Religion In Foundation
(isaac asimov)
Write your abstract here. Trope of Religion in Asimov?s Foundation Through the thematically connected ?foundation? series Asimov reworks his ideas about empire, environment, hegemonistic position of human civilizations. SF works as metaphor, commenting on actual conditions in the real world and offering solutions which deserve serious consideration. On a conceptual level, Foundation perceives ?feudalism? and its concomitants, imperialism, military expansionism, political intrigues for power as regressive. Religious revivalism may be used to serve political ends for a short period, but it is finally a self-defeating exercise. As Ankor Jael tells Hober Mallow, ?any dogma based on faith and emotionalism is a dangerous weapon to use on others??? isn?t under our control anymore?. Nuclear power is sold to the neighboring planets in the guise of ?mystical religion?. The gods of nuclear power however cannot ensure continued political and economical stability, for one planet or for the entire Galactic Empire! Religion, like capitalism, is used as a political weapon for colonial expansion, in Foundation as it was in Africa and Latin America in the 19th Century. Societies that are less technologically advanced than Terminus, those using fossil fuels rather than atomic power, are regarded as barbaric, as fit recipients for religious mumbo- jumbo that prepares them for merger with Foundation. Religion is not present in any form on the dying imperial center of Trantor or the future the future epicenter of civilization, Terminus, which are presented in the first two sections of Foundation. In the third section, ?The Mayors?, religion is established not for terminus but for the export to the neighboring planets to facilitate trade in atomic power and consolidate the growing power of the Foundation. The fifth part, ? The Merchant Princes?, represents religion as a spent force, trade alone is strong enough to carry forward colonial expansion. The shift to trade, unsupported by religion, is brought about by Hober Mallow, a Master Trader. Economic forces are a more powerful tool for hegemony & homogenization than religion. The religious system fostered by Salvor Hardin has obvious elements of Christianity. The Prophet Hari Seldon is akin to Christ, a martyr figure, ?a paradisial afterlife is assured to the faithful?, and ?eternal elimination of the sacrilegious?. Priests, high priests and missionaries ensure obedience and inveigle against heresy. They assure the believers that they are in the hands of the ?Great Spirit?, in an obvious echo of Messiah. Though the priest and prince normally work in collusion, ensuring a general belief in the divine right of kingship, in cases of conflict between the two pillars of authority, obedience to the priest ensures salvation to the soul. Asimov presents religion in Foundation as a tool deliberately devised for the specific purpose of trade and colonial expansion. The purpose once served the tool is discarded, and it becomes a spent force. Those who accept the religion fostered by the Foundation are seen as intellectually inferior savages. The residents of Terminus and the diplomats it sends in the guise of high priests do not share the religious beliefs they sell to the credulous, ignorant neighboring planets. The reader, with the author is in a privileged position with Terminus as the focal point. The reader is not expected to spare any sympathy for the ignorant savages who succumb to superstition, who have no choice but to accept the ?Guiding light? of the superior power of the Foundation. SF has used religion in a variety of ways. In contrast to the use of religion by Asimov in Foundation, Frank Herbert in Dune portrays religion as a positive force use to unite the indigenous people in a successful insurrection against a hated imperial power. ?Religion in SF? can thus be seen in a multiple ways, as a positive and constructive force as well as a tool employed cynically to further political ends.
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