in a Strange Land, with the unforgettable first chapter title "His Maculate Conception", his protagonist, a human raised in the utterly different culture of Mars, brings fresh eyes to Earth customs, and a critical eye to its religious institutions--especially the more commercialized ones. Heinlein was more than willing to savage "commercial" religion, but also treated spirituality seriously.

A recurring story among science-fiction writers is that L. Ron Hubbard created Scientology on a bet as an off-shoot of his earlier Dianetics.

Frank Herbert and his sons have created the Dune universe, in which religions and quasi-religious groups form a society that sweeps across thousands of years. As background, a revolt, the Butlerian Jihad, against intelligent machines ("Thou shalt not make a machine in the image of a man"), led to the civilization turning within and developing, as alternatives, abilities we would consider paranormal. One branch involves the creation of a female order that develops its own abilities, but also establishes a long-term effort to breed for an adept with a special insight.

H. Beam Piper wrote a series of stories, beginning with "Gunpowder God", about an effective theocracy where the priests are the only people who know how to make gunpowder, and suggest that lay attempts to make it will result in damnation. An alternate-reality traveler from our universe arrives, and makes black powder in his sickroom, after being rescued by the Beautiful Princess after Winning the Battle, and changes the balance of power. His impact is even greater when he does not stop with the priestly secret, the basic gunpowder formula, and introduces improved gun design, and, above all, tactics and strategy.

Jack Vance, a major name in the field for five decades particularly known for his imaginative portraits of distant worlds and strange cultures, interspersed many of his novels with sardonic depictions of bizarre, quirky rites indulged in by religious believers and, in particular, their priesthoods. Some rites are subtly drawn, others more broadly, but the goal of all of them is clearly to hold religion up to scorn and ridicule. Perhaps the most sustained example of this is his novel The Blue World, in which cynical human priests on a planet entirely covered by water have tricked its population into worshipping and paying tribute to a semi-intelligent, squid-like predator called a kragen.

Religion is not necessarily the core theme of science fiction, but may provide important cultural background. In the Honor Harrington universe created by David Weber, the Church of Humanity Unchained defines much of the culture of her second home planet, Grayson. Its sacred music, based on country and western, is described as profound.

Many stories involve the impact of First Contact with an advanced culture, whose routine technology is seen as miraculous. Cargo cults are but a few of the potential cultural impacts. In the novelette Methuselah's Children, however, the protagonist expects, some day, to confront the advanced species; comments in Time Enough for Love suggest he did.