Editing Isaac Asimov (section)

== Views ==
{{blockquote|There is a perennial question among readers as to whether the views contained in a story reflect the views of the author. The answer is, "Not necessarily—" And yet one ought to add another short phrase "—but usually."|Asimov, 1969<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/nightfallotherst00asim#page/164/mode/2up|title=Nightfall, and other stories|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|date=1969|publisher=Doubleday|page=165}}</ref>}}

=== Religion ===
Asimov was an [[Atheism|atheist]], and a [[Humanism|humanist]].<ref name="Popper">Isaac Asimov, "The Way of Reason", in ''In Pursuit of Truth: Essays on the Philosophy of Karl Popper on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday,,'' ed. [[Paul Levinson]], Humanities Press, 1982, pp. ix–x.</ref> He did not oppose religious conviction in others, but he frequently railed against [[superstition|superstitious]] and [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] beliefs that tried to pass themselves off as genuine science. During his childhood, his parents observed the traditions of [[Orthodox Judaism]] less stringently than they had in Petrovichi; they did not force their beliefs upon young Isaac, and  he grew up without strong religious influences, coming to believe that the ''[[Torah]]'' represented [[Jewish mythology|Hebrew mythology]] in the same way that the ''[[Iliad]]'' recorded [[Greek mythology]].<ref>{{cite book |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1995 |publisher=Bantam |location=New York |isbn=0-553-56997-X |pages=11–14}}</ref> When he was 13, he chose not to have a [[bar mitzvah]].<ref>''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 121.</ref> As his books ''[[Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor|Treasury of Humor]]'' and ''Asimov Laughs Again'' record, Asimov was willing to tell jokes involving God, [[Satan]], the [[Garden of Eden]], [[Jerusalem]], and other religious topics, expressing the viewpoint that a good joke can do more to provoke thought than hours of philosophical discussion.<ref name="Asimov 1971"/><ref name="Asimov 1992"/>

For a brief while, his father worked in the local [[synagogue]] to enjoy the familiar surroundings and, as Isaac put it, "shine as a learned scholar"<ref>Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920–1954''. Doubleday, 1979.</ref> versed in the sacred writings. This scholarship was a seed for his later authorship and publication of ''[[Asimov's Guide to the Bible]]'', an analysis of the historic foundations for the Old and New Testaments. For many years, Asimov called himself an atheist; he considered the term somewhat inadequate, as it described what he did not believe rather than what he did. Eventually, he described himself as a "humanist" and considered that term more practical. Asimov continued to identify himself as a [[List of Jewish atheists and agnostics|secular Jew]], as stated in his introduction to [[Jack Dann]]'s anthology of Jewish science fiction, ''[[Wandering Stars (anthology)|Wandering Stars]]'': "I attend no services and follow no ritual and have never undergone that curious puberty rite, the Bar Mitzvah. It doesn't matter. I am Jewish."<ref>"I make no secret of the fact that I am a non-observant Jew", Asimov, Isaac. ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'', Volume 15, Issues 10–13. p. 8. Davis Publishing, 1991.</ref>

When asked in an interview in 1982 if he was an atheist, Asimov replied,

{{blockquote|I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Isaac Asimov on Science and the Bible |url=https://secularhumanism.org/1982/04/an-interview-with-isaac-asimov-on-science-and-the-bible/ |magazine=Free Inquiry|date=Spring 1982 }}</ref>}}

Likewise, he said about religious education: "I would not be satisfied to have my kids choose to be religious without trying to argue them out of it, just as I would not be satisfied to have them decide to smoke regularly or engage in any other practice I consider detrimental to mind or body."<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Corvallis Secular Society |year=1997 |title=Isaac Asimov on religion |url=http://css.peak.org/newsletter/1997/aug97/asimov.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051127124434/http://css.peak.org/newsletter/1997/aug97/asimov.html |archive-date=November 27, 2005 }}</ref>

In his last volume of autobiography, Asimov wrote,

{{blockquote|If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.<ref>{{cite book |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1995 |publisher=Bantam |location=New York |isbn=0-553-56997-X |page=338}}</ref>}}

