Arthur C. Clarke on Theism from Childhood's End

"Profounder things had also passed. It was a completely secular age. Of the faiths that had existed before the coming of the Overlords, only a form of purified Buddhism-perhaps the most austere of all religions-still survived. The creeds that had been based upon miracles and revelations had collapsed utterly. With the rise of education, they had already been slowly dissolving, but for a while the Overlords had taken no sides in the matter. Though Karellen was often asked to express his views on religion, all that he would say was that a man's beliefs were his own affair, so long as they did not interfere with the liberty of others."

Buddhism has always been the only faith in which I have ever placed any stock, and as I grow older it becomes easy to understand why. Many religions have an inherent function that is hierarchical and controlling, a form of coerced social order, and a lack of accessible education promotes the fears that drive the persistence of such faiths. Attempting to live a life free of coercion and violence, as Clarke offers in Childhood's End, I can only think of Buddhism as being compatible, even for those with a more scientific or skeptical disposition. 

Being both agnostic and agoristic, Clarke's vision for the future lays out a social change that comes through voluntary interaction and cessation of coercion and violence, with the Overlords merely showing humanity the destructive results of our own actions, intervening only to prevent harm to others. 

Its just a little Dalek...

Eight O’Clock in the Morning

He had to kill several more before he got into the studio itself, including all the engineers on duty. There were a lot of police sirens outside, excited shouts, and running footsteps on the stairs. The alien was sitting before the the TV camera saying, "We are your friends. We are your friends," and didn't see George come in. When George shot him with the needle gun he simply stopped in mid-sentence and sat there, dead. George stood near him and said, imitating the alien croak, "Wake up. Wake up. See us as we are and kill us!"

It was George's voice the city heard that morning, but it was the Fascinator's image, and the city did awake for the very first time and the war began.

George did not live to see the victory that finally came. He died of a heart attack at exactly eight o'clock.

From Eight O'clock in the Morning, the inspiration for the film They Live.

Clarke on Human Affairs

Arthur C Clarke, from Childhood's End, on the state of human affairs:

"I do not necessarily quarrel with Federation as an ultimate objective-though many of my supporters might not agree. But it must come from within-not be superimposed from without. We must work out our own destiny. There must be no more interference in human affairs!"

Sometimes, a chunk of tangible enlightenment jumps off the pages at me, and is a reassuring encouragement in such unstable times. Clarke is quite observant with an astute view that individuals must be left to make their own choices in life, for only by experiencing the consequences of our actions do we gain the knowledge to progress in life toward achievement, while intervention and prohibition prevents those learning experiences, and society suffers. Those who oppose intervention and actions by the state, like Clarke, are seeking progress from within. The state is simply unfit to exist.