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Scientists confirm (again) that vaccines are safe. A look at how the devastation at Puerto Rico connects to global warming. And a talk with a public speaker on science about how fiction and fantasy can fuel a love for the pursuit of knowledge. It's Earthy Thursday, our segment on science and Earth-related news. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

Title: One Fell Sweep (The Innkeeper Chronicles #3)

Two of the most famous occultists in comics clash. A look at how Resident Evil 7: Biohazard fits within the horror franchise it belongs to. And Neil Gaiman discusses what might be his next book. It's Airy Monday, our segment on magic and religion in popular culture! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

We sure do have some interesting conversations in my coven.

Is it ethical to terraform another planet?

Terraform vb. (Science fiction) To transform a planet so as to resemble the Earth, especially so that it can support human life.

Although we didn't reach any general conclusion, we did raise some interesting questions along the way.

Does the planet to be terraformed already hold life?

If so, how would terraforming impact said life?

If not, does the planet consent?

My space fantasy novel Planet of the Magi is published. It features a female protagonist who uses magic and is influenced in her moral choices by her planet's pacifist pagan minority.

The book includes people who follow two different kinds of pagan religion grown from the same root, one that remained on a planet that one that is practiced on a space ship. I proposed that the culture that remained on a planet is polytheistic, and tied their religion to seasons and agriculture and the gods that govern those things, but the ones who live in space developed into a henotheistic religion that honors a single creator goddess. There are also three different magical systems, one practiced by the ship group, one by the majority culture on the protagonist's planet, and one practiced by an order of warrior monks founded by aliens but now including humans. 

Science fiction influenced me to expect that the next step in the evolution of humankind is to ascend to become a being of pure energy. That philosophy is called transhumanism, and it saturates popular science fiction.

I was born a science fiction fan; my dad was a Star Trek fan, and if I had been born male my parents had intended to name me DeForrest, after DeForrest Kelly. The classic Star Trek had several species of energy beings, and humans were on the path to becoming like them. Many of the science fictions I encountered later in life had that idea in them, too. In some of them, a very advanced human could evolve during his lifetime. In Babylon 5, a character who was a telepath turned into an energy being (and blew up, dangerously for everyone around him, but well...) Characters in Buffy and Stargate ascended and became energy beings, and chose to come back to Earth. I even wrote ascension into my own fiction. In my Punch series, a character ascends upon death. A character ascends in Some Say Fire, too, but that's symbolic; it represents the unification of the conscious mind with the subconscious and the inner child.

The spirituality of Charles Schulz' Peanuts is explored. Actress Ruth Negga talks about the new TV series Preacher. And surprises abound as Game of Thrones returns for another season. It's Airy Monday, our weekly segment on magic and religion in popular culture! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!