The same memoir states his belief that [[Hell]] is "the drooling dream of a [[sadistic personality disorder|sadist]]" crudely affixed to an all-merciful God; if even human governments were willing to curtail cruel and unusual punishments, wondered Asimov, why would punishment in the afterlife not be restricted to a limited term? Asimov rejected the idea that a human belief or action could merit infinite punishment. If an afterlife existed, he claimed, the longest and most severe punishment would be reserved for those who "slandered God by inventing Hell".<ref>{{cite book |title=I. Asimov: A Memoir |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1995 |publisher=Bantam |location=New York |isbn=0-553-56997-X |pages=336–338}}</ref>

Asimov said about using religious motifs in his writing:

{{blockquote|I tend to ignore religion in my own stories altogether, except when I absolutely have to have it. ... and, whenever I bring in a religious motif, that religion is bound to seem vaguely Christian because that is the only religion I know anything about, even though it is not mine. An unsympathetic reader might think that I am "burlesquing" Christianity, but I am not. Then too, it is impossible to write science fiction and really ignore religion.<ref>{{cite book |first=Isaac |last=Asimov |title=Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection |year=1995 |pages=297–302}}</ref>}}

=== Politics ===
Asimov became a staunch supporter of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] during the [[New Deal]], and thereafter remained a political [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]]. He was a vocal opponent of the [[Vietnam War]] in the 1960s and in a television interview during the early 1970s he publicly endorsed [[George McGovern]].<ref>Asimov, I. ''In Joy Still Felt'' (Avon, 1981), p. 503.</ref> He was unhappy about what he considered an "irrationalist" viewpoint taken by many radical political activists from the late 1960s and onwards. In his second volume of autobiography, ''In Joy Still Felt'', Asimov recalled meeting the counterculture figure [[Abbie Hoffman]]. Asimov's impression was that the [[Counterculture of the 1960s|1960s' counterculture]] heroes had ridden an emotional wave which, in the end, left them stranded in a "no-man's land of the spirit" from which he wondered if they would ever return.<ref name="joy">{{cite book|title=In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978 |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |date=1980 |publisher=Doubleday |location=Garden City, NY|isbn=0-385-15544-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/injoystillfelt00isaa/page/574 574] |url=https://archive.org/details/injoystillfelt00isaa/page/574 }}</ref>

Asimov vehemently opposed [[Richard Nixon]], considering him "a crook and a liar". He closely followed [[Watergate]], and was pleased when the president was forced to resign. Asimov was dismayed over the pardon extended to Nixon by his successor [[Gerald Ford]]: "I was not impressed by the argument that it has spared the nation an ordeal. To my way of thinking, the ordeal was necessary to make certain it would never happen again."<ref>Asimov, I. ''In Joy Still Felt'' (Doubleday, 1980) chapter 39.</ref>

After Asimov's name appeared in the mid-1960s on a list of people the [[Communist Party USA]] "considered amenable" to its goals, the [[FBI]] investigated him. Because of his academic background, the bureau briefly considered Asimov as a possible candidate for known Soviet spy ROBPROF, but found nothing suspicious in his life or background.<ref name="skelding20131107">{{cite web |url=https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2013/nov/07/isaac-asimov-fbi-file-ROBPROF/ |title="Inimical to the best interests of the United States." Isaac Asimov's FBI File |last=Skelding |first=Conor |website=MuckRock |date=November 7, 2013 |access-date=January 1, 2017 |archive-date=January 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102171808/https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2013/nov/07/isaac-asimov-fbi-file-ROBPROF/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Asimov appeared to hold an equivocal attitude towards [[Israel]]. In his first autobiography, he indicates his support for the safety of Israel, though insisting that he was not a [[Zionist]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=In Memory Yet Green |quote=<!--None-->}}</ref> In his third autobiography, Asimov stated his opposition to the creation of a [[Jewish state]], on the grounds that he was opposed to having [[nation-states]] in general, and supported the notion of a single humanity. Asimov especially worried about the safety of Israel given that it had been created among Muslim neighbors "who will never forgive, never forget and never go away", and said that Jews had merely created for themselves another "Jewish ghetto".{{efn|{{cite book |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |title=I, Asimov: A Memoir |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |date=1994 |page=380 |quote=When Israel was founded in 1948 and all my Jewish friends were jubilant, I was the skeleton at the feast. I said, "We are building ourselves a ghetto. We will be surrounded by tens of millions of Muslims who will never forgive, never forget and never go away."... But don't Jews deserve a homeland? Actually, I feel that no human group deserves a "homeland" in the usual sense of the word. ... I am not a Zionist, then, because I don't believe in nations, and Zionism merely sets up one more nation to trouble the world.}}}}

