What do you guys think? Is good sci-fi dependent on the world being older than 6,000-60,000 years old. Does sci-fi, to be truly effective, need to have deep time. C.S. Lewis's works, particularly Perelandra, sometimes stray close to creationism, but ultimately draw back. Practically all Catholic sci-fi accepts the ancient Earth\evolutionary "hypothesis". The only evangelical sci-fi authors who are even halfway decent are Stephen Lawhead (who accepts the theory of relativity, but is silent on evolution), Kathy Tyers (who will occasionally use evolution in her secular works, though I don't know whether she believes in evolutionary theory), and Chris Walley (who as far as I know does accept evolutionary theory, and definitely accepts an ancient Earth). I think it would probably be easier for an Old Earth Creationist to accept an ancient Earth than a young Earther, but that's just my opinion. Tell me what you think.
Note: I'm not trying to keep harping on the Christian theme, I just haven't had time to watch real (i.e. secular or Catholic) sci-fi, but only read crappy evangelical imitations lately. Ah, such is life.
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I have said it before and will say it again. I believe in a God that is smart enough to have put the world together with a system that we call science. So, yeah, I think it could work. Is anyone doing it right, not sure.
ReplyDeleteIt's a tough needle to thread I think if you try to imagine an SF novel that RELIES on creationism for its premise. You could probably create a universe (if you'll pardon the implication) that is creationist and go from there -- but then you've moved to fantasy.
ReplyDeleteI imagine it depends on what version of creationism is being displayed.
ReplyDeleteThe more fundamentalist it is the less believable as sci fi. But there are distinct mysteries to existence that cannot preclude the possibility of some version or interpretation of the Christian God from existing.
I'm agnostic and was raised that way and so the bar of believability is rather high for me.
If modeled more as a science fantasy novel the prospects for an enjoyable story improve for me.