As we've mentioned on occasion, God doesn't tend to turn up too often in Science Fiction, and when He does, it's as likely as not in the form of a slam on Him by some militant atheist. Christians, too, have their hangups in this regard. There's a tendency to make God play by our own sectarian rules in fiction. Either way, God tends to be used to illustrate preconceptions: If you're an atheist, then God will be used as a plot device to confirm things you already believed.
I don't think it would be possible to overstate the influence Philip K. Dick had on my religious outlook. We've made a lot of references to this, and his own odd religious experiences on the site, but here's a comic strip (By R. Crumb!) which tells the story in PKD's own words: http://www.philipkdickfans.com/weirdo/weirdo1.htm Please note that the "Tess" featured in the comic is our own Tessa Dick, longtime friend of our site, and an occasional contributor.
I saw Blade Runner in '83, like everyone else, so I'd heard the name and stumbled across one or two of his short stories, but I didn't really *discover*
Seriously, am I the only one who feels like the writers have sort of lost their bead on him, and the character has completely crapped out as a result? Pretty much ever since his trial - actually during the trial - the writers seemed to loose a solid concept on what to do with the man, so they quickly turned him in to an ineffectual Hugh Heffner-like cult leader, where he spouts new-agey twaddle like this by way of sermonizing:
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