religion
Posts about religion, skepticism, and how it fits into the scientific world.
Miraculous Escape
It all started with running and climbing and scrambling. The sheer trauma of what she had witnessed was enough to send anyone into shock but with the coldness now biting at her extremities the process began to escalate. The fear and adrenaline of escaping from the Red Skull had provided her with the energy and drive she needed to save herself and her son. She had observed the cataract of water cascading over the cliff edge as they had been herded onto the ice with the tens of thousands of refugees displaced by the war with the Red Skull. Bethulia had been in a period of extensive peace until the day the Immortal Remes marched upon their peaceful land. She sat and watched the powerful flow of water beside her as she hid in the crevice of the cliff hoping they would not see her, hoping they would move on before the cold gripped her beyond what she could cope. The fall dropped into rapids, she considered the possibility of jumping into this and surviving if all other options were removed. It had several layers or steps, it was not a plunge pool. Survival would be unlikely. One pool was half frozen and only remained unfrozen due to the constant turmoil of the water flowing into it. She heard noises from below, it was the troopers searching for her. She couldn't be that important, surely they would give up their search soon. She looked over the edge it was a five hundred foot drop all the way down. Her foot slipped on the ice, her son reached out and held her, helping her to regain her balance. She would wait patiently until the troops left. The old wire rope she had used to climb down was still there, to climb back again.
By Allan Marshall9 years ago in Futurism
Death and Burials
If there is one thing we all have in common, no matter what culture we live in or what our religious beliefs are, it is death. We all die some time and we all have lost some one. One of my favorite quotes from a movie is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan where Captain Kirk tells a young cadet that “How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn’t you say?” Cultures all around the globe and all throughout history deal with death and burial in a variety of different ways.
By Kevin Bailey9 years ago in Futurism
Comes A Horseman
On a night as black as pitch comes the Horseman. It is said that all through-out history man has been tormented by the constant struggle between good and evil. Where good intentions are swept away by selfish desires. These selfish desires are now embedded in the conscious thoughts of man coursed by the temptations that the Horseman offers.
By Dr. Williams9 years ago in Futurism
Antimatter: X-mas Files Edition
Sure. Sure. The Christmas season is full of crass commercialism. Materialist dogma -- of all varieties -- are on display everywhere. But the season has traditionally been regarded as a time of supernatural activity and high strangeness, as this edition of Antimatter shows.
By Matt Swayne9 years ago in Futurism
Antimatter: Better Brains, Demon Detectors and Mystical Neanderthals
The following is another issue of my somewhat regular tribute to the cool stuff that used to appear in Omni Magazine’s Antimatter column. In this issue, we have stories about billionaires building brains, Neanderthals who may have been religious, showing ghosts the door, and more...
By Matt Swayne9 years ago in Futurism
Philip K. Dick's VALIS Analyzes Religious Destiny
If you really think about it, the story of Jesus is a work of science fiction. He's a man with superpowers that include turning water to wine, healing others, and coming back from the dead. All jokes aside, religion and science fiction truly go hand in hand although people often try to separate the two. Some of the religious themes that permeate sci-fi stories include the idea of the afterlife, reincarnation, original sin, fictional religions, Messianism, and many other themes that can be found in the works of Philip K. Dick. As a science fiction writer, Dick wrote 44 novels and 121 short stories including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,A Scanner Darkly, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, VALIS, and many others. Some of the films that have been adapted from these stories include Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, The Adjustment Bureau, and Impostor. Throughout his lifetime, he won several awards including three Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, one British Science Fiction Association Award, and many others. There is even a Philip K. Dick Award that was established in 1983 which honors the previous year's best science fiction paperback original published in the US. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series. The writer died in 1982 after suffering two strokes at the age of 53, but his legacy lives on today in his stories such as VALIS.
By Mackenzie Lu9 years ago in Futurism
Surprising Science Fiction Stories from the Ancient World
Some think of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as the beginning of science fiction. Others would say that it didn’t really begin until H.G. Wells began writing down his marvelous, speculative stories in which he imagined terrible - and wonderful - possibilities for the futures. While these might be the beginnings of science fiction or speculative fiction as we define it today, there are many stories from the ancient world and early cultures all over the planet that contained elements of science and speculation similar to the ones we love today.Whether they’re early tales from Japan or surprising elements of the Bible, these stories will inspire you to take a closer look at what you consider the origins of your favorite genre.
By Sarah Quinn9 years ago in Futurism
Space (Part II - Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle)
In my last article, I discussed William Gibson's cyberpunk classic Neuromancer as a key text in the convergence between science fiction and postmodernism. This time, I want to stay right on the cusp and consider the case of Kurt Vonnegut, who happens to be the writer who made me want to be one myself someday.
By M. Thomas Gammarino9 years ago in Futurism
