A Science-Fiction Sampler

Matthew Menning

The Fox network's popular television drama, "The X-Files," is concerned with the quest of two FBI agents for the truth in the face of the apparently unexplainable. In a recent episode, Agent Scully, the team's skeptic, struggled with terminal cancer. Lying on her hospital bed, she spoke with her partner about her illness. As an adult, she said, she put her faith in science and her desire for truth. When science and logic failed to explain a mystery, she was willing to entertain the possibility of anything from alien contact to government conspiracy. Not until cancer brought her close to death did she reconsider faith in a God who is present in this world and who offers strength to those in need. For Agent Scully, accepting the presence of a God she could not explain and did not understand required more courage than battles with terrorists or alien abduction. Scully risked her objectivity and discovered a peace and potency that enabled her to endure her cancer until she was healed. Agent Scully's dilemma is not unfamiliar. Since the Renaissance, scientists have astounded us with their discoveries. That which was unexplainable has become increasingly mundane. Humans have walked on the moon, come to understand the workings of subatomic particles and discovered the secrets of heating food using microwaves. Most of us do not understand the science behind these marvels, but accept the fact that scientists do, and could explain them to us if we wished to learn. For many of us, it has become increasingly difficult to believe that there is anything science cannot explain, given time and resources . The inexplicable is anathema to our society, and it seems that we are forced to choose between our faith in science and our faith in a God whose existence scientific method cannot prove. From the publication of HG. Wells' The Time Machine, authors of science fiction have been struggling with these issues. Writers who deal with the consequences of scientific discovery for contemporary humankind and for the future must inevitably grapple with issues of faith . For some writers, it is the future of the Christian church in a universe dramatically changed in the 2,000 years since Christ's incarnation on earth that is the salient issue. Other writers address the effects of science, real and fictional, on the human spirit. From traditional Christian authors to advocates of non-traditional

111 faiths, writers of science fiction offer us ways to interpret the increasingly complex relationship between science and faith. C.S. Lewis, in his science-fiction trilogy, was one of the earliest authors of the genre to deal with the impact of science on the Christian faith. Out of the Silent Planet, the first of the trilogy, imagines a terrestrial traveler who discovers alien races on the planet Mars. For Ransom, the protagonist of Lewis' stories, reconciling the scientific theory of Earth with the reality of unfamiliar alien life is a struggle from the onset. Lacking knowledge of the society he encounters, he assumes the Martians possess a cold and intellectual science ruled, at heart, by a superstition and emotion it has attempted, but failed, to remove. 1 Marooned on Mars, Ransom grows to understand its inhabitants, realizing that his conception of the science of Mars is, in fact, a description of what he fears terrestrial science has become. Ransom's encounters with the ethereal inhabitants of Mars, known as eldila, convince him that when science seeks not only to dismiss God, but to portray God and religious sentiment as ignorance and superstition, only evil can result. 2 In Perelandra, the second book of his science-fiction trilogy (and the last to be discussed here), Lewis speaks further of the necessity of science guided by faith. Twentieth-century science, he suggests, encourages us to separate the natural from the supernatural; that which is "real" from that which is "imagined." This way of thinking eases the "intolerable strangeness which this universe imposes on us by dividing it into two halves and encouraging the mind never to think of both in the same context. "3 The security this dichotomy imparts is misleading, and Ransom soon discovers he must risk the comfort of conventional conceptions of true and false if he is to succeed on the planet Perelandra. Guided by the eldila, Ransom finds himself in a paradise inhabited only by the "King" and "Queen" of that world and another traveler from Earth, Ransom's evil counterpart Weston. It becomes apparent that the four characters are to reenact the story of the Fall on Perelandra. Weston plays the part of Satan, the Queen Eve, and Ransom intercedes for the good. Eventually, good defeats evil. The Queen resists temptation, and a society free of sin is born on Perelandra. Ransom, though delighted by the triumph of good, once more falls prey to his fear of the unknown. In our world, he says, the coming of Christ is the central event of all time. How is it possible that Christ's incarnation is not central to the universe, but only to one small world among billions? The eldila answer, emphasizing the fact that } wherever God is, that is the center. The only way to move away from the center is to move into evil. 4 Ransom must accept the fact that God's pattern ~ is larger than Earth, and that all things, Christianity included, do not remain static, but grow and change.

