Den vanliga tolkningen är att det var sant trots allt . De skeptiska datoperatörerna trodde aldrig på Gud eller att universum skulle sluta när boken var färdig, men stjärnorna som gick ut vinner munkarna. Historiens moral kan ses som "knock inte någon annans religion: du vet aldrig, det kan vara verkligt trots allt" .
En annan tolkning jag hittade här är som följer.These are Tibetan Buddhist monks. Buddhism in general is not concerned with "God." Enlightenment is their goal and compassion (understanding the suffering of other beings) is a major way of achieving enlightenment. Since these monks are not concerned about "God," their work of trying to discover the name of "God" through the iteration of all the names is not for their benefit at all. Either “God” is confused about what its real name is, or this is a typically cruel trick of some authoritarian patriarchical deity. But for the monks, it’s a moot point.
When the atheist monks finished the book of names, they had achieved the goal, not actually of naming some deity which they do not even believe in, but of realizing that "God" is unnameable because, in fact, there is no "God."
When the stars "go out" at the end, it us not really the end of the universe (which would have really been overkill by a wrathful deity in wiping out the entire universe, instead of just Earth). Also it would have been difficult for this deity to coordinate the timing of the extinguishing of the stars since the ancient light streaming in is millions of light-years old and each star is more or less different in distance from Earth, and the exact time that the monks’ woulf finish was indeterminate.
I think this is the atheist Clarke using technology to debunk the notion of “God.” The light of the stars going out is a poetic, allegorical kind of extinguishing. What is going out is the necessity for imagining that God is necessary at all.
I grund och botten är det en av de tankeväckande berättelserna, vars punkt inte är helt klart och kan lämnas, åtminstone till viss del, upp till tolkningen av den enskilda läsaren. Jag vet inte om Clarke själv någonsin sagt något om hur han förväntade sig att denna historia skulle tolkas.