Gabriel Mckee's Blog: SF Gospel, page 9

Some Star Trek bits

Beliefnet presents an argument that Star Trek (TOS) was obsessed with the Ten Commandments. 
ASSISTNews offers up a quiz linking Star Trek and scripture.
Craig A. James, author of the Dawkinist evolutionary psychology tome The Evolution of Religion, reads way too much into the latest movie's one direct reference to a deity. I mean, I acknowledged that I had to dig a bit to find a theological thread in the film, but this is going a bit too far!
This one's just confusing. At FoxNews.com (*shudde

Roundup of religion in the Lost season finale

Over at SF Gospel's spouse blog God Spam, Gwynne rounds up the religion references in the season finale of Lost. Some interesting stuff—I'm particulary intrigued by the theory that the mysterious nameless fellow talking to Jacob in the first scene might be named Esau. But I'm skeptical that the statue is Anubis—that head looked much more reptilian to me, so I'm leaning toward crocodile-god (and lord of the seas!) Sobek. 

Of course, the real meat of the episode was about free will and destiny—as

...To boldly go back to the future

In his review of Star Trek, Roger Ebert protests the direction of the franchise:

The Gene Roddenberry years, when stories might play with questions of science, ideals or philosophy, have been replaced by stories reduced to loud and colorful action. Like so many franchises, it’s more concerned with repeating a successful formula than going boldly where no “Star Trek” has gone before.

I don't know that I'd go quite so far as to say the new Star Trek cares only about "loud and colorful action" (thoug

How many gods does it take to build a working artificial intelligence?, or, a Caprica review

Is the Sci Fi Channel (or, pardon me, Syfy) trying to doom Caprica before it even launches? It's been something like two weeks since the DVD came out, and I've heard barely a word about it. Probably because, like me, nobody wanted to spend 27 bucks on an unknown quantity, and they all waited for their Netflix copies to arrive. Well, my rented copy arrived this week, and I sure hope this botched release isn't part of a plan to tank the series, because the pilot is good. Really good, in fact. It'

Interview on the Spirituality of Star Trek

David Crumm of ReadtheSpirit.com recently interviewed me on on the gods of Star Trek, both fictional (the Sha Ka Ree demiurge) and real (Gene Roddenberry himself). On the question of Roddenberry's own religious views, I had this to say:

You'll often hear people say that Gene Roddenberry was an atheist. Any time that a god appears in Star Trek it's usually a bad god or a fake god. But the answer is more complicated than that. He really was an agnostic. I think it's rewriting history to say he was

Gods in fantasy

SF Signal's latest Mind Meld looks at gods and religion in fantasy.

In a created fantasy world, gods can proliferate by the hundreds.
When building religious systems for fantasies, what are the
advantages/disadvantages of inventing pantheons vs. single gods, or
having no religious component at all?

Respondents include Michael Swanwick, Elizabeth Bear, and John C. Wright. Read their responses here!

The failure of humanity in The Day of the Triffids

Add John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids to the list, just below Starship Troopers and Old Man's War, of books I liked quite a bit even though I found them a little morally repugnant. I was impressed with the power with which Wyndham portrays a collapsing world, and the ingenuity of his monsters, but a bit repulsed by his protagonist's inhumanity.

In the aftermath of a bizarre lightshow of unknown origin—suggested causes are a strange comet and an insidious Cold War weapon—most of the population

A bit of housecleaning: Cryptozoic!, The Forge of God, and Alex and Me

There's been a slowly-growing pile of books next to my desk: books I've read that haven't warranted full reviews, but that are worth mentioning here. And that pile will never go away until I actually write about them. So, in the interest of reducing desk-area clutter and finally completing long put-off tasks, here are a few scattered thoughts on three books I've read in the last year or so.

Cryptozoic! (a.k.a. An Age), by Brian W. Aldiss.

This is a book that reminded me of the better works of R

Superhero spirituality at Cornerstone

An announcement: I've been invited to speak at this year's Cornerstone Festival (in Bushnell, Illinois, from July 1-3)!

"But I thought that was a Christian music festival, and as far as I know you're not a musician!", you say? Well, you're correct. But part of the festival is the Imaginarium, which houses seminars on a variety of topics. This year's title is "Make. Believe. Heroes"—in other words, the religious aspects of superheroes. I'll be giving three one-hour sessions on the morality and on

The message of A Mosque Among the Stars

A Mosque Among the Stars, a new short story collection edited by Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad (founder of the Islam and Science Fiction website) and Canadian SF author Ahmed A. Khan, is an anthology with a message. Tired of the narrow representation of Islam on display in most Western media (including much SF), the editors wanted "to present Islam and Muslims in a different light." 

It's tough to aim for an anthology with a unified message, especially in SF, which prizes diversity of opinion. But