112 Orson Scott Card, like C.S. Lewis, writes about human encounters with alien intelligences and the ways in which our science and our faith shape those encounters. Unlike Lewis, Card (as well as the other authors we shall discuss) wrote in the years following World War II. Lewis' work is concerned not only with the strict separation of science and faith he saw as detrimental, but with a clear delineation between good and evil necessitated by his generation's struggle with Hitler and the Nazi regime. For Card, good and evil are ambiguous terms, and it is this ambiguity around which the first book of his trilogy revolves. Card's Ender series begins with Ender's Game, and is concerned with humankind's war against an alien life form perceived to be hostile and invasive. Earth's leaders, lacking any knowledge of the aliens apart from their bug-like appearance, seek to obliterate them. This "get them before they get us" philosophy serves to unite humankind, but upon eradication of the alien threat Andrew Wiggins, the book's protagonist, discovers the true nature of the aliens. They were not, in fact, invading monsters, but peaceful creatures whose physiology and thought processes differ so extremely from those of humans as to be almost incomprehensible. Wiggins chronicles the story of the aliens in a document he calls "The Hive Queen and the Hegemon," and out of that story a new faith is conceived. This faith does not replace the religions of the world, but stands beside them. When people die, a Speaker for the Dead arrives at their graveside to tell the story of their life, both good and bad, faults and virtues, that those who remain may know the unadorned truth of their corporeal existence.5 In Ender's Game, Card offers humanity the Speaker for the Dead, someone who makes known the story of both the good and evil. The Speaker for the Dead's tale is not the sheltering, ultimately stunting objectivity Lewis fears, but objectivity tempered with compassion. Thus, the tale is a vehicle for expanded knowledge and understanding rather than isolation and fear. In Speaker for the Dead, the second book of his series, Card puts that vehicle to the test. It deals with a planet called Lusitania on which a colony of human Catholics coexist with an aboriginal race they call "piggies." The human inhabitants of Lusitania live in uneasy peace with the piggies, separated by a wall through which only a few "xenobiologers," scientists dedicated to the study of alien races, may pass. When cultural misunderstandings lead the piggies to kill one of the scientists, the governing body of human colonized worlds acts, once more, to annihilate what they perceive to be a threat to humanity. It is up to the colonists, led by Andrew Wiggins and their bishop, to apply the lessons learned from the destruction of the first alien race encountered by humans. Again the colonists must choose between fear of the unknown and faith in the infallibility of God's plan. In the end, the colonists choose faith. Risking their own lives, they decide to

113 stand up for the piggies, not simply because they perceive the destruction of an unfamiliar race as morally wrong, but because they come to understand the unique opportunity they have to share the faith that is central to their community with those who have not experienced it. 6 The third book of Card's Ender series, Xenocide,1 continues to tell the story of humans and piggies as they struggle to understand each other. This time, however, inhabitants of a third planet are involved, and it is on them that we shall focus . On the planet Path dwells a group of humans whose gods call them to love each other, but demand obedience manifesting itself in rituals associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Han Fei-tzu and his daughter Qing-jao are leaders of their society. Though humiliated by their irresistible compulsions, their faith in the gods of Path is such that they accept what they perceive to be their responsibility. As the story unfolds, Han Fei-tzu discovers that he and the people of Path have been genetically altered to possess abnormally high intelligence. The governing body of human worlds sought to use them to solve difficult problems but feared that their super-intelligence would enable them to supersede the government. For Han Fei-tzu and Qing-jao, the issue is not having the faith to embrace unfamiliar races or ideas, but risking everything that identifies them to abandon a faith, not in God, but in science misapplied. Octavia Butler, author of The Parable of the Sower, also writes about the loss of faith and the establishment of a new order. Butler's story, however, does not concern another race on another planet or the misuse of technology. Instead she focuses on three years in the life of a woman living in California two decades after the millennium. Lauren Olamina's world has been devastated by joblessness, pollution, and fear. Water and food have become scarce, the ranks of the very poor have grown dramatically, and even the swiftly shrinking middle class must wall itself into fiercely protected fortress-communities to survive. Olamina rejects the Baptist faith of her minister father when her community is plundered and her family killed. In real life, she asks, how many of us can endure Job's trials?8 Though Olamina rejects traditional Christianity, she comes to understand that in a world where science has failed, a world brought to the brink of destruction by greed and intolerance, faith is a necessary function of survival. "Belief," she says, "initiates and guides action- or it does nothing. "9 As she travels north from Los Angeles seeking a place safe from the ravages of a desperate society, she attempts to put her beliefs into words, sharing them along the way with those who will listen. She conceives of God as change and, at last, founds a small group of people dedicated to the education, care, and benefit of their community. The Christianity with which she was raised had failed her. Science, promising the greatest good for all people, delivered instead the means of her society's destruction. Only Olamina's faith in

