Death of a guru
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Clark
Sci-fi writer leaves a legacy … but what?
by Gary Bates
Recently, news reports told of the death of the hugely popular science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008). So famous is Clarke—the author of some 80 books—that his popularity extended into many non-English speaking countries. This demonstrates the enormous popularity of science-fiction as it carries universal themes such as the hope and vision of a more ‘enlightened’ and peaceful future. Indeed, one of Clarke’s enduring themes was for a world free of religious ideology, and he saw creationists, in particular, as irrational bigots, and they often came in for criticism from him. He once said:
‘I have encountered a few creationists and because they were usually nice, intelligent people, I have been unable to decide whether they were really mad, or only pretending to be mad. If I was a religious person, I would consider creationism nothing less than blasphemy. Do its adherents imagine that God is a cosmic hoaxer who has created that whole vast fossil record for the sole purpose of misleading mankind?’1
As brilliant as he may have been regarded by his legion of fans, this demonstrates that he held to no more than an ignorant parody of what creationists actually believe. In short, he is really saying that anyone who believes in creation is stupid. For such a talented man this comment was really a poor show. I am certainly not trying to disparage Clarke on the event of his untimely death, but the blogs are already lauding his legacy. I am trying to highlight that Clarke’s own disparaging words about creationists will no doubt be rolled out and taken as ‘gospel’, as he is eulogized all over the world due to many being swept up in the tide of emotion.
In interviews, Clarke consistently expressed his wish for evidence of extraterrestrial life
Clarke’s comment about the fossil record was unfortunately ‘willingly ignorant’ (2 Peter 3:5) about what the fossil layers actually represent from a creationist perspective. The overwhelming evidence of catastrophically formed geologic, fossil-bearing layers is a key to understanding a Christian’s Bible-centered worldview. Clarke was not alone in his ignorance. Many are very surprised to discover that Christians actually have answers to such non-existent problems. Not bothering to find out what people really believe before criticizing them is really a form of bigotry in itself—the very thing Clarke accuses Christians of.
The entire article could be found at http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/5685
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