Religion and s.f. - A blasphemy?
Talking to a friend about the intention to make a number of String magazine dedicated to the religion and its relationship with S.f., I caused a reaction that I understood much later: that of indignation. How to put two so different notions next to? A true blasphemy!
I realized that for most people (unfortunately, for many fans) the science-fiction is a literary genre not marginal, but non-serious, incapable of treating substantive problems. An opinion due to both objective causes (many productions S.F. are neither ideal, nor as a literary achievement, far above a infantile level of perception of reality) as well as of objective causes (lack of information, non -knowledge of the representative works of SF and especially the opinion that the fundamental problems can only be treated).
For this reason, the desire to achieve this number has become even stronger. It had become a problem of professional ethics. If we establish a proportion between the number of editorial appearances and the number of books that treat the problems of divinity, the human - society relationship, we will discover with surprise that the report is clearly favorable s.f. Unfortunately, most readers treat border literature as an entertainment literature. How much world does police novels read to make the social analysis of an era? Although some works (see Chandler, Hammet, Ross Macdonald) are deeper than many mainstream works. And if you want to find out something about metaphysics, read novel horror, do not laurea of the Nobel Prize!
If, in a certain period, the vast majority of the works S.F. They were materialistic orientation (the statement is relative, because, for example, C.S. Lewis's novels appeared in the 1930s), lately, especially after the Dickian Revolution, the S.f. has become more and more concerned about the essence of things. It is no longer the s.f. of another time, it is said about the death of S.F. Because the authors of S.F. They made a great discovery: science does not only mean physical, electronic, medicine, chemistry or other technical sciences, but also sociology, political science, history, philosophy and theology.
On the other hand, the cultural level of the authors and readers of S.F. has grown enormously. The references to authors of value, the debate in the formulas of the genre of some fundamental themes of culture, have become current. There was a principle question: What is the border between the mainstream and s.f.? Why is Ernst Junger a mainstream writer, although his main works ("on marble cliffs", "glass bees") can be in any s.f. library? The same is true for Hermann Hesse, who received the Nobel Prize for "The Step Wolf" and "The Glass Bear Game" ... in which category do we include Orwell? I think that at this moment, the distance between the mainstream and S.F., so great with a generation ago, becomes lower, and the s.f. retains its individuality because of certain literary means.
Finishing with the assertion that there are no good or bad literary genres, but only good or bad literature (regardless of gender), we will try to briefly analyze how the literature s.f. He treated the problem of divinity.

Let's define some concepts:

Faith. A human option that does not need real support. Humanity has believed, over time, in impossible things, and will continue to do so. There is no biunivocal relationship between faith and deity. Divinity is beyond faith, regardless of it. Otherwise, it should be chameleon, if we take into account the variety of beliefs so far ...

Divinity. She is, first of all, creative. A deity that is not the author of the universe is useless. Other attributes of the Divinity: eternal, almighty, all -knowing, has the gift of ubiquity. The question that people ask is whether or not it exists, and if it exists, how they can get in touch with it.

Religion. A set of dogmas, concepts and ideas, based on a certain perception of divinity.

Church. Organizational form to support a particular religion.

We find that there may be real or artificial links between the four notions. A faith, religion or church, well defined, with millions of believers, may have no connection with the Divinity.

In fact, the whole religious history is a desperate search for divinity. Whole collectivities have often believed that they discovered it. The truth knows only the deity ...

Returning to S.F., the attitudes towards the deity were the following:

• absolute denial, in materialistic spirit;
• indifference or treatment of religion as a certain science, of which all possible speculation can be made;
• sincere faith and the search for truth through the means specific to the literature S.F.

In the following chapters, we will try to detail these statements. Given the restricted space, we will be forgiven, we hope, because we will not demonstrate all the statements, because we will only cite a few most important authors. But some of the following chapters could be developed in volumes of considerable dimensions.

