this geek has been a science fiction fan since before she could read, and gravitated towards those stories that presents ideas and forced you to think and examine your way of thinking about different things.

And the television series Babylon 5 by J. Michael Straczynski was one of the few that actually did an intelligent job dealing with religious thinking. At least moved it from dogma & superstition to a philosophical examination of the universe & our possible roles in it. I'm sure others could expound further on this than I can.

The alternate universe series of 1634 by Eric Flint goes into incredible detail regarding some of the various Christian faiths - and usually more than I can handle in a single sitting because it just brings to mind the arguments re: "how many angels can sit on the head of a pin" - something I always regarded as a futile waste of time. But it does hi-lite some of the historical/cultural bachground of our western civilization.

I bring this up because the eastern relgions have not been mentioned at all in the thread... the relgious beliefs of way more than half of the current human population has been ignored. I find that facinating, she says in her best Spock like voice.