{"id":9647,"date":"2012-09-24T19:17:10","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T23:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=9647"},"modified":"2012-09-24T19:17:10","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T23:17:10","slug":"doctor-who-as-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/09\/doctor-who-as-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who as Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I don't always blog about Doctor Who. But when I do, for the most part I blog about the intersection of Doctor Who and religion, meaning the treatment of religious themes, motifs, and images on the show.<\/p>\n

Today I had a link drawn to my attention about Doctor Who as <\/em>religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Granted, the article<\/a> is a year old and is from Cracked.com<\/em>. But still, when it has stuff like the following, it is surely worth sharing:<\/p>\n

\n

Watching Doctor Who Is Like Having A Relationship With God.\n<\/p>\n

And I don't mean the Doctor is a metaphor for gods we know, the way the lion is Jesus in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I mean the Doctor is a god. But one we can see and understand. And he loves us more than all the other creatures in the universe. He would die for us, but what he really wants to do is live with us. So it's no wonder the show has fanatics. It's not a show. It's a philosophy. A religion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Click through to read more<\/a> (and see also another article from last year, this one in The Guardian,<\/em> also on this topic<\/a>). But more importantly, do you think that Doctor Who, or any science fiction show or series, can actually serve as a religion in any meaningful sense? If so, which one? And does the article suggest something important about traditional religions, something that one might be able to learn by analogy from watching Doctor Who?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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