Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Difference between revisions

 

== [[Film]] ==

{{quote| '''Jeff:''' You talk of God?<br />

'''[[Human Aliens|Eros]]:''' You also think it impossible that we, too, might think of God? }}

* [[Stanislaw Lem]]'s ''[[Solaris]]'' lapsed into painfulness: the protagonist's brooding about how humanity has not improved in any way is in the immediate company of the protagonist's brooding about how humanity has outgrown any foolish notions of [[God]]. However, in Lem's ''[[Fiasco (novel)|Fiasco]]'', the crew of the expedition that tries to contact with an alien race, includes a priest, who's portrayed positively. This is ''standard'' with Lem, really. He ''was'' writing in Soviet Poland, and one of his very first books was Soviet propaganda. ''[[Solaris]]'' was intended more to be about how humanity would react to meeting a very, very alien alien. Or possibly {{spoiler|how they would take finding out that God is surprised to know we exist}} if you ''must'' make it symbolic. Just remember that Lem knowingly set out to use certain of the alien tropes as anvil targets...

* [[Arthur C. Clarke]] has done this several times:

** ''The Light of Other Days'', co-written with [[Stephen Baxter]], had a device that could see into the past; among others, Moses didn't exist, having been a merger of several different historical personages. Jesus did, but was just a good person who inspired people, rather than a miracle-maker.

** ''[[Childhoods End]]'', similar to the above example, the visitors give humans a device to see into the past. Apparently, every religion save Buddhism becomes discredited. Also, the visitors look like stereotypical devils; it turns out {{spoiler|they are heralds of [[The End of the World as We Know It|a change so monumental]] it echoes back through human history, causing the "devil" image in the first place.}}

 

== Real Life ==

 

{{reflist}}