ARHIVA Foruma "Ateisti Srbije"

Ako neko može ovo da prevede, please:


Views

On religion

Themes of religion and spirituality appear in much of Clarke's writing. He said: "Any path to knowledge is a path to God—or Reality, whichever word one prefers to use."[88] He described himself as "fascinated by the concept of God". J. B. S. Haldane, near the end of his life, suggested in a personal letter to Clarke that Clarke should receive a prize in theology for being one of the few people to write anything new on the subject, and went on to say that if Clarke's writings did not contain multiple contradictory theological views, he might have been a menace.[89] When he entered the Royal Air Force, Clarke insisted that his dog tags be marked "pantheist" rather than the default, Church of England,[27] and in a 1991 essay entitled "Credo", described himself as a logical positivist from the age of ten.[89] In 2000, Clarke told the Sri Lankan newspaper, The Island, "I don't believe in God or an afterlife,"[90] and he identified himself as an atheist.[91] He was honoured as a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism.[92] He has also described himself as a "crypto-Buddhist", insisting that Buddhism is not a religion.[93] He displayed little interest about religion early in his life, for example, only discovering a few months after marrying that his wife had strong Presbyterian beliefs.

A famous quotation of Clarke's is often cited: "One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion."[93] He was quoted in Popular Science in 2004 as saying of religion: "Most malevolent and persistent of all mind viruses. We should get rid of it as quick as we can."[94] In a three-day "dialogue on man and his world" with Alan Watts, Clarke stated that he was biased against religion and said that he could not forgive religions for what he perceived as their inability to prevent atrocities and wars over time.[95] In a reflection of the dialogue where he more broadly stated "mankind", his introduction to the penultimate episode of Mysterious World entitled "Strange Skies", Clarke said: "I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers." Near the very end of that same episode, the last segment of which covered the Star of Bethlehem, he stated that his favourite theory[96] was that it might be a pulsar. Given that pulsars were discovered in the interval between his writing the short story, "The Star" (1955), and making Mysterious World (1980), and given the more recent discovery of pulsar PSR B1913+16, he said: "How romantic, if even now, we can hear the dying voice of a star, which heralded the Christian era."[96]

Clarke left written instructions for a funeral that stated: "Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral."[97]

On paranormal phenomena

Early in his career, Clarke had a fascination with the paranormal and stated that it was part of the inspiration for his novel Childhood's End. Citing the numerous promising paranormal claims that were shown to be fraudulent, Clarke described his earlier openness to the paranormal having turned to being "an almost total sceptic" by the time of his 1992 biography.[27] During interviews, both in 1993 and 2004–2005, he stated that he did not believe in reincarnation, citing that there was no mechanism to make it possible, though he stated "I'm always paraphrasing J. B. S. Haldane: 'The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we can imagine.'"[98][99] He described the idea of reincarnation as fascinating, but favoured a finite existence.[100]

Clarke was well known for his television series investigating paranormal phenomena Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980), Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe (1985) and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers (1994), enough to be parodied in an episode of The Goodies in which his show is cancelled after it is claimed he does not exist.

O religiji

Tema religioznosti i duhovnosti se pojavljuje u mnogim spisima Artura Klarka. Govorio je :,,Svaki put do znanja je put do Boga – ili Stvarnosti, koja god reč vam je draža". O sebi je govorio da je ,,fasciniran konceptom Boga". J.B.S. Haldane je , nešto pre svoje smrti, naglasio Klarku u privatnom pismu da bi Klark trebalo da dobije nagradu iz teologije jer je tek jedan od nekolicine koji su napisali nešto novo u tom polju, i u nastavku je čak napisao da bi Klark predstavljao pretnju, da njegovi spisi nisu sadržali više kontradiktornih teoloških stanovišta. Kada je stupio u britansko Kraljevsko vojno vazduhoplovstvo, Klark je insistirao da na (vojnim identifikacijskim) pločicama ipak bude obeležen kao panteista, a ne kao što je uobičajeno – Engleska crkva. U eseju ,,Credo" iz 1991. je napisao za sebe da je logički pozitivista još od desete godine. Za šrilančanske novine ,,Ostrvo" <The Island> je 2000. izjavio ,,Ne verujem u Boga niti u zagrobni život" i izjasnio se kao ateista. Bio je počasni laureat humanista na Međunarodnoj akademiji za humanizam. Takođe se izjašnjavao kao ,,kripto-budista", insistirajući na tome da budizam nije religija. U ranijem životu je pokazao malo interesovanja za religiju, npr, nekoliko meseci nakon venčanja je otkrio da mu je supruga prezbiterijanac.

