Covalence

The Bulletin of the ELCA Alliance for Faith Science and Technology

		Commentary
		Fact or fiction? Religion’s role in futuristic thinking re-imagined by Susan Barreto Covalence in this May issue is taking a look at the genre of science fiction, which quite often has ignored religion, depicted it as an antiquated notion, or viewed it as a contributing factor to nonsensical human behavior. The “parents” of science fiction Mary Shelley (Frankenstein), H.G. Wells and Jules Verne did not incorporate religion into their writing. Wells, for instance, stated that Christianity was not true for him and that other world religions served a purpose and worked, but they did not work for him.

		Features
		Nanobots Dancing: Science Fiction and Faith by Steven Lynn As our scientific imagination and understanding have grown from the time of the Enlightenment, we find ourselves inhabiting a universe that is much larger, older and stranger than previously imagined. The outer boundaries of what may be knowable have been pushed back in time and space to the point of origin and perhaps even beyond. This expansion has posed daunting challenges for religious faith of almost any kind because it arguably diminishes or dispenses with the explanatory need for God.
		Theologizing about Technology in Science Fiction by George L. Murphy Steven Lynn’s article exploring nanotechnology and science fiction in this May issue of Covalence recalled me once again to the conjunction of two longtime interests, science fiction and theology. The fact that there is such a conjunction will seem obvious to some people and Lynn suggests some reasons for this, but the idea of making that connection will surprise others. Science fiction explores possible worlds, and without becoming fantasy (a different genre), allows a writer to think about worlds whose religious parameters, so to speak, differ from ours. On the other hand, a great deal of science fiction either ignores religion or treats it as a relic of humanity’s past.

Covalence, May 2012