114 herself, her community, and their ability to accept and shape change allowed her to take the actions necessary to save herself and those who would listen. In Shadow's End, Sheri Tepper also deals with the loss of faith . Tepper's story is one of apocalypse and redemption. She writes of a scourge which has destroyed the peoples who inhabit worlds in the region of space surrounding the planet she calls Dinadh. These people, descended from ancient Earth, call themselves Firsters. They accept a faith that teaches them that they are thP. apex of creation and that the universe was created for their use. Their expanding population spread to many worlds before its destruction, eradicating animal and plant life in the process. On the planet Dinadh, Lutha Talstaff is sent on a pilgrimage to determine why the Firster god has allowed the annihilation of the other worlds. At her journey's end, Talstaff encounters her god, who challenges her to accept the fact that her people had so twisted the teachings of their religion that their destruction had become necessary. Dinadh has become an ark, not in the flood, but in the heavens, and its people must make a choice. It is not enough, exhorts the god of Dinadh, to choose truth. One must put one's faith in the truth and live according to it. 10 Tepper warns against a lazy faith; a watered-down religion based more and more on what is desirable or convenient than on what is required. Like Butler, Tepper believes that faith without action is nothing. Sideshow, another of Tepper's novels, addresses the problems encountered when science allows humanity to become something more than human. On a planet she calls Elsewhere, humanity has established a place to hide from an intergalactic disease which threatens its destruction. There, a group of academics dwells in a machine that allows them to live virtually forever and grants them seemingly unlimited powers. Though their purpose is to seek the destiny of humankind, false immortality and the arrogance it imparts drive them insane. They come to believe they are gods, and demand obedience and sacrifice from the denizens of Elsewhere. Elsewhere's inhabitants must risk their faith not only in the false gods who rule their planet but also in the ability of others to answer the central questions of life for them. In the end, they not only succeed in throwing off their man-made gods, but also in answering the question of their destiny. "The emergence from mere creaturehood," they decide, "demands risk. Holiness demands risk . .. and growth, and change." 11 Philip Dick's The Divine Invasion is a story that takes very seriously Tepper's concept of the demands of holiness. Dick is concerned with the second coming of Christ, and his novel asks what effect modern science would have on the incarnation of Jesus in our world. Dick's assumption is that Earth's rulers, with all the benefits of scientific detection in their hands, would perceive the imminent arrival of Christ to be a threat to their power.

