I've actually read the Lewis books - well, the first two (from three), but I found the writing so dreary and the Xtianity so overt (preaching, if not proselytising) that I couldn't bear to progress further. Disappointing.
However, these were written as science-fiction, not gospel <g>. I don't think anyone worships based on them, nor is that their point. Nor, IMO, does the relatively wide thinking of one recent author trying adult fiction (as opposed to the Narnia series) really convince me that the Biblical standpoint is superseded...
My point is that the 'universe' of the Bible, as it relates to life, implicitly assumes that 'life' is only on Earth - otherwise one has Heaven or Hell, inhabitants of neither such being truly alive. The pagan survivals you mention were classed somewhere between humanity and demonkind, and from what I've read where taken as belonging to the latter - soulless.
And whether you are Christian or not, the basic Xtian claim is that 'God so loved the world that he sacrificed his only son to give us - mankind - the chance of redemption'. Would you not concede that this DOES mean that humanity is the apple of some divine eye... unless a lot of other little godlets are being sacrificed somewhere out there.
Or maybe we're especially bad, the most evil or unfortunate race in the universe, so merit such help... so any and every alien race must be rather nice <g> which is quite a nice thought, IMO. Or we're completely alone in the universe, which possibly is not. |
