The Relationship Between Religion and Suffering in Science Fiction
This article is a short paper analyzing the relationship between religion in Dune by Frank Herbert and in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Worth noting there may be some spoilers for both novels.
As far as I can tell, Medium doesn’t have a system for footnotes so I’ve included a section at the bottom of the article with all the footnotes throughout the paper linked to it. The footnotes are mainly offhand comments and extra information; the citations are in line.
Enjoy reading!
Table of Contents
An Introduction
I’ll start by saying: I am not an avid science fiction (SF from here onwards¹) reader. Despite that, I’ll be examining perhaps the most popular SF novel, Dune by Frank Herbert, along with Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dune is actually one of the first proper SF novels I’ve read, having mainly stuck to fantasy in years past, so I hope I’ll be able to bring a fresh perspective to a novel that’s surely already been beaten to death. On the matter of perspective, I feel the necessity to give some background about myself. As I’ll be examining the relationship between religion and suffering present in these novels, I will make connections and inquisitions into both religion and suffering in real life. I should disclose that I am no expert in religion but I am opposed to (most) organized religions, though I have had positive experiences with Zen Buddhism.
We are here to learn about what Herbert and Dick can tell us about religion in the futuristic societies they have woven. In each of these novels, there is a religion central to a society that is ripe with suffering. Being the religiomisic person I am (that’s a joke, please don’t cancel me), I logically asked: is it religion that causes human suffering?
The Scope of Religion and Suffering in this Paper
I will not be examining the effects of religion on our society in detail, nor diving deep into the history of various religions. The purpose of this paper is merely to explore the link between religion and suffering specifically in these two novels and their connections to real life. That’s not to say I won’t examine Christianity, but don’t expect quoted Bible verses. As for suffering, I specifically am looking at human suffering, defined as an enduring of “death, pain, or distress” by Merriam-Webster.
A Brief Summary of Dune and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dune is an SF novel set in the year 10,191 telling the tale of a ducal heir’ struggle to survive on a barren desert planet Arrakis and defeat his House’s mortal enemies. The majority of the settled universe is ruled over by an emperor, with various ducal houses scattered throughout. One such house, House Atreides, is forced to desert planet Arrakis by their enemies, House Harkonnen, in an effort to destroy them. Luckily, the Bene Gesserit, a powerful organization of women with superhuman abilities thanks to generations of selective breeding, have spent centuries planting myths and prophecies on Arrakis’ native population, the Fremen. Paul Atriedes, the ducal heir, is the son of Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica, both of whom are trained in the Bene Gesserit ways. After a series of betrayals, House Atreides is destroyed but Lady Jessica and Paul find refuge with the Fremen. Paul is eerily similar to the prophesied messiah the Fremen have come to expect thanks to the Bene Gesserit’s meddling generations prior. He is able to gain leadership of the Fremen as their messiah and leads them to defeat the Harkonnens, and then seizes the emperor’s throne for himself.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a novel set in 2021² where synthetic humans, or androids, are used for slave labor on humanity’s new colony on Mars. After a nuclear holocaust, few people are left on Earth, most having emigrated to Mars, and even fewer animals that haven’t gone extinct. Those left have not emigrated either because they can’t leave their jobs on Earth or because they are disallowed because their brain deterioration due to the fallout is too severe. Androids who escape from servitude on Mars to Earth are identified by a lack of empathy on an empathy test and then killed. Humans pride themselves on empathy and follow Mercerism, a religion centered around a Sisyphus-like figure and keeping a real animal as a pet.
