A
Review of the movie: Contact and the book: Contact. Carl Sagan, 1985.
By
Bill Crouse
"Surely, among the billions
of stellar systems in the billions of galaxies that fill our universe, Earth's
ability to support intelligent life isn't unique. The universe is too vast, and
we're not that special‑‑ something else is probably out there. It's
just a matter of our finding it, or its finding us." Discover,
May, 1993.
When sharing the faith with a person
of an opposing worldview seems to be going nowhere, it's often helpful to ask
the question: "What would you allow to go against your worldview?"
In other words, what evidence would render your worldview untrue? It's even
a good question to ask ourselves. What undeniable fact (or facts) would falsify
the Christian worldview? The Apostle Paul notes in I Cor.
15, that the strongest fact would be the discovery of Christ's body in the
tomb. He goes on to say that if Christ is still in the tomb our faith is in
vain (vss. 12ff.). Now if you do ask the above
question with the one you are conversing with, be sure to find out first if
they believe the universe is a rational place. Do they believe in truth,
absolutes, and laws of logic? If this is not so, the conversation will bog down
and go nowhere, because if the universe is not a rational place, facts and
reason do not matter. Such belief is irrational. Their appeal will be to such
subjective factors as feeling and personal experience. Only a few years ago
this would be more rare than it is today. Due to the spread
of Eastern philosophy and the New Age craze, more and more belief systems are
irrational. Sadly enough, this cultural trend is beginning to affect those in
the Christian camp. While tenaciously holding to some semblance of
Christianity, they often do so divorced from it's
factual and logical construct. For example, today it is common to find
Christians who claim to follow the historic faith while also believing in
reincarnation or other contradictory tenets of eastern religion. Others claim
to have no concern if the narrative events in the Bible have never occurred. In
other words "Nothing could falsify my faith."
I discovered the presence of this
irrational attitude several years ago when I posed the hypothesis of
intelligent life on other planets. The question was: What would it do to your
faith if intelligent beings were discovered to exist somewhere in the universe?
Could your faith survive? Could this new fact be made to fit in the Christian
worldview without tension? I was shocked with most of the answers. Most did not
see any problem whatever with a possible discovery of life on other planets. My
own interest in this issue (extraterrestrial life) led me to read widely on the
subject. What I found was, that non‑Christians
and those hostile to Christianity, had the opposite opinion. Most were not shy
to write openly that such a discovery would be the death knell of historic
Christianity. Some, like scientist‑writer, Carl Sagan,
were not at all bashful in expressing their exuberance for the coming of that
day. In 1985, Sagan published his first and only
novel about this anticipated event. The title of the book was simply, Contact. Last summer a movie based on the book
became a major hit. Soon millions more will see it when the video becomes
available.
The movie, promoted as "a
thinking man's alien movie" champions a distinct message. Ann Druyan, the late Carl Sagan's
wife, was quoted in our local newspaper as saying: "I acted as a
consultant for the movie because of our desire to get our message across."
And what is that message? Sagan's story of Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster), an astronomer, for the SETI (Search
for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Project, is about the conflict between
science and religion. According to Sagan, science has
brought light to the world, and religion, much darkness. This message is
embodied in the story of this hard‑nosed empirical astronomer who is
searching for the meaning of life by combing the heavens for radio signals from
aliens, and by a kookie priest who believes the
answers to life are found by looking inward. The two make "contact"
early in the movie and develop an unusual relationship for two people coming
from seemingly diverse worldviews. Ellie is of course the spokesperson for
science, Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey) for
religion.
McConaughey, the co‑star with Foster, is a
seminary dropout who has a beer with Ellie, and sleeps with her on the same day
they meet. After having sex they discuss religion and he tells her how much
faith in God means to him. He calls himself "a man of the cloth without
the cloth." Ellie's answers to
his religious questions are the stock‑in‑trade answers one would
expect of an atheist scientist. They also are an echo of what the author has
written in previous books and articles. At one point Ellie responds to her
friend's inquiry as to her belief in God with the mantra: "As a scientist
I go where the evidence leads me." At another point in the movie, she says
something like: "How can I believe in a God who supposedly created the
entire universe and then erased all the evidence of himself from it?" Think
of the irony here. Ellie, through her scientific method, can discern the
difference between natural and intelligent signals coming through our
atmosphere but unable to see the same hand of an intelligent Creator in the
origin of the universe!
