Holy Sci-Fi!: Where Science Fiction and Religion Intersect

by Paul J. Nahin

Overview

Can a computer have a soul? Are religion and science mutually exclusive? Is there really such a thing as free will? If you could time travel to visit Jesus, would you (and should you)? For hundreds of years, philosophers, scientists and science fiction writers have pondered these questions and many more.

In Holy Sci-Fi!, popular writer Paul Nahin explores the fertile and sometimes uneasy relationship between science fiction and religion. With a scope spanning the history of religion, philosophy and literature, Nahin follows religious themes in science fiction from Feynman to Foucault and from Asimov to Aristotle.

An intriguing journey through popular and well-loved books and stories, Holy Sci-Fi! shows how sci-fi has informed humanity's attitudes towards our faiths, our future and ourselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493906178
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	04/10/2014
Series:	Science and Fiction
Edition description:	2014
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Paul Nahin was born in California, and did all of his schooling there (Brea-Olinda High 1958, Stanford BS 1962, Caltech MS 1963 and - as a Howard Hughes Staff Doctoral Fellow - UC/Irvine PhD 1972, with all degrees in electrical engineering). He has taught at Harvey Mudd College, the Naval Postgraduate School and the Universities of New Hampshire (where he is now emeritus professor of electrical engineering) and Virginia.

Prof. Nahin has published a couple of dozen short science fiction stories in ANALOG, OMNI, and TWILIGHT ZONE magazines, and has written 14 books on mathematics and physics. He has given invited talks on mathematics at Bowdoin College, the Claremont Graduate School, the University of Tennessee and Caltech, has appeared on National Public Radio's "Science Friday" show (discussing time travel) as well as on New Hampshire Public Radio's "The Front Porch" show (discussing imaginary numbers) and advised Boston's WGBH Public Television's "Nova" program on the scriptfor their time travel episode. He gave the invited Sampson Lectures for 2011 in Mathematics at Bates College (Lewiston, Maine).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- Author’s Note One.- God and Skepticism.- God, Fantasy, and Science Fiction.- God and Science.- Author’s Note Two.- 2. Religious Science Fiction Before Science Fiction.- The 'Start' of Modern SF.- Before the 'Start' of SF.- Early Theological SF.- Theological Maturity.- 3. Time, Space, God's Omniscience, and Free Will.- What is Time?.- Time in SF and Theology.- The Four-Dimensional World.- The Block Universe.- God's Omniscience in Theology and SF.- 4. Religious Robots.- Alan Turing, Artificial Minds, and the Souls of Machines.- Asimov’s Robotic Laws.- Robots and God.- 5. Computers as God.- Computers as Local Gods.- Computers as Planet-Wide Gods.- Computers as Known Universe Gods.- 6. Space Travel, Radio, and Alien Encounters.- The Fiction of Interstellar Space Travel.- Theology and Early Fictional Alien Encounters.- Interstellar Radio Messages.- Direct Encounters.- 7. Time Traveling to Jesus.- Time Travel: Fact or Fantasy.- Theology and the Past.- Jesus and Time Travelers.- Quantum Mechanics and God.- 8. What if God Revealed Himself?.- Not So Serious Speculations.- The End of It All.- Appendix 1: Matching Wits with 'God'.- Appendix 2: (fantasy) "Some Things Just Have to Be Done By Hand!" and "The Next Time Around".- Appendix 3: (science fiction): "A Father's Gift".- Appendix 4: "Applied Mathematical Theology" (Gregory Benford).- Appendix 5: "Gravity's Whispers" (Gregory Benford).- Bibliography of Short Stories Cited.