Scientific Mythologies: How Science and Science Fiction Forge New Religious BeliefsInterVarsity Press, 2008 M05 15 - 288 pages 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. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
NEW Myths for A NEW | 28 |
THE MYTH OF THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL | 42 |
Copyright | |
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abduction Alien Gnosis ancient Aryan believed C. S. Lewis Campbell Carl Sagan Christian civilization claimed cosmic cosmos created cultural Darwin destiny Dick distant planets divine Dyson Earth Elijah Muhammad eugenics evolution evolutionary existence experience extraterrestrial force future genetic genre gnosis gnostic gods Heinlein highly evolved Hoyle human race Ibid idea imagined Indigo Children influence inhabited insight intellectual intelligent Kurzweil Lasswitz living Lovecraft Mars Martians Mary Midgley modern Moon moral movie Myth of Space mythic narratives nature novel occult Olaf Stapledon origins perhaps physical planetary popular progress psychic questions racial Raël Raëlian Ray Kurzweil religious science fiction science-fiction science-fiction author scientific mythologies scientists secret social space exploration Space Religion species speculative science Spiritual Race Stapledon Star Maker Star Trek Star Wars story Strieber Superman technological telepathy Tesla theme theory tion transcendent truth twentieth century universe vision Wells's Western worldview writes wrote York