{original post unavailable}

One doesn't have to believe in the existence of something to
write about it effectively...there aren't really Minbari or Vorlons,
y'know...you just decide to write about it as though it were a True
Thing. And that's about how I approach religious characters. As a
writer, you can choose to be honest in your characterization, or you
can use the medium for propaganda and the advancement of personal
agendas. The latter holds no appeal for me.

jms

{original post unavailable}

I commend C.S. Lewis to you as a writer first, and a theologian
second. As a writer, he does some nifty stuff...the Screwtape Letters
alone is worth his having walked among us. The Perelandra (sp?)
books...are okay, but a bit dry sometimes. His strength was in more
fantasy than SF. As a theological writer, he had a tendency to set up
straw man arguments a bit too often and too easily for my tastes, but
he's certainly worth the read.

jms

Rob Carr <73200.2754@compuserve.com> asks:
> Yeah, but how come you do so much better a job than those that
> do? There...there AREN'T?
> You mean, B5 isn't real life?

Never took it *as* criticism....

To the question of why more folks don't do it, or as much or "as
well" (the last in that list being subjective and self-serving for me
to repeat), I think a large part of the problem may be that very often,
if you deal with religion in TV, ten gazillion pressure groups from
either side of the political spectrum jump up and down on your head
until it's reduced to guava jelly. So folks get very tentative about
the area.

Me, I've been on computer nets for 12 years, I'm used to people
jumping up on down on my head until it turns into guava jelly...no big.

jms

{original post unavailable}

Yes, but almost always in terms of *alien* religions. ST
frequently addresses religious issues, and yes, mostly in a negative
light...but when was the last time you saw this about a human religion?
See, that's the easy out. You can say whatever you want about the
stupid religious beliefs of the blue-furred Erzani of Cromethiom
Nine...take a shot at the Pope, and you get letters.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Good point.

It can sometimes be annoying...I know there was a fan meeting
of a certain group in the UK at one convention last year where they
insisted, in NO uncertain terms, that my statement about being an
atheist was just a cover, and that I was in fact a religious person
using that as a blind so I could get my views across.

Language is a precise thing; if you do not say what you mean,
you can never mean what you say. What I stated in this regard is the
simple truth. Anybody who can't handle that...should just have a little
faith.

jms

{original post had no questions}

Also, I think we're sufficiently low-profile that they just
haven't noticed us yet....

jms

{original post unavailable}

"Roddenberry was an athiest and very anti-religious."

And therein lay the key. One can be an atheist for oneself, and
not anti-religious when it comes to others. The two need not go hand
in hand.

jms

{original post had no questions}

"...he preaches all day on why religion should be eliminated, his
future goals of ruling the world and wiping out such religion, and not
only that, but arts as well, thinking they are "useless"."

Mr. Stalin, meet Mr. Hitler. Mr. Hitler, meet Mr. Stalin.

"his future goal of ruling the world"

First though he has to stop living in his mom's basement and
collecting balls of string and wrapping aluminum foil around his head
to keep out the Martian death rays....

jms

{original post had no questions}

Thanks. I think in that kind of situation you have to deal in
the straight emotions of the belief, the honest feelings of those
involved, and how they view their lives, and that will keep you on the
heart's true magnetic north...when you diverge into the more doctrinal
stuff, you will always go astray.

jms