One persistent theme in literature is the study of Beauty. Objects or concepts that are pleasing to some part of the human mind have always been an enigma to authors. In two of his stories in The Martian Chronicles, called "The Fire Balloons" and "Usher II", Ray Bradbury shows what happens when Beauty is neglected of forgotten, and compares the Truths found behind two very different Beauties.
Both stories have misconceptions of Truth in them. In the Fire Balloons, the missionary priests go to Mars looking for sin. The Episcopalian church chose Father Peregrine because he was " a flexible man. And Mars is like that uncleaned closet we have neglected for millenniums. Sin has collected there like bric-a-brac." (123). Father Peregrine and his corps of missionaries are to go and clean this closet by preaching their faith to the what native Martians remain, who have, in the eyes of the church at least, have been living in sin for twice as long as the people of Earth. .
However, the missionaries are not certain what sin will look like on Mars. As the Martian colonists arrive on Mars, new moral dilemmas will undoubtedly present themselves. The church fears that some solutions might appear virtuous but be terribly sinful in actuality. Then, all the new colonists would innocently choose the wicked path, thus plunging the entire planet further into sin. When Father Stone asks Father Peregrine how this is possible, Father Peregrine replies: "Amoebas cannot sin because they produce by fission Add sex to amoebas, add arms and legs, and you would have murder and adultery On Mars, what if there are five new senses, organs, invisible limbs we can't conceive of - mightn't there be five new sins?" (122). So, the missionaries head to Mars on guard against some new awareness that the Martians possess, or that Mars might evoke in the Earth People that which would in turn give rise to some new sin.