Religion in SFF

Posted on 25 September 2009

So two Dragon*Cons ago, I sat in on a panel about Religion in SFF.  One of the big themes of said panel was about how SFF typically shows religion in a negative light, if at all.  Now, I’m not a religious person, and I’ve enjoyed my fair share of anti-religion plots in SFF, but it got me wondering, why?

See, this really comes down to world building in my opinion.  A simple truth about humans, and I dare say sentient life in general, is that we have a limited intellect, a limited amount of knowledge, and a burning desire for more of each.  This is, on a sociological level, the purpose of religion.  Oh, and to any naysayers who assert they are truly without religion, I’m sorry, but an unwavering belief that science can explain all of the unexplainable, given enough time, is still a religion.  You are still putting “faith” in something that you have no real way of knowing if it’s right or not.  So, Nelson says “HA-ha!”

Anyway, so religion in SFF.  I’ll grant that it’s “truth in television” that religions have a habit of being population-controlling bastard organizations that are corrupt out the yin-yang and all that, but while you can argue that stereotypes are based in truth, I’ll argue right back that stereotypes are never completely true, and very often are not at all.  Now, I’m not saying that a story needs to have a religion where the deities are real and there is an epic struggle between heaven and hell or what have you, but it really adds and draws a reader into the world when you can have churches, etc, and characters opinions on religion without having to say one way or the other objectively about the religion itself.

And, personally, whenever I read a world where religion is a) one-dimensional “yes, it is good and awesome and rawr,” b) one-dimensional “they are all evil corrupt bastards except for a couple random parish-type priests, or c) completely non-existence except for some randomish “praise to the light” that everyone knows and is taught from parent to child but has no organized anything, it bugs me.

Actually, c) is what annoys me the most.  It is not happenstance that the majority of human society had not only religion, but a group of priests that actively taught and expanded the religious canon, usually (in the early stages) the elders who everyone thought knew everything because they had lived the longest.  And no, not all of these old codgers (or what have you) typically had some ulterior motive.  Go try and talk to a well-loved priest or minister in your neighborhood sometime and tell me if you think that person’s goal is not manipulate and control instead of offer answers and comfort.

So, yeah, to not include religion at all in your story, or to leave it as a one-dimensional stereotype, that is just sloppy, lazy writing.