The impact of the concept of "original sin" on the literature S.F.
"The Lord gave God commanded Adam and said," From all the trees of heaven you can eat,
And from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil not to eat, for on the day you will eat from it you will die. "
Adam did not listen and, after eating, along with Eve from the stopped fruit, they discovered that they were naked ... and God decided:
"And the woman said to him," You multiply your troubles, especially in pregnancy. In pain you will give birth to children. You will be attracted to your man and he will master you.
And Adam said to him, "For you have listened to the woman, the earth will be the earth for you!
In the sweat of the forehead you will eat your bread, until you return to the land from which you are made. For you are earth and in the earth you will return! ”
I quoted the fragment of the Bible to explain and interpret one of the basic concepts of Christianity: the original sin. This concept is found, in different forms, both in Bible -based religions (Mosaism, Islam) and in other religions, in which the initial mistake was different. The basic idea is, in most religions, that man has known a golden age, which he lost through his mistake.
Let's see what the divine punishment consisted of:

• Drilling from heaven;
• the birth of children, generally in pain;
• sexual attraction;
• everyday work, considered as a curse;
• And, above all, death.

So man is, by his nature, a cursed being, who is atoning the sin of his ancestors. A cruel idea, which Christianity has tried to tame through the sacrifice of Jesus, who, taking a human face, has subjected himself to human torment, to know them and take them upon him, giving man a chance of redemption. Because in the Old Testament is not mentioned by the later life, the salvation of sins and the kingdom of heaven.
The man has therefore felt from ancient times that the earthly existence is a curse, which is characterized by elements that do not differentiate it with anything from the animal (birth, sex, death) or which differentiates it (work), but which is a torment.
This feeling had a special impact on the human soul, an impact that resulted in the attempt to escape the yoke of original sin. We will not debate here the importance of Christianity, especially of the Protestant Churches, on the evolution of this concept. We will try to show only how he was reflected, as a manifestation of the subconscious, in the literature S.F.

1. The removal from heaven
   The idea of a perfect society, in which there are no restrictions, in which people are happy, appeared from Wells (People like the gods) and has continuously developed, in different utopias, especially in materialistic orientation authors. The heavenly heaven has been replaced by the ideal society, in which people are equal, in which conflicts are gone, work is a pleasure, and life reaches incredible durations.
2. Birth
   The problem was solved simply: by cloning and genetic engineering. Different authors (A.C.Clarke - Imperial Earth, F.Herbert – Heisenberg's eyes, ending with crichton - Jurasic Park) Imagine the birth of man (or other creatures) by developing a single cell, prevailed from a being, removing the whole phenomenon of gestation and birth. Of course, the idea also led to extremist extrapolations, to societies composed only of women or men, since the survival of the species was no longer conditioned by the existence of the two sexes.
3. Sexual attraction
   In this direction, we must mention, first of all, Androixi, beings identical to people, but usually lacking in sex. Or brains that survive in artificial bodies. Or, as in Asimov's "empty sun", (and other stories, other writers) societies in which people live isolated, feeling repulsion not only to physical touch, but also to the simple presence of other people.
4. Daily work
   In this regard, the imagination was the richest. Starting with strongly robotic societies, in which man has nothing to do (and sometimes he is removed from robots), and ending with the utopias in which work becomes a relaxation, a pleasure, a way to get rid of boredom, the authors have endeavored that human society can exist.
5. Death
   If in the other respects the technical solutions proved not only varied, but also credible, regarding this last aspect, the imagination of S.F. reached true peaks. Starting with medical means of extending life to incredible limits, passing through the idea of transferring consciousness into another body (see Lord of Light, Zelazny, and many of Shackley's novels), and ending with human transformation into another kind of creature (especially Clarke- The end of childhood, Spatial odyssey), the fight against death oscillates between technical and mystical resolutions. In treating this topic, philosophical ideas intervene, which surprise by their depth. It is normal, given the seriousness of the subject and the importance of the problem.

We must mention another, very important aspect of the problem: not always the impact of the concept of original sin has a guilt effect on the authors of S.F. Sometimes, either because of a juvenile terrorism (we do not consider the age of the authors), or from a spirit of revolt, or because in this concept I see a wrong thing, there is an opposite tendency: instead of bypassing, to imagine societies in which there is no divine curse, some authors build societies and violence are basic elements. Not necessarily together. You will discover in novels of Silverberg, Heinlein, Spinrad and others (perhaps influenced by philosophy hippie) an unleashed sexuality, the idea of group marriages, sexuality released by any prejudices. And to the authors of cyberpunk, sexuality is combined with violence, with the decay of the human race. As if he would say, unconscious: if this is the world you wanted, Lord, then you have a full part!

