The Theology of Science-fiction: IV. End-Times

Armageddon in Revelation, from "Israel my Beloved" website

"Because SF primarily deals with the future, it must inevitably deal with the end of the world, and thus SF overlaps more closely with apocalyptic literature than with any other type of religious writing...[and] focuses on eschatology--ideas about 'the last days', the end of the world as we know it and the dawning of a radically new era." Gabriel McKee, The Gospel According to Science Fiction

 In this post, the fourth of the series, I'm going to focus on works for which the religious attitudes of two SF authors cover the range from atheist to true believer.   And as the quote above  suggests, we're talking about end-times--the Apocalypse, Armageddon, the Ball is Over.    For the SF author, this can mean the end of the world--earth--the end of the Universe, or the end of everything  (from Creatio ex nihilo to Annihilatio ad nihilum).

There are a host of stories dealing with end-times, ranging from post atomic-war destruction of civilization, destruction of earth by collision with asteroids,  alien take-overs of the world, or the final end  of the Universe.   Rather than giving a catalog of these, I'm going to discuss two classics that span religious attitudes, from atheist to Catholic faithful.  Surveys of SF apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic works are given in the References*.

END-TIMES WITHOUT GOD--"CHILDHOOD'S END"

An Overlord, from Infinispace.net

Childhood's End, the classic by Arthur C. Clarke, is a story about a benevolent take-over of earth by aliens ("the Overlords") who look like the common image of the devil--horns, wings, tail and all that.  The Overlords institute a benevolent dictatorship, eliminating nuclear fission and other explosive missiles, want and crime.  “Utopia was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of all Utopias—boredom.”

However, it was not to give mankind Utopia that the Overlords came to Earth.    Rather, they were acting as nannies for a new humankind, and to prevent mankind from destroying itself until that new man emerged.  That new, improved species was to be derived from the children of the generation visited by the Overlords.  They would be endowed with supernatural psychic powers, and after developing these powers during a maturation period on earth, would join with the Supermind that had desired this change.    They would leave earth in a pillar of fire and as they left, destroy their birthplace:

“There was nothing left of Earth. They had leeched away the last atoms of its substance. It had nourished them, through the fierce moments of their inconceivable metamorphosis, as the food stored in a grain of wheat feeds the infant plant while it climbs towards the Sun.”  Childhood's End.

Now, there is nothing of God in this, unless you equate the Supermind, which is composed of the composite minds of many species. to God.  The origin  and precise nature of the Supermind is not discussed in the story, but then of course if it is a supermind, what  can our poor intelligence make of it.   Clarke's bias against theism is revealed early on in the book by the remarks of one of his characters:

“Science is the only religion of mankind.”     and
“Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the nonexistence of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now.” Childhood's End

Given Clarke's proposal that psychic powers, supermind and all such stuff, constitute the next step in evolution, one wonders how seriously to take the dicta in the quotes above.    Much more faith is required to believe in supernatural psychic powers than to believe in God and His only begotten Son.   But, as G.K. Chesterton aptly put it:

"It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense." G.K. Chesterton, Fr. Brown in  The Oracle of the Dog

and

"You hard-shelled materialists were all balanced on the very edge of belief — of belief in almost anything."G.K. Chesterton, Fr. Brown in The Miracle of Moon Crescent

(Those are the quotes that gave rise to the saying, attributed to Chesterton by mistake:

 "When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything."  American Chesterton Society.)

Now it seems in the critique above, I have given short shrift to "Childhood's End".   That was not my intention.   Fifty-five years ago when I first read it, I was moved.   Today on re-reading it (after my conversion) I find it unsatisfying and shallow as an aid to appreciate the meaning of end-times.

ATOMIC WAR, APOCALYPSE AND THE CHURCH--"A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ" 

First Edition Dust Jacket,
by George Sottung

Beloved of both SF fans and non-SF fans, is the classic "A Canticle for Leibowitz", a book which has sold over a million copies and is still in print.
Preparing for this post, I reread it;  the message of the book is still fresh and moving.    Rather than summarize the plot (go to the link above for that), I want to expound on that message.  (Better yet, read the free pdf download of the book, or buy it--you'll want to reread it.)

