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    Lucas Ammons's Avatar
    Lucas Ammons Posts: 85, Reputation: 5
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    #1

    Nov 3, 2007, 08:10 PM
    Religion and Science Fiction
    The year is 3080, a war that has been going on since the satan was cast out of heaven still rages. The worshipers of the one true god, chirstians, muslims, jews, budditists etc. have forgotten their differences and united under one banner, the G.S.S. (Galactic Star Systems.) both human and alien.

    Against god's soldiers stands the followers of satan, known 666. The battle is heating up, the souls of countless beings hang in the balance.both sides are preparing to strike, who will deliver the first blow?

    Good plot?
    Kwinnky's Avatar
    Kwinnky Posts: 8, Reputation: 1
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    #2

    Nov 16, 2007, 12:46 PM
    The "one true God" part might seem strange when speaking of different religions coming together.
    In Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, one of the only religions was a combination of earth religious; they didn't refer to any God, but to "The Devine".
    NeedKarma's Avatar
    NeedKarma Posts: 10,635, Reputation: 1706
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    #3

    Nov 16, 2007, 12:48 PM
    A mash-up of Scientology and the Left Behind series. :D
    shygrneyzs's Avatar
    shygrneyzs Posts: 5,017, Reputation: 936
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    #4

    Nov 16, 2007, 01:06 PM
    Not a good plot, Lucas, but nice to see you back posting.
    Kwinnky's Avatar
    Kwinnky Posts: 8, Reputation: 1
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    #5

    Nov 16, 2007, 05:07 PM
    Maybe you should go the Babylon 5 route and simply use powerful aliens in the place of deities and demons.
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    Jigicou Posts: 33, Reputation: 3
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    #6

    Nov 18, 2007, 03:29 AM
    Its getting there but it would be a god idea to dicusse how that all religons have some simularities and diffrence and how people should look past it.
    Lucas Ammons's Avatar
    Lucas Ammons Posts: 85, Reputation: 5
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    #7

    Nov 19, 2007, 12:43 PM
    I WILL DO THAT in my story, don't worry! The complexity is deep. Time and research will be needed.
    Lucas Ammons's Avatar
    Lucas Ammons Posts: 85, Reputation: 5
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    #8

    Nov 22, 2007, 09:58 AM
    Quote Originally Posted by shygrneyzs
    Not a good plot, Lucas, but nice to see you back posting.
    Why not?
    shygrneyzs's Avatar
    shygrneyzs Posts: 5,017, Reputation: 936
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    #9

    Nov 22, 2007, 12:12 PM
    I say that, Lucas, because there is no conceivable way all the religions of the World will come to the one true God. But, this is science fiction, isn't it? Like soap operas, anything can happen. Just continue with you are doing and please yourself.
    Lucas Ammons's Avatar
    Lucas Ammons Posts: 85, Reputation: 5
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    #10

    Nov 22, 2007, 09:48 PM
    Way ahead of yeah. In my story earth is gone, destroyed by a asteroid impact. The surviors and there descendents see that as god's judgement was for not coming together sooner and fighting mankind's true enemy satan. I used to think that world peace would be unattainable ,and to a certain point, having pure happiness, and no violence it will not happen until the kingdom of god is established here on earth, we must do our best if we don't satan has won.
    He's crafty, making us think we know it all. Yet we know very little. Open your mind and heart. If you can change so can other people and vis versa.
    God grant you, wisdom.
    rodandy12's Avatar
    rodandy12 Posts: 227, Reputation: 24
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    #11

    Feb 11, 2008, 10:21 AM
    It sounds strange to me that a religion based on love is in a position to strike a preemptive blow against forces of evil. I a newbie and I haven't seen your previous posts. I don't know where you are coming from.

    If you work the love versus 'moral cost of war' angle, it could be interesting. If you are working the 'we are good because we aren't alien and we make it a religious issue to get everyone behind it' thing, then it has great possibility. It even has the ring of historical accuracy.

    You might want to look at the Sci-fi book "The Forever War." It is essentially about a war with aliens where we (humanity) struck the first blow without really knowing what the aliens were about. I don't remember a religious issue with it. Because of the required military training, galactic time and distance, the war was fought by only a few individuals. To get to the bad guys took hundreds of years in cold sleep, so the survivors were quite a bit behind society after a short time at war.

    The other Sci-fi book I would recommend is "The Draco Tavern," by Larry Niven. It is a book of short stories about aliens visiting earth and their views about humans.
    Synnen's Avatar
    Synnen Posts: 7,927, Reputation: 2443
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    #12

    Feb 11, 2008, 10:39 AM
    I guess my question would be this:

    How do ALL religions unite under ONE deity without EVERY religion getting lost in the process.

    For example--there are several religions out there that worship multiple deities. How in the world would that jive with religions that have "one true god"? What about prescribed religious practices (like--not eating beef or pork, or baptism, or circumcision, or social castes)?

    I would never be able to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the rest of the plot if you didn't have a REALLY good way of explaining how the religions all combined.
    rodandy12's Avatar
    rodandy12 Posts: 227, Reputation: 24
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    #13

    Feb 11, 2008, 11:49 AM
    Lucas didn't really say all religions, just the ones who believe in the god of the jews or don't really object to it (Buddhists). I figured that somehow the rest (~70% of the population) never made if off the planet and the jews who did were jews for Jesus?
    Synnen's Avatar
    Synnen Posts: 7,927, Reputation: 2443
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    #14

    Feb 11, 2008, 12:00 PM
    All right... even then...

    How do you reconcile "Jesus is the Saviour!" with "Jesus was a prophet" and either of those with "Jesus was a fraud, the true saviour hasn't been born yet"?

    Resolving just those 3 ideas WOULD end most of the strife and war in the world, but I just can't figure out HOW that would happen. Asking Jews to believe in Jesus, or Christians NOT to believe in Jesus seems like a pretty big problem to overcome, really.

    The story to me sounds like a bit of a couple stories, so it's enough of its own plot to have potential, but that ONE idea is such a sticking point, that an entirely new church would have to be involved, a la C.S. Friedman's "Coldfire" trilogy, and in that case, the original war wouldn't be between God and Satan necessarily, but still between good and evil.
    rodandy12's Avatar
    rodandy12 Posts: 227, Reputation: 24
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    #15

    Feb 11, 2008, 12:46 PM
    It could be resolved with something we don't seem to have much of these days... tolerance. But anyway...

    Another approach is the "outside threat". It is one thing for us to kill each other over who has the best imaginary friend, but when the threat comes from outside, it is a different matter. Like after 9/11 when for a few short weeks even Dems and Reps didn't hate each other... well, maybe the did, but they kept quite about it. Another example is Yugoslavia. Tito was mean enough to hold all the different ethnicities separate, but when he died, years of suppression resulted in a pretty serious blood bath.

    Many Sci-fi stories begin with a monumental change in human existence explained away in a couple of paragraphs or at most a chapter. Either that or the author takes the rest of the book to explain.

    And, sometimes impossible things happen. I remember when it was considered impossible that East and West Germany would reunite. How about the modern establishment of Israel?

    Fun stuff.
    rodandy12's Avatar
    rodandy12 Posts: 227, Reputation: 24
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    #16

    Feb 11, 2008, 12:53 PM
    That sounded a bit rough. I meant that one religion when looking at another does the "They don't have the right view, they have an imaginary friend." It's like US government budgetary pork. 49/50ths of it at a minimum is bad.

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