Nice rap. Back in the day, when I was still a TM teacher and State Coordinator for the TMO, I used to give a similar "advanced lecture" called "SCI and SciFi." I tend to agree with your basic premise, in that SciFi deals with the "edges" of what we know of the universe, which is always the same function that theology provided during earlier ages.
The only thing I quibble about is your choice of examples. "2001," "Gravity," and "Solaris" all suffer from the same hideous and deforming flaw, interestingly the same flaw that renders theology so unintersting -- humorlessness. Many have commented over the decades on the "overseriousness" of SciFi, a failing it probably gained from science. But really, when you think about it, who could possibly take any theology or any SciFi seriously while it continues to take *itself* so seriously. If I were to try to pick a SciFi masterwork that came close to expressing my "theology" about the universe and how it works, it would be something with more heart, and FAR more humor. Something like...dare I say it...Joss Whedon's "Firefly" and "Serenity." Now THAT is a theology I can live with. A ship full of outlaws and hookers and priests and babes, just scraping by on the outer edges of the galaxy, but always scraping by, and still flying. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch3X5WrhwGM ________________________________ From: "s3raph...@yahoo.com" <s3raph...@yahoo.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 3:20 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Sci-fi = theology for moderns Theology is the "science of God". It's an obsolete set of theories about an obsolescent belief system (Christianity) that has no relevance to moderns. I have no objection to that approach but can't help feeling it misses out on the important point. Which is? That theology was the way that pre-moderns learnt how to regard - that is, how to orient themselves towards - ultimate issues. For example: perhaps the key doctrine of Christianity is Original Sin (the only rival is the doctrine of the Incarnation). What does "Original Sin" amount to if we disregard the theology? Doesn't it come down to this: if you live your life as if "what comes naturally" is good and right then you've made a catastrophic error. Human nature is essentially perverse and you have to fight against that perversity if you're not to face disaster. Based on your *own* experience of life; based on your *own* observations of others does that sound plausible or does it sound insane? So how do we moderns learn how to adjust to ultimate issues? Philosophy? hardly! Religion? Forget it! I claim that sci-fi is the genre that has helped us best to make that adjustment. I recall seeing Kubrick's 2001 when it first appeared. When it started with Strauss's "tone poem" Also sprach Zarathustra over Kubrick's sunrise scene I was laughing almost hysterically in the cinema. So was it funny? No - the laughter was my reaction to the emotional kick of the moment as I realised immediately that here was a director who was prepared to tackle *essential* issues and I was in for a rare treat. I had a similar experience recently when I saw the film Gravity. I'd avoiding watching the movie as I'd expected it to be a special-effects bonanza but emotionally vacuous. Wow! What a surprise. (Spoiler alert!) When at the end Sandra Bullock emerges from the waves it's a true mythological moment. Mankind (woman in this case) emerging from the amniotic fluid; Man emerging from the primordial ocean as he takes the first steps from water to land (symbolized by the frog!). I have to admit that in this case I wasn't laughing - I was literally in tears. Powerful stuff. Whereas Kubrick's film has a gnostic tinge - a human being is reborn as the Starchild far beyond mundane man - Gravity is almost the opposite: this is woman being returned (with a desperate gratitude - who to?) from a total technological environment back to elemental, mother earth. I have similar responses to other sci-fi books and films - Solaris, for example. How curious that a genre - so despised, so niche, so juvenile - can have such an important role to play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-QFj59PON4
