Carl Sagan meditated on science and religion in "Contact"

The 1997 film holds up very well.

In 1997, director Robert Zemeckis adapted scientist Carl Sagan’s classic 1985 novel “Contact” into a major motion picture. Starring Jodie Foster as an atheist science and Matthew McConaughey as her Christian philosopher lover, “Contact” hooks audiences with a tantalizing premise: Scientists searching for extraterrestrial life are contacted by an advanced civilization from the stars. They send schematics to a mysterious machine; humanity must construct it and, without knowing what comes next, activate it.

When I first saw the trailer for “Contact” in theaters in 1997, I immediately lost interest in the movie I was there to see (“The Lost World: Jurassic Park” was my 12th birthday gift). What does that machine do? I kept wondering. What would it be like to contact an alien civilization?

Upon seeing “Contact,” I was instead struck by its profound meditation on the need to balance science with religion. Sagan himself was profoundly skeptical about whether God and an afterlife exist; speaking with his widow Ann Druyan, who co-authored the story of “Contact” with Sagan, I heard her reaffirm Sagan’s lifelong belief that when you die, your conscious mind no longer exists.

These are depressing thoughts, demoralizing even, and I suspect Sagan and Druyan (like me) accepted them with the sad resignation of those who do not wish to allow hope to counter their education. Yet even though Sagan, Druyan and myself identify far more with Foster’s Dr. Ellie Arroway than McConaughey’s Palmer Joss, they are intellectually honest about their subject. Arroway and Joss have fantastically profound conversations about balancing science and religion, with both sides given a fair chance to air their views.

Ellie Arroway: I read your book.

Palmer Joss: Here we go.

Ellie Arroway: You want me to quote you? “Ironically, the thing people are most hungry for - meaning - is the one thing science hasn’t been able to give them.”

Palmer Joss: Yeah.

Ellie Arroway: [humorously] Come on! It’s like you’re saying that science killed God. What if science simply revealed that He never existed in the first place?

Palmer Joss: I think we’re gonna need to get some air.

Ellie Arroway: Oh?

Palmer Joss: [takes two champagne glasses] And a few more of these...

Later, Arroway delivers what seems to be a knockout punch to Joss’ point-of-view.

Ellie Arroway: So what’s more likely? That an all-powerful, mysterious God created the Universe, and decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that He simply doesn’t exist at all, and that we created Him, so that we wouldn’t have to feel so small and alone?

The beauty of “Contact” is that, when the machine is finally activated and the subsequent adventure embarked upon, the Arroway-Joss discourses become unexpectedly relevant. I won’t spoil why, but suffice to say that I was shocked and delighted with the outcome as a nerdy 12-year-old sci-fi nerd studying for his Bar Mitzvah.

By the time the plot of “Contact” is resolved, the Arroway-Joss exchanges and the main plot have intersected beautifully. “Contact” rewards subsequent viewings precisely because it allows viewers to contemplate nuances in both story and philosophy that may have previously eluded them.

What other movie can deliver like this? They are few and far between, and rarely spout pedigrees as distinguished as this one.

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Back Seat Socialism

Back Seat Socialism is a column by Matthew Rozsa, who has been a professional journalist for more than 13 years. Currently, he is writing a book for Beacon Press, “Neurosocialism,” which argues that autistic people like the author struggle under capitalism, and explains how neurosocialism - the distinct anticapitalist perspective one develops by living as a neurodiverse individual - can be an important organizing principle for the left.