Now Here Or Nowhere?

If a priesthood teaches that a god will return and the god does return, then the priests, to avoid redundancy, might denounce the god as an impostor. This is the message of Samuel Butler's Erewhon Revisited as also of Poul Anderson's Virgin Planet although, in the latter case, we must say not "god" but "Man."

To preserve their power, the Doctors/priests who control the parthenogenesis machine on the women-only colony planet of Atlantis denounce Davis Bertram as not a Man but a Monster. Another group that tries to turn the new situation to its advantage is the Burkes of Burketown who plan to keep the Man and his sons when he has had some for their own use, thus becoming independent of the Doctors!

Inevitably, Davis' advent makes him a pawn in planetary power politics. All will be resolved, no doubt.