115 Thus, The Divine Invasion is the story of God's attempt to smuggle Jesus, not from Egypt, but from outer space. · Dick draws a clear line between the attributes of the holy and those of science. In his novel, those who utilize science play the part of Herod, and their desire to retain their power is characterized as cold and joyless. 12 In contrast, Dick's Christ emphasizes the necessity not only of joy, but also of change. To achieve his purpose, Emmanuel must make additions to the existing Scriptures that would allow humanity to recognize him. Speaking of God, Emmanuel says, "He enjoys games and play. It says in Scripture that he rested but I say he played. " 13 The fact that Christ is willing to add to Scripture and risk a second crucifixion allows him to return to Earth. The exuberance of Christ allows him to be recognized as divine. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle's classic story for young readers, also speaks of the struggle of the divine against evil. The scientists in L'Engle's work, however, fall firmly on the side of the divine. Questioned about the unknown, Mrs. Murry, the mother of the novel's protagonists, says, " . . . I think.that with our human limitations we're not always able to understand the explanations. But you see .. . just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation does not exist." 14 L'Engle offers a view of scientific discovery rarely encountered in science fiction. She portrays science, not as the adversary of faith, but as an aid to human understanding. Science tempered by love for God and commitment to God's purpose, L'Engle suggests, brings creation and Creator into closer commumon. Finally, in Hyperion, Dan Simmons 15 discusses the impact radical physical change may have on human faith. Simmons assumes that in the distant future, the physical evolution of humankind will continue, and offers two possible avenues for change. The first involves the discovery of a parasitic life form that, when accepted into a human host, enables a physical resurrection from the dead. In Simmons' novel, the church accepts this parasitism as a new sacrament, institutionalizing its use in an attempt to revitalize a faith that has lost vigor as humanity spreads throughout the universe. The church takes literally Scripture's statement that humankind is created in God's image, and demands that its followers accept the parasite that allows them eternal existence in human bodies. The second involves a group of humans unsatisfied by what they believe is a mortal error. This group, which Simmons calls "Ousters," rejects both the church and the parasite it supports. What is important for them is not physical resurrection, but spiritual rebirth. Similarly, they do not feel their humanity is limited to a strict adherence to the physical norms that have thus far defined what is human. Fleeing to the outer reaches of space, the Ousters maintain their faith in their God, but alter their physical appearance to one

116 better suited for life on other worlds. While the church becomes a tyrannical bureaucracy focusing on the body rather than the spirit, the Ousters discover a freedom and vitality rooted in their faith in God's ability to see past their appearance. Writers of science fiction offer a range of ideas concerning the intersection of science and faith. Perspectives run the gamut from Lewis, early critic of the artificial separation between faith and science, to L'Engle's advocacy of an integrated relationship between them; from Butler's rejection of both faith and science as impotent in the face of overwhelming human suffering to Tepper's concept of a world which requires a renewal of faith when science has gone too far. Common to all the writers discussed here, however, are themes of risk and change. If humankind is to continue to populate not only our world, but other worlds, to coexist with their inhabitants and grow in an understanding of human nature, alien nature, and the nature of God, science fiction advocates a willingness to take risks. Lewis encourages us to risk encounters with the unknown, to accept the truth about ourselves and others, even when that truth is difficult to hear. Card suggests that we may need to risk our faith, rejecting what we believe if our beliefs prove to be misguided. For Butler, risk is the necessity of abandoning what is known and familiar in order to establish a loving community in a hostile world. These writers offer different messages, but the implication is the same: In an age of complexity and uncertainty, growth as people and growth in faith come by taking risks. To accept risk, our writers suggest, means being equally willing to accept change. Exploration of space and encounters with other life forms force us to change our conception of Christ's message of salvation from one that is earthly to one that is universal. In Sideshow, Tepper argues that humanity cannot advance to a more spiritual state of existence until it is ready to accept the change that holiness requires. Dick is convinced that for Christ to return to our world, changes must occur not only in Scripture, but also in the nature of Christianity. Simmons advocates a willingness not only to accept radical changes when our faith requires it, but also that we embrace only changes· that are consistent with our faith. Here, then, is a body of creative and imaginative literature that says we grow in faith by taking risks, and that we grow in understanding by accepting change. Science fiction maintains that although we are granted the opportunity to meet the unknown through science, it is only through faith that we can hope to understand it. 1

117 ENDNOTES

1 C.S. Lewis, Out ofthe Silent Planet (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 86.

2 Ibid., 138.

3 C.S. Lewis, Perelandra (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 13 .

4 Ibid., 217.

5 · Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game (New York: Tor Books, 1977), 3 56.

6 __,Speaker for the Dead (New York: Tor Books, 1986), 333.

__, Xenocide (New York: Tor Books, 1991 ).

8 Octavia Butler, Parable ofthe Sower (New York: Warner Books, 1993), 21.

9 Ibid., 41.

10 Sheri S. Tepper, Shadow's End (New York: Bantam Books, 1994), 430.

11 _____,Sideshow (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), 473 .

12 Philip K. Dick, The Divine Invasion (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981), 87.

13 Ibid., 73.

14 Madeleine L'Engle,A Wrinkle in Time (New York: Dell, 1978), 46.

15 New York: Bantam Books, 1995.

118