I love science fiction. Always have. After decades of reading it, watching it, and now writing it, I have noticed a pattern worth talking about. Science fiction has a faith problem.
Not a lack of faith. A misrepresentation of it.
To be clear, there are exceptions. Some writers in this genre handle faith with real nuance and care. But more often than not, the genre falls into the same familiar traps. Here are three of them.
1. Humanity Will Eventually Evolve Past Religion
This assumption shows up constantly in science fiction. In the far future, apparently, nobody believes in God anymore. Humanity has “grown up.” Faith is a relic of a more primitive time.
The actual data, however, tells a different story.
Humans are more numerous today than at any point in history, and the majority of people on this planet still believe in God or a higher power. That number has not collapsed the way some predicted it would. So when a story portrays a future where faith has simply faded away, it is not extrapolating from observable trends. It may simply reflect the assumptions of a particular cultural moment rather than where humanity is actually headed.
That is worth noting, not as a criticism of any individual writer, but as a pattern the genre might want to examine.
2. Religious People Are Basically Cult Members
Scan the landscape of science fiction villains and you will find a disproportionate number motivated by religion. The zealot. The inquisitor. The true believer willing to burn everything down for the cause.
Religious extremism is real, and fiction has every right to explore it. The issue is when the extreme edge becomes the default portrayal. Most people of faith are not unhinged. They are not one bad sermon away from dangerous behavior. They go to work, raise their kids, help their neighbors, and try to live decent lives.
When a genre consistently reaches for the most extreme version of a group as its representative sample, it tends to produce flat characters rather than believable ones. Readers of faith notice. And honestly, so do careful readers of any background.
3. Faith Means You Are Stupid or Evil
This one comes up more subtly, but it is hard to miss once you see it.
The pattern often looks like this: the enlightened characters have moved beyond superstition, while the ones holding onto religion are either foolish or threatening. Faith becomes the obstacle. Reason becomes the hero. It is a tidy narrative, but it is also a false one.
Some of the most intellectually serious people in history have been people of deep faith. Meanwhile, some of the most destructive movements in history have had no religious foundation at all. The idea that belief automatically signals a cognitive failure does not hold up to much scrutiny. It tends to be an assumption dressed up as sophistication, and thoughtful readers across the belief spectrum can usually tell.
Why This Pattern Keeps Showing Up
Science fiction has a cultural center of gravity that leans secular, and that is not inherently a problem. Writers write from where they live. However, the genre has always been at its best when it challenges assumptions, including the writer’s own.
According to researchers who study global religious trends, the majority of people worldwide hold some form of religious belief. These are your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends, and your family members. Most are not militant, not maniacal, and not looking for a fight. They are simply people trying to make sense of being alive.
When science fiction sidesteps that reality, or flattens it into a caricature, it misses an opportunity. The genre is capable of so much more. And when writers do engage with faith honestly and curiously, the stories tend to be richer for it.
That is the kind of science fiction worth writing. And worth reading.
The best is yet to come!
Alan D.
Leave a Reply