What about Dune and Star Wars (as long as you ignore the midichlorians?) Or C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy? As for religion in Star Trek, don't forget about the whole different animal that was DS9.
I think that the reason most science fiction portrays religion as something ultimately explainable (as you said, a remnant of an ancient war or worm hole aliens) is because many of those stories deal with exploration and expansion, particularly of human knowledge. It makes more sense that creatures that we call gods, angels, demons, etc. turn out to be little green men in science fiction. It's SCIENCE fiction, get it?
By the way, what do you think of Fringe so far? I'm still undecided on whether or not I'm going to keep watching.
Oh yeah I forgot Star Wars! Yoda definitely has some good spiritual mojo going on and it's values are consistent the newer episodes not withstanding. So, I guess that fits in with science fiction and religion working together. Same for Space Trilogy. But, for DS9, it still comes down to Bajorans worshiping aliens and not actual gods. Oh and I never read Dune, sorry
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Ninja'd on the Space Trilogy. As far as the Ender fork of the Ender books go, they certainly don't lump all religions together, though one planet's main religion was founded with a view to manipulating the minds of its citizens.
For a very interesting take on 'space religion', I'd check out the Homecoming series, also by Card. I'd say more, but discovering the world is half the fun of good Science Fiction. I will mention that I've heard it strongly parallels the Book of Mormon, but I can't speak to that, being unfamiliar with that text.
I'd also like to mention Battlestar Galactica, but I haven't watched enough episodes to really understand the main religions of the series. I'm just pretty sure they play an important role.
Battlestar is really it's own beast when it comes to religion. It really does have a lot to say about religion but right now it's not perfectly clear about what it is saying. I'm going to have to wait till the series is over to fully judge.
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I think that the reason most science fiction portrays religion as something ultimately explainable (as you said, a remnant of an ancient war or worm hole aliens) is because many of those stories deal with exploration and expansion, particularly of human knowledge. It makes more sense that creatures that we call gods, angels, demons, etc. turn out to be little green men in science fiction. It's SCIENCE fiction, get it?
By the way, what do you think of Fringe so far? I'm still undecided on whether or not I'm going to keep watching.
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For a very interesting take on 'space religion', I'd check out the Homecoming series, also by Card. I'd say more, but discovering the world is half the fun of good Science Fiction. I will mention that I've heard it strongly parallels the Book of Mormon, but I can't speak to that, being unfamiliar with that text.
I'd also like to mention Battlestar Galactica, but I haven't watched enough episodes to really understand the main religions of the series. I'm just pretty sure they play an important role.
PS - Babylon 4? Perhaps a prequel series?
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Ps Didn't you hear? 4 is the new 5!
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