In conclusion, a short fragment from a story by Dino Buzzati.

A Catholic priest is visited by a Martian, who wants to know what the symbol of the cross is everywhere on Earth. The priest explains about Jesus, about the Bible, about Genesis ...

“The Martian asked, agitated: And you ate? Couldn't you resist?

And, the angry priest recognized. What would you have done? Or maybe the tree of good and evil may not raise you?

Yes. It blooms now.

And you didn't eat?

If it is forbidden ...

And, the priest sighed. We were lost because of that fruit ... but the Son of the Lord went down between us ...

And what did you do? Did you proclaim your king? I understood that you killed him ...

He died for our eternal life!

Just for that? The Martian was surprised.

The priest began to pray.

What are you doing? Martian asked.

I pray. Don't you pray?

Why should we pray?

The priest felt happy. You do not know the original sin, you did not meet the devil ... more than sure that God prefers us. Better worms like us, than perfect beings that never talk to them. What satisfaction can God find in such beings? What does life mean without evil, remorse, repentance?“

Indifferent and atheists
Much of the writers s.f. they showed no interest in religion. They simply ignored it even when they describe, in thousands of pages, the history of planets, galactic civilizations, etc. There is no room for the supernatural in their world. Everything is science, everything is demonstrable. Religion belongs to an outdated past. Heinlein, Van Vogt, E.E.Doc Smith and others build civilizations in which people and other rational beings are only interested in the material side of things. The man is everything, outside him there is nothing. See Ephremov or other Soviet writers.
Mai mult chiar. Asimov presents, in the cycle of the "Foundation", the religion as an excitement, a means by which higher civilizations dominate others, less developed. Iar acest punct de vedere e împărtăşit şi de alţii…
Clarke is a little more interesting. If in his novels he is in the convenient position of indifference, some professional equity makes him pay a splash of attention to religion. “Cele un miliard de nume ale lui Dumnezeu” este un exerciţiu logic, interesant, dar fără fiorul credinţei. "Star", on the other hand, is a perfect failure, proving the lack of knowledge of the thought of a believer. Părintele Loyola îşi pierde credinţa văzînd un act care i se pare o nedreptate divină. Falsitatea rezolvării a fost atît de flagrantă, încît episodul realizat pentru telerviziune încearcă să modifice finalul. Fără a ne lăsa cuprinşi de trufie, propunem un alt final, mai corespunzător personajului (cu diferenţa inerentă de talent). It is worth mentioning a fragment of Rama II, in which Clarke succeeds and surprises, in a paragraph of ten rows, a problem that deserves to be discussed in several volumes: if the aliens have a soul, if Jesus was among them ...
Shocking is the fact that Ursula Le Guin considers Clarke a mystic ... I don't think Dick would have made such a statement ...
Returning to Asimov, it should be mentioned that, besides a story without interest (the one with the number of papyrus to write to write Genesis), in the cycle of robots, he tries to imagine the appearance of religious conceptions to a logical intelligence. Although the results are surprising, constantly in its superficiality, Asimov has not developed the theme anywhere. It is worth mentioning, however, that, among his popularization works, Asimov also wrote a biblical history.
Although some authors play with suggestive titles (the gods themselves - Asimov, the number of the beast - Heinlein), the respective works are devoid of religious connotations.
In the same category we can include writers who have tried to discover behind the religious phenomena, in which the deities are superior to humans, usually aliens. In the multitude of achievements of this kind (starting with the "spatial odyssey") we can include, as a well -done work, V. Kernbach's "sublime meadow".
Unfortunately, the works of this kind have managed to constitute the foundation of attacking the S.F., considered as a form of materialistic diversion. It looks, among other things, that many of the writers who in S.F. They were manifested as convinced materialists, they were also fantasy or horror authors ...
About both atheists and indifferent. They have proven their value in other fields of knowledge, and we must recognize this.

