The Terminal Experiment Q4: Larger Questions

Apocryphal

This novel covers a lot of ground, including evidence for a human soul, which in turn implies the existence of God or at lead a greater, unseen power. It discusses abortion, and organ donation, things which now seem fairly resolved perhaps to us, but weren't at the time. And then there's the powers and dangers of the net, and the transfer of human minds to the net via scans to generate a sort of AI.

Would you guess Sawyer was a religious man? If yes, which faith, do you think?

RichardAbbott

That's a really good question. Being in the process of reading Hominids my guess is that he has Catholic sympathies, but is acutely aware of problems within said faith (as indeed, many Catholics are). But one of the refreshing things about his books is the acceptance of a religious dimension to life without it being automatically presumed to be corrupt or naive.

kcaryths

I got pretty annoyed by the fact that instantly there was a leap to "Well that's a soul!" from those who were involved in the project. There were all kinds of other intermediary steps that I would have expected from individuals in that field. I would say it was the biggest sticking point for me and threw off the believability of the entire novel moving forward. Almost like he wasn't interested in the discussion on what if it was something mundane, but rather that it must have been something "beyond" as that was the playground he wanted to explore.

I have no idea what his personal beliefs are though it felt western judeochristian to me. Now that could be my own cultural biases showing up.

clash_bowley

I wouldn't hazard a guess as to his religious orientation. I'm usually wrong about that! I very much enjoyed the discussion though!

BarnerCobblewood

Have no idea of his views then or now. Thought the discussion would now be considered clickbait, although that I don't think that was the intention, or would have occurred to anyone at the time.

Apocryphal

He is apparently not a religious person, though I thought it seemed likely he was.

RichardAbbott

@Apocryphal said:
He is apparently not a religious person, though I thought it seemed likely he was.

In that case he does a pretty good job of writing decently about religious persuasion!