Is it Brin who’s quietly a Scientologist? I remember reading that about one SF author or another and being quite surprised. It was one of that bunch whose work is similar (Brin, Baxter, et al).
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No, never heard that and googling yields nothing. He’s a pretty outspoken guy, has a blog and everything. Googling did turn up a fascinating feud between him and Orson Scott Card. Brin trashes OSC’s work as all being in the ‘“Hogwarts letter” receiving ubermensch saves the world’ mold.
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Aye, I looked as well. I for the life of me can’t remember who it was then, or where I read it - here or Antipope, I think. Either that or a glitch in the simulation.
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He’s a pretty vocal atheist.
Neil Gaiman’s family (including his ex-wife) are the most prominent Scientologists in the UK but most assume he broke with them early (but doesn’t criticize them publicly so they aren’t forced to end contact with him).
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Hoo, boy, I was waaaay off base then 
I always find Stross’ condemnations/rants about religion a little problematic given that his spouse is a very well known Neopagan (and friends of friends of mine in those circles). When he rants about religious people, he never mentions his wife…
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L ron hubbard?
Well that’s new information to me. Add some colour next time antipope goes antipope.
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I was trying to think of other authors who write sci-fi humor in the mode of Douglas Adams, and I am not getting any close matches.
For Adams-like lightheartedness, maybe Harry Harrison? Like, The Stainless Steel Rat and Bill the Galactic Hero ?
For Adams-like surrealism, Rudy Rucker’s Software, Wetware, and Freeware stick in my mind.
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I empathize. My adolescent spec fic reading was filled with Asimov and Herbert and Tokien; though I still stand these books as being ‘generally good’ they are of a certain type not popular with non sci-fi fans and looked down on by serious sci-fi fans as being unsophisticated. So… I don’t recommend them. Heinlen to me comes across very much a creature of his time, but Stranger in a Strange Land is worth it if only to grok the word ‘grok’ better than people who haven’t read the book. 
Now, apropos to the topic, I’d recommend Octavia Butler’s Kindred, really one of the first ‘non hard’ sci fi books I read.
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The Red Dwarf novels/novelizations, and Rob Grant’s other book, Colony?
Eric Idle’s The Road to Mars?
Jasper Fforde? (although that’s really fantasy, not SF)
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Maybe. There don’t seem to be humorous SF writers whose main claim to fame is writing humorous SF books. Even DNA himself was initally ignored by the regular SF community because he came from broadcast media, not up from the magazines.
I may just be out of the loop. The SF I like might tend more toward the horror end of the spectrum.
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I hope that this is an additive rec - I read the thread and don’t think I saw these writers mentioned…
I’d recommend Neal Stephenson, straddling genre as he does. Of course, most of his works are doorstops, but I find them to be engaging and worth the time. Also, I would categorise most of Margaret Atwood’s novels as speculative fiction (and always enjoyable). I also like the work (and biography) of James Tiptree, Jr. and Ursula K. LeGuin. Octavia Butler, too, but I would recommend Wild Seed over Kindred.
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