The creators of religions
Another category of writers, with a deeper and more complex vision of society and culture, include in the image they play about other worlds and religious aspects. They treat religion as a science, researching the appearance of religious conceptions in society, trying to understand the correlation between social, environment, technological and transcendent development. They imagine what religious forms, what beliefs, rites or mythologies can occur under certain conditions.
The most interesting results were obtained when the authors built non -number or mixed companies, in which together with people live intelligent creatures from other species.
In this sense, we quote the "Heliconia" cycle of Aldiss, the "golden man" of M.A.B. Barker, Silverberg's "Majipor" cycle, Jack Vance's "Chasch" cycle ...
This category of authors is characterized by a serious bending over the religious phenomenon, regarded from a historical and social point of view. The characters are sincere in their faith, even if for the reader they represent only a special intellectual game.
Sometimes, as in the "The Godwhale" of T.J.Baas, the object of divinity is a car, whose purpose escapes people fallen into the wild. Other times, the deities are taken over by people from other species, strange creatures, reminiscent of the dawn of the earthly faith ...
It is worth noting in this category of writers the effort to understand the mechanism of human thinking (why does man believe in the gods?
And, often, starting to discover in religion something more than a form of social manifestation, characteristic of a certain historical moment ...

Extrapolation
Some of the authors of S.F. They applied a logical method in identifying some themes: extrapolation. If a series of phenomena can be represented in some form, they sought to extend the dominant character beyond the current moment, eager to see what could happen.
The great master of extrapolation is Frank Herbert. Not only in the "Dune" cycle, but also in his other books, he pushes a real fact, a concrete situation, beyond the limit of the possible (or what we consider today), opening new perspectives on phenomena that, for others, seemed exhausted as an inspiration.
We will not try to treat the religious load of the "Dune" cycle. The space does not allow us. We will be content to remember only a few of the problems raised, as a subject of meditation for its readers:

• the influence of social conditions on the forms of religious manifestation;
• Islam as a religion of survival, which can be transformed into religion of conquest;
• knowledge of the past and future as a first step towards reaching the divine state;
• knowledge as a form of religious manifestation.

As an interesting aspect, although not particularly developed, the problem of unifying religions. Herbert reminds of an attempt in this regard, completed by the elaboration of the Catholic Bible (orange -the color of the Protestants), which did not have the desired effect, each cult preferring to follow their path.
It is worth emphasizing the detection of the finest nuances of human logic in relation to religion, in relation to the deity. The world on the dunes is a religious, faithful, fanatic world. Treating Herbert on a few lines is impossible. Remember, if it is worth it, the problem.
It would also be worth included in this chapter E. Cooper, with a novel in which, after the aforementioned nuclear cataclysm and the renunciation of science, the representative of the Divinity is considered Ludd (the pertine movement had been, in the eighteenth century, at the beginning of the machine, a manifestation of protest of the weaved workers, who destroyed).

Lovecraft and the gods from heaven
As a reply to the idea, more and more widespread, that S.F. has been a materialistic diversion, we allow us to draw attention to the fact that the phenomenon of S.F. It was, from the beginning, an extremely complex phenomenon, in which there were many tendencies and opinions, not only different, but even contradictory.
In this sense, we mention the work of H.P.lovecraft, one of those who marked the extremely strong s.f.
The singular figure, haunted by the nightmares of an unusual imagination, Lovecraft does not have, unlike many famous writers, a sweet vision of relationships between intelligent species. He is convinced that from the cosmos or other universes, monsters with unusual powers can appear at any time, who can subjugate people's minds. Built a real mythology, in which Cthulhu, Dagon, the old gods or other deities described in Necronomicon, the book of the crazy Arab Abdul Alhazred, embodies of evil, deities long before man, who fought for the control of the universe, can be called by magic or can appear by chance, taking over those who have called them without knowing what to expose.
His work, a strange combination of scientific knowledge, unusual imagination and a pessimistic vision of the universe, brings to the fore a theology that deviates from the ordinary norms. The powers they describe are evil. Man is alone in front of an enemy universe. He can only use the conflicts between the foreign, completely inhuman, inhuman, in his favor, gaining a short break.
His heroes never resort to religion, to its power to get rid of nightmare demons. They do not know or believe in the power of religion. Lovecraft's world is a world in which there is deity, or powers far above the human ones, but which does not have the attributes we give to the Divinity. Or which we do not give now to the deity. His theology is close to that of primitive peoples, a theology of fear in front of incomprehensible powers.
Of those who shared his opinions, St. King should be mentioned, in some of his novels with Tenta s.f. (It. Tommyknockers) sau D.Walther (Apollo XXV, La planets eggs). Walther even describes evil deities, which take over the minds of people, in a theological vision that is far close to Satanism.
By making a parenthesis, we must mention that Lovecraft has influenced not only S.f., but also horror and fantasy. These genres, who existed in parallel with the S.f. with a dense scientific load, had other orientations. Fantasy turned to special mythologies and theologians, or reviving ancient beliefs (A.Meriritt, P. Anderson, etc.) or inventing their own mythologies, with gods or supernatural creatures after the ancient beliefs (Andre Norton, Taith Lee, etc.). The horror emphasized forces of evil that can be combated by religious means. Perhaps because the horror, as a genre, is a little older and has kept, so to speak, the "methodology" of combating evil forces, from the last century. In any case, the religious load of quality horror is rich, reflecting ancient fears and beliefs.

