In The Star by Arthur C. Clarke (Clarke 44-49), an astrophysicist and Jesuit priest’s faith is challenged when he and his crew discover the remaining artifacts of a destroyed civilization. He learns that the advanced civilization lived on an earth-like planet in another solar system, and they spent their final years building a vault (filled with their achievements and artifacts) on their outermost planet, which was distant enough to survive the supernova. After the discovery of the dead race’s artifacts, the Jesuit priest finds himself questioning God. The story ends with an ironic twist, as the main character realizes that the beacon that shined above Bethlehem when Jesus was born was the same supernova that ended the distant race.
The story showed the struggles of the Jesuit priest as he tried to balance his findings of the wiped out civilization with his religious beliefs. He doesn’t understand why God would destroy an entire world filled with human-like people for no reason. He believes God would have to be cruel, or not exist at all. The character’s inner pain and conflict was evident as he held onto his faith until his calculation of the supernova pulled the last straw. In the end, he seems to come to the conclusion that there is no God.
There are two types of conflict seen in the story. The Jesuit priest had a world of inner conflict within himself and with his crew members, who did not believe in God and were amused that a Jesuit priest was also their chief astrophysicist. He had pride, and the thought of giving into the idea that God didn’t exist was a sad one to him. I believe the character felt defeated in the end as he finally gave up on his faith. The main character also mentions that even though few of his crew membe...
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...o detail about supernovas, it lost my interest a bit because I wanted the story to pick up pace and continue with the priest’s discovery.
Overall, The Star is thought-provoking and a good read. However, I don’t believe this short story is for everyone. This story would probably appeal more to people who love philosophy and science fiction, as it pertains to outer space and human beliefs. I am not surprised that the short story was a big hit win it came out, nor am I shocked that Arthur C. Clarke won the Hugo Award for it, as it was well-deserved.
Works Cited
1. Clarke, Arthur C. “The Star.” World Views: Classic and Contemporary Readings. 6th ed. Ed. Darren Felty, et al. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2010. 44-49. Print.
2. Crayne, Victory. "How to Critique Fiction." Victory Crayne. Victory Crayne, 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. http://www.crayne.com/howcrit.html.
In 1,000 Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, a girl named Mariam lives in a small shack with her mother Nana in Afghanistan. Mariam’s father is a wealthy cinema owner who she adores even though Jalil, the father, has numerous wives and children. He only visits Mariam once a week and tells her stories and brings her gifts. “Nor was she old enough to appreciate the injustice, to see that it is the creators of the harami who are culpable, not the harami, whose only sin is being born” (Hosseini 4). From the beginning of the book, Mariam was not wanted by either her mother or father, giving her an unstable home life that further affected her outside life. In the novel, Mariam is forced to marry a man named Rasheed who becomes verbally and physically abusive towards her. Rasheed and Mariam take in a woman named Laila to help
Ever At Odds: The Conflict and Reconciliation of Science and Religion in Paradise Lost and The Blazing World
In conclusion, Lois Lowry compares the Jewish people to the stars in the sky. The title, Number the Stars, explains how an all-knowing God gives hope and mercy to his chosen people. At the end of the book, Annemarie realizes how the Jewish people were saved because of God’s help. Annemarie learns that God knows everything including the number of stars in the
A neutron star, at first glance, may seem like the smallest stellar remnant of them all, but with deeper inspection you will be baffled to know that is it the most massive of all the stellar remnants. This neutron star and it’s many wonders, including contrasts, and levels of understanding is a great image for the cover to represent the paradox and counter intuitive nature of Sharon Olds poems in The Gold Cell; the poem “Summer Solstice” is a great representation of similarity with neutrons stars.
Religion has had a profound effect on human culture; unfortunately, the trouble with it is faith, which creates skepticism in many individuals. In order to accommodate the issue of faith, religions have regulations, values, and ceremonies, making religion a belief system, hence creating clarity to support faith. Catholicism has become a belief system that feeds its follower with answers; however, these answers are only assumptions. There are no factual answers, and as a result, religious leaders have created an expectation in which religion is supposed to fit; nonetheless, its accuracy is unknown. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story “A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings,” the values of religion are the center of criticism. A man with enormous wings, the protagonist of the story, is never strictly classified as man or angel. He is a rejected by society because he goes against the society’s expectation of what a true angel should be, an expectation taught to them by religion. The ambiguity of the old man with enormous wings tests the true faith of the followers of Catholicism, symbolizing an archetypical Christ figure. Both the priest and society’s foul response to him demonstrates the society’s understanding of religion to be superficial. As a result, the story argues, followers of religion must not rely on the assumptions their religion has created but believe instead, with faith.