Čuvena Klarkova rečenica, koja se često citira, ,, Jedna od najvećih tragedija čovečanstva je što je religija kidnapovala moral". Takođe su citirane njegove reči u vezi sa religijom 2004. u časopisu ,,Popularna nauka" –Popular Science- ,,Najzlokobniji i najuporniji od svih umnih virusa. Treba da ga se otarasimo što pre." U trodnevnim ,,dijalozima o čoveku i njegovom svetu" sa Alanom Votsom je naveo da je bio pristrasan u borbi protiv religije i da nije mogao da oprosti religijama nesposobnost da vremenom spreče zverstva i ratove. U osvrtu na dijalog, u kom je još jasnije naglasio ..čovečanstvo", u pretposlednjoj epizodi emisije ,,Misteriozni svet" –Mysterious World- imena ,,Čudna nebesa" -Strange Skies-, rekao je :,,Ponekad pomislim da je univerzum zapravo mašina napravljena da neprestano iznenađuje astronome". Pri kraju te iste epizode, u poslednjem segmentu, u kom se govorilo o Vitlejemskoj zvezdi, Klark je naveo da je njegova najomiljenija teorija da bi to mogao biti pulzar. S obzirom na to da su pulzari otkriveni u vremenskom intervalu između pisanja kratke priče ,,Zvezda" –The Star- 1995. i pravljenja ,,Misterioznog sveta" –Mysterious World- 1980. i s obzirom na najnovije otkriće pulzara PSR B1913+16, Klark je rekao ,,Kako romantično, ako i sada možemo da čujemo umirući glas zvezde koji je najavio hrišćansku eru"

Klark je ostavio pisane instrukcije za sahranu, koje glase :,,Apsolutno nijedan religijski ritual bilo koje vrste koji se odnosi na bilo koju religijsku veru ne sme da ima veze sa mojom sahranom".

O paranormalnim fenomenima

Klark je ranije u svojoj karijeri bio opčinjen paranormalnim i naveo je da je to bila inspiracija za njegov roman ,,Kraj detinjstva". Citirajući gomilu obećavajućih tvrdnji o paranormalnom koje su kasnije opovrgnute, Klark je opisao kako je njegova ranija otvorenost prema paranormalnom prerasla u ,,gotovo apsolutni skepticizam" do njegove biografije iz 1992. godine. Tokom intervjua, i 1993. i 2004 – 2005., govorio je da ne veruje u reinkarnaciju, jer ne postoji mehanizam koji bi to omogućio, mada je često i navodio .,,Uvek parafraziram J.B.S. Haldana : Univerzum nije samo čudniji više nego što zamišljamo, čudniji je više nego što možemo da zamislimo. ". Nazvao je ideju o reinkarnaciji fascinantnom, ali je preferirao konačnost u postojanju.

Klark je veoma poznat i po tv serijama koje su se bavile istraživanjem paranormalnih fenomena –Artur Klarkov misteriozni svet- (1980.), -Artur Klarkov misteriozni univerzum- (1985.) i -Artur Klarkov svet čudesnih moći- (1994.) (Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980), Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe (1985) and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers (1994) – što je rezultiralo parodijom u jednoj od epizoda serije ,,The Goodies", u kojoj je Klarkov šou otkazan nakon tvrdnje da Klark - ne postoji.