For this week, I read two of Arthur C. Clarke’s short
stories, The Nine Billion Names of God and The Star. Both stories played with
the idea of religion in a science fiction setting.
It was
interesting to see, even in these futuristic settings, how the characters and
societies approached religion. In The Stars, the people who leaned towards
science swatted God and religion altogether away, and the protagonist’s
questions why God would choose to annihilate certain stars and planets. In The
Nine Billion Names of God, the monks invest in technology to reach God by
attempting to unravel his true name. In
both stories, the characters question God and his power and stance in their
lives.
"Well, they believe that when they have listed all His names-and they reckon that there are about nine billion of them-God's purpose will be achieved. The human race will have finished what it was created to do, and there won't be any point in carrying on. Indeed, the very idea is something like blasphemy."
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