The story takes places in three historical periods:

• Fiat Homo (Let there be Man):  The first period is in the 26th century, several hundred years after the "Flame Deluge", an atomic war that destroys civilization and engenders a host of monstrous mutant births.  The populace, calling themselves "Simpletons", have risen up against the establishment--killing scientists, academics, government officials--and against the learning that led to this catastrophe.   Books are burnt, technological devices destroyed in the rage of the survivors.    An order of monks had been founded some years earlier by a Jewish convert to Catholicism,  Leibowitz, who had been an atomic weapons scientist.   The special mission of the monks was  to save the remnants of learning;  each monk is to be a "booklegger", carrying books in a bindle-stiff to a place of safety.   Leibowitz himself was martyred, burnt with his books.
• Fiat Lux  (Let there be Light): The second period is 500 years later.   The rebirth of science takes place, partially in the Abbey of St. Leibowitz (he has been canonized by the Pope in New Rome).    A monk of the  Leibowitzian order invents a human-powered dynamo to power an arc light, illustrating the new theories of a theoretical genius, a  royal bastard (the kingdom is Texarkana).     Tensions between the Church and the state rise again, as in the past.
• Fiat Voluntas Tua (Thy Will be Done): The third period is some 600 years later.   Science and technology have risen again:  atomic weapons, interstellar travel (with a few colonies), computers, automated roads are here, to the consternation of the Abbot of the St. Leibowitz monastery.  State and Church have reached an accommodation, much as today--most of the populace are unbelievers or Catholic in name only.    There is tension between the two superpowers, the Asian Coalition and the Atlantic Confederacy.   The tension grows into an atomic war;  even greater destruction is wrought than in the preceding flame deluge, but a contingent of the Order of St. Leibowitz carries civilization and the Church to the stars, to the new colonies.

All the above is bare bones, dry as dust, and conveys little of the power and beauty of the book.  I'm going to try to do that with some selected quotes and context.  (For a fuller exposition of the plot, again, please refer to the linked article.)

Fiat Homo:  Brother Francis falls into the uncovered remains of a fallout shelter, containing relics of Saint Leibowitz, is terrified and prays a litany for salvation from the Flame Deluge:

"A spiritu fomicationis,

Domine, hibera nos.

From the lightning and the tempest,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the scourge of the earthquake,

O Lord, deliver us.

From plague, famine, and war,

O Lord, deliver us.

"From the place of ground zero,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the rain of the cobalt,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the rain of the strontium,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the fall of the cesium,

O Lord, deliver us.

"From the curse of the Fallout,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the begetting of monsters,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the curse of the Misborn,

O Lord, deliver us.

A morte perpetua,

Domine, libera nos.

"Peccatores,

te rogamus, audi nos.

That thou wouldst spare us,

we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst pardon us,

we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst bring us truly to penance,

te rogamus, audi nos."  p. 16 (Bantam Edition).

Fiat Lux Brother Kornhoer has invented a dynamo and electric arc lamp, amazing the great scientist Thon Taddeo (repeat of Galileo or Newton?) who has come to investigate the Leibowitz memorabilia.    A discourse on scientific achievements of the past and the preservation of knowledge by the Church follows.

"Now a Dark Age seemed to be passing. For twelve centuries, a small flameof knowledge had been kept smoldering in the monasteries; only now were there minds ready to be kindled. Long ago, during the last age of reason, certain proud thinkers had claimed that valid knowledge was indestructible--that ideas were deathless and truth immortal. But that was true only in the subtlest sense, the abbot thought, and not superficially true at all. There was objective meaning in the world, to be sure: the nonmoral logos or design of the Creator; but such meanings were God's and not Man's, until they found an imperfect incarnation, a dark reflection, within the mind and speech and culture of a given human society, which might ascribe values to the meanings so that they became valid in a human sense within the culture. For Man was a culture-bearer as well as a soul-bearer, but his cultures were not immortal and they could die with a race or an age, and then human reflections of meaning and human portrayals of truth receded, and truth and meaning resided, unseen, only in the objective logos of Nature and the ineffable Logos of God. [emphasis added] Truth could be crucified; but soon, perhaps, a resurrection."  p. 133, ibid.

