Final Odyssey
By Scott Harrup | March 28, 2008
Arthur C. Clarke, world-renowned science fiction writer, died last week in his adopted homeland of Sri Lanka. Clarke, 90, was perhaps most famous for 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1968 film on which he collaborated with director Stanley Kubrick and on which he developed the novel of the same name.
I read the novel in high school and I have a DVD of the film. The movie has held up well in its portrayal of space exploration. It’s far more scientifically sound than, say, Star Wars. For one thing, spacecraft obey the basic laws of physics. There’s no wild acrobatic flying on wings in the absence of an atmosphere. For another, a moon landing and lunar exploration mission were thrust into the public eye just months before Apollo 11 turned science fiction into science fact.
Whenever I watch 2001: A Space Odyssey I experience the same boyhood excitement I felt when I first discovered science fiction, which for me has always communicated a sense of wonder at our universe and humanity’s urge to explore it.
Odyssey, based on Clarke’s 1948 short story “The Sentinel,” proposes a compelling theory for human advancement: Alien beings with almost divine abilities enter Earth’s history at key moments to nudge mankind forward technologically.
That theory resonates indirectly with another aspect of my worldview: I’m convinced humanity has always been influenced in its development. Where Clarke and I would diverge in opinion regards the Source of that influence.
Clarke speculated about advanced alien civilizations and offered fictional visions of his ideas. But I find nothing speculative or fictional about the Bible’s record of humanity’s appearance in the universe at the hands of a loving Creator.
Clarke apparently took exception to any form of theistic belief right up to the end of his life. He left instructions that “absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith” should be associated with his funeral. Yet, religious themes filled his writing. “Mr. Clarke’s writings were the most biblical,” observed Edward Rothstein in an essay for The New York Times, “the most prepared to amplify reason with mystical conviction, the most religious in the largest sense of religion: speculating about beginnings and endings, and how we get from one to the other.”
Where Clarke only allowed himself to speculate in matters of faith, countless others have discovered undeniable reality. One of those people is Charlie Duke, a man who visited the moon in 1972 as Apollo 16’s lunar module pilot.
I had the privilege of meeting Charlie and Dotty Duke in their Texas home in January. They joyfully spoke of their faith in Christ, a faith they discovered in the years following Charlie’s moon landing. That story will be in our Father’s Day edition of the Evangel. I hope you get a chance to read it.
Arthur C. Clarke was one of my literary heroes. I’ll continue to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey. But now I can’t watch or read Clarke’s material without a nagging question: What did he discover on his final odyssey?
Topics: Books and Films, Bible |