the most random question of all
to my non-christian friends;
What, if anything, do you find interesting about the Christian worldview? What would be interesting in the context of fic?
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From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Newton’s conception of time and space:
“It should be emphasized, though, that Newton did not regard space and time as genuine substances (as are, paradigmatically, bodies and minds), but rather as real entities with their own manner of existence as necessitated by God’s existence (more specifically, his omnipresence and eternality).”
Absolute space and time, which we rely upon for our mundane, materialist, pragmatic way of life, are mystical concepts and derive from fundamental assumptions about the nature of God. I think that’s pretty weird.
As a non-Christian, I find the concept of Original Sin interesting. Also the idea of salvation, and the idea that someone can’t be saved unless they believe the right thing. But that’s just me.
They do at that.
As a former Christian, I think all of the miracles that Jesus performed would make some good s/f.
Everything from turning water into wine to coming back from the dead.
hasn’t that been done a couple of times now? XD
Oh, probably.
I’m not being very creative here.
Okay, I’ve always wanted to write about a world where people know for sure what God(s) is/are like, what happens to people after they die, etc. So there’s religion without the religious wars and opposing viewpoints.
Actually, the most interesting aspect I can think of is one I’d really like to use as a basis for a novel myself one day, so I guess I shouldn’t suggest it to someone else.
A lot of the Biblical topics that ping on my brain loudly enough to get my attention are not so much as interesting as they are like knobs of the psychotic sticking out from the organized religion we see now.
I know, I know, people have twisted themselves up in Jesuitical knots trying to explain the weird that simply derives from clumsy translations and badly-hacked syncretism. This is like bad fanfic of a worse science fiction show, really.
Starting over again twice in Genesis, umm, yeah. Hey, those other women in Genesis–excuse me? Where did they come from?
And the Ark, now that’s a fun scene. Imagine the muscles you’d develop trying to keep that deck swabbed.
Oh yeah, how old do the early men, the Methuselahs, actually get? The “begats” are positively dangerous from the POV of an anal pin-point-minded fan-fic-writing obsessive-compulsive who wants to track down the age of the earth. Oh wait–they did that, and literal-minded people have been arguing about the accuracy of their arithmetic ever since.
Revelations, now, there’s a fun book. There’s a gift for the con artist. Useful for every charlatan, tent-preacher, scammer and snake-oil salesman since they started organizing anything resembling a church.
heh, and he split the blue hue in two– Azure and Indigo– because six isn’t as mystical a number as seven is.
I kinda think our concept of the nature of god derives from the absolute nature of space and time as we experience them. Newton put the cart back behind the horse, IMO!
Good enough– and they do make nice plot points of course
random commenter
I find the idea of blind faith kind of fascinating. I don’t know if it is something I am capable of. Religious morality is always interesting to write about.
As a non-Christian raised in a Christian (Lutheran, actually) household, I can honestly say there isn’t really much of anything about the faith that fascinates me enough that I would want to read about it. From an analytical point of view, even though I do not agree with them, I do understand the beliefs of many denominations of Christianity, and am familiar with the beliefs of others, so there’s not much that is “new” to me, for me to gain from reading religious fiction.
I suppose the simplest explanation is this: If religion is a central aspect of a novel or piece of shorter fiction (as opposed to simply being a facet of the world of the a given group of characters), I am likely to be resistant to reading it, and the larger the role religion plays in the novel, the more resistant I will be. This is because I am not a religious person, and I generally do not enjoy reading religion-centric fiction.
And yet I LOVE Good Omens, which is based very directly on Christianity, even if most Christian religious leaders would probably consider it sacrilegious. Go figure.