Religion and Suffering in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Now that we have some background on Dick’s world, let’s examine Mercerism in further detail. The novel opens with a short news report on an old turtle dying and the devastation the locals felt. From the beginning the importance of having a real animal in the society of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is emphasized. Because of the fallout, almost all animal species are extinct, meaning owning an animal is reserved for the wealthy. Yet, it is a core tenant of the religion of Mercerism to keep an animal (Dick, 5). Those who do not have an animal are ostracized so most lay-people resort to owning nearly indistinguishable electric animals. Why is having an animal so important? Well, from a cynical standpoint, I would argue that Mercerism was designed to promote, among other things, the importance of caring for animals increased as they began to go extinct. We will explore the fact that Mercerism was designed and not a religion based on reality later. For now, we can talk about how the followers of Mercerism, which is nearly all humans on Earth, justify owning an animal through their religious viewpoints. Lacking an animal “deprive[s] you of true fusion with [Wilbur] Mercer,” the object of worship in Mercerism (Dick, 6). Fusion is the process by which people hold an ‘empathy box,’ which allows them to experience exactly what Wilbur Mercer does as he climbs up a mountain. At any given moment hundreds of people will be fused, all their thoughts and emotions in one collective as they empathetically join Mercer on his journey up the treacherous mountain. How does having an animal affect that? It doesn’t. Nowhere in the rest of the novel is the connection between owning an animal and fusing mentioned. Perhaps this is an oversight by Dick, or Mercerism uses this as an (empty) threat to get more people to own animals. One scholar suspects that owning a living thing is intended to increase empathy (Bashir). Another scholar argues that the role of animals in Mercerism is to kinder more ‘human-like,’ illogical emotions in contrast with the cold, emotionless calculations of the androids (Vint, 2). In this sense, Mercerism seems to stand as a barrier to the fusion of androids and humans. Even as androids become less distinguishable from humans as technology progresses, humans “already are android-like, so long as they define their subjectivity based on the logical, rational, calculating part of human being” (Vint, 2). In an age where humans rely on mood boxes to change their emotions, it seems that the emotional, empathetic, and illogical part of humanity is on the verge of disappearing. While an argument could be made that preventing this blurring of humans and androids is not necessarily bad, there is something depressing at the thought of the bleak, emotionless, purely logical, world that would be. Androids are unable to care for animals (Dick, 59) so encouraging people to keep animals allows Mercerism to provide a backstop to that future. In that sense, Mercerism is alleviating the potential suffering that would come with a world where androids and humans are one³. However, because of the prohibitive cost of owning an animal, many Mercerites live in depression as they sludge through a pain-filled life in the hopes of saving enough for an animal one day (Bashir). This suffering is a part of the human experience that takes great training to overcome. The constant yearning for a different reality causes needless suffering. Stoic schools of thought and Zen Buddhism aim to conquer this with practices such as negative visualization (Waking Up), but as a practitioner, I can attest to its difficulty. Therefore, I do not fault Mercerism for this, as there will always be a desire for more, regardless of religion, and overcoming that takes considerable dedication. The animal-owning requirement of Mercerism promotes a more human experience which is commendable, despite some of the ‘natural’ suffering associated with it.
Fusion, however, seems to be in a bit more of a gray area. When one feels positive emotions, they are expected to fuse and share those feelings with everyone else. We see this when one character finally buys a real animal after years of having an electric one, but instead of enjoying the moment, he is forced to fuse to share that happiness (Dick, 77). It’s viewed as “immoral not to fuse with Mercer in gratitude,” yet sharing that joy with others steals it from yourself (Dick, 78). This concept is actually somewhat like emotional communism, where positive emotions are distributed among the masses, resulting in a more normalized distribution of happiness (Dick, 78). There is a strong sense of community-driven altruism here, where people help each other even at the expense of their own happiness. Though there is something odd about surrendering your ‘excess happiness’ to others, one could argue that this leads to overall happier societies with less suffering. But while this may seem to reduce suffering, fusion has more going on.
More than just sharing emotions, everyone experiences Mercer’s climb up the mountain as if they were climbing themselves during fusion. They can feel every bit of pain he does: each rock hurled at him, each cut and scrape. Those fused will feel the pain and start bleeding too in real life as if they had been struck too. Many older Mercerites even keep doctors on site so that they can be resuscitated after they die due to the stress of Mercer’s climb on their frail bodies, all so they can do it again (Dick). Why do Mercerites put themselves through such suffering willingly? As one follower puts it, despite the pain, they are brought “spiritually together,” from all corners of the Earth (Dick, 78). That togetherness is even more important in the post-fallout world where the population remaining on Earth is minuscule and spread thin. Here we see people voluntarily trade physical suffering for spiritual unity. They use religion as a tool to unite themselves. Again, we find a gray area — does the byproduct of suffering outweigh the benefits of unity?
This question is applicable to both Mercerism and many religions in our world, particularly Christianity given its parallels to Dick’s Mercerism. Mercer is a Christ-like figure in both teachings and actions. Mercer preaches empathy much as Jesus tells us to love thy neighbor. And similar to Jesus’ plunge into Hell after his crucifixion, Mercer falls into a tomb world after reaching the mountain's peak (O’Hara). Mercer actually climbs to the top of the mountain through incredibly harsh conditions, only to fall to his death, before starting at the foot of the mountain and repeating the whole cycle again. This mirrors the Greek King Sisyphus’ punishment of forever pushing a boulder to the top of a hill only for it to roll back down. However, Sisyphus was stuck in that cycle as a punishment. Zeus punished him to discourage other humans from mimicking him (Cartwright). Mercer should presumably have served as a similar warning; instead, people worship him. Then, you would think that the Mercerites would suspect something was wrong if their religious figure was stuck in a loop of suffering. Instead, they all fuse with him so that they too, can experience that suffering. They don’t even try to find a way to free Mercer. In fact, it is only the androids who investigate Mercer and eventually find out that the religion is a hoax, created in a movie studio and replayed on the empathy boxes (Dick). Mercer even admitted this to be a hoax himself and then said to a follower: “nothing has changed. Because you’re still here and I’m still here.” (Dick, 97). This turned out to be accurate; Mercerism lost none of its followers because the suffering and the closeness they feel are still accurate. We see this in the religions in our society as well. English teacher Sasha Jones mentions how religious communities have access to a tightly connected community that non-religious people often lack. To the Mercerites, the closeness they gain through religion far outweighs both the suffering and the truth. In Dune, though, the religion tends to be a bit more intense than requiring pets or opting into some pain.
