Science or More? The Debate of the Decade

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There are always questions that people can not answer. These questions can be as major as knowing how the humans come to exist, to knowing how the dinosaurs were made extinct, or be as minimal as What came first the chicken or the egg? These questions always have two point of views: a religion point of view and a science one. In the movie Contact directed by Robert Zemeckis this major topic is discussed. The movie contact shows both sides and how both sides are used in order to discuss problems, and try to solve them. You can see in certain parts that the movie Contact focuses more on the religion side of this controversial debate.

In the movie you have two main characters, Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) and Palmer Joss ( Matthew McConaughey). Ellie is a scientist , so she is obviously represents scientific views of the movie.

Robert Zemeckis shows science in this movie as a method for understanding the world. He shows that the need, and the capacity for reason and understanding are is accustomed to human beings, why religion is not. Zemeckis shows that we are all born with a complex brain, the ability to solve problems and be creative, and the need to use those abilities. Ellie her whole life used her scientific abilities to solve problems. She never believed in God ,and believed science could answer everything. In the movie she realizes that science can not answer everything, and sometimes its just a matter of faith on whether things can be possible.

Palmer Joss is a very religious political figure. He states in the movie "I am a man of the robe without the rope". Joss is one of the representations of the religious portion the movie. Joss spends most of the people trying to spread the word to ellie, like Jesus would spread the word to his followers. There are many instances in the movie where You can see that the director is more lenient to his religious views. A very prime example of that is one Ellie is talking to the image of her father at the end of the movie and mentions the blueprints to the machine. The image states "I don't know who build it its been here long before us, and thing that build it may come again". I find this very representative of the return of Jesus as the messiah. Zemeckis shows that you need faith in religion in your life, because some questions can not be answered. Ellie realizes that she needs some sort of faith, and that science can not answer every question, while faith somewhat can.

Although neither character has to dismiss there beliefs, and science and religion somewhat come unite( in the relationship of ellie and palmer), the director still focuses on the need of faith. His innuendos towards Jesus and his vague ending shows that faith is the only thing that can answer every question. You need faith when there are no answers, because it's the only thing that can help you understand the impossible.