The BBC is reporting that science fiction great, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, has passed away at his home in Sri Lanka at the age of 90. Clarke's short story The Sentinel was the inspiration for the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by director Stanley Kubrick and bringing fame to the author.
"Sir Arthur has left written instructions that his funeral be strictly secular," his secretary, Nalaka Gunawardene, was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
"Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral,"
