- This topic has 14 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Ok, so I am considering working on a blog, and one of the topics I want to talk about, is science fiction, from a Christian’s perspective.
Before working on this for my last week of college break, I would like to hear your guys opinions.
@timothy-young Well the first (only somewhat related) piece of opinion that came to mind is to study the science of blogging, seo, and the art of driving traffic. If you have something worth saying (sounds like you do), you want a lot of people to read it.
As far as the actual science fiction side of things, it’s not something I think about much. If you had some specific questions though, I’m sure I have an opinion on them.
🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢
@daeus, Oh… I had not read my first paragraph in that light… I was trying to write it as more of an apology for bringing up the topic, which clearly is not too active in the forum. However, in hindsight, ouch, my post is very poorly written for that goal.
Really just three major questions. 1, why are there so few Christian Sci-fi books, and 2, does this need to change? (For context, there are not many Christian books working in the realm of Vampires, werewolves, and wizards, and I think we can all agree that that is not a bad thing)
My final question is this, how should people treat aliens? (Note 1; by aliens, I don’t just mean life other then earth, but material, sentient, capable of making moral choice, creatures)(Note 2; By “how people should treat,” I would mean in a book, as chances of them existing are very small).
@Timothy-Young this is an excellent topic.
I think there are so few Christian scifi stories because Christians are still waking up and coming out of an ‘anything strange is bad’ and ‘all art is sinful’ mindset. That may be a bit harsh, but I think it’s justified. Christians have had lapses and relapses of legalism over the years for a long, long time, and legalism tends to frown on imagination.
I think there definitely does need to be more Christian scifi. It has a lot of untapped potential. Science fiction, like every other genre (especially fantasy, for some reason 🙁 ) can be abused and twisted, but the potential for good is just as strong, if not stronger. For one thing, it allows you to drop everything you know and see old things with new eyes. Timeless concepts in a unique setting. That’s always good.
As for aliens, well… I’m a bit nitpicky about this, but my personal preference is, if you’re going to do aliens, please create a universe other than ours. Since there aren’t aliens in our universe, and so many people believe there are, I don’t care for it all that much when someone presents them as real to our world. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s wrong, but why feed that narrative?
But, that’s not to say you can’t have a blast and build your own world, in which case you can do anything you want. Creating aliens for your own world is just like creating fantasy creatures for a fantasy world— gryphons, unicorns, three-headed lizards with pink eyes… 😉 They’re the people of your world just as much as the people are— created by your world’s Creator, and therefor capable of sentient thought, with their own souls. They just look a little… well… different. 😛 😉To be honest Timothy, I don’t know why not many Christians write sci-fi. My guess is it has something to the dark, sterile, and frighteningly rationalistic scientific age envisioned by the earlier sci-fi writers. It might also have something to do with the admittedly pop art design of many sci-fi covers. I just don’t think many Christians ever got into reading sci-fi.
As for treatment of aliens … *scratches head* That, of course, is not something I can speak on definitely, but if they are morally sensitive creatures, then I assume they would be treated much like humans, except, of course, I would assume there would be no interbreeding.
🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢
- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1486
@Timothy-Young this is a good discussion topic. I have a hard time with aliens because of the theological problem they would present if they existed.
One, God didn’t say he created other beings on other planets.
Two, if God created beings on other planets with souls like ours, would they be fallen like us as well? God wouldn’t have created them sinful, so would they be perfect?
If they were held to humanity’s fallen fate, would they have to have Jesus die for them as well? But then that wouldn’t work because Jesus only died once for all humanity.
And one of the biggest reasons humans are priceless is because we were made in Gods image. Would aliens be made in Gods image as well?
I do like what Kate said about aliens and making them in a different world, though. That could be an option.- Rank: Wise Jester
- Total Posts: 52
The thing about aliens is that they can be anywhere from a small amoeba to a walking, talking, human-like thing. I personally don’t think that there’s any problem with them as long as you don’t assert that they are real. Fiction is supposed to be pretend.
@Timothy-Young As a Christian, I would avoid writing alien fiction for several reasons. First of all, I second what Kate and Gabrielle said: aliens don’t exist, and writing about them as if they did does more harm than good, since there are cults who believe in and worship them. And now that the intelligent design of the universe is becoming unavoidably obvious, there are scientists who refuse to believe in God and think that aliens created us. As writers, we have to keep in mind how our writing will affect our readers, and alien fiction has a lot of potential to draw people away from God.
Also, some of the so-called UFO and alien sightings are real, but they aren’t extraterrestrial; they are demonic manifestations. Demons have been appearing as “aliens”, and people have had some pretty scary experiences. I’m not sure why, but it seems like Satan wants people to believe in aliens. Now that we are in the end times, demonic manifestations and other supernatural occurrences are going to become much more common, and I think it’s important for people to know the truth about them. People need to know that they’re dealing with demons, not aliens. Even in fiction, I think it’s wrong to propagate a lie.
Honestly, I don’t believe it is right for a Christian writer to create a world in which Jesus Christ is not Lord and King. To remove God from our story world so that we can include aliens…surely we honor God more than that.
@winter-rose Have you heard of the Jonathan Park audio adventures series? One of the episodes is about aliens, and they gave the same answers you did.
@Sarah-h, I agree with you. Although, I wouldn’t say that it’s wrong to create another world that doesn’t have Jesus Christ in it specifically. Now, I do think aliens would be going too far, but I don’t see what’s wrong with creating a world with say dragons or other fantasy creatures in them as long as it includes Christian morals and the idea of an all-powerful Creator (God). That’s like saying parables are wrong. And Jesus himself told many parables throughout the Bible. Were all His parables true life events? No. Was the meaning behind the stories true? Absolutely. Since Jesus could not sin and he told parables, then telling parables/allegory is not a sin for us either. We just need to be careful when we write allegory, because it can be very easy to forget God in our writings. When writing a story that has unreal creatures, we need to make sure that the point of the story and events all lead to the fact that God does exist in real life -even if the characters don’t.
I hope I said all that in a way that’s comprehensible. 😛@faithdk We had an extended conversation about this a while ago if you want to get caught up. https://kingdompen.org/forums/topic/magic-and-fantasy/
🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢
Oh, okay. Thanks @Daeus. I didn’t know about that… Sorry to bring up a stale discussion. 😛
Hmm, well, not stale really. Quite deep rather. And we never talked aliens before. That’s a new aspect. *Wanders off thinking philosophical thoughts*
🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢
Hi, Faith! I can’t say that I completely agree, but I do see what you mean. And please don’t feel bad about bringing up an old topic; it was a while ago, and not many people saw it. 🙂
- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
- Total Posts: 1486
@sarah-h I don’t think I’ve ever listened to the Jonathan Park Adventure series, but I sort of read/skimmed a really cool Answers in Genisis article about aliens in one of their magazines. They have an article about aliens on there website as well.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.