The Kuzari and Science Fiction

A while ago, I read Off Armageddon Reef, a science fiction novel by David Weber. In this novel (no spoilers here), set a few hundred years in the future, humanity is hunted to near extinction by an alien race known as the Gbaba. Even hidden colonies in distant star systems were discovered and destroyed by the Gbaba. Eventually, the remaining humans realize that the reason the Gbaba were able to find the hidden colonies was because of the radio emissions that they emitted. If any future colonies were to survive, they reasoned, they would have to be radio-silent to the extreme.

As a result, a new colony was set up on a planet that they named Safehold. The eight million colonists of Safehold agreed to have their memories wiped and to live a life without advanced technology. The colonists wake up one morning on Safehold, believing they've been created by a god. The "archangels" (the planners/administrators of the colonization fleet who still used the advanced technology) set up a new religion which proscribed the use of advanced technology as a safeguard against the last remnants of humanity ever achieving the technology that would alert the Gbaba to their presence.

The colonists on this planet have a bible -- the books given to them by the archangels. They also have the Testimonies, which are the writings of the eight million Adams and Eves who kept journals of their new lives on Safehold, including their first awakening and the subsequent visits of the archangels who flew through the air in glowing chairs and could perform "miracles." As a result, even hundreds of years later, after the "archangels" are all dead, the Church of God Awaiting is very strong and believed throughout Safehold.

Without intending to, David Weber constructed a form "Kuzari scenario" in this novel. There are a number of reasons why the church on Safehold is still very strong even hundreds of years after the last visit from an archangel, but one of the main reasons is because of the Testimonies. It's very difficult to say a religion is false when eight million people woke up together on the first day of creation, saw the wonders performed by the archangels and left behind written journals for their descendants. And, yet, ultimately, the religion of Safehold was a lie -- a fabrication designed of a mix between the megalomania of some of the colony administrators and a desire to forever retard human technological progress.

I'm not suggesting that Judaism is a deliberate hoax planted by people with or without advanced technology thousands of years ago. There are enough differences between what happened at Sinai and what is described in the novel to scuttle any serious comparison. Nonetheless, I did find it interesting how a "Kuzari"-type scenario could be both true in some respects and false in others at the same time.

The Wolf

Note: As an aside, if you're a sci-fi fan, the book was pretty good. The second book, By Schism Rent Asunder, was even better.