I didn't see the movie but I read the book.  The author, Arthur C. Clarke, was not a Christian at all.  Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on him:

Quote

Themes of religion and spirituality appear in much of Clarke's writing. He said, "Any path to knowledge is a path to God—or Reality, whichever word one prefers to use".[64] and described himself as "fascinated by the concept of God". Near the end of J. B. S. Haldane's life, in a personal letter to Clarke, it was suggested that he should receive a prize in theology for being one of the few people to write anything new on the subject, and went on to say that if Clarke's writings did not contain multiple contradictory theological views, he might have been a menace.[65] When he entered the Royal Air Force, he insisted that his dog tags be marked "pantheist" rather than the default, Church of England,[26] and in a 1991 essay entitled "Credo", described himself as a logical positivist from the age of ten.[65] In 2000, Clarke told the Sri Lankan newspaper, The Island, "I don't believe in God or an afterlife,"[66] and he identified himself as an atheist.[67] He was honoured as a Humanist Laureate in the International Academy of Humanism.[68] He has also described himself as a "crypto-Buddhist", insisting that Buddhism is not a religion.[69] He displayed little interest about religion early in his life, for example, only discovering a few months after marrying that his wife had strong Presbyterian beliefs.

A famous quotation of Clarke's is often cited: "One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion."[69] He was quoted in Popular Science in 2004 as saying of religion: "Most malevolent and persistent of all mind viruses. We should get rid of it as quick as we can."[70] In a three-day "dialogue on man and his world" with Alan Watts, Clarke stated that he was biased against religion and said that he could not forgive religions for what he perceived as their inability to prevent atrocities and wars over time.[71] In a reflection of the dialogue where he more broadly stated "mankind", his introduction to the penultimate episode of Mysterious World, entitled, "Strange Skies", Clarke said, "I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers." Near the very end of that same episode, the last segment of which covered the Star of Bethlehem, he stated that his favourite theory[72] was that it might be a pulsar. Given that pulsars were discovered in the interval between his writing the short story, "The Star" (1955), and making Mysterious World (1980), and given the more recent discovery of pulsar PSR B1913+16, he said, "How romantic, if even now, we can hear the dying voice of a star, which heralded the Christian era."[72]

Clarke left written instructions for a funeral that stated: "Absolutely no religious rites of any kind, relating to any religious faith, should be associated with my funeral."[73]

he was also ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ

i read childhood's end long tiome ago and liked it. he had a correspodence with c.s. lewis that was genial, but lewis didnt persuade him

if you watch 2001 without buying the message there lot of nifty things in it. i like when ape throw bone in air and it turn into space ship. and the star child at the end sent chills up my spine first time i saw with the music.

i like the technology displayed in the filme. everyhting is so clean, and the buttons look like they would be fun to push. i like buttons that have spring mechanism. when you push them they have a bit of resistance, and then they click closed. i like that.