Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site hercules.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!decvax!tektronix!teklds!hercules!franka From: franka@hercules.UUCP (Frank Adrian) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Yellow Press in SciFi? Message-ID: <364@hercules.UUCP> Date: Mon, 7-Jan-85 11:55:39 EST Article-I.D.: hercules.364 Posted: Mon Jan 7 11:55:39 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jan-85 08:19:15 EST References: <1253@hou4b.UUCP> Reply-To: franka@hercules.UUCP (Frank Adrian) Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 32 Summary: In article <1253@hou4b.UUCP> mat@hou4b.UUCP (Mark Terribile) writes: > >Are my observations typical of scifi writings? If so, why? Is perversion of >religion just a good way to depict a damaged society? Or do these writers >consider religion a malady of society? And is the Catholic Church singled out >the way that IBM is singled out when we think of computers -- ``They have an >IBM machine'', or do these writers have a grudge against Catholicism ? >-- Are science fiction writers, as a class, more or less religious? Well, as a class, there are those in both camps. However the majority seem to have a bias against oppression and oppressive religion in general. In any society there are certain "power bases". For example, in Central America today, the power bases are the land owners, the military, and the church. The interaction among these power groups are the major influnce upon the flux of society. When a science fiction writer hypothesises a future history, one of the assumptions is that the world will have powerful groups wishing to maintain or extend their power. One of the most tenacious and powerful groups throughout history has been religion. And at some points in time, the institutions deriving their power from this group, have been corrupt. The inquisition is the best documented case of this nature. The Holy Roman Catholic Church is still the largest monolithic religion in the world (and appears that it will be for some time). If any institution survives a holocaust of some sort, I would put my money on the CC. And since a post-holocaust society would lose most of the external checks and balances upon the power of the church, it is VERY possible that the church could return to its inquisitive past (for every St. Francis in the church, there have been at least two Torquemadas). Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and all that jazz. This is the reason why religions (which have never been too tolerant to begin with) and the Catholic Church, in particular, have been singled out as oppressors in most post-holocaust scenarios (although as of late, the fundamentalists are gaining more popularity in this respect). Same as it ever was... Frank Adrian