Niels <name@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Wednesday 07 May 2008 06:44, Michael Ash wrote:
>> For that matter, reality is significantly biased against science and
for
>> religion if you look at it this way. The vast majority of the
characters
>> are religious, and a lot of them place their religion far above
objective
>> science. Mysterious and unexplained things happen with alarming
frequency,
>> and a lot of mostly rational people start talking about supernatural
>> explanations.
>>
>> I don't think that mysterious happenings and widespread belief in
religion
>> should be marks against a work of science fiction. Quite the contrary:
>> they're marks of realism and believability.
>
> It's not realistic to me that all (remaining) members of a spacefaring
> civilization are religious.
To each his own, I suppose, but I must disagree. I know that it's a common
SF theme that advanced races no longer have religion, but I don't buy it.
I'm happy to suspend my disbelief for it, but I don't think it's
necessary or even likely.
To within perhaps 10%, all members of *our* civilization are religious,
and this has been true since basically the dawn of time. Of the two
major spacefaring countries, both have large religious majorities. (I'm
not counting China until they at least replicate their stunt.)
BSG is in my mind closer to reality than most in this respect. There are a
few atheists or people who just don't care, particularly among the brainy
set, but even they mostly follow the forms. Most people believe in
something, but to different degrees and not all in the same thing. What's
more, every character seen on BSG has been through almost unimaginable
trauma, and many self-proclaimed atheists discover that they really aren't
so unreligious after all when things really get bad.
>> The cold, sterile Star Trek
>> future where everyone is an athiest and nothing ever occurs which
cannot
>> be explained in four ten-minute segments is, I think, just as
unrealistic
>> as their treatment of various physical laws.
>>
>> (For the specific example of BSG, a lot depends on how these mysteries
are
>> ultimately resolved. If it ends up being "god(s) did it", well, there
you
>> go. If they're left unexplained then I don't think they indicate any
>> statement of the reality of supernatural forces in that universe.)
>
> If they're left unexplained the writers will be lynched. Or go on to
write
> for Lost...
Hopefully they won't do that. One reason I'm really glad that this is the
last season is so that they can end it properly instead of dragging it on
forever before being abruptly cut off without being able to tie up loose
ends. Now to see if they can actually pull it off....
--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software
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