The movie (and the book) in a not so
subtle way, demonstrates that science and traditional religion (read orthodox
Christianity) are at loggerheads and cannot compromise. Nevertheless, the
purpose of the movie is to show that science and a certain kind of religion can
coexist, and that there is a kind of faith that is common to both. This kind
of religion that science can live with is one that does not make any truth
claims. It is one that is based on experience, one that avoids dogmatism,
absolutes and authoritative revelation. As the movie develops, McConaughey's character, Palmer Joss, becomes a nationally
known religious leader. He writes popular religious books, becomes a confidant
of the president, and appears on talk shows. Most of his preaching is confined
to making bland religious statements about faith in God. Always the emphasis is
on the personal and experiential. Such a "faith" can
coexist with science. Throughout the movie, Ellie with her sharp tongue, dismisses traditional religion. However, in the end
she finds herself in a dilemma. She is convinced of the truthfulness of a
personal experience she has had but cannot provide the proof for it. This is
similar to Palmer's experience of God. She now understands that there are times
when a scientist accepts certain things on faith without sufficient evidence.
In the movie, Ellie succeeds in
finding radio signals from intelligent beings inhabiting a planet orbiting
around the star, Vega. She then accomplishes the impossible by decoding the
message. The Message (Sagan capitalizes it through
out the book) consists of instructions to built a space‑travel machine. A
consortium of nations pools their funds and builds the machine. Ellie, with no
surprise, maneuvers herself to become its first passenger and succeeds in
reaching this unknown planet. When there she meets an alien
who takes the form of her deceased father. She returns, but something is
wrong. According to earthly observers, the craft never physically left the
launching pad! Ellie
knows that she made contact. Much to her chagrin she finds that she had
an experience, not unlike a religious experience. She knows she visited another
planet and communicated with an alien but she can't prove she ever left the
launching pad. The alien‑designed spaceship traveled in some type of time‑
warp tunnel (in the book it is through a black hole) while having the
appearance of sitting on the launch pad!
The book on which the movie is based
may be the most autobiographical of all Sagan's
writings. It is through his character, Ellie Arroway,
that he bares his soul. In real life he was an astronomer, and he, like the 20th century
existentialists, are acutely aware of man's finiteness. For most of his life as
a scientist he was a leader in the quest for the search for extraterrestrial
intelligence. This secular quest for transcendence is nothing more than Sagan's (and modern man's) search for redemption. In the
movie, this redemption is even an act of grace in that the highly intelligent
aliens seek out inferior and backward humans and present them with plans to
travel to the heavens!
When Ellie, in one of her
conversations, declares that God left no evidence for His creation I wanted to
stand up in the theater and shout! As astronomer Ellie (Sagan)
scanned the heavens, she accurately discerned man's finiteness, but totally
missed the obvious inference of the infinity of its Creator (Romans 1:19,20). In the end Sagan says:
"For small creatures such as we the vastness is
bearable only through love." (Contact,
p. 430). But without an infinite reference point, love can only be
defined by finite humans. Sagan met his Maker earlier
this year. We do not know his final state, but in the book, he ends with the
cryptic statement that there is an intelligence (no capital) that antedates the
universe. His cites as evidence the circle and the impossibility of finding an
exact computation of pi.
Thinking Christians should see the
movie Contact and read Sagan's
book to be aware of the direction our culture is heading. We also should heed
the command of I Pet. 3:15,16 to be ready with answers
when questions like Ellie's are asked. I was deeply saddened when on several
occasions Ellie had serious questions about the Christian faith but was only
given superficial answers. Again I wanted to stand up in the theater and shout:
"There are good answers to that."
Earlier we asked what difference it
might make to the Christian faith if alien life were discovered. For this
writer anyway, it would bring serious question to the truthfulness of the
Christian worldview. There are at least two areas:
The first question that comes to mind
is the uniqueness of man. Bertrand Russell, one of the most antichristian
philosophers of this century, believed that man was alone in the universe, and
that he was nothing more than "the phosphorescence of slime." Sagan in his writings certainly agrees with Russell's
assessment of humanity, but he could never accept that man was alone. According
to Sagan, there are about 400 billion stars in our
Milky Way Galaxy. He believes (note the faith here) that 1 star in 10 must have
planets. That's 40 billion stars with planets, and if each star has 10 planets,
that's 400 billion planets in the galaxy! Since our solar system has only two
planets that could sustain life (Earth and Mars) scientists estimate that if
only 2 of 10 planets qualify, that's 80 billion planets that might have some
form of life. It is further estimated, that 400 million to 40 billion of these
planets might have intelligent life. One half of these may have civilizations
more advanced than ours. This is just our galaxy. There are billions of
galaxies in the universe! Some of these advanced civilizations could be trying
to reach us. With these assumptions, millions of government funds have been
spent trying to receive their signals.
