experienceIf faith was taken out of the equation and all an individual would have to do is submit to God’s will to be saved, why would she turn down paradise? Michael Tolkin’s 1991 film, The Rapture, asks this question, but there are no easy answers.
The Transcendence of a Marketable “American Dream”
In Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? the post-World War Terminus civilizations are left with radioactive-dust, shattered religions and a desire for a collective unity. Despite some of the socialist undertones that transcend in Mercerism, there also lies a huge component of American ideology that transcends as well: a notion of an American Dream.
The Fiction of Reality
Arthur C. Clarke’s, Childhood’s End bends the common notion of scientific understanding by showing the limited possibilities when identifying with the physical, and it explores the unlimited powers of the metaphysical through the metamorphosis of the children. Clarke privileges a physical real notion of truth which leads to humanity’s destruction, and the same theoretical fiber limits the Overlord’s ability to evolve.
Religious and Scientific Convergence in Clarke’s “The Star”
In Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star,” religion and science converge in order to assist humanity in its quest for universal knowledge. What happens when humanity achieves the knowledge it seeks, but it does not match certain expectations, or provides more information than humanity can truly handle?