Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site hou4b.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!houxm!vax135!ariel!hou4b!mat From: mat@hou4b.UUCP (Mark Terribile) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Yellow Press in SciFi? Message-ID: <1253@hou4b.UUCP> Date: Sat, 5-Jan-85 00:09:59 EST Article-I.D.: hou4b.1253 Posted: Sat Jan 5 00:09:59 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 5-Jan-85 07:40:58 EST Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ Lines: 25 As I was walking past a colleague's desk, I picked up a copy of Heinlein's ``Friday''. The story takes place in the wreckage of earth future. I flipped though it, and came up against a paragraph which described how the Catholic Church claimed that people who were the product of genetic engineering were not human, did not have immortal souls, etc. A couple of years ago, I flipped through another scifi book about the wreckage of earth future, and the church was depicted as a medevial inquisition. The sacrament of Penance was turned into torture-confess-execute, and the accusations included ``having sex with an unblessed [ie untaxed] prostitute''. If I recall, H.G.Wells had a heavy anti-religion bias, but confined it mostly to public debates with Chesterton and published essays. I don't know for sure. 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 ? -- from Mole End Mark Terribile (scrape .. dig ) hou4b!mat ,.. .,, ,,, ..,***_*.