Religion and Science Fiction on Halloween<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today was the first time that my class on religion and science fiction has met on Halloween, and so I dressed appropriately, and encouraged students to do\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/religion-and-science-fiction-on-halloween.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religion and Science Fiction on Halloween\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today was the first time that my class on religion and science fiction has met on Halloween, and so I dressed appropriately, and encouraged students to do\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/religion-and-science-fiction-on-halloween.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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{"id":18727,"date":"2013-10-31T16:13:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T20:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=18727"},"modified":"2013-10-31T16:13:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T20:13:43","slug":"religion-and-science-fiction-on-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/10\/religion-and-science-fiction-on-halloween.html","title":{"rendered":"Religion and Science Fiction on Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a> $\"\"$ I had planned from before the semester began to talk about Star Trek fandom as quasi-religious phenomenon on this day, and so the readings related to that subject were from the book Star Trek and Sacred Ground: Explorations of Star Trek, Religion and American Culture<\/a> $\"\"$ <\/em>, and I showed some clips from the documentary Trekkies<\/a> $\"\"$ which you can rent on Amazon.com for only $2.99<\/a> $\"\"$ . It provides examples of people being inspired by Star Trek, and the discussion about whether Star Trek was a religion or philosophy, and its merits compared to sports, was very vibrant!<\/p>\n

The student presentation was about movies that have been purported to have been influenced by Scientology. She focused in particular on After Earth<\/a> $\"\"$ which, coincidentally, I had just watched for the first time yesterday! We talked a little about Scientology, the relationship of religion to mental health, and the apparent therapeutic value of treating that which troubles us as something objective that can be combated and\/or removed.<\/p>\n

There were other people on campus wearing costumes, and so I was fortunately able to arrange to get my photo taken with the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences:<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"