Friday, September 13, 2013

From Otherworlds



So I was going to write a post about mythology, then I figured I wasn't in the mood, so I'm going to write post about aliens. More specifically, writing aliens from a Christian point of view. That was sort of them theme of my last post, but that was a description of what I was writing. This post though is the help you write you own aliens.

Now, writing Aliens is a somewhat controversial subject in Christian circles, I have heard it said before, and probably will hear it said again, that extraterrestrials have no place in a Christian cosmology. They make the legitimate case that it's impossible to work aliens in, in a Christian framework. I don't deny the point, it is difficult to work aliens in to a Christian cosmology. But I'm going to make the case here that doing it is a good idea.

Christianity suffers a dearth of good sci-fi, I've blogged about this before, and perhaps may blog about it again. We have yet to produce anything the likes of Asimov. And why is that? I answered part of that question in an earlier blog post. But here I'm going provide an alternative explanation. What if it's because we simply don't want to answer questions about extraterrestrial life or artificial intelligence, and those are two of the primary themes of sci-fi.

It's true that you can write fiction without resorting to aliens or AI, but the limitations run deep. It's like trying to write fantasy without any magic or mythical creatures, or trying to write war novels without any graphic violence. It can be done, but it's hard to do and it the restrictions make it difficult to write anything. Sci-Fi exists to tackle certain questions about the nature of the universe. And its' really difficult to tackle those questions when we certain questions are forbidden.

1 comment:

  1. Christians complain about AI, too? I knew the arguments about aliens (is it sinless or is it saved), but I don't know about AI.

    I like aliens in fiction. Like Elves and dwarves, they let us see another side of ourselves.

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