Real mystics
Even if it represents a small percentage, among the writers S.F. There were, from the beginning, real mystics (what is the percentage of mainstream mystics?). We will mention only the famous ones, with award -winning works.
First, C.S.lewis, who wrote three novels s.f. with a strong religious load (about Lewis there was more widely talked about in another article). For informative purposes, Lewis is mentioned in a few novels of Dick, as an example of a person with whom religious issues can be discussed.
Through the 1950s, James Blish, in "a case of consciousness", translated to us, raises the background of the faith.
In 1956, W.Miller Jr., With the famous "A canticle for Leibowitz"(First a novel, then extended, by adding other chapters, at the level of a novel) has a terrible audience.
I mentioned these famous names, crowned with Hugo awards, to prove that the S.F., even in the years it seemed to dominate the materialistic vision, was able to perform valuable works, whose ideal content is particularly deep, and which will remain in the history of S.F.
The fact that these works of value extend throughout the entire period of the classic S.F. We justify us, once again, that the genre was open to all opinions, that the successful works had the appreciation of the readers and that the genre was neither diversion nor entertainment.
Then, in the 1960s, Philip K. Dick appears, and the idea of S.f. It changes completely. Religion becomes one of the major themes of the genre, even if many do not want or are unable to discover this.

Dick's unstable worlds
If we seek a common denominator in Dick's work, so varying and varied, we will discover an interesting leitmotif: the universe is unstable. It changes under the eyes of his heroes visibly, perceptibly, doubtful.
Either is historically regressing (Ubik) either society is different than it should be (The man in the High Castle), either the world changes according to the conception of the world of the characters (Eye in the Sky) either the universe loses some features (Flow my tears, the policeman said), either the worlds change to the will (The three stigmas of Palmer Eldritch) ... We interrupt the list here, which can continue. The universe is just what we think of it, either conscious or under the influence of drugs. There is only what we think. We exist because someone thinks.
Make a comparison with Borges's "circular ruins".
The same vision of the world. The same attempt to literally exemplify Berkley's idealism.
It would be interesting to know to what extent Dick knew Borges and Bioy Casares ...
But he didn't need to know Borges's work. They both had a rich culture, they had read about the same books. It was normal to reach similar opinions. However, if in Borges the intellectual game is prevalent, if there is a valid doubt about the depth of conceptions that were the basis of his stories, Dick is a militant. Works such as "Valis", "the world in which time flows on the back" are less works of fiction as open as they are quotes from ancient mystics, the parents of the church, the contemporary theosophies.
The search for God is an obvious, fiery concern, in many of Dick's works. It often neglects the literary aspect, the intrigue, to expose their ideas as clearly as possible.
With Dick begins a new era of the S.F. One in which the ideal, philosophical content prevails. Less the technical aspect. If you do not believe me, think about Brin, O.S.card and others, and try to discover what is original in their most appreciated and awarded works. Not the scientific aspects, but a new vision of the world, on man, the meaning of life.
Unfortunately, Dick is not too appreciated with us. Can readers s.f. They have neither the patience nor the culture needed to fully understand it. Or they find it superficial, due to his tendency to be too explicit, too militant. I discovered some opinions on the book I consider to be the peak of his creation, "Ubik", opinions that proved that he was not properly understood.
I would like to dedicate a number only to this book. The multitude of possible interpretations. The multitude of ideas that they awaken among the formation and culture readers as different as possible.
We must say one thing openly: if there is someone who doubts that S.F. can treat fundamental themes, such as religion and divinity, read Dick!

