Philosophy and Science Fiction, Unit 4: Religion and Spirituality
At long last, the reading recommendations for the fourth and final unit of my Philosophy and Science Fiction class!
The task for this unit is to analyze a work of science fiction that raises questions about the appropriateness of religious attitudes (e.g., worship).
Required Reading
| Fiction | Philosophy |
|---|
| Week 1: Appropriate Objects of Religious Attitudes | Asimov, The Last Question" (1956)
De Cruz, "Mathematical Revelations" (2021)
"Scientists Speculate Universe May Be Simulation After 'Trial Version Expired' Appears Across Sky," The Onion (2022) |
Sobel, Logic and Theism (2004), ch. 1 |
|---|
| Week 2: Appropriate Subjects of Religious Attitudes | Silverberg, "Good News From the Vatican" (1971) |
Jha, "Pope's astronomer says he would baptise an alien if it asked him," The Guardian (2010)
Ikhwân al-Safâ’, The Case of the Animals (c. 970), chs. 1 and 30
Pawl, "Exploring Theological Zoology" (2019) |
|---|
| Week 3: Evil and Hiddenness | Chiang, "Hell Is the Absence of God" (2001) | Metcalf, "The Problem of Evil" (2014)
Bayless, "Divine Hiddenness" (2016)
Schellenberg, "Does Divine Hiddenness Justify Atheism?" (2004) |
|---|
| Week 4: Do Religious Attitudes Need Objects? | Le Guin, "Solitude" (1994) | Xunzi, "A Discussion of Heaven" and "A Discussion of Rites" (3rd cent. BCE)
Selections from Wittgenstein, "Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough" (c. 1948) |
|---|
Additional Scifi Recommendations
Dr. Elwin Ransom, a philologist (linguist) is abducted and taken to the planet Malacandra. The people there worship a god known as 'Maleldil the Young'. Is Maleldil an appropriate object of religious attitudes? How does this alien religion relate to Dr. Ransom's own Christian beliefs?
Jacqueline Susann, Yargo: A Love Story (written c. 1953; published 1979)
A young woman is abducted by aliens and taken to the planet Yargo, which is ruled by a God-king known only as 'the Yargo'. Is the Yargo an appropriate object of religious attitudes?
Content advisory: sexual violence
Arthur C. Clarke, "The Star" (1955)
A Jesuit astrophysicist is on his way home from an interstellar voyage to investigate the remains of a star system destroyed by a supernova. He finds his faith deeply shaken by what he has learned.
In the distant future, a god-like computer, SUM, promises humans immortality. The personalities of the deceased are stored in SUM. One day, when the time is right, SUM promises that all will be resurrected. But can SUM be trusted?
Note: this story is a re-telling of the Greek myth of Orpheus.
In the year 2024, Lauren Olamina is a survivor in a dystopian future California. She is also the founder of a new religious movement called 'Earthseed'. Olamina preaches that "God is change." What does she mean by this? Could
change be an appropriate object of religious attitudes?
Content advisory: sexual violence; child abuse; suicide
As a young man, Mortimer Gray nearly died in a sailing accident. In a future in which disease, cancer, and even aging have been eliminated, he was deeply marked by this brush with death, and spent the next several centuries writing a massive, multi-volume
History of Death. Gray interprets the rise of the world religions as an important phase in humanity's war against death.
Plans to found a Muslim space colony are disrupted when a malfunction of the suspended animation apparatus kills everyone in the men's chamber. The all-female colony aims to build a life for themselves and practice their faith on a faraway planet.
An alien spaceship arrives at earth. Its inhabitants call themselves "the god civilization" and announce that they have created the human race for one purpose: to care for them in their old age.
In the near future, the godmachines promise to help humans become gods after death, in the name of Thoth, God of Science.
Posted by Kenny at October 19, 2023 9:08 AM