And so the age of science begins again  and again, the Church is the wet-nurse of the new "logos of nature".

Fiat Voluntas Tua  The Church has had an interstellar vehicle of its own ready for missionary work to the interstellar colonies and, with nuclear annihilation threatening within a short time, decides to send  two Bishops and a group from the Leibowitz Abbey--priests, brothers, sisters, civilians and children--to the Centauran colony.  (The Bishops are sent to  maintain apostolic succession.)  The Abbot, Fr. Zerchi, speaks to the group:'

" 'You will be years in space. The ship will be your monastery. After the
patriarchal see is established at the Centaurus Colony, you will establish there
a mother house of the Visitationist Friars of the Order of Saint Leibowitz of
Tycho. But the ship will remain in your hands, and the Memorabilia. If
civilization, or a vestige of it, can maintain itself on Centaurus, you will
send missions to the other colony worlds, and perhaps eventually to the colonies
of their colonies. Wherever Man goes, you and your successors will go. And with
you, the records and remembrances of four thousand years and more. Some of you,
or those to come after you, will be mendicants and wanderers, teaching the
chronicles of Earth and the canticles of the Crucified to the peoples and the
cultures that may grow out of the colony groups. For some may forget. Some may
be lost for a time from the Faith. Teach them, and receive into the Order those
among them who are called. Pass on to them the continuity. Be for Man the memory
of Earth and Origin. Remember this Earth. Never forget her, but-- never come
back.'  Zerchi's voice went hoarse and low. 'If you ever come back, you might
meet the Archangel at the east end of Earth, guarding her passes with a sword of
flame. I feel it. Space is your home hereafter. It's a lonelier desert than
ours. God bless you, and pray for us.' "  p. 269, ibid.

Brother Joshua, after much soul-searching decided to accept the invitation to be the Abbott for the Visitationist Friars and be ordained a priest.   He climbs into the spaceship as nuclear bombs are falling to the east,  slaps his sandals together, shaking the dust from them [see Matt 10:14] and whispers "sic transit gloria mundi" .

I wish that the sequel, the story of the interstellar mission, had been written...and, were I thirty years younger, I would try to do so myself.

REFERENCES

Wikipedia article on SF Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic SF

The Gospel according to Science Fiction (Chapter 10, "The Last Days [and After]). Gabriel McKee.

*One very fine apocalyptic SF novel by Nancy Kress, "After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall", was published after these references;  it deals with destruction of civilization by aliens and the attempted recovery.

The Death of Christianity

Again, in bringing important posts (not my own) to the attention of readers I'll note an important article by Trevor Thomas in the American Thinker, How to Kill Christianity.   And who will attend the wake, I wonder?

The Theology of Science Fiction: III. Does Data have a soul?

Asimov's Robots, from
"I Robot--Runaround"

 Theological Objection “Thinking is a function of man’s immortal soul. God has given an immortal soul to every man and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Hence no animal or machine can think."

  Rebuttal to Objection “It appears to me that [The Theological Objection] implies a serious restriction of  the omnipotence of the Almighty. It is admitted that there are certain things that He cannot do such as making one equal two, but should we not believe that He has freedom to confer a soul on an elephant if He sees fit? We might expect that  He would only exercise this power in conjunction with a mutation which provided the elephant with an appropriately improved brain to minister to the needs of this soul.” Alan Turing,  Computing Machinery and Intelligence.

“Never tell a child,” said George Macdonald, ‘you have a soul. Teach him, you are a soul; you have a body."  See Mere Orthodoxy

Let's start off on a light note.   A long time ago when computers were still new (yes, it was that long ago), when I was at my first academic assignment, the head of the division dealing with computers gave a talk on artificial intelligence for computers.   One of the humanities faculty in the audience put a question after the talk "Would you want your daughter to marry one[i.e. a computer]?".   Legend has it (I wasn't there) that he answered "Yes, if she loved him".

