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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Science Fiction and Spiritual Insight

One of the main draws of science fiction is that it can examine ideas outside of their normal cultural context. Hard sf always starts with a "what if" based on science or engineering, which goes something like "What if we had x technology, and how would that change society?" Softer versions of science fiction are basically just set in the future, though.

When we think of spirituality in sf, we usually think of various types of meditation, such as the Litany Against Fear in Dune or the Vulcan mantra against pain in the original Star Trek, or depictions of religious ritual, such as the rituals and customs of different Newcomer religious sects in Alien Nation, the religions of various aliens in Babylon 5, etc. There are religious elements in sf that are obviously drawn from real world religions, such as the obvious Eastern influences on The Force in Star Wars and the depiction of the world as illusion in The Matrix. 

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Better Call Saul!, the highly anticipated Breaking Bad spinoff that scored the best premiere ratings in cable TV history, was really, really depressing.  That’s OK.  It had to be.  Bob Odenkirk’s characterization of Heisenberg’s crooked lawyer was so fascinating that the most compelling aspect of this new prequel was the character’s back story.  Much like Walter White had to do in Breaking Bad, Saul Goodman needed to hit rock bottom in order to turn his life around.

But then, “turning your life around” is a relative term.  We know from the original show that both characters end up making significantly more money than they start with.  Yet what does that success get them?  We also know from Breaking Bad that both characters live a life of constant struggle to stay ahead of the law, ahead of the drug cartels, ahead of Albuquerque’s criminal underworld.  They never get a moment to rest and enjoy the wealth that they create.  The loneliness is painted vividly in the new show's ads:

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Blogging is a funny thing.  You never know which post is going to take off and which is going to sit there.  Sometimes a post comes back from the dead.

Last spring I published this post merging a trope from The Walking Dead with spiritual practice.  It was meant to sum up a series I was doing on science and religion.  The other posts were popular, and I had this cute little thing where I tied one of TV’s most popular shows into my final thoughts on the matter, so I figured that post would get some views.

Nope.  Nobody saw it.  The post died pretty miserably.  But apparently no one stabbed it in the head, because last month it came back to life.

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