=== Social issues ===
Asimov believed that "''science'' fiction ... serve[s] the good of humanity".{{r|asimov196708}} He considered himself a feminist even before [[women's liberation]] became a widespread movement; he argued that the issue of [[women's rights]] was closely connected to that of population control.<ref name="YIA"/> Furthermore, he believed that [[homosexuality]] must be considered a "moral right" on population grounds, as must all consenting adult sexual activity that does not lead to reproduction.<ref name="YIA"/> He issued many appeals for [[population control]], reflecting a perspective articulated by people from [[Thomas Malthus]] through [[Paul R. Ehrlich]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Bill Moyer's World of Ideas, Part I |url=https://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov1.pdf |work=transcript page 6, 10/17/1988 show |access-date=December 31, 2012 |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104050458/http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a 1988 interview by [[Bill Moyers]], Asimov proposed [[computer-aided learning]], where people would use computers to find information on subjects in which they were interested.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bill Moyer's World of Ideas, Part II |url=https://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov2.pdf |work=transcript page 3, 10/17/1988 show |access-date=December 31, 2012 |archive-date=June 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605005723/https://www-tc.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov2.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> He thought this would make learning more interesting, since people would have the freedom to choose what to learn, and would help spread knowledge around the world. Also, the [[One to one computing|one-to-one]] model would let students learn at their own pace.<ref>{{cite web |title=Isaac Asimov on His Hopes for the Future (Part Two) |url=http://billmoyers.com/content/isaac-asimov-part-two/ |work=October 21, 1988 PBS broadcast Moyers and Company |access-date=October 5, 2015 |archive-date=October 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006064139/http://billmoyers.com/content/isaac-asimov-part-two/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Asimov thought that people would live in space by 2019.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/isaac-asimov-future-predictions-from-1983?rebelltitem=3|title=Space utilization|date=December 27, 2018|website=Big Think|language=en|access-date=December 30, 2018|archive-date=December 30, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181230184215/https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/isaac-asimov-future-predictions-from-1983?rebelltitem=3|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1983 Asimov wrote:<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/12/27/35-years-ago-isaac-asimov-was-asked-by-the-star-to-predict-the-world-of-2019-here-is-what-he-wrote.html|title=35 years ago, Isaac Asimov was asked by the Star to predict the world of 2019. Here is what he wrote|date=December 27, 2018|newspaper=The Toronto Star|access-date=March 14, 2021|archive-date=February 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226100507/https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/12/27/35-years-ago-isaac-asimov-was-asked-by-the-star-to-predict-the-world-of-2019-here-is-what-he-wrote.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Computerization will undoubtedly continue onward inevitably...

This means that a vast change in the nature of education must take place, and entire populations must be made "computer-literate" and must be taught to deal with a "high-tech" world.}}

He continues on education: {{blockquote|Education, which must be revolutionized in the new world, will be revolutionized by the very agency that requires the revolution — the computer.

Schools will undoubtedly still exist, but a good schoolteacher can do no better than to inspire curiosity which an interested student can then satisfy at home at the console of his computer outlet.

There will be an opportunity finally for every youngster, and indeed, every person, to learn what he or she wants to learn, in his or her own time, at his or her own speed, in his or her own way.