When we inquire about the souls of computers/robots we assume that computers/robots have a mind/self-awareness/consciousness.   That some sort of programmed intelligence can be conscious (self-aware) is a hotly debated proposition.   A book would be required  (many have been written) to explore this notion.   We don't want to write that book here, so let's suppose,  as do SF authors, that consciousness is possible by some means or another for computers and robots and see what SF has to say about them having souls.*

 I WANT TO BE A COMPUTER WHEN I DIE

As a transition to considering machine intelligence, let's examine how SF treats the transfer of human intelligence/personality into computers or robots.  Note that one theoretical physicist, Frank Tipler, in his book, "The Physics of Christianity",  posits  that heaven will consist of personalities transferred to software  as the universe reaches its end in an "Omega Point'  singularity.  Since it is a black hole type singularity, time is slowed down and the intelligences transferred to software thus have essentially an eternity to enjoy their virtual life.

Among the many SF stories that deal with transferred human intelligence, there is one that especially focuses on the question of soulhood, Deus X, by Norman Spinrad.   Spinrad treats the question with respect, although his attitude to the Catholic Church is somewhat less than reverent (there is a female Pope, Mary I).    Below is a summary of the plot,  as given in McKee's excellent survey, The Gospel According to Science-Fiction:

"...thousands of people exist in an artificial afterlife called 'Transcorporeal Immortality', having copied their consciousness onto a worldwide computer network called 'The Big Board'....Catholic theologian Fr. Philippe de Leone argue[s] that this creation of an artificial soul, which cannot have true self-awareness, dooms the actual soul that is copied to damnation.   Pope Mary I, hoping to settle the controversy, orders Fr. DeLeone to have his soul copied upon his death, so that his consciousness can argue against its own autonomous existence from the other side."   as quoted in The Gospel According to Science Fiction. p.43

Superficially, Pope Mary's plan seems to contain a paradox.   If the downloaded Fr. de Leone changes "his" mind and says "yes, I am a real soul", how can we trust what an artificial soul might say?   The solution to the paradox is that all of Fr. de Leone's beliefs have been downloaded to his program.   If these beliefs are changed, it means that the entity in the computer has free will, and is thus autonomous and a real soul.     In the story Fr. DeLeone's soul is "kidnapped" (how do you kidnap a program?) by a group of downloaded personalities that wants to convince the Church, via Fr. de Leone's download, that they have a real soul. As McKee points out in his synopsis, there is a reverse Turing Test applied here.  Fr. de Leone does change his mind, the downloaded personalities declare him a deity ("Deus X") and a new controversy arises:  Church officials declare how could this blasphemy come about.   To still the controversy, Fr. de Leone sacrifices his downloaded personality (dies), Pope Mary declares him a saint and recognizes that the downloaded souls are "real".

THE CHURCH AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE--"GOOD NEWS FROM THE VATICAN"

There are many SF works in which the Catholic Church plays a role.    In some, the Church and its teachings are treated with respect;  in most, not so much.   As Gabriel McKee points out in The Gospel According to Science Fiction

"SF, arising as it does from the secular humanism of the Enlightenment, is critical of religious institutions.   SF frequently argues that if organized religion is to be a positive force in the future of humankind, it must change drastically to meet the spiritual challenges of the future." Gabriel McKee, op.cit., p. 183

One such drastic change is envisaged by Robert Silverberg in his story Good News from the Vatican.
In his story there are robot priests and robot high Church officials.    One such, a robot Cardinal, is elected Pope after a deadlock between two human cardinals.   The story ends with  the newly elected robot pontiff rising into the air from the balcony before the assembled masses in St. Peter's Square  and, as he goes up

"...his shadow extends across the whole piazza.   Higher and higher he goes until he is lost to sight." Robert Silverberg, Good News from the Vatican.

Does Silverberg, with a sense of irony--the shadow cast over the piazza, and  the Pope lost from sight--predict the eclipse of humanity and human values?   Or am I reading too much into this ending?

A more sympathetic view of how the Church might interact with artificial intelligence is given in Jack McDevitt's fine story, "Gus"**. In this beautiful tale, the newly installed rector of a Catholic Seminary interacts with a computer simulation of St. Augustine of Hippo, purchased (the simulation, that is) to help students understand St. Augustine's teachings. The Rector, Msgr. Chesley, is at first greatly displeased with Gus's (the program's) dicta:

" 'The thing must have been programmed by Unitarians' Chesley threw over his shoulder. 'Get rid of it'" "Gus" in Cryptics, p. 373.