Religion and Suffering in Dune
Frank Herbert extensively researched religion before writing Dune. He actually chose to set the novel on a desert planet to reflect the desert origins of many religions (Singh, 14). The whole premise behind Dune was that Herbert “felt the need to criticise organised religion, the unquestioning obedience of the masses towards a messiah and the dangers of fanaticism in some adherents” (Singh, 117). Whereas Dick’s Mercerism was far tamer, with the only significant suffering present being self-inflicted, Herbert took it a few steps, actually a few leaps, further.
The origins of the Church of Muad’dib (Dune’s primary religion⁴) are detailed extensively in contrast to Mercerism. Lifetimes before Paul even arrives on Arrakis, the Bene Gesserit have manipulated the native Fremen population, imbuing their own prophecies into the Fremen’s existing religion. As the Gesserit had been undertaking selective breeding for generations by then, they knew that eventually, their program would produce ‘the prophesied one,’ the kwisatz haderach (Herbert). They prophesied as vague details as possible that would still uniquely identify the kwisatz haderach, such as the fact that he will be with his mother or that he will know the ways of natives (Herbert). The prophecies which are fulfilled are used to justify that he is the messiah while those that aren’t fulfilled are discarded. This manipulation sets Paul to take control of the Fremen by becoming the messiah. Liet-Kynes, who initially disregarded the prophecies as nonsense, witnesses a prophecy fulfilled. As he helps adjust Paul’s stillsuit⁵, he realizes that Paul has already worn it perfectly and thinks of the legend: “He shall know your ways as though born to them.” (Herbert, 204). This moment is significant because, despite the fact that other prophecies were never fulfilled, despite the fact that Liet-Kynes is predisposed to be biased against the legends, he still finds this evidence compelling. It only took one fulfillment of a legend to begin to tip the scales of non-believer Liet-Kynes. This is likely because of psychological effects including priming and confirmation bias. Because Liet-Kynes knows the legends, his brain will notice them far more frequently but he will focus on the events that fulfill the prophecies more than those that don’t due to confirmation bias⁶. The greater Fremen population had been suffering under the Harkonnens for years. The glimmer of hope Paul offered was one they immediately seized. The Bene Gesserit are masters of the human mind and are able to capitalize on these weak points to manipulate doubters into believers who would sacrifice their lives for the cause (as Liet-Kynes eventually does). Manipulation is typically seen in a negative light, and even Paul sees it as a “lessening of [a] man” (Herbert, 870). However, I would argue that as long as you are happy, it doesn’t matter if you are being manipulated. Reality is objective after all, and everything you experience is viewed uniquely through your lens. If you are happy and free from suffering, it doesn’t matter how you got there (as long as you did not cause suffering for others). For instance, the ruling class in Dune used religion as “a kind of puppet show to amuse the populace and keep it docile” (Herbert, 920). Keeping the peace reduces the overall suffering in the universe, but religion is a double-edged sword. It can also manipulate people into hurting themselves or others. That doesn’t only include extreme actions like jihad, but can include milder actions like passing legislation forcing a teen mother to bring a child into a world where it isn’t cared for properly and both mother and child suffer. That was a bit pointed given recent anti-abortion pushes by certain Christian groups, so let’s talk more about Christianity and Dune.
The parallels between the religion in Dune and Christianity are no accident. Herbert says: “I wanted to do a book about the messianic impulse in human society [because] […] charismatic leaders […] ought to come with a warning on the package that they‘re dangerous to your health” (Herbert qtd. in Singh, 38). Thus, Herbert blends “Judaism, Christianity and Islamic concepts into a messiah/prophet hybrid” (Singh, 119). Just as Jesus was followed because he was the prophesied messiah (Park), so was Paul. Paul is the messiah who fits their Fremen’s (implanted) legends and saves them from oppressive Harkonnen rule. The Harkonnens imposed great suffering on the Fremen, and under Paul’s leadership, they were able to take their planet back. Religion was used as a tool by which Paul was able to create a following to ultimately relieve suffering. The issue is, the Fremen don’t stop there. After they take back their planet, they turn to the greater universe where they commit jihad, killing 61 billion people and destroying more than 90 planets (Howard). Paul becomes a tyrant, grabbing for more power and becoming the emperor of the universe. This is not different from the Jim Jones cult in real life. Jim Jones originally led Christians as a pastor, using existing Christian beliefs to build credibility much like Paul built him following by twisting the Bene Gesserit’s legends (Howard). As Jone’s following grew, he elevated his power by calling himself divine. Paul didn’t confirm any of the legends himself and only relied on them to survive, but later he declared himself to be the Messiah. Then, using his power, Jones convinced and forced over 900 people to commit murder-suicide. Similarly, the Fremen killed billions who refused to convert to the Church of Muad’dib. Regardless of whether Paul intended for the jihad to happen, there was immense suffering justified by religion. Great suffering was caused by the Fremen under their religion, despite suffering a similar fate previously under the Harkonnens. Religion is an extremely powerful tool that can greatly alleviate or greatly aggravate suffering.
