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| "I've been infected by the plague! Unclean, unclean!" |
In Dr. Gregory Benford’s novel The Stars in Shroud, humanity has been infected by the Quarm plague, a devastating psychological disorder that forces people to draw into themselves, lock themselves away in their homes, and in some cases even dig holes in the ground to hide in. Ling, who suffered through the plague but emerged whole, has traveled to the planet Veden, whose Hindic population seems immune to the disease. Yet, cut off from his family, as well as Sabal, the game that functions as the heart of his religion, he takes Rhandra as a lover and tries to see if other spiritual ways than his beloved Sabal are open to him. Sadly, the Temple of the Madi, the pinnacle of Hindic culture, seems decadent to him, and he is rebuffed when he attempts to join one of the religious groups in the city of Kalic.
At night, he worries that he has abandoned his family back on Earth to no purpose. In his dreams, his wife Angela, and his children Chark and Romana are hiding in holes in the ground.
With Sabal, once such a fulfilling aspect of his spiritual life, having failed to protect him from the Quarm plague, and with incidents of violence and mental illness rising on Veden, he begins to see religion as little more than social glue: useful for holding society together, but little else. What then can fight off the Quarm plague? His investigations at a dead end, he delegates more work to his assistants, and lives a more isolated existence with Rhandra. Hungry for sensation and meaning, he goes on wild romps across untamed areas of the planet. Here was excitement, where legendary beasts lived, and “giants who sucked in the thick air and broke men like eggs.” Here was meaning, real and tangible: the fight for one’s life. As Ling describes it:
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| Life on the edge... |
“In the jungle we surprised something and, rather than retreat, followed the sounds of its thrashing. It was a scorpion, two meters long with a curled stinger like a deer horn. It could run as fast as a horse. I shot to the side of it three times and then had to put a bolt into the scampering legs. Rhandra took a long time getting to sleep that evening.”
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| ...can be fulfilling for awhile. |
These adventures, as exciting as they are, suggest no strategies for fighting off the Quarm plague. Fleet operations slow down or stop as the psychological disease infects more and more worlds. Then a man on Veden of weak religious background and with few family ties is diagnosed with the plague. The alien disease begins to spread across the planet.
While aspects of one’s spiritual life, such as meditation and prayer, can function perfectly well in isolation, religion is built around the communal experience. The truth is that sometimes we need a change. While Ling is searching for something to replace his beloved Sabal, I question his decision that the Temple of the Madi offered nothing but decadence. Clearly the participants were gaining something from the teachings, practices, and interactions that occurred there. Yet Ling was looking for something that would fill the void inside him in the exact same way that Sabal had. So many religions, and even individual schools or denominations within religions exist because they address our spiritual needs in a different fashion. Just as those within a group must embrace a newcomer’s differences, so those looking for fulfillment and enlightenment must embrace a group’s differences. Otherwise, union cannot take place, and spiritual needs cannot be met.
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| I search out a new church, and a new experience. |
When the brand of religion that we grew up with loses meaning for us, it is tempting to think that all flavors or brands are the same. But seeing religion as devoid of meaning, as mere social glue, will not fill the void we feel. Those who seek fulfillment and enrichment must not only search for it, but also be willing to embrace something that they might have rejected in the past. As Captain Kirk put it, one must “boldly go” where one has not gone before.
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