Religion and Science Fiction PDF Download

Author: James F. McGrath
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 160899886X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Religious themes, concepts, imagery, and terminology have featured prominently in much recent science fiction. In the book you hold in your hands, scholars working in a range of disciplines (such as theology, literature, history, music, and anthropology) offer their perspectives on a variety of points at which religion and science fiction intersect. From Frankenstein, by way of Christian apocalyptic, to Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and much more, and from the United States to China and back again, the authors who contribute to this volume serve as guides in the exploration of religion and science fiction as a multifaceted, multidisciplinary, and multicultural phenomenon. Contents List of Contributors / vii Introduction: Religion and Science Fiction--James F. McGrath / 1 1 The Dark Dreamlife of Postmodern Theology: Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, and Alien Resurrection--Joyce Janca-Aji / 9 2 Sorcerers and Supermen: Old Mythologies in New Guises--C. K. Robertson / 32 3 Star Trekking in China: Science Fiction as Theodicy in Contemporary China--Eriberto P. Lozada Jr. / 59 4 Science Playing God--Alison Bright MacWilliams / 80 5 Looking Out for No. 1: Concepts of Good and Evil in Star Trek and The Prisoner--Elizabeth Danna / 95 6 Robots, Rights, and Religion--James F. McGrath / 118 7 Angels, Echthroi, and Celestial Music in the Adolescent Science Fiction of Madeleine L'Engle--Gregory Pepetone / 154 8 Uncovering Embedded Theology in Science Fiction Films: K-PAX Revealed--Teresa Blythe / 169 Bibliography / 179 Index of Scripture / 187 Index of Subjects / 188 Index of Names / 191

Author: Frederick A. Kreuziger
Publisher: Popular Press
ISBN: 9780879723675
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Science fiction captures contemporary sentiment with its faith in a scientific/technological future, its explorations of the ultimate meaning of man's existence. Kreuziger is interested particularly in the apocalyptic visions of science fiction compared to the biblical revelations of John and Daniel. For some time our confidence has been placed largely in science, which has practically become a religion. Science fiction articulates the consequences of a faith in a technological future.

Author: Paul J. Nahin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1493906186
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Can a computer have a soul? Are religion and science mutually exclusive? Is there really such a thing as free will? If you could time travel to visit Jesus, would you (and should you)? For hundreds of years, philosophers, scientists and science fiction writers have pondered these questions and many more. In Holy Sci-Fi!, popular writer Paul Nahin explores the fertile and sometimes uneasy relationship between science fiction and religion. With a scope spanning the history of religion, philosophy and literature, Nahin follows religious themes in science fiction from Feynman to Foucault and from Asimov to Aristotle. An intriguing journey through popular and well-loved books and stories, Holy Sci-Fi! shows how sci-fi has informed humanity's attitudes towards our faiths, our future and ourselves.

Author: Alan P. R. Gregory
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781602584624
Category : Christianity and literature
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Explores the sublime in Christian theology and science fiction.

Author: James F. McGrath
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 149820452X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
What is the difference between a god and a powerful alien? Can an android have a soul, or be considered a person with rights? Can we imagine biblical stories being retold in the distant future on planets far from Earth? Whether your interest is in Christianity in the future, or the Jedi in the present--and whether your interest in the Jedi is focused on real-world adherents or the fictional religion depicted on the silver screen--this book will help you explore the intersection between theology and science fiction across a range of authors and stories, topics and questions. Throughout this volume, James McGrath probes how science fiction explores theological themes, and vice versa, making the case (in conversation with some of your favorite stories, TV shows, and movies) that the answers to humanity's biggest questions are best sought by science fiction and theology together as a collaborative effort.

