Taking Religion Seriously

I've started a re-read of Eifelheim, Michael Flynn's 2006 Hugo-Nominated novel, which I pitched to my book group & discussed on Sunday.  The book flits between 14th century germany and modern grad students (a theoretical physicist and a mathematician essentially trying to do reverse-psychohistory explaining 14th century settlements), and includes alien intruders.  I had forgotten that the main character in 14th century germany is a priest and natural philosopher.  When mysterious lightning crackles through the town, a minorite monk and most of the villagers fear demons and the devil, but it's the priest (Father Dietrich) who remembers the generation of static electricity with fur and amber, and seeks natural explanations.

I commented during my read of Ancillary Justice that I was very happy to see the religious rituals in Radch culture, rituals which did at times play out in how people viewed the world.  Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon features an older ghul-hunter whose magic works as an expression of his faith and knowledge.  Books (speculative fiction and otherwise) that take religion seriously as an important feature of the world not necessarily in opposition to science exist, but they can be hard to find.

So recently, enthused by the natural philosophical ruminations of father Deitrich, I tweeted out:

In all seriousness, working hard at reconciling faith and science is more difficult & rewarding than trying to sever them.
— Jonah Sutton-Morse (@jsuttonmorse) September 8, 2014

I know that there's a long history in western thought that aligns science and religion as polar opposites.  I'd be interested in having someone who knows more than I do outline where this came from, what sustains it now, and whether this dichotomy exists in cultures outside of the western european tradition.  There are a few books (Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow comes to mind, and maybe A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, though it's been a while since I read it) that take on the roles of religion and ritual pretty directly.  The (few) arab-inspired books I've read (Throne of the Crescent Moon mentioned above, When Gravity Fails and Desert of Souls) all show practices, garb, and beliefs as elements of the worldbuilding.

This post is, I guess, an invitation to discussion if anyone's interested.  Where does the notion that religion and science must be at each other's throats come from? Are there speculative fiction books that bridge this divide? Harden it? Why are so many books simply silent on either regular weekly rituals or religious beliefs and practices? Is there a place in speculative fiction to bridge the divide between science and religion? And do non-western books and stories do this better?

I'll dive back to the question from time to time, but if anyone else wants to chime in, I'd love to see a conversation about this.

Midyear Reading

Since the year is half over, let's take a look at my goals for the year and see how I'm doing ...

• Read 12 books for my monthly book group
• Read 6 academic nonfiction books
• Read 6 books in translation
• Read 12 books of fiction, 1/2 by women, 1/2 SFF
• 1/2 women, min goal, 1/2 SFF max goal
• Read 50 books

(I've missed one book on book group so far.  I'm also enjoying jumping back into SFF and reading authors I haven't encountered before, so I won't be unhappy if over 1/2 my reading is SFF)

And the current list from Goodreads:

• Persuasion, by Jane Austen (Fiction, Woman, Book Club)
• Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Fiction, Woman)
• Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George B. Dyson (Nonfiction, Book Club)
• Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic (Fiction, Translation)
• Crossroads of Twilight, Knife of Dreams, Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, A Memory of Light all by Robert Jordan or Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson, the end of my Wheel of Time re-read.  (Fiction, SFF) 5 books
• The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt (Nonfiction, Book Club)
• Fire with Fire by Charles E. Gannon (Fiction, SFF, Nebula award nominee)
• King Rat by James Clavell (Fiction, book club)
• An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield (Nonfiction)
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Nonfiction, Book Club)
• The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones (Fiction, SFF)
• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (Nonfiction)
• The Martian by Andy Weir (Fiction, SFF)
• Stardust by Neil Gaiman (Fiction, SFF)
• The Absolute Sandman Vol 1 by Neil Gaiman (Fiction, SFF)
• Charlemagne: From the Hammer to the Cross by Richard Winston (Nonfiction)
• Dawn by Octavia Butler (Fiction, SFF, Woman)
• The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch (Fiction, SFF)

22 books.  16 Fiction, 6 Nonfiction, 12 SFF.  Of the fiction, 3 written by women, only 1 of the SFF written by women. (Also probably worth noting only 2 written by a person of color as far as I know)

1 book in translation.  No academic nonfiction. 12 of the 16 fiction books are SFF.  22/50 books.

I take some consolation that my currently reading pile includes Women Destroy Science Fiction, and I just picked up Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, but Wheel of Time re-read skewed stats or not, this is a bit of a disappointment.  Still, I'm looking forward to re-reading some N. K. Jemisin later this year when her series is re-issued, and I've just discovered the wonder of Octavia Butler, so not a total loss. 

Favorite books thus far:

Dawn, and I actually quite enjoyed the end of Wheel of Time even if it drags in places.  Nothing else particularly interesting in the list, though.
(I will say that I'm right now working through a short story anthology: "Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History" and it's simply fantastic.