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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48329
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48329
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

> Does using unexplained spiritual elements (soul, "spiritual"/non-physical beings, afterlife, God, etc.) in a story with a futuristic setting make it science fantasy rather than science fiction?

If they are treated as **real** then yes. If we just have a scifi MC that believes in God and souls and ghosts, then no.

I would also classify Star Wars as a Science Fantasy; but Star Trek as science fiction, despite the tendency of many characters in Star Trek to refer to "life essence" or whatnot.

Of course most science fiction takes on fantasy elements. Star Trek uses FTL travel, Time Travel, Transporters, all of which violate the laws of physics as we know them.

But the pretense in Star Trek is that all of this is **technology** and nothing but. It can coexist with religion, but there is no magic, no ghosts, no God making decisions about what happens next. Even their God-like figures (Q for example) are explicitly alien and using alien technology, Q can be killed.

That is not the pretense in Star Wars; they are explicitly on the spiritual side, an unexplained magical Force that transcends space and can be used only by an elite. The Force is not strong in most people. That they supplement that with technology does not make it science fiction.

Original score: 0