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Showing posts from June, 2018

Religion and Rocketry - a Review

C.S. Lewis, in his essay, "Religion and Rocketry" argues that science and scientific claims are often trotted out to attack the Christian faith.  (This essay is found in the book The World's Last Night ).  While that is sometimes the case, it is more often the position of religion to feel or perceive themselves as being threatened by science given the idea that science seeks to undermine faith, even to the absurd point of Christians condemning persons for working in scientific fields: "I feel that I am, in fact, serving God by working to preserve his creation and take care of it.  Instead, I've had conservative Christians criticize me for being involved in geology because it has incendiary connections to 'old earth' and 'evolutionist' views." ("Ann" an interviewee in David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons' book UnChristian  p. 135-6.)  It is that kind of conservative view that can prevent the hypotheticals of science or even science fict

Science Fiction Fan

I have long been a fan of science fiction.  Especially when it comes to science fiction movies.  I would characterize that fandom as relating to movies that were more of the 2001 persuasion as well as Star Wars than, say, Predator or, perhaps more to the point, Plan 9 From Outer Space .  While I do love a good space drama, I would point out that that sci-fi need not leave the planet or have aliens to be good sci-fi.  In fact, while it is often considered a romantic drama, Somewhere in Time  is, in fact, science fiction - the whole story is predicated on time travel!  It is a wide genre, to be sure. As a fan of science fiction, what I often enjoy the most are stories that deal with hypothetical situations that focus on the contemporary in the guise of science fiction.  Parables, in other words.  I really enjoy those that effectively call ideas, ideologies, or commonly held beliefs into question.  2001, Contact, and most of the episodes of The Twilight Zone .  Science fiction is, in