The Babylon 5 episode Believers deals with an alien religion, but makes a point about some human religions.
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An alien boy is ill with a condition that can be cured with an operation which involves cutting into his chest. His parents won’t allow it because of their religious belief that it will allow his soul to escape. Dr. Franklin does the operation anyway. After the operation, when the boy meets the parents, they regard him with horror as a soulless being. Later it is discovered that the parents have killed the boy and are now “at peace.”
In Straczynski’s comments on the linked page, he connects it with the biblical story of Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. It also has modern connections to incidents in which parents allow a child to die because they believe treatment is evil or will show a lack of faith .
In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s The Mote In God’s Eyeand The Gripping Hand, and Pournelle’s King David’s Spaceship(all set in a common universe), the Catholic Church seems to be dominent in the Empire of Man. And at least one planet (I don’t recall the name) is predomiately Muslim.
DennisKy said:
Yes, I do…but I also remember that Mormons were mentioned as being natural enemies of the Prophet Incarnate, and that they joined in the revolt againt the theocracy. I believe Heinlein was using generic fire-and-brimstone Christianity, rather than the Mormons.
Esprix said:
Sinclair didn’t convert–he startedit in a very unique way. And since he no doubt started it from what he knew of it in the future…well, it becomes a Robert A. Heinlein By His Bootstrapsscenario.
Ura-Maru said:
I’m going on memory here, so correct me if I’m wrong (like anybody around here would need an invitation), but it seems to me there was a TOS episode that brought up a big parallel with Christianity. It was the one where the Klingons (I think) had allied themselves with the government of some sort of Imperial Roman world. There was an gentler alternative religion among the lower classes–they worshiped the sun…except, as they trot out at the end, it’s the son(of God, you understand). The crew of the Enterprisenods knowingly, or something like that.
But by *The Next Generation,*Christianity apparently went away entirely–I can’t recall any allusion to it in TNG, DS9, or Voyager.
The episode is called “Bread and Circuses.” In it there was a planet that had a Rome that never fell. Kirk and the gang had their adventures on the planet, where there were slaves who worshiped the sun. When all was over and they were warping off on their way, Uhura informs them that it wasn’t the sun, but the Son. A noncommittal remark is made about the philosophy of love that leaves completely untouched the spiritual validity of Jesus’ claims, and then it’s off to the credits. No Kilngons in that one though.
Written SF has often portrayed religious societies, either an actual relgion (usually Catholic), a nonspecific fundamentalist religion, or something completely made up. There have also been alien religions (Michael Bishop’s “The Gospel According to Gameliel Crucis,” for example).
James Morrow’s Corpus Dei trilogy (Towing Jehovah, Blameless in Abbadon, and The Eternal Footman) has interesting things to say about all religions.
Televised SF is less likely to portray relgions simply because all network TV tends to shy away from it, on the theory that if you portray religion X, people from religion Y and Z won’t watch. Star Trek did have a strong anti-religion element in the beginning (a lot of episoded could be summed up as “God is mad”).
Sheesh, you got there before I did but you actually remembered the name of the book! I haven’t read the first book but I did read Children of God and like Maeglin says, its a fine read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