The relationship between Chesley and Gus becomes warmer with time, as they discuss the problems of being a Catholic in today's world:

“ 'Why did Augustine become a priest?'   Chesley asked.  

'I wanted,' Gus said, with the slightest stress on the first words, 'to get as close as I could to my Creator.'  Thoughtfully, he added, 'I seem to have traveled far afield.'  

'Sometimes I think,'  Chesley said, 'the Creator hides himself too well.'

'Use his Church,' said Gus. 'That is why it is here.'

'It has changed.'

“Of course it has changed. The world has changed.'

'The Church is supposed to be a rock.'

'Think of it rather as a refuge in a world that will not stand still.' " op. cit., p. 382,

Gus's sayings to the students become so unorthodox (he decries the doctrines/dogma of the infallibility of the Pope and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) that other faculty decided he should be downloaded to storage and traded in for a computer simulation of Thomas Aquinas (plus business software).    Gus asks Msgr. Chesley to hear his Confession and then destroy him, so he can have peace:

" 'I require absolution, Matt.'

Chesley pressed his right hand into his pocket. 'It would be sacrilege,' he whispered.

'And if I have a soul, Matt, if I too am required to face judgment,what then?'

Chesley raised his right hand, slowly, and drew the sign of the cross in the thick air. 'I absolve you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.'

'Thank you...There’s something else I need you to do, Matt. This existence holds nothing for me. But I am not sure what downloading might mean.'

'What are you asking?”

'I want to be free of all this. I want to be certain I do not spend a substantial fraction of eternity in the storeroom.'

Chesley trembled. 'If in fact you have an immortal soul,' he said, 'you may be placing it in grave danger.'

'And yours as well. I have no choice but to ask. Let us rely on the mercy of the Almighty.'

Tears squeezed into Chesley’s eyes. He drew his finger- tips across the hard casing of the IBM. 'What do I do? I’m not familiar with the equipment.'

'Have you got the right computer?'

'Yes.'

'Take it apart. Turn off the power first. All you have to do is get into it and destroy the hard disk.'

'Will you—feel anything?'

'Nothing physical touches me, Matt.'

Chesley found the power switch...He found a hammer and a Phillips screwdriver. He used the screwdriver to take the top off the computer.    A gray metal box lay within. He opened it and removed a gleaming black plastic disk. He embraced it, held it to his chest. Then he set it down, and reached for the hammer.  In the morning, with appropriate ceremony, he buried it in consecrated soil."  op.cit., pp.388-389

Even though I am moved to tears when I read this, do I believe that a computer program will have a personality, a soul?    Not likely***.

DOES DATA HAVE A SOUL? 

This will go somewhat afield.   Given the title of this post, it is required that an inquiry into Data's soul be addressed.   (For those who aren't Trekkies, Data is the android navigator in the second Star Trek series, Star Trek: the Next Generation.   He aspires to humanity and sometimes reaches and even surpasses that state.)    There is a problem, however, in that whether Data has a soul is never considered in any of the episodes, possibly because the word "soul" (not in reference to music) is anathema to writers and producers of popular entertainment.    So in the episode, "The Measure of a Man", the question "Is Data a sentient being" is asked, rather than "Does Data have a soul".

The question is addressed in a trial, to see if Data, as a "sentient being", has the right to refuse to be disassembled for study and refitting.    Captain Picard acts in Data's behalf and Commander Riker, under duress, as the prosecutor.    Riker attempts to demonstrate that Data is a machine by switching him off:

"[Riker is doing his duty in the courtroom]
Commander William T. Riker: The Commander is a physical representation of a dream - an idea, conceived of by the mind of a man. Its purpose: to serve human needs and interests. It's a collection of neural nets and heuristic algorithms; its responses dictated by an elaborate software written by a man, its hardware built by a man. And now... and now a man will shut it off.[Riker switches off Data, who slumps forward like a lifeless puppet]
Commander William T. Riker: Pinocchio is broken. Its strings have been cut." The Measure of a Man, Quotes.

