On May 6, 11:39=A0am, Erik Max Francis <m...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Tue Sorensen wrote:
> > On 5 Maj, 20:44, Niels <n...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> How about current Battlestar Galactica? There's _one_ scientist,
who's =
mad,
> >> never does any science and quite possibly kills people left and
right.
> >> There are spaceships, but it's all sort of steam punk-ish tech. Evil
> >> machines are, or are not, trying to kill everybody. Everything is
wrapp=
ed
> >> in religion, mysticism and really loathsome characters. What say you?
>
> > The religion in Battlestar Galactica is presented specifically *as*
> > religion. There is no evidence of supernatural happenings. The
> > religion is based in legends about Earth, and these myths are part of
> > the plot, and it will probably be revealed just how they came into
> > being. The overall premise is a perfectly sound scientific world view.
>
> Bluh, what? =A0Maybe if you'd only watched a few scattered episodes, or
> the first two seasons, could you have made this argument (giving a lot
> of benefit of the doubt to Baltar's taking advice from his imagination
> that turns out to always be right and claims to be an angel from God).
> Moving into the fourth season now, that seems to me a pretty silly
> claim: =A0It's introduced _explicitly_ as religion in the series, and
the
> creators are on record as stating that they went out of their way to try
> to integrate spiritual elements into their work (as I saw in some
> interviews; I'd have to dig it up if someone thinks this isn't true,
> even though we hear about it ever other episode).
>
> We haven't seen the end, but we're seeing ridiculous implausibilities,
> crazy events that aren't explainable rationally, and religion mentioned
> practically every episode. =A0The characters who aren't even
particularly
> religious have even commented about how they can't deny something weird
> is going on! =A0If you need examples, I'll give them, but I wouldn't
think=
> that anyone actually watching the series would need them.
I have watched every episode religiously, as it were. The supernatural
elements introduced so far are still nothing that might not turn out
to have a scientific explanation (that's what I'm hoping for, of
course, since nothing else would make sense). Also, when chronicling
an alien culture it's quite natural that this culture will have some
religious aspect to it. Remember the B5 episode where the Commander
introduces various Earth religions to alien delegations, starting with
a representative of atheism? Not that I believe atheism is a religion
(I don't), but it demonstrates the point: that alien cultures will
realistically have their own religions, and this should sometimes be
included in science fiction stories about such alien cultures.
- Tue
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