Beware of Science Fiction! (Legit fundie warning -- or parody?)

[villager]

I honestly can't tell if this a Betty Bowers-like parody, or offered up in seriousness -- it's impossible to tell anymore. For what it's worth, the link was sent by a pal who works as a professional sci fi and comics editor:

Beware of Science FictionFiled in: Entertainment
January 6, 2010 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, [e-mail]; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

Science fiction takes the reader into a strange world without God. Oh, there might be “a god,” a “force,” but it is definitely not the God of the Bible, and the prominent names in this field are atheists.

Take CARL SAGAN, for example. His best-selling sci-fi novel Contact was made into a movie. Sagan was one of the high priests of atheistic evolution. In his novel he has the main character debating two preachers and saying, “There is no compelling evidence that God exists.” In 1997 Sagan said, “I share the view of a hero of mine, Albert Einstein: ‘I cannot conceive of a god who rewards and punishes his creatures or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I--nor would I want to--conceive of an individual that survives his physical death. Let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egotism, cherish such thoughts’” (Parade, March 10, 1997).

Consider another prominent name in Sci-Fi, ISAAC ASIMOV. (shown above) In a 1982 interview he said, “Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time” (Paul Kurtz, “An Interview with Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible,” Free Inquiry, Spring 1982, p. 9).

Consider ROBERT HEINLEIN, called “the dean of science fiction writers.” He rejected the Bible and promoted “free sex.” His book “Stranger in a Strange Land” is considered “the unofficial bible of the hippie movement.” Heinlein was a nudist and practiced “polyandry.” He promoted agnosticism in his sci-fi books.
Consider ARTHUR CLARKE, author of many sci-fi works, including 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke, who was probably a homosexual, promoted evolutionary pantheism. He told a Sri Lankan newspaper, “I don’t believe in God or an afterlife” (“Life Beyond 2001: Exclusive Interview with Arthur C. Clarke,” The Island, Dec. 20, 2000). In the instructions he left for his funeral in March 2008 he said, “Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral.”

Consider KURT VONNEGUT. He was an atheist, and as an honorary president of the American Humanist Association he subscribed to its code which “does not accept supernatural views of reality.”

Consider GENE RODDENBERRY, creator of Star Trek. He was an agnostic and humanist who envisioned a world in which “everyone is an atheist and better for it” (Brannon Braga, “Every Religion Has a Mythology,” International Atheist Conference, June 24, 2006).

Science fiction is intimately associated with Darwinian evolution. Sagan and Asimov, for example, were prominent evolutionary scientists. Sci-fi arose in the late 19th and early 20th century as a product of an evolutionary worldview that denies the Almighty Creator. In fact, evolution IS the pre-eminent science fiction. Beware!

Beware, good denizens of DU. Beware!

http://wayoflife.org/files/2fd19aa02a25c87c4946a653a20f1344-486.html

[BolivarianHero]

1. I can see why they'd fear Heinlein...

The idea that you can be politically conservative without being an anti-freedom religious wacko scares the fuck out of them.

[starroute]

13. Gee, I never knew Heinlein had multiple husbands

Oh, I see. The guy meant "polyamory," not "polyandry." That's the sort of thing you get when good spell-checkers go bad.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. Doesn't look like a parody to me.

There are no jokes.

[StarfarerBill]

3. Yep...ain't it great?

:)

[BolivarianHero]

4. Sagan smoked pot...

Falwell wanted banned.

That's all the proof I need that we all ought to smoke more of it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. I don't know, Carl Sagan could be a real dick sometimes.

[cabluedem]

12. And we all know pot raises our IQ levels, right?

Science fiction doesn't equal atheism.

[bighughdiehl]

5. That site has been around for a while

That David Cloud guy is for real, and hilariously whacked out! He claims he was a hippy
in the early 70s doing lotsa drugs, until JEEZUS saved him through a hitchhike with an
old school preacher man. His schtick for the past two decades has pretty much been that
Southern Baptists and most other fundies are actually waaayyyyy too liberal! Catholics and
those who listen to music other than old hymns are still going to H-E-L-L. The site www.wayoflife.org
was recently revamped to flush some things down the memory hole(such as a photo that showed his crazed, egotistical face and a gluttonous belly). Enjoy!

[Fumesucker]

6. Eh, they ought to read Robert J Sawyer's "Calculating God"

Wherein aliens show up on Earth with scientific proof that god does indeed exist..

The entire book is basically an extended argument between a human atheist scientist and an alien theist scientist with some action thrown in. As an atheist myself I found it very interesting, Sawyer makes a good case that the universe was indeed intelligently designed specifically for the development of intelligent life, it's truly a fascinating question.

Warning, there are serious spoilers at this Wikipedia link..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating_God

http://www.amazon.com/Calculating-God-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/0812580354

Religiously themed SF is actually pretty common, the first one I recall reading was "A Case of Conscience" by James Blish which explores the Manichean heresy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Case_of_Conscience

And then there is "The Star" by Arthur C Clarke..

http://lucis.net/stuff/clarke/star_clarke.html

[The Wielding Truth]

7. My fav scifi authors and loved Carl Sagan. Yet, I am a follower of

the teachings of Jesus.Go figure.

[jtuck004]

9. This is probably "Avatar"- inspired writing - folks like this hate it

[xfundy]

10. Haven't you heard about the Bible?

IT'S A COOKBOOK!

YAHHHHHHHH!!!

[Quantess]

11. So basically if you don't believe in the Fundie God who demands your belief in Him

then you are going to hell. So if you don't believe in "Fundie God", you should be terrified.

I think the author is missing a basic point.

[Blue State Blues]

14. If you do believe in the Fundie god you should be terrified, too

Or rather, god-fearing, and they see it as a good thing.

Then again if there is a deity who is as capricious and cruel as the god they believe in, fear would be the appropriate response.

[Quantess]

18. I see it as an unnecessary fear, which supposedly angers the Fundie Christian God.

Their idea of a God demands that his creations believe in him, otherwise they go straight to hell. He's a real egomaniac, that one.

[EOTE]

15. Ummm, didn't Carl Sagan die in 1996?

I can understand why this guy hates the man so much. He was giving interviews a year after his death, isn't that Jesus's job? RIP Carl. In these times, you are sorely missed.

[Chiyo-chichi]

16. C.S. Lewis, anyone?

Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength?
A great scifi trilogy, but the author of this warning probably wouldn't even be able to pick out the theological themes.

[Jim Lane]

17. Good point, and add some of Lewis's other works

The Narnia series is fantasy (a related genre) aimed at children, so the Christian themes aren't quite so overt as in the space trilogy. The Screwtape Letters is more explicitly Christian than any of them, being a set of letters from a senior devil to his nephew, instructing him on techniques for winning souls and dragging humans down into Hell.

Although I'm an agnostic, I enjoyed all these books by Lewis. What's really striking to me about the condemnation of SF is the assumption that, if an author has religious views that differ from yours, then that author's works are to be avoided.

[proteus_lives]

19. That's nothing compared to their section on Roman Catholics.

Like most Baptist fundies they reserve their greatest hatred for the Roman Catholic Church.

[proteus_lives]

20. BTW, that site is hilarious!

I'm reading the section on modesty and I can't stop laughing!

[Confusious]

21. I forgot about this....

A Glorious Dawn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc

http://www.symphonyofscience.com/

[immoderate]

22. Anything that promotes thinking is dangerous to them.

--imm

[daleo]

23. The Bible reads like science fiction

Without the science.