The "Fiction" in "Science Fiction"

I had a few things in mind that I wanted to write about, on completely unrelated topics, but the most recent reading I had done immediately prior to writing this is what I decided to write on. Makes sense, write?

Okay, now what was I reading? Alright, strictly speaking the last article I read before this was about looking for the effects of the Curse in space. But beyond that, the main stuff I've been reading for the last several hours has been on things like aliens, Nephilim, science fiction, ancient technology, genetics of humans, and other things relating to all that.

Explaining the Nephilim and aliens, a friend of mine asked me to write out the back story for a game he's working on. The game is about a battle between humans and aliens in space. He wanted the aliens to attack, and he wanted the humans to have super soldiers. Simple enough, I decided; so I began writing this elaborate (that might be an overstatement, but I did go into good detail) history going back thousands of years.

However, almost immediately I noticed a problem. I wanted my story to be used as possible explanations for UFO sightings for all of human history; but in order to do that, the alien race would have had to have been around before the humans. That means I would have to make this story happen in a universe that existed for more than 6,000-10,000 years. Since this is a sub-creation of mine, I can make whatever laws and history I want, but the fact that I had to change the history of our universe to make it fit with what I needed in this story was a very unique learning experience for me.

I ended up adopting and evolutionary like history for that universe in my sub-creation for this game. How else could aliens evolve on another planet and begin exploring earth while the first civilizations were springing forth? Making a history for that universe that required an old earth and no God of the Bible was very strange for me, but I had to remember that I was making a SUB-CREATION, within the confines of my own mind.

The really strange part was in order for any of this story to be true, I had to write it out while arbitrarily defying the laws of observable science that we see in reality. The aliens? They had to evolve from non-life, and that non-living matter had to come from nothing. Same thing with the humans of earth. Now of course, matter coming from nothing and life coming from non-life are both impossible. But, this IS science fiction I'm writing, so what does it matter!

And I already arbitrarily defied the laws of physics in order to make the universe and life in that sub-creation, why stop there? I allowed both that aliens and humans to eventually overcome the "speed of light barrier". Actually, the aliens did so on at least three occasions. During earth's history, the aliens had several civil wars, the biggest of which set them back centuries in technology, meaning they had to rediscover faster then light travel. It was these set backs that allowed the humans to eventually catch up to the aliens and fight on equal ground, even though the aliens originally had faster then light travel approximately 10,000 years before that time.

Another thing I came to realize while creating this sub-creation, this science fiction universe, was that any absolutes were defined by me (as the writer). At the insistence of my friend, I may arbitrarily change any of those absolutes in order to make the  physics and history of that universe fit with what he needs for his game. But of all the absolutes I can define, they obviously include things like physics (in which I already decided life can and needs to come from non-life and faster than life travel is possible), but I am also the only one who can define any moral absolutes in that universe.

In our universe, as it was created by an All Powerful God, He defines all absolutes. That means the laws of physics, mathematics, logic, reason, morals, etc. In this universe I created, this sub-creation, this story, as the creator it is my responsibility to define these absolutes. And obviously, any reasonable story needs absolutes. Why is that? Because we live in a universe that has these absolutes. Also, the most reasonable absolutes in any story are the ones that coincide with the absolutes of reality. That is why, for instance, made gravity operate the same. Without many of these fundamental absolutes, we cannot even comprehend reality, so I therefore borrow much of what I observe here in reality and use it as a foundation for anything I create.

For all these same reasons, a story like mine (requiring an evolutionary worldview) could not be the answer to our reality. The reason my world holds together is because I hold it together in my mind, despite all the inconsistencies that the science in my sub-creation would have to deal with. However, evolution as the origin story for reality requires there be no greater being holding it together; it offers no reason for absolutes like physics, reason, or morals. Even in the evolutionary universe of my sub-creation, I am still an intelligent being holding it together using logic and reason derived from a reality that contains these absolutes.

My whole point about all this? Evolution works great as a plot device; a way of explaining things that are directly against the laws of science. How else could I have aliens? So in the end, evolution makes great science fiction. However, it doesn't make good science. The only universes that molecules-to-man evolution exists in is those that we create in our minds. In reality, it defies the absolutes we observe.

I'm really excited to see what comes of my friends game, but it is also very reassuring that I live in a universe that has absolutes that aren't arbitrarily defied or changed; a universe created by an All Powerful, All Knowing Creator. In this universe, in reality, there are no extra-terrestials, no old earth, no big bang, just logic, reason and science. Knowledge, and the God of Knowledge, the one who knows everything.

He made a universe with a more intriguing history and future then anything I could hope to write.