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Hello people of the land of StoryEmbers!
I am primarily familiar with fantasy, and as I am branching out into sci-fi with my current WIP, I was wondering how I could make a God-figure within this genre? Do you have any tips?
We crazy people are the normal ones.
I can’t say I’ve thought a lot about God in Sci-fi. My only suggestion would probably be to just treat it like fantasy. If it’s in this universe, you could put Christianity into it, or you could do something totally new like in a fantasy world that still pointed toward God.
I’m tagging @rusted-knight because they might have something helpful.
"If I'm gonna break, I'll break like the dawn." -Nightbirde
Thanks! I’ve been thinking of doing something like that, but I was wondering if it was sci-fi legal, but I may just do it anyway.
We crazy people are the normal ones.
In my mind, putting a sci-fi story in this universe AND dealing with God is rather difficult, or at least gets a bit weird. If you have aliens, you have to think about what God’s plan is for them–did they fall? are they corrupted by sin? does Jesus save them too? I haven’t read C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, but I think it would be helpful for studying Christian sci-fi that takes place in this world.
If your story takes place in a completely different world, then I’d just treat it like Gracie said–like a fantasy world.
"Can't have dirty garbage."
Since my sci-fi is in another universe, then I think I’ll treat it like a fantasy. Do you think that there’s a specific type of God-figure I should go for? Or is it kind of a you-decide thing like in fantasy?
We crazy people are the normal ones.
I think it’s really up to you. Since sci-fi tends to be more secular than fantasy, I think putting any kind of god-figure in it would be interesting and unique. If you have different alien races, I’d definitely think about the god’s/gods’ plan for them and how they relate to the god(s), just like you would if you were writing fantasy.
"Can't have dirty garbage."
Thanks for the tip! I was definitely wondering if there was a different formula for that.
We crazy people are the normal ones.
Hey, so I have actually thought about this a little bit, even though I haven’t written any sci-fi.
Besides magic and the breadth of understanding, I feel the primary distinction between most sci-fi and fantasy, at its core, is exploring the differences and similarities between us and literal aliens. With that in mind, I think the place to start is to start with God’s character and creativity. In sci-fi, it is very common for aliens to have completely exotic forms of social structure or reproduction, for example. But these things all derive their inspiration from strange and wild things God created actually here on earth. While God created us very specifically and purposely, He also relates to us to where we are at. I think the special thing about sci-fi is it opens up the possibility to ask questions like: ‘how would God relate to a species with a literal hivemind or asexual reproduction? How would they view Him? If they are fallen, how would their fall be different from our own? If they aren’t fallen, how would they relate to us or how would God use them in relation to us?’.
I feel like this method gives you starting place to create species who’s religion looks and sounds as alien as they are, but is fundamentally based upon the same creator, preserving both God’s character and the sci-fi aesthetic. I would caution that it is easy to be drawn into weirdness when doing this, but at the end of the day, you can always pray and ask the big man himself 🙂
I haven’t read C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, but I think it would be helpful for studying Christian sci-fi that takes place in this world.
This.^^^^ I’ve read the first two books of that series and it helped a lot with figuring out how to write sci-fi involving alien races and the God of the Bible. It helped me think of how God interacts with different people on Earth and apply that idea to the universe. I haven’t read the last book (it’s the longest one), but I highly recommend the first two.
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- he who made the T-shirt
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