Stranger in a Strange Land

Stranger in a Strange Land is in every sense a hippie inspired book. I’m not saying this with spite or malice but just matter of fact. While following Valentine Michael Smith, an orphaned human raised by Martians, we are taken multiple ideals of controlling ones entire body, starting a church with your own values/ideals, and finally realizing the void between someone who is “different” than one’s self. This last bit I found to be the very core of the novel. Sure everyone is going to have its followers but realizing the major influence of the world, in our case the Catholic Church and Muslim religion, and how you “grok” both their ideals and that of the world is something this book hits a cord on. We see Smith simply except where he is and instantly begin trying to understand by reading, watching and learning everything he can about this planet. He finally contends with the major power of religion on this Earth planet; the Fosterite church who at first accept him in. Once he founders his own values however he is swiftly booted and starts up his own following of the “Church of All Worlds” which is a good display how typically cults in this day and age are treated by more popular churches or alternatively how major religions treat people who don’t “think” the same way.

Featured the Church of All Worlds god

                Growing up in a polish die hard catholic family on one side and being sent through catholic high school (surprisingly by choice) I was exposed to a lot of the stories of the Church. With great interest I set out and am constantly learning different theories about how people view the world around them. The one main aspect I seem to find throughout the board is how people deal with death. It seems like it is the main reason, if not the only one, for a religion. It’s the doctor’s sucker you put in your mouth to feel better about the terrifying ordeal that is life. Depending on how comfortable you feel with yourself is what religion you lean on. Now there are other qualities of religion and moral ordeals that you can hold but frankly morals are not made by religion is it made culturally whether that is heavily influenced by religion or not. Let’s be real again, the bible is the most fictionally read book right alongside the Torah, emphasis on fictional. “Grok” can explain how clouded your looking glass is while you view the world around you. To quote the karma theory,  it is which plane of ignorance you are currently on when experiencing the world, and how much you truly can understand without it.

                That’s what I got from this book at least. Some of it is mostly my deep seeded anger towards people with narrow minds and narrower understanding but to be truthful we know nothing about this world we are on. We write and rewrite our history, science, and countless other books to fit the new discoveries we find. It’s no wonder people flock to stories to make them feel like they have a grasp on this massive chaos of understanding. Hell what do I know? I am only an egg after all.