The Star by Arthur C. Clark
Nov 20, 2023 19:08:56 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Nov 20, 2023 19:08:56 GMT -5
The Star by Arthur C. Clark
There is a short story titled Star written by the late famous Sci Fi writer Arthur C. Clark, which very poignantly illustrates just how far atheists will go in order to portray belief in a creator as illogical. I encountered it in a sci fi anthology many years ago, and although I found it entertaining, I couldn't help noticing the atheistic strong wishful-thinking agenda which had strongly motivated it.
The story, introduces two human astronauts, one a believer in God, a Jesuit who marvels at the universe as evidence of divine design, and another an atheist, who perceives it all as a mere albeit inevitable byproduct of mere chance, and a star that had gone supernova. Then it mentions a signal received from one of its outer planets that had barely managed to escape the full brunt of the catastrophic event.
The team of astronauts travel there discover evidence of a very peaceful and benign blue-skinned species of humanoid aliens whose home planet had been obliterated by the blast, but who had managed to leave evidence of their technological and artistic accomplishments on that planet as a memorial to their having existed.
The believer in God is shown as being profoundly distressed by the event since it involved an extermination of a people they considered human. He is depicted as struggling desperately with the moral dilemma which is created by the lack of Godly intervention while the atheist is depicted as striving to console him.
Then comes the kicker. Back on the ship, we are shown the Jesuit astronaut even more intensely disturbed by the event. When the atheist calmly asks why, the Jesuit astronaut explains that the star which had gone supernova and had exterminated an entire benign species, had not simply been some ordinary and insignificant one.
Instead, that all the mathematical data conclusively indicated it had been the very star which had appeared over Israel at the moment of Christ's birth, and which had led the three kings to the manger where Jesus had been born. The Jesuit astronaut is then shown fervently asking God why he had chosen that particular star out of the numberless billions which had no sentient creatures nearby.
Then the atheist astronaut is shown calmly attempting to console him by providing a naturalistic explanation which, of course, didn't directly deny God's existence, or propose him as evil, but which cunningly and strongly suggests it.
Now, of course the details of the story are all simply a figment of Arthur C. Clark's imagination, just as his stories about the obelisk which is responsible for the creation of mankind in the film 2001 a Space Odyssey, is simply imaginary. However, it does strongly indicate a certain unscientific biased mentality. That he was quite willing to accept that life on Earth emerged not via mere abiogenesis, but that it emerged via the intelligent planning from a superior entity, as long as that entity is not described as being God. If it involved God, then he was unscientifically and illogically and fanatically totally against it.