Church in Space

In which the 3-Ds make their brains hurt pondering some of the unponderable ethical issues in popular science fiction. Star Trek, of course, did this almost weekly -- especially on Voyager with such memorable examples as the Tuvix conundrum, or the right to suicide for Quinn. (Trigger Warning: Quinn's example leads to an extended discussion on the secular and religious quandary on taking one's own life.) And in our age of emerging ...

In honor of college football championship week, the 3-Ds honor the untimely demise of the PAC 12 by talking about conference realignment.  Not the football kind, though; that would totally confuse Dan. Instead, it’s all about realigning sci-fi franchises and religion: which Biblical characters could combine with aliens and modern humans to make even more exciting adventures among the stars?

Could Jonah cope with space whales?

Could...

In which hope springs Eternals as the 3-Ds discuss their reasons for optimism, in real life and in sci fi. It's a counter to today's popular doomsday attitude of "Everything is awful; we're all going to die." Even when it's overtly pessimistic and dystopian, sci fi still maintains an undercurrent of optimism. But Pastor Dave is hopeful humanity will be "Saved by science and Jesus."

Then a game of sci fi "what if" ensues. For exampl...

In which the 3-Ds discuss the times science fiction gets the portrayal of religion wrong. From H.P. Lovecraft to Doctor Who, even the most legendary sci-fi sometimes stumbles when it comes to the faith journey. And what would an episode be without Dan doing a diatribe dissing poor world-building? It'd be about 15 minutes shorter, that's what.

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For more of our shenanigans, be sure to follow us on Twitter! We're @churchn...

In which 2-Ds try to convince 1-D that the Bible hints God is a dragon. While Pastor Dave admits no one knows God's true form, his skepticism over Drew and Dan's thesis is unwavering. Kind of like the unwavering stubbornness of a...dragon?

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For more of our shenanigans, be sure to follow us on Twitter! We're @churchnspace.

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Credits:

Editor Extraordinaire: Cathy Rinella of Merodi Media

Co-Producers & Co...

In which the 3Ds are in a New York state of mind. They wax romantic about the end of humanity, and realize most sci-fi movies and fire-and-brimstone preachers have it wrong when they portray the Apocalypse. History has proven that most people will simply go about their business as usual. New York City proved it earlier this summer; as the thick haze of wildfires blanketed the Big Apple...nothing changed. New Yorkers put on masks an...

In which the 3Ds hold The New Cinematic Universe Draft. As DC continues struggling to create a viable movie franchise, and Marvel's formula grows tiresome, we dive into past sci fi to find fertile ground for new franchises. Amongst the many possibilities, Dave, Drew, & Dan discuss resurrecting Alien, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Futurama, Kings, Lost in Space, and a seminal work from Robert Heinlein (most decidedly NOT Starship Trooper...

In which the 3-Ds come up with half-baked ideas for both science fiction and religion -- ideas which it's very clear neither Dave, Drew, nor Dan have thought through. In other words, you hear them in their natural state.

Their ideas are all over the map: from a Star Trek series about the Earth-Romulan War (okay; that one's pretty decent) to a hard-hitting drama based on Church in Space (uhm...). Listen in and gloat. After all, yo...

Politicians and pundits paint Artificial Intelligence as an existential threat to humans. It's just a bunch of sophisticated code right now: programmed to seem intelligent, but what happens when the programmed fakeness becomes genuinely sentient? At what point should AI have rights?

The 3-Ds debate. Along the way, they discover the ethical flaw in the Star Wars franchise when it comes to droids; realize that the biggest existenti...

Pastor Dave has one question for the 3-Ds: are you certain? Each D must answer twice -- once asking if they're certain about something in the Bible, and once about something in science fiction. Unless the two overlap, like when the ending of Lost revealed that everyone on the island was actually in Purgatory the whole time. Like the final episode of Seinfeld, it was an ending so bad that Dave is still recovering from the trauma.

W...

Fresh from the Red Planet, we are greeted by our first ever guests. Julia & Kate add their distinctiveness to our own as we are driven to answer the question: Could you survive Order 66? As usual, our drive wanders down several off-ramps, including multiple manifestations of space whales, and a fleeting flirting with the populace's passion for Pedro Pascal.

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Winter is coming. And so is the final episode of our game of A Quiet Year.

So much is unresolved. How can our hardy band of Lutherans survive with the rutabaga crop devastated, and only a box of lowing Twinkies to eat? Is the only way to solve thefts on the Martian railroad to build more suspension bridges? And which Hollywood producer will green light the latest biblical epic from colonist Cecil B. DeMars? Oh, and we learn an act...

"We struck oxygen, boys!"

All seems well in the Lutheran colony in our third installment of A Quiet Year. Indeed, the game play goes well enough that our spacey Lutherans decide to build a brewery, and the Pope sends a Catholic contingent. Pastor Dave and Dan rejoice, but Drew has perfidy on his mind: there's a predator on the prowl, and the excommunicated engineer engineers an insidious return. Who will stop his senseless waste ...

Murder. Mystery. Mayhem. And suspension bridges!

The tension and drama Lutherans face as they colonize Mars reaches a fever pitch in Part 2 as we play The Quiet Year. In this episode, the domed city of New Augustana must repel an invading army from the dome next door. Will the Methodists cooperate? Why is the corpse of Martin glowing, even as Frasier and Niles decide it will make a great lighting fixture? And just what role can r...

We're back! Season 2 finally launches after a long hiatus: going underground to escape the Shadow Bishop, Drew and Dan performing with Figrin D'an on his intergalactic concert tour as a covert cover, and rescuing Pastor Dave from the Spa of Innumerable Unpleasures. (Drew and Dan will post recovered audio from their SighOps debriefs as the season goes on.)

In this episode: live play! We begin Season 2 with actual play of The Quiet Y...

In which Pastor Dave and Drew desperately try to make Dan an acolyte of baseball.  They try pointing out that it's a Calvinist game, that you can be really out of shape to play (even professionally), and that there's a whole lot of physics and math involved.  Will Dan be drawn in to this Cult of Sport?  Or is he simply too far down the path of Nerdom to ever succumb? On the way, Dan learns that American football may well be the wi...

In which the 3Ds ponder the presence of aliens influencing human development in ancient times.  Does the Bible document ETs amongst the prophets?  On the way, we learn that Pastor Dave would make the universe's absolute worst Starfleet officer, who even now would feel much more comfortable in the Dark Ages.  Meanwhile, Drew and Dan shudder at the possibility that the solution to the Fermi Pardox is simply that humans are the oldest...

In which the 3Ds debate the merits of hard versus soft science fiction -- and wonder which type each of the Gospel writers would be fan boys of.  Along the way, we learn that whoever wrote Matthew really didn't understand the point of poetry; the need for Bryce Dallas Howard and Leah Thompson to direct more sci fi (a lot more, please!); Alan Tudyk is the perfect anti-star; and Dan is disgusted at the utter and complete lack of scie...