VALIS and Later Novels by Philip K. DickIn the novel "Divine Invasion" (#3 of 4 in this collection), we have the retelling of the historical moment of Christ's incarnation in science fiction terms with the limited understanding that an unbeliever would have in these matters.
It is an alternate future in which the Earth is ruled by a global government made of a coalition of two major factions. One faction is the Catholic-Islamic Church sharing power with the Scientific Legate, the other faction. The S.L. is a trans-statist power controlling at least half of the Earth, an alliance led by the Communists.
This Earth under totalitarian control is slowly colonizing the nearby star systems. A female colonist is impregnated by an alien being, but the offspring is fully human. She is assisted by an unwilling fellow colonist to return to Earth with her unborn child. The powers of Earth notice her arrival through the stellar frontier immigration checkpoint and immediately want the child dead.
Here is a passage that displays the moral corruption of these powers among other things (Linda Fox is some media star whose entertainment package is used to keep the colonists happy in their lonely outposts):
[Quote:]
"If Linda Fox will not decide for the S.L.," Galina said,"why don't you draw her aside and tell her that one day on her way to a concert engagement her private rocket--that gaudy plush thing she flies herself--will go up in a flash of flaming fire?"
Gloomily, Bulkowsky said, "Because the cardinal got to her first. He has already passed the word to her that if she doesn't accept sweet Jesus into her life bichlorides will find her whether she wants to accept them or not."
The tactic of poisoning Linda Fox with small doses of mercury was an artful one. Long before she died (if she did die) she would be mad as a hatter--literally, since it had been mercury poisoning, mercury used to process felt hats, that had driven the English hatters of the nineteenth century into famous organic psychosis.
I wish I had thought of that, Bulkowsky said to himself. Intelligence reports stated that the chanteuse had become hysterical when informed by a C.I.C. agent of what the cardinal intended if she did not decide for Jesus--hysteria and then temporary hypothermia, followed by a refusal to sing "Rock of Ages" in her next concert, as had been scheduled.
On the other hand, he reflected, cadmium would be better than mercury because it would be more difficult to detect. The S.L. secret police had used trace amounts of cadmium on unpersons for some time, and to good effect.
"Then money won't influence her," Galina said.
"I wouldn't dismiss it. It's her ambition to own Greater Los Angeles."
Galina said, "But if she's destroyed, the colonists will grumble. They're dependent on her."
"Linda Fox is not a person. She is a class of persons, a type. She is a sound that electronic equipment, very sophisticated electronic equipment, makes. There are more of her. There will always be. She can be stamped out like tires."
"Well, then don't offer here very much money." Galina laughed.
"I feel sorry for her," Bulkowsky said. How must it feel, he asked himself, not to exist? That's a contradiction. To feel is to exist. Then, he thought, probably she does not feel. Because it is a fact that she does not exist, not really. We ought to know. We were the first to imagine her.
Or rather--Big Noodle had first imagined Fox. The A.I. system had invented her, told her what to sing and how to sing it; Big Noodle set up her arrangements...even down to the mixing. And the package was a complete success.
Big Noodle had correctly analyzed the emotional needs of the colonists and had come up with a formula to meet those needs. The A.I. system maintained an ongoing survey, deriving feedback; when the needs changed, Linda Fox changed. It constituted a closed loop. If, suddenly, all the colonists disappeared, Linda Fox would wink out of existence. Big Noodle would have canceled her, like paper run through a paper shredder.
[Unquote.]
[Here is another passage from a conversation during the long journey to earth:]
"The Torah is the Law?" Herb said.
"It is more that the Law. The word 'Law' is inadequate. Even though the New Testament of the Christians always uses the word 'Law' for Torah. Torah is the Creator's instrument. With it he created the universe and for it he created the universe. It is the highest idea and the living soul of the world. Without it the world could not exist and would have no right to exist. I am quoting the great Hebrew poet Hayyim Nahman Bialik who lived from the latter part of the nineteenth century into the mid-twentieth century. You should read him sometime."
"Can you tell me anything else about the Torah?"
"Resh Lakish said, 'If one's intent is pure, the Torah for him becomes a life-giving medicine, purifying him to life. But if one's intent is not pure, it becomes a death-giving drug, purifying him to death.'"
The two men remained silent for a time.
"I will tell you something more," Elias said. "A man came to the great Rabbi Hillel--he lived in the first century, C.E.--and said, 'I will become a proselyte on the condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot?' Hillel said, 'Whatever is hateful to you, do not do it to your neighbor. That is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary; go and learn it.'" He smiled at Herb Asher.
"Is the injunction actually in the Torah?" Herb Asher said. "The first five books of the Bible?"
"Yes. Leviticus nineteen, eighteen. God says, 'You shall love your neighbor as a man like yourself.' You did not know that, did you? Almost two thousand years before Jesus."
"Then the Golden Rule derives from Judaism," Herb said.
"Yes, it does, and early Judaism. The Rule was presented to man by God Himself."
"I have a lot to learn," Herb said.
"Read," Elias said. "'Cape, lege,' the two words Augustine heard. Latin for 'Take, read.' You do that, Herb. Take the book and read it. It is there for you. It is alive."
As their journey continued, Elias disclosed to him further intriguing aspects of the Torah, qualities regarding the Torah that few men knew.
[Unquote.]
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