These guys have a fairly good approximation to Christianity:
God
the Fall
prayers
scriptures
Paradise
a Minster with bells and saints in its windows
a distinction between themselves and "heathens"
God's Daughter
Daughter? Well, something is going to be different a long time later on another planet. As a father of an only daughter, maybe I can relate to that.
Will the future hold religious figures comparable to those of the past? Olaf Stapledon's future history has a Daughter of Man and a Divine Child. In this single story, Poul Anderson imagines a Daughter of God although, unfortunately, he then tells us nothing about her. There is a Messenger from Heaven but he is a stranded space traveller - which is what the story is about.
10 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And this touches on one of the many ways Anderson was different from too many SF writers, he took religion seriously and did not wave it aside with contempt, as some atheist writers did. Or think up weak absurdities like Asimov's "religion of Science" with its vague "Galactic Spirit" seen in the FOUNDATION books.
I fully expect orthodox, Catholic, Christianity to survive into the future, along with heretical offshoots of the kind seen in "The Longest Voyage." What happened in that story is simplest explained by the colonists being cut off for many centuries from the rest of the human settled galaxy. Hence oddities like "God's daughter."
Ad astra! Sean
"Olaf Stapledon's future history has a Daughter of Man and a Divine Child"
Which one?
I've read several of his books. Some of them have mutually incompatible future histories.
Jim,
LAST AND FIRST MEN.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul and Jim!
Of Stapledon's works I've read only "Odd John" and "Sirius."
Ad astra! Sean
It's been a long time since I last read "Last and First Men" I had forgotten the Daughter of Man part.
One of his other future histories (title forgotten) had a rather totalitarian society ruling the world which was undermined by influence from Tibet to have the world become rather utopian.
Kaor, Jim!
I think one reason why Stapledon's stories never caught on with more than a few readers may be because many of them read more like textbooks, not stories where we see characters acting and speaking.
Ad astra! Sean
I think "God's Daughter" is credible enough. There are always new religions coming up -- Islam, Mormonism, modern Hinduism (rather different from the traditional variety, btw), neopaganism, you name it.
One thing I'm absolutely confident of is that religion will always be important.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree with both of the major points you made. We have seen such extreme grotesqueries as the mass human sacrifices and cannibalism of the Aztecs. Something similarly horrible might happen again in the future!
And Catholicism will always need to be on guard against heresies and perversions of Christianity.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: you're right about Stapledon. Many of his stories are like worldbuilding notes.
But all the worldbuilding in the world (heh, heh)is futile without characters and plot.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Absolutely! The late Dave Drake could have just pub. the massively detailed outlines he wrote for you and other co-authors, instead of bothering to have these co-authors expanding on them with characters, character development, dialogue, plot, etc.
Ad astra! Sean
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