7. The seventh division of Holy Science Fiction is one that is concerned with the actual creation of new religions. Entirely new gods, rituals and methods of worship are created by alien species and new societies.
Robots make up the new worshippers in Isaac Asimov's 
"Reason"
(1941). They do not accept what the humans tell them about the universe
and they create a new faith system for themselves. Much of this
skepticism comes from the idea that the robots cannot accept that they
were created by beings (humans) they consider inferior to themselves.
The central character in Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land
(1962) is Valentine Michael Smith. Smith is the lone survivor of
an expedition to Mars and he is raised entirely by
Martians (he was an infant born during the trip to Mars). He is
brought back to Earth and there humans get a taste of his alien worldview.
The novel mocks scientists, astrology, Pentecostalism, Christianity, televangelists,
and Hinduism, but the whole story is basically a re-telling of the birth
of Christ and the formation of Christianity. The protagonists in
the book are the founders of a new religion, the Church of All Worlds,
and many aspects of religion are fervently defended.
One example of a actual religion coming out of the science fiction tradition
is one that was officially started by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard.
Hubbard is the founder of the religion of
Scientology. The new religion, "...originally a form of
psychotherapy
with many pseudo-science overtones, became what has been described as
the first sf religion, when the founding Church of Scientology was incorporated
in Washington DC in July of 1955" (Clute 1078). One of the
main ideas behind Scientology is the idea that inside all humans there
may be a superhuman trying to get out. Other science fiction stories
featuring new religions include Octavia Butler's Parable of the Tenants
(1999) and Dan Simmons's Hyperion series (1990).
Conclusions
The sub-genre of Holy Science Fiction is a diverse one. It's one where we see robot, alien, and human gods; one where god is the universe and the universe is god; one where god is nothing but a fairy-tale; and one where god is celebrated as the center of a scientific universe.
God is used in science fiction to force us to ask questions about our cosmology. We are forced to ask where we come from and why we are here. When our typical ideas of god are questioned and challenged, so are our ideas about the universe around us. God is also inserted into the pages of science fiction to explore our morality. We must examine our thoughts of what a soul is and if it exists. Readers must question the source of right and wrong, and what it means to be human. Is there absolute good and evil? What would it mean if if God was created, if God wasn't our traditional idea of God at all? What would it mean if God didn't exist at all?
Writers also put God in their stories because of their own personal beliefs. Camille Flammarion, JH Rosny Aine, Marie Corelli, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Edgar Fawcett, Olaf Stapledon, Anthony Boucher, CS Lewis, and many others write for a specific purpose. They write to reconcile their beliefs in God and in science; in the supernatural world and the natural one. At some level, they write to rationalize God and religion. On the other end of the spectrum, certain writers write what they do to mock and parody religion and superstitious belief. They want the readers to question their beliefs and see how ridiculous many of their actions and practices and rituals are. At the same time, most of these writers are attempting to explain how the world works. Some authors don't "believe" at all and attempt to explain the workings of the universe from a completely atheistic point of view. Others integrate God into the mix to explain the state of the world. It is here that one sees that the purposes of religion and science are not antithetical; they are both used to explain everything around us.
Finally,
our culture is a deeply religious one. We worship and pray and go
to church; we are baptized and we celebrate
religious holidays; we are "blessed" and "saved" by
God; the United States (and many other countries) are "under"
Him. Even those people that aren't religious are surrounded by religious
and spiritual imagery. All of the writers of our culture are affected
by this; they all write with their own "cultural baggage" and
are not able to write outside of it.
In conclusion, there is no one universal reason why God can be found in the pages of science fiction. Instead, Holy Science Fiction exists for a number of reasons, but all of it is written with a similar goal in mind. It is written to make us question and challenge and critique, explain and re-affirm our beliefs, our practices, our rituals, our actions, our worldviews and our lifestyles.
This site was last updated 05/02/03