Ecology and Dune
Of all popular media, Dune is perhaps the most ripe for discussion pertaining to religion and ecology. The universe of Dune (the 'Duniverse' if you please) looks at a distant-future human empire which sprawls across the stars. In this setting, humans must navigate the hyperspace lanes required for interstellar travel by use of a drug called 'spice' which only comes from the planet Arrakis. In the Duniverse, spice gives its users a kind of prescience where they were able to see many possible futures, allowing them to navigate in space. Since Arrakis is the only planet where spice can be found, it becomes the focal point of the vast empire's economy and power. The native people of Arrakis, the Fremen, are then caught between the various noble houses which comprise the empire. What's most fascinating to me about the Fremen is that they are engaged in a secret effort to transform their planet (naturally a vast desert) into an oasis by hoarding water and introducing plants designed to trap that water into the planet's ecosystem, allowing for the existence of rivers and wetlands. Further, the Fremen people are depicted as being highly ritualistic, focusing their practices around the spice and the giant sand-worms which produce it called 'Shai-Hulud.'
This connects, I believe, to our class discussions namely in our definition of what a religion is. The third part of the definition we use states that religion maintains the cosmos. In the Duniverse, the Fremen interact with their cosmos both on the level of maintaining it (working in accord with Shai-Hulud to become seamless members of the desert) and on the level of transforming and guiding it. The Fremen do not intend to eradicate the desert (which would kill the Shai-Hulud) but to preserve a habitat for them in the deep desert while introducing such ecological changes as would be necessary to create a paradisaical environment for the humans, plants, and animals which inhabit Arrakis alongside Shai-Hulud.
Before I keep going, it is worth noting that the vision of religion in Dune differs from that of the real-world, insofar as Frank Herbert never seems to mention or even so much as imply the existence of a real, active deity. Rather, everything which occurs in the 'Duniverse' can be traced back to human or natural explanations (which, in my opinion, represents a common failure in sci-fi and fantasy to depict religion). Contrarily, in the Christian tradition the work transforming the cosmos could not get off the ground had it not been for the action of the deity. I mention this only to do my due diligence in acknowledging the limits of the comparison. Now, onto the main point!
The reason I believe all this stuff about Dune and the Fremen is noteworthy is in its relation to how at least one real-world religion operates (there could be more but I'm working with what I'm familiar with). The Fremen program of converting Arrakis into an oasis is an eschatological program. Granted, this is not the end of time, but the end of a time, i.e., the time in which the Fremen were desert dwellers barely making a living in a hostile environment. The Fremen are seeking to be delivered from the chaos of the desert; they seek salvation. What is important here is that the Fremen do not take a 'hands-off' approach with regard to their envisioned eschaton, rather, they actively work to realize this vision for themselves and their descendants. In the Christian tradition, I think we see some parallels. In the Gospel of Matthew, speaking of the end of time Christ says: "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matthew 24:14 KJV) and then at the end of the Gospel He commands His disciples, saying:
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:19-20, KJV)
The eschatological vision in the Christian tradition is often framed in agrarian terms. We read in the Gospel of Matthew the following parable:
'Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ” ' (Matthew 13:24-30, KJV)
Christians who obey Christ's commandments to spread the gospel (Matthew 28:19-20) seem to be participating in the work which will result in the coming eschaton (Matthew 13:24-30 and 24:14). Christians, like the Fremen in Dune, are given the chance to cooperate with their deity in the maintenance and transformation of their cosmos.
The beauty of this is that, as far as I can tell, we have in no way lost our ability to shape and transform our own cosmos. We are here, embodied at a particular place and time, and capable as ever to make a difference. Ours may be a situation which seems to be the reverse of the Fremen's (are we headed toward or away from an ecological paradise?) but it is similar in that we can leverage metaphors, symbols, and concrete action to shape the world around us.
Comments
Post a Comment