It's a sad day when a great icon dies, but at least Arthur C. Clarke lived a long and productive life right up to the end. That's really all one can ask for.

And there is this article on CNN about how he left instructions for a strictly secular funeral, and a particularly antitheistic quote.

I'm waiting for Pat Robertson, for Fred Phelps, to crawl out of the woodwork and denounce him. You know very well they would if we were talking about Richard Dawkins.