h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Dmitri! Yes, I think this is quite a problem, people writing religion into something without understanding the religion in question. The big thing to remember is that people in a religion generally do actually believe what they say they do ... religions are not all 'cool' and 'with it' ... at the same time they are not all joyless, small-minded and authoritarian either. There is right now a particular climate of disrespect towards religion from certain quarters ... so indeed a 'realistic' portrayal of religion in fiction (or movies or tv) is perhaps particularly necessary right now.

By the way I tried to look up what the Buddha said about the plausibility of scenarios and came across an article suggesting an influence from Buddhism on the Greek philosophy of Pyrrhonism, a most refreshingly anti-dogmatic scepticism - contrasted with the science-dogmatic/everything-else-questioning scepticism of today ... forgetting (or perhaps not quite appreciating) the fallibilism that supposedly should guide scientific inquiry.

I take your point - you're right, of course. Many religions, when properly practised, encourage inquiry and healthy skepticism. Those who don't, are probably being misused by some demagogue.

And I think you're right about the current trend toward 'science', myself. Most of these 'scientific' folk are not being scientific. They're just parroting factoids. That's, er, just a new kind of web-based superstition.

Real science is about knowing what you don't know, and trying to figure out a way to test a hypothesis - otherwise, you're just quoting Aristotle/Newton/Richard Dawkins/some guy you met in a chatroom.