{"id":1201,"date":"2011-08-09T23:12:06","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T03:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=1185"},"modified":"2011-08-09T23:12:06","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T03:12:06","slug":"reasons-to-buy-religion-and-science-fiction-it-makes-a-great-birthday-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/08\/reasons-to-buy-religion-and-science-fiction-it-makes-a-great-birthday-present.html","title":{"rendered":"Reasons to Buy Religion and Science Fiction: It Makes A Great Birthday Present"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><figure id=\"attachment_1189\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1189\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-1189\" href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/exploringourmatrix\/2011\/08\/09\/reasons-to-buy-religion-and-science-fiction-it-makes-a-great-birthday-present\/kirk-holding-rasf-lens-flare\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1189\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2011\/08\/Kirk-holding-RASF-lens-flare.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"525\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1189\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Capt. James T. Kirk holding the large print edition.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Remember the scene in <em>Star Trek: The Motion Picture<\/em> where Spock gives Kirk a copy of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/exploringourmatrix\/2011\/08\/02\/religion-and-science-fiction-a-special-offer-for-readers-of-exploring-our-matrix\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Religion and Science Fiction<\/a><\/em> for his birthday? Neither do I. But if he <em>had<\/em> given him <em><a href=\"http:\/\/wipfandstock.com\/store\/Religion_and_Science_Fiction\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Religion and Science Fiction<\/a><\/em> instead of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1897093594\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399369&amp;creativeASIN=1897093594\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">A Tale of Two Cities<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=1897093594&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399369\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"><\/em>, then it is just possible that the chapter on good and evil in Star Trek and The Prisoner might have helped him deal with some of the baggage he was carrying around with him. Being split into his positive and negative halves, encountering his ruthless counterpart from a parallel universe, and many other such things that happened to him seem to have been things that James T. Kirk would rather forget. But that doesn\u2019t mean that you have to!<\/p>\n<p>Come to think of it, since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B001AVCFJM\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399369&amp;creativeASIN=B001AVCFJM\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">J. J. Abrams has rebooted classic Star Trek, in that new timeline<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B001AVCFJM&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399369\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"> Spock <em>could<\/em> give Kirk a copy of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/160899886X\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399373&amp;creativeASIN=160899886X\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Religion and Science Fiction<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=160899886X&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399373\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\"><\/em> for his birthday. J. J. Abrams, if you\u2019re reading this, please consider it! I\u2019ve included a lens flare in the image I made above, just so you can see what it might look like if you took my suggestion and ran with it!<\/p>\n<p>But Star Trek insider jokes aside, books do make great birthday gifts, and you don\u2019t have to tell the recipient that <a href=\"www.patheos.com\/community\/exploringourmatrix\/2011\/08\/02\/religion-and-science-fiction-a-special-offer-for-readers-of-exploring-our-matrix\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">you got it at 40% off the cover price<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember the scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture where Spock gives Kirk a copy of Religion and Science Fiction for his birthday? Neither do I. But if he had given him Religion and Science Fiction instead of A Tale of Two Cities, then it is just possible that the chapter on good and evil [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,86,90],"tags":[1573,3216,4054,5554,8706,10169,10885,10890,11724,11819],"class_list":["post-1201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-science-fiction","category-star-trek-science-fiction","tag-capt-kirk","tag-evil","tag-good","tag-james-t-kirk","tag-parallel-universes","tag-religion","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction","tag-spock","tag-star-trek"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Reasons to Buy Religion and Science Fiction: It Makes A Great Birthday Present<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Remember the scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture where Spock gives Kirk a copy of Religion and Science Fiction for his birthday? 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