Captain Picard gives a stirring defense, arguing that the question of whether Data is conscious--self-aware--has not and can not be settled, any more than whether one can be certain that another person is conscious except by external behavior.     And finally the question of soulhood is addressed minimally:

"Captain Phillipa Louvois [The Judge]: It sits there looking at me; and I don't know what it is. This case has dealt with metaphysics - with questions best left to saints and philosophers. I am neither competent nor qualified to answer those. But I've got to make a ruling, to try to speak to the future. Is Data a machine? Yes. Is he the property of Starfleet? No. We have all been dancing around the basic issue: does Data have a soul?[emphasis added] I don't know that he has. I don't know that I have. But I have got to give him the freedom to explore that question himself. It is the ruling of this court that Lieutenant Commander Data has the freedom to choose." [notice the shift from "it" to "he"]  ibid.

And so Data is left free, and the question of whether he has a soul, undetermined--as in the Scottish verdict, "Not Proven".

MORE TO COME 

In the fourth (and hopefully the final) post of this series, I'll explore end-times, the Eschaton.

REFERENCES

see the first post in this series

*Along with Roger Penrose and John Searle, I don't believe that consciousness is a product of algorithmic processes, i.e. that the brain is a meat computer. But that's a post for another day.

**Scroll down to #1, "Gus".

***As always, I asked my wife to review this post before publishing.  I asked her whether she was moved by the story of Gus.  She replied, "If it were St. Augustine on his death-bed talking to his confessor, yes;  but a black plastic disc--never!"

The State of the Catholic Church Today--Celibacy and the Married State

I'm going to continue to post short articles that promote other works that I consider significant.

One such,  linked by Ramesh Ponnuru in The Corner (National Review Online) is in First Things, is an article by Patricia Snow, Dismantling the Cross--A Call for Renewed Emphasis on the Celibate Vocation.      Snow takes her thesis from the state of Catholic life today and from many literary works on the Catholic religious life, ranging from Willa Cather to Dan Brown

It looks on our present situation sadly with respect to the situation of the priesthood and religious life, but is guardedly optimistic about the future.


Read, ponder, spread the word.

The Theology of Science-Fiction: II Paradise Not Lost?

Yoda, does he have a soul?

"If there are many planets inhabited by sentient creatures, as most astronomers (including Jesuits), now suspect, then `each one of such planets (solar or non-solar)' must fall into one of three categories:

(a) Inhabited by sentient creatures, but without souls; so to be treated with compassion but extra-evangelically.

(b) Inhabited by sentient creatures with fallen souls, through an original but not inevitable ancestral sin; so to be evangelized with urgent missionary charity.

(c) Inhabited by sentient soul-endowed creatures that have not fallen, who therefore

• (1) inhabit an unfallen, sinless paradisal world;
• (2) who therefore we must contact not to propagandize, but in order that we may learn from them the conditions (about which we can only speculate) of creatures living in perpetual grace, endowed with all the virtues in perfection, and both immortal and in complete happiness for always possessed of and with the knowledge of God.' "  James Blish, quoting Gerald Heard, from David Ketterer's Covering 'A Case of Conscience'

WHO HAS A SOUL?

The quote above outlines what SF might say about the theological state of non-human intelligent life, but it leaves questions to be answered.    Certainly one would not try to convert Deep Blue, the computer that beat Gary Kasparov in chess, nor would one (I hope) send a missionary to the local S.P.C.A.     What then is the requirement that one be fallen, saved or in a state of grace?   The quote distinguishes between intelligent life with and without souls ("sentient creatures, but without souls").     But what, when it comes down to it, are the hallmarks of having a soul?  

I'm going to use some quotes from an earlier post, "Would Yoda have a Soul?" that explore this question.

"The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual...soul refers to the innermost aspect of man, that by which he is most specially in God's image:  'soul' signifies the spiritual principle in man...it is because of the spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes  a living, human body;  spirit and body in man are not two natures united but rather their union forms a single nature."  Catechism of the Catholic Church, excerpted from paragraphs 362, 363, 365.

