Movies | January 19, 2010 | 16 comments

Why Does Science Fiction Invent New Religions?

source: http://io9.com/5451262/why-does-science-fiction-invent-new-religions

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Though many say ninja monk flick Book of Eli is about Christianity, it's actually about rebooting the old church for a new world. Like many SF stories about the emergence of a new faith, Eli questions religion while defending it.

In the pantheon of science fiction tales, Book of Eli is just one of many that imagines future, mutated versions of contemporary religion. Like Margaret Atwood's recent novel The Year of the Flood or the classic Dune, Book of Eli makes just a few telling tweaks in familiar forms of faith. These stories suggest something that many would consider blasphemous: Religion is a product of history, and it changes with the times.


The Democracy Of Heaven

Book of Eli is, as its title suggests, a movie that tells the story of a new chapter in the Christian Bible. But it's also a reboot of the New Testament, retelling the origin story of Christianity. Our knife-wielding badass Eli, who risks everything to walk across the country and deliver his Bible to the only printing press in all the land, could be viewed as a Christ figure of the future. He spreads the word of old-school Christianity, but he's remaking the religion as he goes, incorporating printing presses, Johnny Cash, and ninja skills into traditional lore.

But the tweak here goes beyond suggesting that Johnny Cash could become part of tomorrow's hymnals. Book of Eli transforms the origin story of European and American Christianity, converting the chalk-white faces of Jesus and his apostles into the battle-scarred face of a powerful black man. The figure of Eli is a far cry from the classic imagery of the manger that many Americans grew up with. And in the end, Eli leaves behind a powerful female apostle to spread his word. With those changes - a holy book now starring a black man, who chooses a white woman as his apprentice - contemporary Christianity gets a makeover.


More at the link . . .



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16 comments // Why Does Science Fiction Invent New Religions?

  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • @EdJoyProductions

      There is more to religion than JUST "opiate of the masses"
      Pragmatically, it is PRIMARILY a script for social control,...but,...religion 'touches' arch-types,...just a bit,....these abstracts are "known" only briefly,...by madmen, prophets, LSD ers, fasters, desert wasters,..... etc. and probably should not be writ on stone, (which religion does),....but there is STILL some "FINDING" and "A-hah!" to religion,....not simply "soothing". Every mystic who has ever lived is not "wrong" just because the resulting writs make poor public policy.

      Who are we to say "we can not know",....any more than we can "I do".

    • 2 years ago
  • EdJoyProductions
    • +1
      EdJoyProductions  
    • remanns:

      Because saying we can't know is more accurate than saying we can know IMHO. But point taken. :)

      All organized religion to me is about control but individual spirituality or belief systems are a different story. Every one of us has our own reality. Altered states of consciousness can create beliefs real or imagined that can alter belief systems and lives.

      I encourage searching and never falling for anyone else's ideas as far as meaning of life areas go.

    • 2 years ago
  • blaino
    • 0
      blaino  
    • EdJoyProductions:

      You make a good point in saying that it is more accurate to say we cant know rather than we do know. I think this statement points out the inherent flaw in organized religion, everyone claims to know the truth they claim to know the only way to a happy life and a happy afterlife.

    • 2 years ago
  • EdJoyProductions
    • 0
      EdJoyProductions  

    • If you are writing about an invented religion, you are writing about all of them because they are all invented. :)

      No religion is more or less valid than another because of age. They are all bedtime stories to soothe beings that require answers to things that are unknowable.

    • 2 years ago
  • sgwhites
    • 0
      sgwhites  

    • Why not? Religions change and evolve over time--it's hard to imagine that 100,000 years in the future, we'd be practicing religion the exact same way we do to day, any more than it is to imagine that religion now is identical to the way it was even a few hundred years ago.

      Plus, on a practical note, it allows you a lot more freedom. If I'm writing about the followers of an invented religion, I can have them do whatever I want without anyone getting too bent out of shape about it. But when you're ascribing, say, some apocalyptic event or grand ideological conflict to existing religion(s), a lot of people are going to get all riled up about it. (Which isn't a reason not to do it, if that's your main point--but if if it isn't, why not sidestep the whole mess so that he point you're trying to make doesn't get lost in the uproar.)

    • 2 years ago
  • remanns
  • remanns
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • "exploratory myth with new metaphors" or "evolving myth with exploratory metaphors"

      (still working on the "one-liner" for science fiction.)

      I am sure as hell that science fiction is the older brother to myth,.... but is religious dogma the result of inbreeding?

      ---------this does not mean I don't believe in "mystical" personal experiences and inspirations,....or that they are not distantly related. I just don't think they still come to the family reunions very often.

    • 2 years ago
  • BlondeWhiteBoy
  • unclecharlie
    • 0
      unclecharlie  

    • With a title like that, I am suprised nobody asked "Why do science fiction WRITERS create new religion? I am, of course, referring to Scientology, the only religion founded by a sci-fi writer- L. Ron Hubbard.

    • 2 years ago
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  
    • unclecharlie:

      Easy Answer,....because the same exploratory and distilling/generalizing/synthesizing cognitive skill sets can be put to use for that purpose,....but I think most folk don't make that connection between these two because science fiction is just "pop culture" and R E L I G I O N is so-so serious,....(not in the same class at all.) If I could teach a course,...it would be "The ART of religion". Hubbard,....well,....self taught. He has a handle on "The business of religion". Hey,....Hitler was a mediocre artist as well. Or maybe they were both better artist than we give them credit for,.... and could have evolved and improved,....but they chose an easier rout to self fulfillment. (back to "easy answere")

    • 2 years ago
  • twodee
    • +1
      twodee  

    • Religion is invented and is very much like science fiction. It makes sense that we keep reinventing our myths. This is what we have always done. Story telling is a great thing and helps us sort things out and think about how/who we should be. We are that hero with a thousand faces.

    • 2 years ago
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • Very nicely thought out and put together,...well worth the read.
      My definition of sci-fi would be "Evolving myth employing exploratory metaphors". I would posit that when these metaphors become "fixed" or resolved to a collective conscious acceptance and appreciation,.....if they have enough lasting poignancy,...Myth is born. In that sense,....myth and science-fiction,....and probably religion share a familial bond.

    • 2 years ago
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • CodenameV said- (and its worth repeating)

      "I'm a PhD student in medieval History; just last semester I finished "History of Christianity from the Church Fathers to the eve of the Reformation"....do you have ANY IDEA how much Christianity changed, even from century to century?

      Religion, even mainstream religion, is very much "changeable"...all but the most fundamentalist ones. *Within living memory* Catholic prayer used Latin, but then switched to Vernacular.

      Belief evolves all the time, but as in biological evolution, it is difficult for falling rocks to observe relative motion of other falling rocks".

    • 2 years ago
  • BoomChaka
  • flyingkick
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