Timb Hoswell

New Article On Philip K. Dick and the death of God: Can science really kill a God?

Abstract

What is meaning? What do nihilists mean when they talk of ‘meaning’ and the loss of meaning? The literary context of meaning, and its loss are particularly important when we consider unique questions posed by modern science fiction. For instance, what would it mean if the dead remains of God were found floating in the depths of outerspace? How should one approach this subject? This is a question posed by Phillip K. Dick, in his novel Our Friends from Frolix 8, and while Phillip K. Dick does not explicitly answer these questions about what the discovery of scientific evidence of the death of God means in his novel, he leaves enough clues to sketch out a recalcitrant theology of one fictional Rev. Charley. However, to reach this attractive insight we must delve into a ‘genealogy’ of the problem of meaning itself. Indeed, this paper argues that by tracing literary strains of meaninglessness found in the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Willard Van Orman Quine, Agathe Novak-Lechevalier, Michel Houellebecq, Homer’s Iliad, Thomas Hobbes’ theology, along with Emanuel Swedenborg’s revelations, Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism and Wilfrid Sellars’ seminal work Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man, we can begin to argue a way forward and ask the question; what does the death of God in Phillip K. Dick’s novel really mean? Engage this paper if you dare.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11059-026-00860-w