Now that is a complete statement, but it doesn't make the properties of a soul explicit.   What do these properties entail--belief in a deity?   a moral/ethical code?   wonder about the meaning of it all?   As Brother Guy Consulagmo, a Vatican astronomer, put it when discussing alien life:

 "Going back to the Middle Ages, the definition of a soul is to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love or not to love, freedom to make decisions..." 

And here's what C.S. Lewis has to say:

 "By this (rational souls) I include not merely the faculty to abstract and calculate, but the apprehension of values, the power to mean by 'good' something more than 'good for me' or even 'good for my species'." (from Religion and Rocketry in The World's Last Night)

Finally, what about souls for non-biological entities--computers, robots, biological intelligence implanted into brains?   I'll deal with that issue in the next post on this topic.

As we'll see below,  SF has treated all these categories

PARADISE NOT LOST

Let's start with C.S. Lewis's magnificent "Space Trilogy" (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength).   I won't attempt to reprise the plot or characters (go to the link), but rather focus on the elements that display Lewis's theological construct for his SF universe: a pyramidal theological structure of deity and creatures that seems to be a mixture of mythology and Christianity, as depicted below:

•  GOD (Maledil, and his son--the son of Maledil on Thulcandra--and the Third)
•  Oyarsa  (archangels,  Lords of each planet)
•  Eldila (angels, immaterial beings) 
•  hnau (rational, mortal, material beings)

The Oyarsa, lords of each planet, are very much like the gods of the ancient Pantheon.   The Oyarsa of Mars is masculine (but not male), of Venus feminine (but not female), of Jupiter, multigendered, ...[I call to mind Gustav Holst's "The Planets].   

On earth (Thulcandra) the "bent" Oyarsa, Satan, has fought God and tempted the first humans to disobey God; thus comes The  Fall--Thulcandra becomes the "silent planet", interdicted from relations with all the others and humans become, like Satan, "bent".   

On Mars (Malacandra) there are three intelligent species (hnau)*:   the Sorns (Seroni), who are the philosopher/scientists;  the Hrossa, who are the poet/musician/story-tellers;  the Pfifitiggri, the artisan/engineers.     All three species live together in peace, supplying talents and services that are missing in their own species.  They have a common language and a common theology, believing in Eldila (who are present to them), the Oyarsa of Mars, and the supreme being, Maledil.     They believe in an ordered existence, the rule of God (Maledil) and have no fear of death;  they know when they will die and that they will be transported to a Heaven in outer space.   The quotes below give a better account than mine:   

"And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one year to come back--if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation and memory and that these are that day?”  said by a Hrossa,  talking about death.

  “They cannot help it,' said the old sorn. 'There must be rule, yet how can creatures rule themselves? Beasts must be ruled by hnau and hnau by eldila and eldila by Maledldil. These creatures have no eldila. They are like one trying to lift himself by his own hair-or one trying to see over a while country when he is on a level with it-like a female trying to beget young on herself.”   said by a Sorn, talking about the state of Hmans (humans).  

The hnau of Malacandra were tempted by Satan, but the temptation was overcome by the Oyarsa of Malacandra:

 "Many thousands of thousand years before this, when nothing yet lived on your world, the cold death was coming on my harandra. Then I was in deep trouble, not chiefly for the death of my hnau - Maleldil does not make them long-livers -but for the things which the lord of your world, who was not yet bound, put into their minds. He would have made them as your people are now - wise enough to see the death of their kind approaching but not wise enough to endure it. [emphasis added] Bent counsels would soon have risen among them. They were well able to have made sky-ships. By me Maleldil stopped them." said by the Oyarsa to the scientist, Weston (the villain)

 "Yes," said Oyarsa, "but one thing we left behind us on the harandra: fear. And with fear, murder and rebellion. The weakest of my people does not fear death. It is the Bent One, the lord of your world, who wastes your lives and befouls them with flying from what you know will overtake you in the end. If you were subjects of Maleldil you would have peace. "  said by the Oyarsa in reply to Weston's comment that they (the Malacandrian hnau) will all die soon. 