Author: James A. Herrick
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830825886
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
What does science have to do with science fiction? What does science fiction have to do with scientists? What does religion have to do with science and science fiction? In the spiritual vacuum of our post-Christian West, new mythologies continually arise. The sources of much religious speculation, however, may be surprising. Author James Herrick directs our attention to a wide range of scientists, filmmakers, science fiction writers and religious philosophers and discovers there the role that science and science fiction have played in such mythmaking. From scientists such as Francis Bacon, Francis Crick, Carl Sagan and Freeman Dyson, to filmmakers such as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, to science fiction writers such as Olaf Stapledon, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, Herrick finds a curious collusion of science with science fiction for promoting and justifying alternative spiritualities. The rise of these new mythologies, he argues, is no longer a curiosity at the edge of Western culture. This alchemy is catalyzing a religious vision of new gods, a new humanity, and alien races with superior intelligence and secret knowledge. This new mythology overshadows the realms of politics, science and religion. Should we follow such visions? Does science endorse these mythologies? Are we being offered a spirituality superior to the Judeo-Christian tradition? This book will help you decide.

Author: Jutta Wimmler
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476622655
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Why did it seem strange when Battlestar Galactica ended its narrative on a religious note instead of providing a scientific explanation? And what does this have to do with gender? This book explores the connection between the triumph of religion and the dominance of femininity in Battlestar Galactica and its prequel series Caprica. Both series breached science fiction's convention of representing the "irrationality" of femininity and religion. Analyzing the connections (and disconnections) between women and men, and theology and technology, the author argues that the "Battlestarverse" depicts women as zones of contact between the seemingly contradictory spheres of science and religion by simultaneously employing and breaking gender stereotypes.

Author: Carole M. Cusack
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131711325X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Utilizing contemporary scholarship on secularization, individualism, and consumer capitalism, this book explores religious movements founded in the West which are intentionally fictional: Discordianism, the Church of All Worlds, the Church of the SubGenius, and Jediism. Their continued appeal and success, principally in America but gaining wider audience through the 1980s and 1990s, is chiefly as a result of underground publishing and the internet. This book deals with immensely popular subject matter: Jediism developed from George Lucas' Star Wars films; the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, founded by 26-year-old student Bobby Henderson in 2005 as a protest against the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools; Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius which retain strong followings and participation rates among college students. The Church of All Worlds' focus on Gaia theology and environmental issues makes it a popular focus of attention. The continued success of these groups of Invented Religions provide a unique opportunity to explore the nature of late/post-modern religious forms, including the use of fiction as part of a bricolage for spirituality, identity-formation, and personal orientation.

Author: Paul Kurtz
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615921710
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
In recent years a noticeable trend toward harmonizing the distinct worldviews of science and religion has become increasingly popular. Despite marked public interest, many leading scientists remain skeptical that there is much common ground between scientific knowledge and religious belief. Indeed, they are often antagonistic. Can an accommodation be reached after centuries of conflict? In this stimulating collection of articles on the subject, Paul Kurtz, with the assistance of Barry Karr and Ranjit Sandhu, have assembled the thoughts of scientists from various disciplines. Among the distinguished contributors are Sir Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and numerous other works of science fiction); Nobel Prize Laureate Steven Weinberg (professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin); Neil deGrasse Tyson (Princeton University astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium); James Lovelock (creator of the Gaia hypothesis); Kendrick Frazier (editor of the Skeptical Inquirer); Steven Pinker (professor of psychology at MIT); Richard Dawkins (zoologist at Oxford University); Eugenie Scott (physical anthropologist and executive director of the National Center for Science Education); Owen Gingerich (professor of astronomy at Harvard University); Martin Gardner (prolific popular science writer); the late Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize-winning physicist) and Stephen Jay Gould (professor of geology at Harvard University); and many other eminent scientists and scholars. Among the topics discussed are the Big Bang and the origin of the universe, intelligent design and creationism versus evolution, the nature of the "soul," near-death experiences, communication with the dead, why people do or do not believe in God, and the relationship between religion and ethics.

Author: Gabriel McKee
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 1611644267
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
In this thorough and engaging book, Gabriel McKee explores the inherent theological nature of science fiction, using illustrations from television shows, literature, and films. Science fiction, he believes, helps us understand not only who we are but who we will become. McKee organizes his chapters around theological themes, using illustrations from authors such as Isaac Asimov and H. G. Wells, television shows such as Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, and films such as The Matrix and Star Wars. With its extensive bibliography and index, this is a book that all serious science fiction fans--not just those with a theological interest--will appreciate.