Talk:Faith of Our Fathers (short story)

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Hmm. This is one of the most challenging and distubing stories in the small sub-genre of religious science fiction, and deserves a more thorough article, particularly since Dick himself relates it to his loss of faith, and that it also prefigures his later religious epiphany.

What does it mean to say the God of "Faith of our Fathers" is "evil"? Dick implies strongly in the story that the Leader is revealed to be either God or, at the very least a demiurge, rather than simply some alien creature. The horrific theme of this story questions our assumption that an all-powerful, all-knowing being would have our best interests at heart. This is what the story is about; using the word "evil" here trivialises the doubt and fear and moral concerns that are at the heart of this story.

Dick would later revisit this theme in Rautavaara's Case, where the God of the aliens in that story is not God the shepherd, but God the top predator, and the aliens are horrified by the, to them blasphemous, sacrament of the eucharist. Dick has the aliens say:

"They drink the blood of their God; they eat his flesh; that way they become immortal. To them, there is no scandal in this. They find it perfectly natural. Yet to us it is dreadful. That the worshiper should eat and drink its God? Awful to us; awful indeed. A disgrace and a shame-an abomination. The higher should always prey on the lower; the God should consume the worshiper."

-- The Anome 09:53, July 15, 2005 (UTC)

Quote citation

If anyone has a copy to hand, that quote (about offending many people) is included in one of the collections of short stories published in the UK (I understand different publications exist in the US) where relevant quotes are published at the end of the book. My copy is a few weeks away from me at present, can someone else cite in the mean time? I'll look it up when I get back to my parents, but don't delete it in the meantime Alastairward 11:50, 7 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]