:"The entire novel was constructed so as to use the "message" inside Pi as a hypothetical example of how scientific investigation of the universe might be able to find evidence that the universe had been created." is an opinion of what Sagan intended, not fact. And it's a highly debatable opinion at that, considering was a dedicated atheist, skeptic and adherent to the tenets of naturalism and the scientific method. What is of very low probability is that such a person would write a book about how scientific investigation of the universe would find evidence that the universe had been created. I've read Contact, in fact I've been reading Sagan since the 70's, and not one of his works that I've read ever even hinted that he was a closet creationist.