One of the most pernicious effects of religion is that it tends to divorce morality from reality and animal suffering. Religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are not — that is, when they have nothing to do with suffering or its alleviation. Indeed, religion allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are highly immoral — that is, when pressing these concerns inflicts unnecessary and appalling suffering on innocent human beings. This explains why Christians like yourself expend more “moral” energy opposing abortion than fighting genocide…you believe that your religious concerns about sex, in all their tiresome immensity, have something to do with morality. And yet, your efforts to constrain the sexual behavior of consenting adults — and even to discourage your own sons and daughters from having premarital sex — are almost never geared towards the relief of human suffering. In fact, relieving suffering seems to rank rather low on your list of priorities. Your principal concern appears to be that the creator of the universe will take offense at something people do while naked. This prudery of yours contributes daily to the surplus of human misery.

How presumptuous of you to think you know God’s mind…

this sentence by tristian made 2 things immidiatly po into my head:
1) that he thinks that christian inpirational books are fiction thinks he thinks they can be read instead of sci fi, which is just a step away from saying the bible is a fiction bed time story – and a bad one – and

2) that this guy doesnt know what sci fi is
any one who sais that sci fi is all about space ships is so ingorant i would think he is living in a 2 by 2 meters wide box which is completely sealed from the outside world. it is not our fauclt you only read – although i do not think you can read i think your comments are written for you you just can barely say them and someone prepaby even corrects the bad wording and phrasing- it isnt our fautl you only read bad sci fi novels and only watch B rated movies.

I’m the author of “My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie,” and I want to thank you for the publicity, censure, and amusement you’ve provided. As a science fiction writer, proud of my craft and profession, I’m delighted whenever something I pen elicits a response, positive or negative, because it means I’m doing something right.

If you’re looking for more fuel in your anti-podcasting and anti-science fiction rant, consider listening to Escape Pod’s “The Life and Times of Penguin” (http://www.escapepod.info/2005/09/01/ep017-the-life-and-times-of-penguin). I wrote that one as well, an homage to the wonderful and controversial classic by Voltaire, CANDIDE. I think you’ll hate that one too.

Enjoy! And keep up the vitriol!

Love,
Eugie Foster
Science Fiction AND Fantasy Writer

First, it’s obvious: Science Fiction is about science, which brought us evils ranging from Evolution to Global Warming. No decent literature genre would promote that! Now if only there were such a thing as Faith Fiction… The fact that there isn’t proves that Science Fiction is evil in itself. No good Christian or Republican would touch that trash.

Second, look at the disinformation Scienc Fiction spreads! Almost all Science Fiction is based on the assumption that the Earth is a sphere (or so I’ve heard), and not only that, that it floats in a huge vacuum which it shares with thousands of other spheres, just like the Earth! Not only is this completely and obviously ridiculous, it also contradicts what is said in the Holy Scripture! This in itself should be enough to convince you that all Science Fiction is satanic and must be avoided at all costs.

I know I’m a bit late, but please spread the word to warn all good Christians about this cancer growing in our society! Amen.

I’m Christian.
I’m Conservative.
I love Escape Pod.

And since reading the ill-informed and downright misleading piece on your blog about Escape Pod I finally got off my butt and donated $50 dollars so that they can keep bringing us some of the finest speculative short fiction on the planet.

When God made us in his image, He gave us the ability to imagine and create. Steve Eley and the authors on Escape Pod are sharing their God-given gifts to entertain and enrich our lives. Some may not fit exactly into everyone’s belief system but if that belief system cannot survive a 25 minute exposure to another way of thinking it won’t survive even the smallest of real life trials and tribulations.