Thought for the Day

Well, it's a trivial observation, but it's gratifying to see such substantive evidence for it:

'Science fiction' and 'religion' meet some of the same needs.

LibraryThing's unsuggester points this out: the "opposite" books for SF titles tend to be religious - and vice versa. That is, the people who read the one genre ignore the other. (This was brought home to me when I idly clicked on the "Unsuggester" for one of the John M. Ford books. People who own The Last Hot Time - the least likely book for them is The Five People You Meet In Heaven. Which seems about right, somehow.)

One could build on this and point out how 'SF fandom' is roughly analogous to 'being member of a congregation' in satisfying the need for membership in a community.

"We each worship in our own way."

Update: well, one might infer that there are two subspecies of human, the rational and the superstitious... but it's somewhat more parsimoneous to assume that the SF "sense of wonder" is a version of the more common "religious awe".