If Sagan is
correct, what does this do to the biblical doctrine of man created in the image
of God? Note what some non‑Christians say. Arthur C. Clarke, the noted
science fiction writer, said: "The rash assertion that `God created man
in his own image' is ticking like a time‑bomb at the foundations of many
faiths." Carl Jung said: "In a direct confrontation with
superior creatures from another world, the reins would be torn from our hands
and we would, as a tearful old medicine man said to me, find ourselves `without
dreams.' That is, we would find our intellectual and spiritual aspirations so
outmoded as to leave us completely paralyzed." Another scientist, in a
moment of candid admission said: "My intelligence accepts the
statistical certainty that other intelligences exist beyond the earth. But I
hope I don't live to witness their discovery. Emotionally I am not prepared for
that. Are you?"
The Bible, in an ordinary reading,
seems to indicate that the earth is the center of God's creation, and that man
is the focus of His attention. He created man a moral being, who in a moment of
testing, fell, bringing the whole creation under the curse. If these so‑called
beings are more intelligent than us, are they also moral beings? Were they
affected by the fall? Or is this planet quarantined as C.S. Lewis speculated?
And if there are myriads of such beings, all diverse and fallen, has God
created for each a unique Incarnation? The Bible is totally silent on any
physical life outside the earth.
A second question that the discovery
of extraterrestrial life raises, is the matter of
evolution and the origin of life. Sagan and his
colleagues believe that if life is discovered on other planets, evolution can
no longer be denied by creationists. Their assumption is that given the right
conditions, life just happens, and has indeed begun spontaneously all over the
universe. This seems contrary to all available evidence. From a scientific
point of view, the origin of life on this planet is still a mystery. Most
scientists believe life originated by chance. Those searching for life on other
planets believe its coming into being is simply a matter of having the right
conditions. It's like a law written into the universe. If the formula is right
it happens!
Some scientists, who readily admit to
the difficulty of life's origin happening repeatedly, speculate that life may
have been transported to this planet either by some physical means (e.g., a
comet), or by intelligent beings as some type of experiment. Many books, some
serious, postulate that visitations from outer space have already occurred, and
primitive earthlings called them gods, thus explaining the origin of religion.
There are some scientists (a
minority) who believe intelligent life is probably a unique phenomena to earth.
Frank Tipler, a physicist, believes intelligent life
must be distinctive of earth, because if there are civilizations out there,
most certainly some of them would be far more advanced than our own. Since we
have not heard from them we must be alone. Others maintain that while we may
eventually discover radio signals, it is virtually impossible to have physical
contact. These planets are such great distances that travel by mortal humans in
metal space ships is unimaginable. Science fiction
writers, aware of these problems, speculate that humans can learn to survive
for thousands of years of space travel by some sort of induced suspended
animation. The other solution would be to greatly exceed the speed of light.
Currently, most scientists believe this is impossible. In the movie, Sagan solves this problem by having Ellie travel down a
black hole. Some speculate of even more strange remedies like parallel
realities, or additional dimensions. There is a lot yet to learn about the
physics of our Creator's universe, but the secular quest for salvation in the
stars will be another dead end. As for me, I'm willing to put my faith on the
line. Carl Sagan and his alter ego, Ellie Arroway, could not consider the Christian solution because
they could not get beyond their materialistic and naturalistic assumptions.
They were locked into only materialistic answers. Ellie said: "Please show
me the evidence," but yet her worldview would not allow for the spiritual
or the supernatural. It's as though she said: "What my net doesn't catch ain't fish."
"...[W]e are inventing imaginary creatures
to protect ourselves against cosmic loneliness." Bruno Bettelheim
"If we must worship a power
greater than ourselves, does it not make sense to revere the sun and the stars." Carl Sagan
"...[T]he formation of our solar system or
the origin of life will never be fully understood until we discover other
instances of these phenomena. It is essential to understanding the origin of
our solar system to find another example." Atlantic Monthly,
November, 1984.
"If some civilization out
there has made its way beyond weapons, knowledge of its success would offer
hope to a species in danger of destroying itself." Atlantic
Monthly, November, 1984.
Other provocative books by Carl Sagan:
The Cosmic Connection.
Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
The Demon
Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.