Education will become fun because it will bubble up from within and not be forced in from without.}}

=== Sexual harassment ===
Asimov would often fondle, kiss and pinch women at conventions and elsewhere without regard for their consent. According to [[Alec Nevala-Lee]], author of an Asimov biography<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Alec |year=2018 |title=Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of science fiction |location=New York |publisher=Dey St., an imprint of William Morrow | isbn=978-0-06-257194-6 | oclc=1030279844 | page=}}</ref>  and writer on the history of science fiction, he often defended himself by saying that far from showing objections, these women cooperated.<ref name=":0"/> In a 1971 satirical piece, ''The Sensuous Dirty Old Man'', Asimov wrote: "The question then is not whether or not a girl should be touched. The question is merely where, when, and how she should be touched."<ref name=":0"/>

According to Nevala-Lee, however, "many of these encounters were clearly nonconsensual."<ref name=":0"/> He wrote that Asimov's behaviour, as a leading science-fiction author and personality, contributed to an undesirable atmosphere for women in the male-dominated science fiction community. In support of this, he quoted some of Asimov's contemporary fellow-authors such as [[Judith Merril]], [[Harlan Ellison]] and [[Frederik Pohl]], as well as editors such as Timothy Seldes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Nevala-Lee |first=Alec |author-link=Alec Nevala-Lee |url=https://www.publicbooks.org/asimovs-empire-asimovs-wall/ |title=Asimov's Empire, Asimov's Wall |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109111535/https://www.publicbooks.org/asimovs-empire-asimovs-wall/ |archive-date=January 9, 2020 |website=Public Books |date=January 7, 2020}}</ref> Additional specific incidents were reported by other people including [[Edward L. Ferman]], long-time editor of ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'', who wrote "...instead of shaking my date's hand, he shook her ''left breast''{{-"}}.<ref name="Davin 2006 p. ">{{Cite book |last=Davin |first=Eric |year=2006 |title=Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926–1965 |location=Lanham, MD |page= |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-1267-0 |oclc=1253442749}}</ref>

=== Environment and population ===
Asimov's defense of civil applications of [[nuclear power]], even after the [[Three Mile Island accident|Three Mile Island]] nuclear power plant incident, damaged his relations with some of his fellow liberals. In a letter reprinted in ''Yours, Isaac Asimov'',<ref name="YIA">Asimov, Isaac (1996). ''Yours, Isaac Asimov'', edited by Stanley Asimov. {{ISBN|0-385-47624-8}}.</ref> he states that although he would prefer living in "no danger whatsoever" to living near a nuclear reactor, he would still prefer a home near a nuclear power plant to a slum on [[Love Canal]] or near "a [[Union Carbide]] plant producing [[methyl isocyanate]]", the latter being a reference to the [[Bhopal disaster]].<ref name="YIA"/>

In the closing years of his life, Asimov blamed the deterioration of the quality of life that he perceived in New York City on the shrinking tax base caused by the [[white flight|middle-class flight]] to the suburbs, though he continued to support high taxes on the middle class to pay for social programs. His last nonfiction book, ''[[Our Angry Earth]]'' (1991, co-written with his long-time friend, science fiction author [[Frederik Pohl]]), deals with elements of the environmental crisis such as [[human overpopulation|overpopulation]], [[oil dependence]], [[war]], [[global warming]], and the destruction of the [[ozone layer]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Our Angry Earth |last1=Asimov |first1=Isaac |last2=Pohl |first2=Frederik |date=1991 |publisher=Tor |location=New York |isbn=0-312-85252-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ourangryearth0000asim }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Chow |first=Dan |date=December 1991 |title=Review: Our Angry Earth |magazine=Locus |location=Oakland |publisher=Locus Publications}}</ref> In response to being presented by [[Bill Moyers]] with the question "What do you see happening to the idea of dignity to human species if this population growth continues at its present rate?", Asimov responded:

{{blockquote|It's going to destroy it all ... if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Bill |last1=Moyers |first2=Betty Sue |last2=Flowers |title=A world of ideas : conversations with thoughtful men and women about American life today and the ideas shaping our future |date=1989 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |isbn=0-385-26278-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/worldofideasconv00moye/page/6 6] |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/worldofideasconv00moye/page/6 }}</ref>}}

