The Star – Arthur C. Clarke (1967) [pdf]

https://sites.uni.edu/morgans/astro/course/TheStar.pdf

by Yhippa • 5 years ago

110 44 5 years ago

sites.uni.edu

watersb• 5 years ago

Merry Christmas indeed.

_kst_2• 5 years ago

Isn't that still under copyright?

AndrewDucker• 5 years ago

It is, yes.

dotancohen2• 5 years ago

Yes, this work was created after Mickey Mouse was created.

rbanffy2• 5 years ago

And he died well after Disney…

rbanffy2• 5 years ago

I claim pointing people to this story is fair use during the holidays.

_kst_2• 5 years ago

I'm reasonably sure that "fair use" doesn't mean what you think it means.

nine_k2• 5 years ago

Arthur Clarke apparently had some beef with Christianity all his writing life, but sometimes he went as bitter as this.

dotancohen2• 5 years ago

Interestingly, his equally-aethiest contemporary Asimov accepted the role of religion in people's lives. I forget which book, but Asimov mentions friendly teasing between himself and a religious friend in one of the prefaces. Something about moving the Bible back out of the Fiction section of his personal library.

southpawflo• 5 years ago

I vaguely remember something along those lines as well, perhaps about C. S. Lewis and the Narnia series? It's been a while though.

ud_0• 5 years ago

Could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by "as bitter as this"? Reading the story with no context, it seems almost reverential to Christianity:

We're in the far future and space-faring humans still worship the old religion(s). A supernova that occurred roughly during the time of a key event in the religion's history turned out to have killed off another distant civilization. There is an observation that bad things can happen to good civilizations and how that doesn't square with a benevolent creator deity.

Do you perceive one of these as harsh criticism or was there some other issue in the text that I missed?

nine_k2• 5 years ago

Here he basically accuses God of destroying a beautiful and desperate world to produce the light show at the Christ's birth time on Earth.

I don't see much reverence in this, just a recognition of power, like that a powerful villain might have.

deknos• 5 years ago

well, as i understand it, it is the star of betlehem which showed humanity that its saviour is born, the saviour which saves mankind and with that god destroyed another sentient species which is very similar to us.

how would you feel about that, if your believesystem said a genocide of another race of sentient, potentially benevolent people by god had to happen, so that you get the message your saviour came around?

viktorcode• 5 years ago

I don't think it is bitterness. What really interesting is the idea he put forth: maybe you could find Bethlehem star out there, in space. I think that's brilliant.

mikehotel• 5 years ago

“God has no need to justify His actions to man. He who built the Universe can destroy it when He chooses. It is arrogance—it is perilously near blasphemy—for us to say what He may or may not do.”

Possibly taken out of context from the linked document.

hungryforcodes• 5 years ago

"Some beef". A lot of science types dislike religion in general -- or is this a surprise to you.

divbzero2• 5 years ago

I like how Arthur C. Clarke accurately referenced SN 1054 [1] and SN 1572 [2].

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1054

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1572

vmilner3• 5 years ago

This was absolutely brilliantly read on BBC radio by the actor John Shrapnel some years ago (with 4 other stories from "The Nine Billion Names of God" collection). Unfortunately I can't find a link to it.

divbzero2• 5 years ago

You must be referring to this series [1] from BBC Radio.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010gkzz/episodes/guide

vmilner3• 5 years ago

Yes - the Sentinel was particularly good too. They have very gentle background effects that work perfectly.

belter• 5 years ago

Unfortunately get a "Sorry, this episode is not currently available"

specialist• 5 years ago

Oh no! "Sorry, This episode is not currently available."

Darn. "The Nine Billion Names of God" story has long stuck with me. (Kinda messed me up, tbh.) I'd love to hear an audio version.

gtech1• 5 years ago

So the edge of the observable universe was 6000 ly away ? Something doesn’t add up

boxed4• 5 years ago

No.

we are at the very frontiers of the explored Universe.

Explored.

rootbear• 5 years ago

And Clarke had a tendency to be free with his usage of the word Universe, sometimes using it to refer just to the Solar systems. It throws me off sometimes when reading his short stories.

The Star – Arthur C. Clarke (1967) [pdf]

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