Religion and Suffering — a Conclusion
Karl Marx once famously stated that religion “is the opium of the people” (Marx qtd. in Sing, 23). It can assist in the treatment of various ailments. It can lessen the pain. But it solves little on its own⁷. We have seen religion used to bring people together in the post-apocalyptic world of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? We have seen religion used to unite populations in Dune and remove the tumor of oppression. Like opium, it can alleviate suffering. Paul uses Bene Gesserit’s teachings to calm his mind and conquer his fear, whose foundations lie in Zen Buddhism and Hinduism (Singh, 25). Yet, like opium, one can overdo it and see its effects reversed. One can become addicted to an ideology until one believes it’s the only way of living. The same forces that brought a group closer simultaneously distanced them from others. They can believe they are doing good, even when destroying tens of planets and committing murder-suicide by the hundreds. Religion is an incredibly powerful drug that must be prescribed carefully. Herbert endorses the ability to think critically, looking past the charismatic leader or messiah (Howard). With great power comes great responsibility. Unsurprisingly, then, Herbert endorses Zen Buddhism for its teachings (Singh, 117). It gives you the tools to observe reality as it is without your thoughts and beliefs imposed upon it (Waking Up). Being able to step back and look in from the outside allows you to keep the positive aspects of religion, or any ideology, and reject the rest. Think about why you believe what you do.
Footnotes
- I’ve chosen SF instead of sci-fi not because I’m particularly fond of San Francisco, but instead because many ‘true’ science fiction fans and scholars deem sci-fi to be connotated with “alien … movies and other [similar] trivial entertainments” (Brians). Thus, the preferred abbreviation, SF.
- The novel was written in 1968 and originally set in 1992, but changed to 2021 in later revisions to try to counteract the problem of the novel’s futuristic setting now being in the past.
- While it could be argued that there is no suffering if there is little to no emotion, I won’t go into the philosophy of that for now. In a purely rational world, there would surely be humans harming other humans for calculated ‘the greater good,’ which leads to suffering.
- While the Church of Muad’dib is by no means the only significant religion in the Dune universe, it is the main focus of the first novel. Other relevant religions include the Bene Gesserit Way, but there is far too much to unpack in the Church of Muad’dib alone.
- A full-body suit that collects moisture and recycles it using your body’s motion to preserve almost 100% moisture while in the desert. They are difficult to adjust perfectly in order to achieve maximum efficiency.
- While there is a lot more to be said about these, I can briefly summarize why this occurs. Our brains need to process and disregard most information we receive because of the overwhelming amount of it (think of sounds, sights, sensations, etc). When you are talking to someone you aren’t aware of the feeling of your shirt on your skin (unless you consciously think about it), for example. Therefore, your brain will find patterns to help you quickly decide what to focus on. Your brain will notice and pay attention to things that you have seen before that seem to have some significance, i.e. priming. Additionally, it is uncomfortable to hold two competing viewpoints (called cognitive dissonance), so your brain will subconsciously pay attention to ideas that support your current beliefs, resulting in confirmation bias.
- Its main use beyond being an anesthetic and pain killer is for digestive tract issues (Norn).
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Norn, Svend et al. “Opiumsvalmuen og morfin gennem tiderne” [History of opium poppy and morphine]. Dansk medicinhistorisk arbog vol. 33 (2005): 171–84.
O’Hara, Samuel. “Mercerism and Other Religion.” Mercerism, http://pages.erau.edu/~andrewsa/sci_fi_projects_spring_2018/Project_2_HU_338/O_Hara_Sam/Project_2/Do_android_dream_of_electric_sheep_project_ohara/Mercerism.html.
Park, Jimin. Personal Interview. “Interview on Religion and Suffering in Christianity.” 17 Mar. 2022.
Singh, Sanjana. “Messiahs and Martyrs: Religion in Selected Novels of Frank Herbert’s Dune Chronicles.” University of South Africa, 2012.
“Suffer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suffer. Accessed 17 Mar. 2022.
Vint, Sherryl. “Speciesism and Species Being in ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 40, no. 1, University of Manitoba, 2007, pp. 111–26, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44030161.
