BrianJarrett.com

Arthur C. Clarke was my favorite science fiction writer and I own virtually all of his fiction. He was a strong influence on my logical and reasonable approach to understanding the world and provided me with countless hours of enjoyment and mental stimulation. Some of my favorite of his books are probably Rendezvous With Rama, The Songs of Distant Earth, The City and the Stars, A Fall of Moondust, and The Fountains of Paradise.

Clarke once said, “The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.” This, I believe, is probably the most profound statement he ever uttered.  It supports the crux of my arguments concerning the so-called “necessity” of religion.

An atheist and humanist, a scientist and thinker, Clarke showed me what we have the potential to be if we employ education, reason, and open-mindedness. In a world permeated with sinister fundamentalist extremists bent on dragging the rest of the world down into a new dark age, Clarke’s example of human potential is a guiding light. Although he never knew me he taught me a lot and I hope that one day he’ll teach my children and their children as well.

Back in the old days (1996) when I could barely do a “File->Save As” and get a file successfully saved to a disk I created two little pieces of art with Microsoft Paint on a Windows 95 machine. I ran across those today and thought I’d throw them out here. One is an ocean scene and the other is my rendition of Mars (probably as seen from Phobos). I think they’re kinda humorous (in their simplicity) and, probably more importantly, remind me of a very different time in my life.

I actually drew these on my best friend Dave’s computer when we lived together on Eastwood Avenue in South Charleston, West Virginia. Dave worked at AT&T and was pretty highly paid by West Virginia standards. I had a very low paying job at McJunkin Corporation but was going to school in the evenings. Dave, making fat cash, was able to afford a Pentium I 133 HP computer so I was mooching from him since I couldn’t afford one. This was in the days when AOL was …read more »