HYPERION AND SIMMONS
The novel Hyperion, who received the Hugo and Locus awards in 1990, represent the most suitable example for what the current SF has reached. Of considerable dimensions (the two volumes, Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion have about 1000 pages), the book is a great achievement in the literary field. The first volume is structured in Chaucer's style "stories from Canterbury", and whole chapters are dedicated to art, with massive references to Keats. It is, in the whole, a proof of the level reached by the authors and the SF readers.
We will make a brief summary of the book, then reproduce a few quotes.
On the planet Hyperion there are the tombs of time, constructions whose purpose does not know, surrounded by anentropic fields. Here lives Gricha, a metal being, killer, who has the ability to move instantly, and has become the subject of a cult that has begun to spread throughout the Universe.
Periodically, at these tombs, a pilgrimage takes place. Pilgrims never return. One of them is fulfilled. The others are killed.
Given that the extroors, an enemy breed of mankind, try to conquer the planet Hyperion, a special pilgrimage is organized, attended by people with special interests to meet Gricha. They are:

• Lenar Hoyt, Catholic priest
• Fedmahn Kassad, colonel, palestinian
• Martin Silen, Poet
• Sol Weintraub, university professor, Jewish
• Browne Lamia, woman detective on the planet Lusus
• Het Masteen, the voice of the authentic tree, the commander of the Templar ship, Yggdrasill
• H. Severn, former consul of the planet Hyperion.

Six pilgrims tell their lives and reasons why they got to take part in the pilgrimage. Each in an extremely different, personal way, demonstrating the writer's ability.
We will not develop the story of Lenar Hoyt, who demonstrates, through the hard parent, that the symbol personifies a certain faith, that there can be crucifors to be represented by evil. And that redemption can only be achieved by suffering ...
We will not develop the story of Lamia, the detective woman, who tries to dismiss the technor's plans to create an artificial divinity, starting from the archetype of Keats, who refuses immortality and divinity, preferring to die, as her model, of tuberculosis ... A stories, written, in a cyberpiece, in an extreme level.
About Colonel Kassad, the man who only met love on the battlefield, only that: he is the fighter chosen by the future so that through his sacrifice he saves humanity ...
We will pay more attention to the story of Sol Weintraub. Not because it would contain more elements about divinity than the others, but because it was easier to select a few illustrative sequences. For the others, we should have reproduced half of the book ...
Weintraub's daughter, Rachel, is an archaeologist and does research on Hyperion. One night soil has a dream:
A faceless voice tells him:
Sol! Take your daughter, your unique daughter, Rachel, whom you love, and take a world called Hyperion, to burn it in the fire in the place I will tell you!
Sol refuses, and his daughter is mourning a strange disease: complete temporal regress. It becomes, over time, a little girl. Sol raises the question of what kind of God is the one who can ask for the sacrifice of his only child.
Sol was talking to God long before he realized what he was doing. There were no prayers, but angry monologues, vigorous altercations with himself. But maybe it wasn't just that ... One day, he realized that the subject of these debates was so deep, the stakes so serious that the only one who could answer was God. But since the concept of a personified God, who did not sleep at night, concerned about the problems of men, seemed absurd, the mere idea of these conversations made him doubt his own mental health.
However, the discussions continued.
Sol wanted to know how such an ethics and religion, which had survived all the evils that humanity had directed against it, could take from the divine request as a parent to assassinate his Son. Sol did not take into account the fact that the order had been canceled at the last moment. He refused to believe that he had been just a test of submission. And the idea that this submission had made Abraham the father of the tribes of Israel, was crazy about anger.
After devoting fifty-five years of his life to studying ethical systems, Sol Weinttraub had reached a unique and undeniable conclusion. For him, it was a mistake to respect a divinity, or concept, or principle, which places submission before a decent behavior towards an innocent creature.

