Never let it be said that I missed an opportunity to talk about science fiction here at TC. The TheoFantastique blog has a great interview with James McGrath, sci-fi fan and Professor of Religion at Butler University, about how and why religion crops up in science fiction.

I like McGrath’s use of Star Trek to illustrate the changing treatment of religion in sci-fi over the years: compare the original Star Trek’s very modern, non-superstitious outlook with Deep Space 9’s awkwardly earnest inclusion of religious belief and ritual everywhere you look, and you get a good picture of the emergence of postmodernism in sci-fi. And the trend toward making religion a key component of sci-fi storytelling is clearly continuing, as seen in Battlestar Galactica and Lost.

While you’re at TheoFantastique, take a look at some of the other posts—there are quite a few good ones, like this recent post on the curious interaction between religion and popular culture, and the resulting “hyper-real” religions.