Unintentionally I found
myself engaged in a string of dystopic novels. These, typically science
fiction leaning what if scenario, books are appealing because, when done well,
they show us something about ourselves and our own assumptions about the world.
I’ve previously noted on these pages a quote (whose reference I can’t remember)
that, in paraphrase says; good fiction is the great lie that tells us the truth
about ourselves. This statement is equally and jarringly true of dystopic
science fiction, especially as the line between hero, villain and foil become blurred
on the pages and within the greater framework of our reading experience.
These stories work because they engage the intellectual and
entertainment centers of our brains but they cannot sustain us completely. Just
as man cannot live on bread alone (from a spiritual, intellectual or
nutritional level) it would be malnutritious to consume science fiction without
heaping portions of real science literature e onto our literary plates.
Dystopias have a reputation for controversy, a
characteristic they share with some popular science books. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins is
one of these controversial titles. However
as Dawkins describes in the preface to TSG the book enjoys the rare distinction
of having transitioned from early accepted orthodoxy toward a growing cultural
controversy.
Today we still live in a time when many Christians would
reject a meal like TSG in their literary diet because Dawkins has a reputation
for being an evolutionist, an atheist and perhaps worst of all, rude!. However
I suspect that many who draw these conclusions haven’t read Dawkins. In the
first 7% of his book you will surely confirm that he is an evolutionist, may
further support that he is an atheist (which he is) though you may see you have
more common ground with his positions than you thought, but I don’t suspect
that you will bolster your conclusion that Dawkins is rude. Instead you will likely realize that he is a
thoughtful and skilled educator and, if given the chance, you may even find
yourself wanting to follow his evidence further, rather than continuously thinking
of reasons to object to it.
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