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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