Stanislaw Lem
Ever read Polish science fiction? What about Polish science fiction written by an atheist, for whom arguing theology with Karol Wojtyla (better known as Pope John Paul II) was a favorite pastime? The author in question is our Atheist of the Week, Stanislaw Lem, born September 12, 1921 in Lwow, Poland. Of Jewish descent, Lem was raised as a Roman Catholic. He was a complete rascal, however, regardless of obligatory familial cultural traditions:
From His official webpage:
…as a young boy I certainly terrorized those around me. I would agree only if my father stood on the table and opened and closed an umbrella, or I might allow myself to be fed only under the table.
Like many of our featured non-theists, Lem reached his coming of age during the tumult of World War II. Despite his Jewish descent, he survived the Nazi Occupation with false documents. As a young adult, he studied the practice of medicine and took occupancy at a scientific institution as a research assistant.
Lem began his writing career in 1946 as a poet. In that same year, his first sci-fi novel, The Man from Mars, was serialized in the Polish magazine New World of Adventures. It is understood that he found sanctuary from Communist censorship in the genre of science fiction, wherein he combined the vast possibilities of space travel with his imagination to espouse philosophy that might otherwise offend the political orthodoxy. He has since embraced the genre as his own (whilst defaming mainstream sci-fi), and has met great success with awards o’ plenty, critical acclaim, and over 27 million books sold in 41 languages. All of this has given him legendary status as one of the sci-fi “greats”. But that’s all numbers! Why the legendary status, you ask?
His work has been described as hard science. Often dark, pessimistic about the limitations of human potency, and full of humorous satire, many threads of philosophy can be found weaving in and out of almost all of his work. He had a low opinion of American sci-fi, which he saw as juvenile and simplistic, catering to popular demand. I think that there may be modicum of wisdom to this opinion, mixed into a sea of conceit. Nevertheless, he sought to set himself apart from mainstream campy sci-fi literature by diving head first into the realm of psychological and philosophical questions that plague the human condition. Contextualized into plots of interstellar travel, first contact, and artificial intelligence, these questions become at least 10 times more interesting, if you’re a geek like me.
Interestingly enough, Lem is an atheist not for empirical reasons, but moral ones.
From celebatheists.com:
“for moral reasons I am an atheist — for moral reasons. I am of the opinion that you would recognize a creator by his creation, and the world appears to me to be put together in such a painful way that I prefer to believe that it was not created by anyone than to think that somebody created this intentionally”
That might seem to be a bit irrational. I think so. He was “raised with the scientific outlook”, but that does not mean he was exceptionally rational. In fact, he was a bit of a technophobe, criticizing television and the internet in an interview. However, maybe this makes his writing more interesting, as he was able to understand science well, yet give wisdom on it’s potential corruptibility.
Stanislaw Lem passed away on March 27, 2006, at 84 years old.
