This paper examines the role of religion in two science fiction settings: Firefly and the Expanse. These settings both offer rich resources for considering how contemporary religion may evolve in a future world. Each imagines a world in which religion remains a vital part of many people's lives, and yet, each imagines how religion may change in the face of a changing understanding of the universe.
In the final analysis, what these settings offer is an opportunity to think along with their creators about the role that religion plays in the maintenance and evolution of society. Far from seeing religion as an unnecessary cultural appendage, both Joss Whedon and James S. A. Corey view religion as an indelible, and often positive, force in human culture, and seek to recognize it as another way of being human that will remain far into our future.