{"id":81551,"date":"2020-09-13T05:14:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T09:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=81551"},"modified":"2020-09-12T09:14:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T13:14:00","slug":"religion-and-science-fiction-the-musical-episode-with-space-hippies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2020\/09\/religion-and-science-fiction-the-musical-episode-with-space-hippies.html","title":{"rendered":"Religion and Science Fiction: The Musical Episode with Space Hippies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I started one session of my Religion and Science Fiction class this past week with music. Here is the playlist I had lined up in advance:<\/p>\n

Sydney Carter, \u201cEvery Star Shall Sing A Carol\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Chris DeBurgh, \u201cA Spaceman Came Traveling\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chris de Burgh - A Spaceman Came Travelling\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GmZg7tvGN9o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Larry Norman, \u201cUFO\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Larry Norman - U.F.O.\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PsNX7Y5n1Ec?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Styx, \u201cCome Sail Away\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Styx - Come Sail Away\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e5MAg_yWsq8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There is also a video with a reading of the poem \u201cChrist in the Universe\u201d by Alice Meynell which is among the texts students read for today. Students agreed with me that a poem by a British poet ought to be heard read with a British accent.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Christ in the Universe by Alice Meynell 1847 1922\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oBE4k9AdN44?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Students were not asked to read any of the above song lyrics or to listen to them prior to class. I played them at the start of class and pulled the lyrics up on the screen as we did so, highlighting some of the lyrics. The starship crew mistaken for angels in \u201cCome Sail Away.\u201d Jesus dying for aliens in Larry Norman\u2019s song. Not only the integration of a spacecraft into the Christmas story by Chris DeBurgh but the fact that the behavior of the \u201cstar\u201d in the story is a better fit to a spaceship than a literal star. We talked about the fact that angels were inhabitants of the celestial realm in ancient thought and so there is something fitting, if also something problematic, about making this kind of substitution.<\/p>\n<p>However, I missed that there was something else that ought to be included, something that would turn out to provide the absolutely perfect framing for the topic. Thankfully a student provided it. When I asked if students were aware of any examples of music at the intersection of religion and science fiction they didn\u2019t come up with any of the above. Instead, one suggested the episode from Star Trek: The Original Series, \u201cThe Way to Eden,\u201d and more specifically, the musical space hippies. So we watched this before any of the above that I had prepared for us to listen to:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Star Trek - The Way to Eden - Main Jam in Lounge\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-pNQYHvhnms?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The reason I think that provides a perfect framing for the discussion as a whole is the fact that from our vantage point of hindsight, the space hippies seem so thoroughly a product of the past era that produced them, even as they were supposed to be part of a vision of the future. When we think about the supposed inevitability that the future will be more secularized, that as we travel into space we will have less religious expression accompanying us, is that perhaps also something that someone a century from now would view much as we do the space hippies, as something that seemed like a long-term trajectory at one point but comes to seem quaint and dated? Science fiction helps us think about such things. I mentioned to students one project I sometimes suggest students do, namely to draw one of those stereotypical timelines of the church and its history, but with the timeline continued into a science fictional future. Imagining what human religions might look like in the year 3,000, as practiced on space stations and Mars as well as Earth, can help us to think beyond the confines of our own historical moment, even though in reality we will nonetheless imagine the future in ways determined by our era and historical circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>What is your favorite example of music at the intersection of religion and science fiction? What others have I missed that I ought to include in the future?<\/p>\n<p>Let me also mention (since I have provided so much video content in this post) there\u2019s a relevant episode of \u2018Religion for Breakfast\u2019 which will clue you in to the theme we explored through short stories as well as the musical selection above:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title='Would Alien \"First Contact\" Destroy Religion?' width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bjxxsu2fIPg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The next class will shift our focus to time travel. Interestingly, there is a musical connection that can be made here too. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/facts\/mike-the-mechanics\/silent-running-on-dangerous-ground\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Mike & the Mechanics song \u201cSilent Running\u201d<\/a> actually has nothing to do with <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3meNdJf\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">the science fiction movie of the same name<\/a>, but does envisage a sci-fi scenario involving time travel!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mike & The Mechanics - Silent running\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HFaXHcVS33A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I started one session of my Religion and Science Fiction class this past week with music. Here is the playlist I had lined up in advance: Sydney Carter, \u201cEvery Star Shall Sing A Carol\u201d Chris DeBurgh, \u201cA Spaceman Came Traveling\u201d Larry Norman, \u201cUFO\u201d Styx, \u201cCome Sail Away\u201d There is also a video with a reading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":81572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,80,86],"tags":[6355,7045,7803,10169,10890,13070],"class_list":["post-81551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-religion","category-science-fiction","tag-larry-norman","tag-mars","tag-music","tag-religion","tag-science-fiction","tag-ufo"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Religion and Science Fiction: The Musical Episode with Space Hippies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I started one session of my Religion and Science Fiction class this past week with music. 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