They had been right to keep the truth from her. She was not sufficiently advanced to receive that signal, much less decrypt it. She had spent her career attempting to make contact with the most remote and alien of strangers, while in her own life she had made contact with hardly anyone at all. She had been fierce in debunking the creation myths of others, and oblivious to the lie at the core of her own. She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
***
Finished Contact by Carl Sagan last night and let me say that I was impressed by his writing, I never knew him as much as a writer. I found the book to be revealing of a deep philosophy of life that I didnt know Sagan possessed. I found this video expresses a similar philosophy to what he wrote in contact, here is a glimpse of his thoughts:
Oh how I would love to gain the perspective that Carl Sagan had as an astronomer. to even grasp a fraction of how he understood the vastness of the universe and utterly insignificant scale of our own existence. After reading this book I can see how people say that Astronomy is a science that stretches your perceptions of the world and causes you to reconsider once held beliefs.
Throughout the book he writes (through the experiences of the characters) of how contemplating the vastness of the universe evokes feelings not unlike those of a religious experience or a Numinous experience.
Before I had read Contact I was under the impression that Carl Sagan was an Atheist, now after reading the book I think I would say that Carl Sagan was very much a religious man (officially he said he was an agnostic),just not in the same way we would normally say someone is religious. On religion he said:
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.What this quote doesn't show is his deep, personal, view of the universe. How the complete insignificance of the Earth in comparison to the unimaginable size of the universe should cause us to reconsider deeply held beliefs of how we treat and view each other. To take a step back and ask the question "does this really matter? is this something that the only known intelligent beings in the universe should be doing? Dont we deserve to be treated better and likewise treat others better?", were the questions that in my mind really mattered to Carl Sagan.
I think that the significance of a book is only truly apparent to a reader after a period of time has passed. Enough time to let the most important parts stew in your mind till you finally understand and know what the author was trying to say, and connect it with your previous thoughts and feelings. Only after a period of time has passed I think will you know how the book influenced you. Maybe a follow-up post will be in order
