Can one have God and Aliens?

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2011)

A film by Robert Zemekis, the guy who directed Back to the Future, and it is not the expected norm. Where as Back to the Future was pulp science-fiction, Contact is a movie that asks lots of questions: what is the nature of truth? how much do we really know? And is it really wise to disregard things because we cannot prove them? The movie is about contact with aliens. It is set now (as Bill Clinton is president of the United States and makes numerous appearances). Contact is made with aliens and they send us information on how to build a device to send us elsewhere. Much of the movie is built around the debate of whether we should build the device and who should be the first human being to go rather than actually meeting the aliens. The meeting does form the climax of the movie but that is not the end for the movie goes beyond this to the nature of evidence and reality. It even raises an eyebrow to the possibility of a government cover-up.
Are we really ready to Contact extra-terrestrial life? This is one of the themes and it is explored. When Alloway (Jodie Foster) is with the aliens, they seem assured that not revolutionary change is ready to happen. The government is quite upset that Alloway did release the information of the message to the world before the government could examine it. This basically brought out everybody from UFO freaks to fundamentalist religious fanatics who felt threatened that their power would be destroyed.
But does the existence of extra-terrestrial life deny the existence of God. Contact doesn't think so. The aliens, even though they are much more advanced that we are, admit that not even they understand the origins of much of the universe. One of the main characters in the movie is a religious author. He spends a lot of time attacking technology for he says that we seek this to search for meaning in our lives but in fact it leaves us emptier than before. He becomes involved in the project and sits on the selection committee for choosing the first person to encounter the aliens. He is convinced that God exists and the existence of aliens does not alter that.
The search for meaning is another theme that comes out. This is not as dominant but it exists. It is mentioned by the religious man near the beginning and is also mentioned by the aliens. We feel alone in the universe so we reach out to try and find others. It will change us a little but the emptiness is still there. The movie seems to tell us that relationship will fill the emptiness, but that is not true.
The writers really don't understand the true nature of Christianity. The religious man didn't really seem to understand his belief. When he was asked to prove it, he was left at a stand still: all he could do was to ask Alloway to prove that she loved her father. This, to me, is not a response of one who is supposed to be as mature as he was. A mature Christian would reply that God's existence is proved in creation, but that is not important for the real proof comes with Christ and his death on the cross for us. The question of whether God exists or nor is moot; rather the important point is what he did for us.
Contact is not a film arguing religion though. Though I did not appreciate the way that the religious man was portrayed (he would not have slept with Alloyway the first night he met her), this really takes a back seat for it is the contact with the aliens and the questions that are raised that is important in this movie.
There is quite a lot in this movie, and I have only scratched the surface in this examination. It is nothing like the pulp that was produced by Zemekis a few years ago (though I do quite enjoy Back to the Future – and even that raises questions and even provides answers) and is rally a high quality piece of film making. Questions are raised and there is much to think about in this movie and it is one that could raise some very interesting conversations with non-Christians.