Religion and the Purpose of the Universe in Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star”  Jude Lugari College

One of the oldest questions about the universe is whether or not it has a purpose. Many people, especially those who are religious, believe that the earth has a special relationship to the rest of the universe and to its creator; for example, the Catholic Church teaches that “the universe, created in and by the eternal Word, the ‘image of the invisible God’, is destined for and addressed to man.” In other words, these people theorize that God created humanity with a special purpose and created the rest of the universe with this purpose in mind.

However, there are also people who have questioned this belief, such as Arthur C. Clarke, who was a self-proclaimed atheist. Clarke argues against the theory by incorporating religion along with his own ideas about God into many of his stories. In the academic journal, Extrapolation, Patricia Ferrara states that Clarke’s story, “The Star,” “presents no definite image of God, but rather a challenge to the morality of viewing God and the universe as man-centered.” In “The Star,” Clarke challenges the belief that God created the universe with a purpose that is centered on humanity and the earth. In this presentation I am going to show how Arthur C. Clarke introduces his argument into the...