And how do you define innocence? he asked him the amused voice and a little aged with which these discussions had.

A child is always innocent. Isaac was innocent. Rachel is innocent.

The mere fact that she is a child makes her innocent?

And.

There are no cases in which the blood of the innocent should be shed for a great cause?

Not.

I guess the innocence is not the children's presses ...
Solo hesitated, suspecting a race, trying to guess where his interlocutor wanted to get. But he didn't discover anything.

No, he replied. Only children are innocent.

But Rachel? At 25 years old? And, regardless of age, can an innocent sacrifice be sacrificed?

Exact.

Maybe this is a part of the lesson that Abraham had to learn before becoming the father of the most blessed nation ...

What lesson? Sol asked.
But the voice had disappeared, only the cry of the night birds was heard ...

Abraham could have proposed to God to sacrifice himself in the place of Isaac?

Abraham could have asked that, not you.

Why?
In response, the soil had the vision of the naked people, framed by the soldiers, standing in front of the crematoriums, of the mothers hiding their children under their clothes ... He saw people with burnt flesh, taking children from the ashes of what had been, once, a huge city knew that the images were not a picture, and that it had not been a holoca, and it had not been a holoca. Continue:

Parents have already offered as a sacrifice! Has been accepted. I overcome this stage.

Then what's next?
In response, only silence. Shook the fist against the sky of the color of the cannon pipes.

You served as a Nazis as an instrument! By crazy! By monsters! And you are just a monster!

Not!

The only correct answer to Abraham was submission, soil thought. From an ethical point of view, Abraham was a child himself. All the people were, at that time. Abraham's correct answer was to become adults and to offer themselves as a sacrifice, instead of their parents. But what was the correct answer in his case?

In his angry conversations with the God in which he did not believe.

What reason can exist for sacrifice?

What visible reason did it ever exist for suffering, in any form, which humanity has endured?

Exactly, Sol thought, wondering if, for the first time, he had scored a point.

The fact that one thing is not visible, does not mean that it does not exist.

What an unrestricted forms! Three denials for such a little deep statement!

Sol dreamed that it was inside a huge edifice, in which the columns had the size of a giant sequoia ... a red light sprinkled the frozen emptiness. He saw, surprised, hold the child in his arms. Until then, Rachel had not participated in his dreams. The child was looking at him intensively.

Suddenly, a huge and frozen voice reverberates in the desolate edifice:

Sol, take your daughter, your unique daughter, Rachel, whom you love, and go to a world called Hyperion and sacrifice by fire in a place I will show you!
Hesitant, he looked at the child. Rachel's bright eyes were on him. Read a mute "yes" in them. He held her in the arms and apostrophe the silent darkness:

-Listen to me! There will be no sacrifices of our fellows, people! The time of submission and atonement has passed! Ready! Leave us alone, or pass on our side, like a parent, not as one who claims sacrifices! Now, you have a choice, like Abraham!

Do you think the ultimists in Tehnocere will be able to build the latest intelligence?

If they will create God? There are some who oppose it. The experience taught him that the achievement of a more advanced level of consciousness is an invitation to slavery, and even to destroy ...

But a true God cannot carry his creatures to destruction!

- In the case of the technor, God is the creature, not the Creator. I think a god feels obliged to create inferior creatures, to feel responsible for them.

The teaching of Saint Teilhard mentions the evolution towards a Omega point.

Does this Omega point resemble the Gnostic Zen concept of practical tasters?

Not really. Saint Teilhard believed that every life, at any level of organic consciousness, is part of a planned evolution towards a final convergence with God. His ideas have evolved a lot, but the conclusion is that we consider Jesus Christ an embodied example of what the final consciousness could be human.

I read your treaty about Saint Teilhard. Defend the need for an evolution to the Omega point, without falling into social heresy ...

