magnetocurious

the city rolls these nights like loaded dice: thymoss: ohai-ohia: inertialreferenceframe: zaataronpita:...

thymoss:

ohai-ohia:

inertialreferenceframe:

zaataronpita:

misandrwitch:

pluspluspangolin:

headmeetsdesk:

fuckyeahdiomedes:

zaataronpita:

misandrwitch:

zaataronpita:

misandrwitch:

auetafefe:

misandrwitch:

i also don’t like the idea that in the future in a lot of narratives, star trek included, theres no more religion in general??? 

like slow down john lennon we’ve lasted this long i don’t think we’ll be gone in 2234 i want muslim space explorers :((

and c’mon dudes everyone wants to see rabbis arguing about when sunset is *in space*

muslims would definitely do that to lmfao

NEVER ENDING SHABBOS IF THE SUN DOESN’T SEND.

Or is it never beginning…

imagine ramadan lmao oh my god

I think we’ve found the reason why there are never Jews and Muslims in space…

I’ve always wondered how muslims in sci-fi settings go about praying toward mecca when they’re on the other side of the galaxy. I mean, do they need to be precise about facing mecca, or would it be ok as long as they were facing in the general direction? Because with the distances involved, if you’re facing just slightly the wrong way, you might be praying towards Alpha Centauri instead or something.

Maybe they’d invent some sort of compass that always points exactly towards Mecca.

…man that could be a huge point in the story

Precise, elegant interstellar navigation systems that came about because of Muslim space travelers making scientific breakthroughs in order to create that compass

And the entirety of the rest of the spacefaring world is drastically altered and improved by the research they perform and technologies they create.

And even you were able to pray in the right direction, how would you know when to pray? 5 times a day, right, but what’s a day in space?

ThIs is awesome

I mean, from a Jewish perspective, if you were praying from the other side of the galaxy, it would be enough to pray towards Earth.

Just as when Jews around the world pray towards Jerusalem, it’s enough if you’re west of Jerusalem to pray facing East and if you’re east of Jerusalem West and so on. But really, you’re praying towards the Kotel (Western Wall) and not just towards Jerusalem and Jews in Jerusalem pray towards the wall.

So praying towards Earth, knowing that Jerusalem is in that direction, should be enough.

Maybe same with Mecca?

THERE IS A BOOK WHERE THIS IS A THING THAT THEY TALK ABOUT.

I just can’t remember it because I just woke up and haven’t had any coffee yet. But, here follows a list of novels that I can think of off the top my head (that is, I can see on my bookshelf) with at least incidental portrayals of Judaism/Islam in the future. (All of these, are to my very much non-Jewish, non-Muslim, non-religious eye, reasonably positive/substantive? That is, the religious identity of a character/group of characters is important to who they are in a non-offensive/stereotypical way. But I might be missing something more subtle than I can detect.):

• Roma Eterna, by Robert Silverberg
• Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
• The Last Colony, by John Scalzi (and I think the two books that come before it, too. I can’t recall if Islam or Judaism get mentioned specifically, but he makes a point of establishing that existing earth religions go out to the stars along with the rest of our culture.)
• Ender’s Game/Shadow and Sequels. (I hesitate to put these here, because I’m almost positive they’ve got to be offensive to someone. Or possibly everyone. I’ve seriously soured on Orson Scott Card as a writer and human since I was in high school and read these.)
• I’m sure there are tons more, but I am still sleepy.

reblogging for reference and also because the discussion is awesome

this borders on blasphemous but oh my g o d and what about prophets and sacred places in every galaxy and intERSTELLAR PILGIMAGES

Mary Roach’s excellent nonfiction book Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void addresses this with respect to real-life present-day space travel:

“Zero gravity and a ninety-minute orbital day created so many questions for Muslim astronauts that a [guideline] was drafted. Rather than require [them] to pray five times during each ninety-minute orbit of Earth, they were allowed to go by the twenty-four-hour cycle of the launch location.”

There’s also a bit about orientation with respect to Mecca and prostration in zero-g but I don’t have the passage on hand. (It’s in the footnotes on pages 249-250 in the hardcover, though, according to Amazon.)

(via grief-bacon)