"Reviewing the first expedition's reports of how upset and indignant the Consecrates at Aesca had gotten when told that its ship came from the stars, how hotly they had denied the possibility, Schuster had cautioned his fellows to avoid that topic." (p. 207)
Have you ever known a statement to be true but had someone arguing with you that it was impossible? Both the sphericity of the Earth and the reality of the Moon landings have been denied. Some Biblical fundamentalists claim that the Earth is flat. Some Hindu fundamentalists claim that the Moon is inhabited and therefore cannot have been visited by Apollo astronauts. For the latter, see here. Ivanhoan Consecrates sound like sf equivalents of Terrestrial fundamentalists.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But educated people had known since Eratosthenes time that the Earth was spherical, including perfectly devout and orthodox Christians. One of the (correct) criticisms of Columbus' efforts in Spain at getting assistance for his voyage to sail west had been that he was underestimating the size of the Earth. And people at ports or sea had observed many times that as ships sailed further away, they seemed to get lower and lower, a sign of the Earth's sphericity.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that the Ivanhoe religion was monotheistic (at least in theory) and had a body of sacred literature which was taken as inspired and faultless.
It strikes me as a "first-generation" monotheism, like Zoroastrianism, though. There are some parallels to the Abrahamic faiths, but the basic flavor is different.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That I had not thought of before, the Zoroastrian "feeling" of the religion of Larsum on Ivanhoe. I do remember Anderson using the term "Pharaohnic" in the story for the religion and culture of Larsum. Perhaps something might have happened in our Egypt if, as the XX Dynasty declined to impotence, the dominance of the High Priests of Amon had LASTED and the cult of Amon had developed into a similar "first generation" monotheism.
Ad astra! Sean
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