I'm reminded of a Mark Twain thing, "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven", where beings from other planets show up in Christian Heaven. There is a brief summary on Wikipedia.
I've read some sic-fi based on that idea....of missionaries going to convert other worlds. I disliked it for many reasons, the biggest of which is, since I don't even like missionaries on THIS world; I'd sure like them to leave other planets alone.
Course, I get kind of a giggle out of the reverse idea---aliens coming here and telling us earthlings about THEIR gods. Can you just see the fundy heads exploding?
No, tho' I might have read that one....I know I read Blish I was recalling the only book I ever tore in half with my bare hands and flung across the room: The Sparrow. It wasn't the plot so much as the interview at the end, wherein, after discussing her tortured protagonist--a Jesuit priest, she laughs when asked if he will have a better time of it in the planned sequel, and says "Oh, no, God isn't done with him yet."
The idea (1) of endangering men in alien cultures by trying to convert folks to an earth religion, and (2) that the entasked missionaries could be horribly broken and tormented and that a thereby TORTUROUS GOD was responsible was so horrifying to me that I almost got physically ill.
My favorite part of that duology was the conversation about why he's not an atheist: "If I believe that there is no God, then I have no one to blame but myself. If, however, I choose to believe that God is vicious, then at least I have the satisfaction of hating God." Which neatly sums up the cosmology behind the plot of both novels.
>> I disliked it for many reasons, the biggest of which is, since I don't even like missionaries on THIS world; I'd sure like them to leave other planets alone.<<
I don't like missionaries here either. I have enjoyed some SF where they get, you know, eaten by the locals or fall into some trap they were warned about but ignored.
>>Course, I get kind of a giggle out of the reverse idea---aliens coming here and telling us earthlings about THEIR gods. Can you just see the fundy heads exploding?<<
I still take the occasional vacation with Park Godwin's "Waiting for the Galactic Bus" and "The Snake Oil Wars" to deal with the wingnuttery from time to time.
I've been planning a story where some of the nutball types of extremist Xians go to Traipah and get all preachy in public. They're largely ignored until they start a fire and start burning books. Then all hell breaks loose: an enraged mob nearly kills them, they end up in prison for willfull destruction of written materials, and nobody in the mob is so much as arrested.
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Mark Twain on Other-Planet Salvation
Date: 2012-07-17 01:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-17 03:47 pm (UTC)Course, I get kind of a giggle out of the reverse idea---aliens coming here and telling us earthlings about THEIR gods. Can you just see the fundy heads exploding?
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-17 07:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-17 10:00 pm (UTC)I was recalling the only book I ever tore in half with my bare hands and flung across the room: The Sparrow. It wasn't the plot so much as the interview at the end, wherein, after discussing her tortured protagonist--a Jesuit priest, she laughs when asked if he will have a better time of it in the planned sequel, and says "Oh, no, God isn't done with him yet."
The idea (1) of endangering men in alien cultures by trying to convert folks to an earth religion, and (2) that the entasked missionaries could be horribly broken and tormented and that a thereby TORTUROUS GOD was responsible was so horrifying to me that I almost got physically ill.
Well...
Date: 2012-07-17 11:04 pm (UTC)Re: Well...
Date: 2012-07-18 03:28 am (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2012-07-17 11:10 pm (UTC)I don't like missionaries here either. I have enjoyed some SF where they get, you know, eaten by the locals or fall into some trap they were warned about but ignored.
>>Course, I get kind of a giggle out of the reverse idea---aliens coming here and telling us earthlings about THEIR gods. Can you just see the fundy heads exploding?<<
I've seen that done, sometimes quite amusingly.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2012-07-18 03:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-17 01:57 am (UTC)Go for it!
Date: 2012-07-17 03:02 am (UTC)Re: Go for it!
Date: 2012-07-17 03:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-18 10:17 am (UTC)