=== Other authors ===
Asimov enjoyed the writings of [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], and used ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' as a plot point in a [[Black Widowers]] story, titled ''Nothing like Murder''.<ref name="asimov1976">{{Cite book|title=More Tales of the Black Widowers |last=Asimov |first=Isaac |publisher=Doubleday |year=1976 |isbn=0-385-11176-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moretalesofblack00asim/page/62 62–76] |chapter=Nothing Like Murder |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/moretalesofblack00asim#page/62/mode/2up |url=https://archive.org/details/moretalesofblack00asim/page/62}}</ref> In the essay "All or Nothing" (for ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,'' Jan 1981), Asimov said that he admired Tolkien and that he had read ''The Lord of the Rings'' five times. (The feelings were mutual, with Tolkien saying that he had enjoyed Asimov's science fiction.<ref name=":1">{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=No.&nbsp;294 }}</ref> This would make Asimov an exception to Tolkien's earlier claim<ref name=":1" /> that he rarely found "any modern books" that were interesting to him.)

He acknowledged other writers as superior to himself in talent, saying of [[Harlan Ellison]], "He is (in my opinion) one of the best writers in the world, far more skilled at the art than I am."<ref>''I. Asimov: A Memoir'', p. 246.</ref> Asimov disapproved of the [[New Wave science fiction|New Wave]]'s growing influence, stating in 1967 "I want science fiction. I think science fiction isn't really science fiction if it lacks science. And I think the better and truer the science, the better and truer the science fiction".{{r|asimov196708}}

The feelings of friendship and respect between Asimov and [[Arthur C. Clarke]] were demonstrated by the so-called "Clarke–Asimov Treaty of [[Park Avenue]]", negotiated as they shared a cab in New York. This stated that Asimov was required to insist that Clarke was the best science fiction writer in the world (reserving second-best for himself), while Clarke was required to insist that Asimov was the best science writer in the world (reserving second-best for himself). Thus, the dedication in Clarke's book ''Report on Planet Three'' (1972) reads: "In accordance with the terms of the Clarke–Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer."

In 1980, Asimov wrote a highly critical review of [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newworker.org/ncptrory/1984.htm|title=Review of 1984|last=Asimov|first=Isaac|website=[[New Communist Party of Britain]]|access-date=January 11, 2024}}</ref> Though dismissive of his attacks, James Machell has stated that they "are easier to understand when you consider that Asimov viewed 1984 as dangerous literature. He opines that if communism were to spread across the globe, it would come in a completely different form to the one in 1984, and by looking to Orwell as an authority on totalitarianism, 'we will be defending ourselves against assaults from the wrong direction and we will lose'."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.utopiasciencefiction.com/october-2023-archive | title=Archive &#124; October 2023 }}</ref>

Asimov became a fan of mystery stories at the same time as science fiction. He preferred to read the former because "I read every [science fiction] story keenly aware that it might be worse than mine, in which case I had no patience with it, or that it might be better, in which case I felt miserable".{{r|asimov1973}} Asimov wrote "I make no secret of the fact that in my mysteries I use [[Agatha Christie]] as my model. In my opinion, her mysteries are the best ever written, far better than the Sherlock Holmes stories, and [[Hercule Poirot]] is the best detective fiction has seen. Why should I not use as my model what I consider the best?"<ref>''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1995, Bantam Books), p. 379.</ref> He enjoyed Sherlock Holmes, but considered [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] to be "a slapdash and sloppy writer."<ref>''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1995, Bantam Books), p. 391.</ref>

Asimov also enjoyed humorous stories, particularly those of [[P. G. Wodehouse]].<ref>Asimov (1979) ''In Memory Yet Green'', p. 90.</ref>

In non-fiction writing, Asimov particularly admired the writing style of [[Martin Gardner]], and tried to emulate it in his own science books. On meeting Gardner for the first time in 1965, Asimov told him this, to which Gardner answered that he had based his own style on Asimov's.<ref>Asimov, ''In Joy Still Felt'' (Avon, 1980), p. 369.</ref>