In conclusion, this experiment helped me understand the many different items that are relevant to identifying a star. I found it interesting that the stars are all different even in the slightest ways. The most luminous stars are in the upper right section of the HR Diagram. These stars are the most developed stars and are where the Supergiants are mostly populated. These super stars are at the end of there life and are the most evolved. I believe that we can learn the most from these stars. Then that knowledge can then be applied to monitor the younger stars. The information we gather from our stars is; “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong; July 20,
Jonas, Hans. The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity. 2nd ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1991.
Stenger, Victor. J. 2007. God: The Failed Hypothesis—How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist. New York: Prometheus Books.
With his knowledgeable insight on the world and its origin, Whitney Harris’ belief that human existence is in peril imposes on my perspective of the world. Harris points out the logical points that modern day science has proven. The Earth was created by the explosion informally known as the “big boom”. What caused this eruption is still debated, but Harris claims it was the touch of God. He asserts. “To ignite the spark of life required the hand of God.” This challenged my personal beliefs because in my faith, God created the entire universe in seven legendary days. I was also raised to believe that God is forgiving and accepting to all. Harris challenges this, he believes that “...if man desires to destroy himself…God will not save him.” Murder and even suicide are both considered violations to the Fifth Commandment in the Catholic faith. Although it is a sin to disobey the Ten Comman...
The protagonist, John, until the end of the story, discovers that the world he thought was full of gods was destroyed. Even more importantly, these so-called “gods” were humans from the past. John states, “Perhaps, in the old days , they ate knowledge too fast.” As humans make more advanced technology, they do not stop and think what the repercussions of their inventions might be.
A few weeks back we had read a short story by H.G. Wells called “The Star.” This story is about the anticipation and consequences of a comet or “star” collision with Earth. On its way through the solar system, the comet also struck other planets. A mathematician after studying the occurrence makes a few predictions about how the encounter with the star will be fatal for Earth and its inhabitants. Some of these predictions were ice in Greenland melting, colder English winters and typhoons in the Pacific. Despite the catastrophes and chaos, Earth manages to survive. Even though a mathematician made the predictions, there is not much of a scientific base behind them.
Shklovskii, Iosif S. Stars: Their Birth, Life, and Death. Moscow: Central Press for Literature in Physics and Mathematics, 1975.
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With the exception of the priest, majority of the characters in the novel were not religious. At the start of the novel the major from Henry's mess declared his lack of faith in God, as he said, "He loves Franz Joseph. That's where the money comes from. I am an atheist." (7). He was not the only one that was not religious, the lieutenant and others in the mess shared the same sentiment. This display of disrespect for religion was at first surprising to the reader, for she thought that all Italians were staunch Catholics. As the plot developed, this sentiment correlated to the circumstance in which the characters were in. As seen from the beginning of the novel, drinking and going to whorehouses and officer's clubs was common for the soldiers. During times of war, these activities are almost necessities to release the psychological stress placed on these men. In this environment, being reli...
Martin it discusses the topic of how religion is used as a tool for the mass control of a society. Therefore, proving that the reasons people believed in religion ie: trusting in a higher power, an afterlife, etc. were all fake and part of the plan for unifying a society under a pool of common beliefs. This short story involves a priest from the future who is part of the One True Interstellar Catholic Church. As he travels the universe he comes across the planet that is centered around Judas Iscariot. He is intrigued by the story of Judas and further investigates the religion. Har Veris questions Lukyan Judassan for the creation of the religion and uncovers the true conspiracy and lies of the nihilistic creators. The creators of the religion see that there is no true reason for humanity and that life is meaningless, however they create religions to soften the harsh truth. Lukyan Judassan explains the creation of the religion as a way unify the society in beliefs that to appeal to their certain community. As Har Veris begins to lose his faith his search for the truth only intensifies. He exposes the religion to the people and realizes that he himself is a liar by preaching what he no longer believes. A truly powerful quote from the book when the religion is exposed to be fake is, “But freedom is cold and empty and frightening, and lies can often be warm and beautiful.” (Martin