Socin, explains the priest, was an Italian heretic from the seventeenth century of the prehegian era. His doctrine claimed that God is a limited creature, but capable of learning and evolving, as the universe becomes more complex.

I wait, said the hard father, as the largest car of all, the universe, finally produces his God. If I accepted Teilhard, wasn't it because I didn't find a creator's sign in the world around us? Shortly before, I would have been delighted and discovered an antichrist. The presence of any antidivine power would have revived my declining faith.

And now?

Now, after I was crucified ... I did not receive any sign from a benevolent parent. I was not given any assurances that my sufferings, my sacrifice, are of any use. I had only pain and darkness, darkness and pain ...

And that made you lose your faith? Sol asked.

On the contrary, he replied hard, looking at him in his eyes. That made me understand a truth: faith is essential! Pain and darkness are daily things, from the fall of man. We must keep the hope that we will reach a higher level of consciousness, that we will evolve up to a more favorable level of this universe of indifference.

Our problem is that we have shown too much rancor.
Sol looked at the sky.

I would have liked this formidable technology to allow us to fight with equal weapons. To face it. Let us return every injustice with which he has not ceased to torment mankind. Let us give him to give up his arrogance, or send him to hell!

Suppose this divine entity is not limited. Suppose there is a God at that Omega point, with that total consciousness you mentioned. Suppose it is that third of which the church was talking about. Suppose that part of this third fled in time, to take refuge here ... What will happen?

Why would he run away? he asked gently harsh. God can only be the God of the Omega point. No threat can banish an element of this divine entity. No antichrist, no demonic power, no anti -d and can oppose such universal consciousness.

Jesus may have doubts, said Monsignor Eduard. His sweat has turned into blood, in the garden, and asked that the glass from him to be removed ... If there was a second sacrifice, something more terrible than the crucifixion, I would understand that the Christ of the Trinity would take refuge in time, by I do not know what Gethseman garden from another dimension, to win a few years.

Are we sure Jesus knew what to do? He knew he had something to do, but that didn't mean the same thing ...

-Paul wants to say that if that spiritual creature hides in our time, they may not know its own identity.

With a clarity that exceeded the immediate character of his pain, Sol Weintraub suddenly understood why Abraham had agreed to sacrifice Isaac, his son, when God had asked.

It was not an act of submission.

It was not about putting on the love for God above that of one's own child.

Abraham had put God to the test!

Refusing the sacrifice at the last moment, stopping the hand of the knife, God had won the right to become the God of Abraham and His descendants. Sol trembled at the thought that any attempt of deception in the desire to sacrifice his son would have resulted in the cessation of alliance between humanity and divine power. Abraham had to be convinced in the depths of the soul in the depths of the soul. Divinity had to be convinced of Abraham's decision. He had to feel his pain and intention to kill what had more expensive in the world. Abraham had not offered a sacrifice. He had wanted to make sure that God was worthy of trust and submission. No other attempt could have given him the answer he was looking for.

If God evolved, and soil was convinced of this, it was obligatory to empathy, to a sense of shared suffering, not to power and domination. Empathy and love were inseparable and unexplained.

Sol knew that there are strong and weak interactions, electromegnetism and gravity. Love was all these forces. And others more. Love was even the space-which, that subcurant impossibility that transports information from photon to photon ...

For seven centuries, the existence of the theory of the Great Unification of Post Quantum Physics of Superstring, as well as the unlimited knowledge of the technician on a universe without limits, but contained in itself, without Big-Bang-type singularities, had eliminated any role of God, or in the primitive, anthropomorphic form, or under the most sophisticated, guardian of the laws before creation. The modern universe, as the man had come to understand him, did not need a creator. There was no place for the creator. There was no beginning, there will be no end. The universe knew only cycles of expansion and contracting, which followed the rules of the seasons. There was no place for love in the Universe.

As if Abraham had set out to kill his son to test a ghost.

But love, intumed soil, was integrated into the structure of the universe, as well as the force of gravity, or the couple matter-antimatter. There is room for a God, one way or another, not only in the cracks of construction, not outside it, but even in the texture of the universe. And this God evolved with the universe. He learned with that part of the universe that was able to learn. He was as able to love, as humanity ...