by Mike Gray

The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be. — Carl Sagan in the Cosmos TV series

Next month marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of Carl Sagan’s only novel, Contact. As a work of fiction, the book isn’t bad, just not exceptional, readable without being a noteworthy example of the SF genre, entertaining enough without being thrilling.

As with most “hard SF,” it’s the ideas that count—and astounding ideas abound in Contact, the most appealing to me being instantaneous wormhole travel. If “God’s quarantine”—the vast distances between stars and galaxies in the universe running from trillions to quintillions of miles—is valid, even with the best rocket engines known to physics it would take multiples of human lifetimes to get anywhere “out there.” A shortcut is needed, and wormholes are it.

Trouble is, nobody knows if they exist, but even if they do there’s the problem of making them say “Aaahhh.” (For a scientific explanation, see the Scientific American article cited below.)

A high-budget film with excellent visual effects and starring Jodie Foster was released in 1997. In my opinion, Foster gives the finest performance of any actor in any science fiction movie that I’ve ever seen, with lots of breadth and considerable depth. As for the film itself, it has made over $200 million, not too bad for a scifi movie without a Wookie in it.

Both the book and the movie include deliberate swipes at religion—and more particularly Judeo-Christian faith—which go unanswered in the narratives. This emphasis on religious matters might explain The Washington Post’s film reviewer’s characterizing Contact as “a preachy debate between sanctity and science.”

An article at CMI by Russell Grigg offers a detailed critique of the theological ideas contained in both the novel and the film from a Christian viewpoint.

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Some Carl Sagan quotes about religion:

The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying … it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.

A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism. — From Contact

You see, the religious people—most of them—really think this planet is an experiment. That’s what their beliefs come down to. Some god or other is always fixing and poking, messing around with tradesmen’s wives, giving tablets on mountains, commanding you to mutilate your children, telling people what words they can say and what words they can’t say, making people feel guilty about enjoying themselves, and like that. Why can’t the gods leave well enough alone? All this intervention speaks of incompetence. If God didn’t want Lot’s wife to look back, why didn’t he make her obedient, so she’d do what her husband told her? Or if he hadn’t made Lot such a shithead, maybe she would’ve listened to him more. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn’t he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why’s he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there’s one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He’s not good at design, he’s not good at execution. He’d be out of business if there was any competition. — From Contact

The Earth is an object lesson for the apprentice gods. ‘If you really screw up,’ they get told, ‘you’ll make something like Earth.’

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

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Resources:

The novel Contact at Amazon.com.

The film Contact at Amazon.com.

A detailed review of the film.

The Cosmos TV series at Amazon.com.

The Wikipedia article about Contact.

The Scientific American article about wormholes.

The CMI article.