The Christian Writer and Sci Fi difficulties
May 25, 2019 18:35:56 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on May 25, 2019 18:35:56 GMT -5
Christian Writer and Sci Fi difficulties
Writing fiction in any genre, whether it be romance, detective novel, historical novel, will not be easy for a Christian. That's because each entails a challenge of entertaining without violating moral Christian principles. However, Sci fi poses a special difficulty because it typically involves futures or existential situations in which biblical prophecies are contradicted while the other genres need not.
For example, in the sci fi short story, I Have no Mouth But Must Scream, written by Harlan Ellison, describes a nuclear-devastated Earth where a malevolent computer has destroyed all mankind except for four persons which it keeps prisoners so it can torture them forever. There they exist helpless and hopeless and even their religious faith is subjected to mockery by having them contemplate visions of heavenly assistance which ultimately fail.
www.howflux.com/i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream/
Such futures blatantly contradict biblical prophecy that promises a paradise Earth where death and suffering will be no more. In they support Satan's accusation that god is a liar. So a christian will feel forced to stay clear of those themes.
But sometimes it isn't a future but the very nature of existence that poses a moral problem. For example, the notion that there are an infinite number of alternate realities where every person has made different choices at different points in their lives very subtly suggests that Jesus himself will not have died on the cross because he chose another path in one of those alternate realities. In fact, in some of those realities he MUST be imagined as having failed and turned evil. Or perhaps never have come to Earth at all but refused his Father's request. Which very neatly proves Satan true in his accusation, as expressed in the book of Job, where he claimed that if tempted enough, no man could remain faithful but would curse God to his face.
Not a very good thing for a Christian writer to be suggesting.
Other scenarios that a Christian writer considering delving into sci fie must reject are these:
Universes describing life being a mere consequence of abiogenesis.
Universes where good is evil and evil is good.
Universes where there is no supreme God.
Universes where humans serve machines.
Universe where mankind is merely a scientific alien experiment
Universes where good is evil and evil is good.
Universes where there is no supreme God.
Universes where humans serve machines.
Universe where mankind is merely a scientific alien experiment
The list is long and constitutes a barrier that a Christian wishing to write sci fi cannot cross.
All these issues will constantly crop up and limit a Christian writer's choices in the sci fi genre. .