Jerry Oltion

About “Judgment Passed”

Jerry Oltion’s story for Wastelands, “Judgment Passed,” is about a starship crew who returns to Earth to find that the Biblical day of judgment has occurred without them. “Some of the crew want to contact God, while others are happy to repopulate the Earth without divine influence in their lives,” Oltion said. “Nobody knows how to contact God anyway, but that doesn’t stop one crewmember from trying ever more desperate measures. The others have to stop him before he destroys what may be humanity’s most precious gift: a second chance.”

Oltion has always felt that the world would be better off without religion, so the idea of God rapturing all the believers and leaving the rest of us to live our lives in peace has always appealed to him, he said. “There’s an obvious contradiction in the logic, though, in that God would pretty clearly exist if that were to happen, so agnosticism would become the irrational belief and religion would become the rational one. I wanted to explore that idea a little and see what would happen if some people clung to their beliefs while others switched sides once they knew the truth. And behind it all was the wish-fulfillment fantasy of being given a world without religion in it. In that regard this story has the happiest ending of just about any story I’ve written.”

Gregor is agnostic.  He doesn’t know if God exists and doesn’t think anybody else does, either.  He thinks religion is silly and would rather it didn’t exist, but then he’s confronted with almost irrefutable evidence that God–or some intelligence with God-like power–not only exists but behaves with the capricious indifference to humanity’s wishes that the Christian Bible describes.  That’s a terrifying discovery, but he has somehow slipped under this omnipotent being’s radar, and he wants to stay that way.u003cbr />u003c/div>”,1] ); D([”mb”,”u003cdiv styleu003d”direction:ltr”>u003cspan classu003dq>u003cbr />>(4) Did the writing of this story present you with any significantu003cbr />>challenges (i.e., was it particularly difficult to write, or did you haveu003cbr />>to do a lot of research, etc.)? If so, please tell me about that.u003cbr />u003cbr />u003c/span>u003c/div>”,1] ); //–> The protagonist of the story, Gregor is agnostic: He doesn’t know if God exists. “He thinks religion is silly and would rather it didn’t exist, but then he’s confronted with almost irrefutable evidence that God–or some intelligence with God-like power–not only exists but behaves with the capricious indifference to humanity’s wishes that the Christian Bible describes,” Oltion said. “That’s a terrifying discovery, but he has somehow slipped under this omnipotent being’s radar, and he wants to stay that way.”

I had a lot of trouble reconciling all the different apocalypse myths that religions have come up with. Who stays, who goes, what happens to each group, etc. There are a million different myths to choose from, and most of them are mutually contradictory. I finally decided to use the right-wing American approach to warfare as the basis for my apocalypse mythos: “Nuke ’em all and let God sort ’em out.” What happens if God is okay with that method when it comes time to harvest humanity for his “divine” purpose?u003cbr />u003c/div>”,1] ); D([”mb”,”u003cdiv styleu003d”direction:ltr”>u003cspan classu003dq>u003cbr />>(5) Most authors say all their stories are personal. If that’s true foru003cbr />>you, in what way was this story personal to you?u003cbr />u003cbr />u003c/span>u003c/div>”,1] ); //–> Oltion had a lot of trouble reconciling all the different apocalypse myths that religions have come up with, he said. “Who stays, who goes, what happens to each group, etc. There are a million different myths to choose from, and most of them are mutually contradictory. I finally decided to use the right-wing American approach to warfare as the basis for my apocalypse mythos: ‘Nuke ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out.’ What happens if God is okay with that method when it comes time to harvest humanity for his ‘divine’ purpose?”

Like Gregor, Oltion feels that the world would be a much better place without religion, he said. “I have a great deal of respect for people who explore spirituality with open minds, but I think religion in general is the worst scourge to visit humanity since we evolved the ability to conceive of a divine being. So the opening premise–that fundamentalist Christians are right and God has raptured everyone–is my worst nightmare. But escaping that rapture and living the rest of my life in peace is a very appealing fantasy to me. (When the Left Behind series came out, I briefly considered doing my own series called Left Alone.) So in that regard, Gregor is me and his adventure is a fantasy of mine come to life.”

In a world as overpopulated as ours is, the idea of almost everyone simply going away, no matter what the mechanism, holds huge appeal. Especially if enough of the infrastructure survives to let the survivors continue on at something better than a stone-age level of civilization. This particular story is pretty much a wish-fulfillment fantasy. I wouldn’t be happy if I learned that God really existed, but if he were to go away and take his fanatical following with him, I would be delighted.u003cbr />u003cbr />Let me know if you need more or different. Great cover, by the way!u003cbr />u003c/div>”,1] ); D([”mb”,”u003cdiv styleu003d”direction:ltr”>u003cspan classu003dsg>u003cbr />Jerryu003cbr />u003cbr />u003c/span>u003c/div>”,0] ); D([”ce”]); //–> In a world as overpopulated as ours is, the idea of almost everyone simply going away, no matter what the mechanism, holds huge appeal, Oltion said. “Especially if enough of the infrastructure survives to let the survivors continue on at something better than a stone-age level of civilization. This particular story is pretty much a wish-fulfillment fantasy. I wouldn’t be happy if I learned that God really existed, but if he were to go away and take his fanatical following with him, I would be delighted.”

Favorite Examples of Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

Oltion said his favorite by far is Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz. “I loved the quirky humor of it in the midst of all the horror of a society that had completely collapsed, and I loved Miller’s vision of how it might rise from the ashes again (and of course go up in flames again after that),” Oltion said. “The image of the wandering Jew knocking the dust off his sandals as he boards the spaceship that will take him away from this madness still stands clear in my head decades after reading the book. In an age that seems to be fulfilling the book’s prophesy, I want nothing more than to do the same myself.”