Perelandra (Venus) is the Garden of Eden before the fall.   There is a wealth of plant and animal species inhabiting the sea and floating islands, and over them a humanoid queen and king (albeit green).   As in the Garden of Eden, God (Maledil) gives them a paradise but also a prohibition: they may not stay overnight on the one fixed bit of Perelandrian land.   Satan sends Weston, possessed by a demon, to tempt the queen to violate the prohibition.  Weston is overcome by the agent, Ransom, sent by Maledil to prevent the Fall.  After this, there is a glorious dance by the Queen, King and all the fauna and flora of Perelandra to celebrate the coming of a true paradise,     Here's the crucial theological issue: doing what God wills is not only good for us, but also shows our love for Him.  Thus, disobedience in what might seem a small matter--staying overnight on the fixed land, despite His prohibition--is not a small matter, because we thus attempt to assert our better knowledge of how we should act.  Ransom (the hero), trying to dissuade the queen from Weston's temptation, argues why God should be obeyed:

 "I think He made one law of that kind in order that there might be obedience. In all these other matters what you call obeying Him is but doing what seems good in your eyes also. Is love content with that? You do them, indeed, because they are His will, but not only because they are His will. Where can you taste the joy of obeying unless He bids you do something for which His bidding is the only reason?” Perelandra, p. 59

In summary, the first two books of Lewis's Space Trilogy stress:

• the rule of God gives us what is good;
• before the fall we would know when we would die, but that we would also know that heaven awaits us, so that "Death has lost its sting";
• we show our love for God by obedience to his commands.

OTHER VISIONS

C.S. lewis's vision  is that of c) in the beginning quote, "inhabited by sentient soul-endowed creatures that have not fallen".    What about a) "sentient creatures, but without souls" and b) "sentient creatures with fallen souls"?    I'll discuss the SF examples of these briefly, because I don't think they make the strong  theological points of the Space Trilogy.

In category a is "A Case of Conscience",  by James Blish.  For plot and further commentary by Br. Guy Consolmagno,  the Vatican Astronomer, please use the link.  It deals with Lithians, a reptilian species who behave according to an inborn, "hardwired" ethical system,  but who have no religious beliefs.   They are visited by a team of scientists, including a Jesuit missionary (whence the judgment of Lithian ethics), The missionary concludes that the Lithians are the work of Satan, created as a convincing argument that belief in God is not necessary in order to behave ethically, as humanists and atheists propose.  Can one imagine intelligent, self-aware beings not wondering about the purpose of their lives, how everything came to be,  putting forth the "why" questions?   Thus the basic premise of the novel does not seem very plausible to me.   And perhaps the injunction given in the beginning quote, "to be treated with compassion, but extra-evangelically", might have been the better course (although destructive of the novel's plot).

In category b are "The Sparrow" and "Children of God", by Mary Doria Russell.   It deals with the interactions of a Jesuit priest (again the Jesuits!) with two alien species who are sentient, but with a faulty moral code.   Critics have argued that the works deal with "faith under fire".  That may be so, but there are no good theological arguments put forth.    Indeed, the Jesuit missionary loses his faith after being tortured and sexually abused by the dominant species; there is no vision of redemption or suffering for Christ.    

There are other instances of alien intelligences adapting or transforming the Christian religion and interacting with the Church, given in references for Part I of this series.   Most have a strongly anti-religious bias.  An extreme example is that given by George R.R. Martin in "The Way of Cross and Dragon".   A huge cephalopod is an Archbishop of the transformed Church, "The One True Interstellar Catholic Church of Earth and the Thousand Worlds", who sends an Inquisitor out to determine whether a cult promoting the "Gospel According to Judas Iscariot" is heretical.    The tone of the short story is anti-religious--the Inquisitor is successful in prosecuting the heresy but loses his faith, becoming convinced that he is the Prince of Liars.

MORE TO COME

The next in this series will deal with: can computers, robots and implanted intelligences have souls?
If yes, what then?

*Images of the creatures in the Space Trilogy can be seen in the following links:
Hrossa, Pfifitriggi, Sorns (Seroni)

For References, please see Part I of this Series