For this post, I wanted to focus on the relationship between religion and the implications that moving to and colonizing a new world would have on that world. This comes up in the second chapter when Easter rolls around: “One Sunday morning the Christians abroad, numbering a dozen or so, celebrated Easter in the bubble dome” (51). On one hand, religion will be an issue in the novel as a tool to divide the group. This is because the group has some people that are religious and some that don not which will create factions amongst the group. I can also see the group having to make some big moral calls throughout the novel because it is a novel and will need these kinds of developments. I think also that people who are religious just have a totally different reality than people who are not. Being religious holds you to a different set of moral absolutes that will probably affect decision making. I also think it will be important because they have already mentioned it this early in the novel.

The other aspect of religion that I think will become an issue throughout the novel is that the novel focuses on science changing our reality as humans. It seems like religious people are affected in one way or another almost every time science makes a big discovery so I suspect science and religion will be at odds for parts of this novel as well. I think that People have had Earth as a natural home forever and using Mars as a new home will seem outside of god’s plan for some. I think that there is some potential for things going wrong or the group having trouble initially colonizing the planet as it has not been done before. These issues might be attributed by the religious element of the group as happening because god does not wan the trip to be successful. I’ve also been watching a lot of Walking Dead recently, so maybe the group is forced to leave one of the group behind to save the rest of them. This would certainly be a huge moral dilemma and would tie into religion.

I think that potentially when the group is to colonize Mars, then there will be subsequent groups that want to come also. This selection process will almost certainly focus on people that have the means to afford a flight there or maybe will focus on people who are important enough to force a flight to ensure their safety. This will play intot he notion of playing God and more moral conflicts.