Press Release about Theology and Science Fiction

This book is chock-full of quotable gems which for decades in books to come, will grow in celebrity the professor’s name. I have to quote the book here as the author never refers directly to the STAR TREK, “Prime Directive,” but I believe improves on it through a theological perspective, to show the weaknesses inherent in that pre-Warp civilization, non-interference philosophy. It would make a nice ‘question for reflection’ in a classroom. The quote I take from Chapter 5: At the Intersection with Philosophy and Ethics.

“The issues of colonialism are relevant not just to the rights of organisms, but also to the new worlds we discover and explore. Should we have the right to lay claim to worlds, provided they do not have sentient beings living on them currently? Or would it be immoral to do so because sentient beings might one day evolve from the living things on the planet in question?”

I’ve read the book twice and I’m blown away by it. So much is said in so few of words. It’s real genius at work here!