Monthly Archives: September 2019
Of Faith and Fiction
Hey everyone,
I wanted to get one more post in this month. So this is something of a more philosophical post than most of my posts. So fair warning, and disclosure out of the way lets get into this.
Faith and Fiction, one is a story you believe, the other is one you wish you could believe (well, most of the time haha). I’m not going to discuss the reasons or evidence for faith. Instead, I plan to cover the connections and the reason they are not the same, yet often intermingled.
When I was set up at my booth at Old Timer’s days this year someone who stopped to talk to me said something I couldn’t quite respond to. So if you weren’t aware, my books cover a bit of fictional magic. A bit haha, ok it is arguably a large plot point. What this person said was, because of their faith they felt it was a reason such a subject couldn’t be covered in the fiction they read.
Which I was so stricken by, I stumbled around the reasons that shouldn’t matter (especially in my story, but all stories really). I mean, I am a christian author after all, which is the faith the person felt conflicted with the very idea of magic.
The God of this world, is the God who gave us our creativity and inspired the very idea of magic. I mean the scriptures gave the foundations of what magic could be, and where it comes from.
Before anyone raises pitchforks and torches, let me explain. The magic in fiction is NOT the type of magic the bible rebukes. It is a made up world not our reality that fiction takes place in. On top of this, fiction is an escape from our reality and that should be enough to make the distinction.
That short rant out of the way, lets dive deeper.
I can point out so many parallels of how fiction repaints our world to teach and to entertain. So let’s do a little of that shall we?
In Doctor Who, the Doctor is the only one of his kind (in most of the episodes), can exist at any point in time, and has two hearts. I would argue that his character is an eccentric depiction of the God of our universe. The bible suggests that God exists outside of time, so he exists and is present throughout it. That He is the only true God and is alone in this distinction. Lastly, according to the bible, God created Adam in his image. When he made Eve, he took Adam’s side out and put it into Eve to give Eve life. Could that have been that Adam had a second Heart that was given to Eve? That is a romantic idea, but I don’t have more than the idea. You see some parallels though.
That is only one example. And yes, there are many ways that fiction separates from reality. From alien landscapes, to non existent creatures, to magical abilities. They all have some level of grounding in our world though, there are limits to what our minds can create.
There are fans who make religions out of works of fiction. This is a product of a deep desire to connect to something bigger than ourselves. That is commonly described as a God shaped hole, that a person longs to fill with something.
Well that’s all the time I have today. I hope to cover more writing related subjects very soon.
Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.
Bumper stickers are here
The Sage of Hytrae bumper stickers are in. I will be selling these at my booth for $1, or giving them away with book sales. Headed into town now to setup.
Day one is done
First day at OTD is over, and it was a hot one. I enjoyed talking to the several visitors I had today. Since it’s a school night I shut down a little early to get the kids home and in bed. Tomorrow I hope to be open from about noon and into some of the later hours.
Here’s a picture of the booth!