Thread: Ted Chiang
View Single Post
Old 01-11-2017, 01:36 PM   #1
MikeWaters
Demiurge
 
MikeWaters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 36,363
MikeWaters is an unknown quantity at this point
Default Ted Chiang

Just read "Stories of your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang. Collection of sci-fi short stories. Really liked it. A lot of religious themes in it. For a minute, I was entertaining the idea that maybe this guy is Mormon. But that is not the case (at least not in 2002). One of his stories in this collection was the basis for the film "Arrival."

https://www.sfsite.com/09b/tc136.htm

Quote:
I wasn't raised in any religion, so I don't have the love/hate relationship with it that many people do. When I was younger I had a vague belief in God that I'd acquired through cultural osmosis, but I'm currently an atheist. I think religion is interesting, but primarily in an abstract way. I haven't encountered a solution to the question of innocent suffering that I find satisfactory, and perhaps that prevents me from finding religion really compelling. I wonder if I'm fortunate, in a way; there are people who are also frustrated by the problem of innocent suffering, while still feeling a strong belief in God. That seems to me to be a difficult position to be in. Which is what "Hell is the Absence of God" is all about.
MikeWaters is offline   Reply With Quote