As part of our continuing occasional series on Non-Mormon Mormon Movies (N-MMM), we consider today the case of the movie “Contact.” Huh? But wasn’t that based on the book by Carl Sagan, the well-known atheist and/or agnostic? Well, yes, he did author the book. I happen to think Carl Sagan makes a great case for religion in this book (perhaps unintentionally) and very indirectly makes a great case for Joseph Smith. Read on if you want to see my reasoning.
“Contact” is about the search for extra-terrestials. The main character, Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a brilliant scientist looking for extra-terrestial life using huge receiving antennae. The idea is that if you listen long enough you may hear a message from an extra-terrestial. And of course after many years Dr. Arroway does hear a message from ET.
The message has a very difficult to discern code that instructs earthlings to build a huge transporter. Ellie rides the transporter and has a very difficult to explain experience with extra-terrestials. Before she takes this trip, she is a “pure science” atheist. Afterwards, she begins to believe in the possibility of faith.
The best thing about this movie for me is the following exchange:
Dr. Arroway. You come to us with no evidence, no record, no artifacts, only a story that, to put it mildly, strains credibility. Over half a trillion dollars was spent, dozens of lives were lost, are you really gonna sit there and tell us we should just take this all on faith?
Ellie hesitates.
KITZ
Please answer the question, doctor.
ELLIE
Is it possible that it didn’t happen, yes. As a scientist I must concede that, I must volunteer that.
KITZ
Wait a minute, let me get this straight. You admit that you have absolutely no physical evidence to back up your story?
ELLIE
Yes.
KITZ
You admit that you very well may have hallucinated this whole thing.
ELLIE
Yes.
KITZ
You admit that if you were in our position, you will respond with exactly the same degree of incredulity and skepticism?
ELLIE
Yes.
KITZ
(Yelling) Then why don’t you simply withdraw your testimony and concede that this journey to the center of the galaxy, in fact, never took place?!
ELLIE
Because I can’t. I had an experience I can’t prove, I can’t even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real. I was part of something wonderful, something that changed me forever; a vision of the Universe that tells us undeniable how tiny, and insignificant, and how rare and precious we all are. A vision that tells us we belong to something that is greater than ourselves. That we are not, that none of us are alone. I wish I could share that. I wish that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and the hope, but… that continues to be my wish.
I first saw “Contact” right after I began to have religious feelings, and this speech hit me right in the gut. After I had my first experience with the Holy Ghost, this speech became even more true. How do you explain to the skeptics, the agnostics, the atheists what it is like to be sure, I mean absolutely certain, that there is a God and that He has contacted you through the Holy Ghost and confirmed to you that all this Mormon stuff about angels and golden plates is true, really true? I think you feel a bit like Ellie trying to tell the world that she visited with extra-terrestials when many of the people in the world are not likely to believe her.
In fact, Ellie’s speech reminded me a lot of another testimony from Joseph Smith’s History (1:24-25):
24 However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a vision•. I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise.
25 So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation.
When I read this in Joseph Smith’s history, it seemed so true to me. That is exactly how a person who has had a real experience would describe it. I, too, have had the beautiful spirit of the Holy Ghost confirm truths to me. I cannot deny it. No matter how much the world wants to make my experience unreal, I know it is real.
So, “Contact” for me is a movie that helps me remember that there are all kinds of visions and experiences that are difficult to explain to the skeptics. But that does not make them less real.