Post play let down / DUNE/ Religion

OK, so Music Man ended on Sunday, we worked at the strike until evening, and then I went home and got sick. Missed two days of work, sicker than I have been in a long time. I went to work yesterday, and went home. I had a couple of things I should have done, but I'm not up to 100% yet. So all I've accomplished this week is catching up on laundry, and watching several DVDs, one of which was DUNE.

Last night the post play let down hit me. I know that it is normal, so it doesn't worry me. I'll be attending two parties this weekend and seeing friends at both and that will help.

And speaking of DUNE, the 2001 miniseries, if memory serves, completely avoids the term "Jihad". The life and religion of the "Fremen" in the story has so much Islam in it, that when I originally read the novel a number of years ago, I had to look several of the arabic words up to find out what they meant. Now we are much more aware of things, and evently afraid to use the word "Jihad", now that most people know what it means.

Science Fiction and Religion have often crossed lines. I haven't read all of the DUNE books, but I know one is called, "God Emperor of Dune", or something like it. Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land", is full of Christian religious images, and was amazingly inflential on me when I was a teenager. Asimov crossed over to write on the Bible, and his questions about the nature of life and existance let to some pretty cool Science Fiction stories. In "Ghostbusters", Gozer asks the boys, "Are you a god?", and Revelation is quoted. Both Science Fiction and Religion deal with hope and the future. Scientology and L.R.Hubbard are another case in point. Mormonism is a religion started by a visitor from space. I think Mary Baker Eddy wrote a Science Fiction Trilogy called "The Centaur Factor", which consisted of "The Centaur Centurian", "Centaur Riders of Precrasator", and "Battlefield Boston". Well, I made that up. But C. S. Lewis, one of the 20th century's greatest religious writers wrote a pretty decent S-F trilogy.

All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there.
For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

I know why people got on ships to come to the new world. It was to keep hope alive even if they died trying to do so.