…Contact. Don't you just LOVE that sound? It's one of my very fav movies. It was immediately spiritually though-provoking for me...not the "extra-terrestrial life" part, but...well, you'll see.
If you haven't seen the movie, the following analogy probably won't mean that much to you. Warning: Film spoilers ahead.
Mysterious instructions. When "listening" to deep space, some SETI scientists hear a strange noise. They record it, analyze it...and eventually they discover the noise translates into blueprints for some kind of "machine". The scientific world decides to build it.
Relying on human knowledge. They follow every specification, every detail of the blueprint. They aren't really sure what the "machine" is for, but the blueprints clearly indicate that use of the machine will involve a human passenger. During the building process, they realize the "machine" seems to lack any kind of restraint system for the passenger, so the scientists decide to add one.
Letting go of safety to retain what is valuable…and the problem with Relying on human knowledge. So Ellie…the scientist who discovered the "sound"…becomes the first "passenger". They strap her into the safety-seat they have added inside the "machine", and off she goes. Soon, Ellie experiences weightlessness, and is distracted by something floating in the air. It's a priceless keepsake, given to her by a loved one. It had been in her pocket, but floated out in the weightlessness. She reaches for it, but has to unfasten her "safety-belt" and get out of the safety-seat in order to reach it. Almost immediately the viewers discover that Ellie would have probably died if she had remained in the safety-seat, and that valuable item essentially saved her life.
A mysterious encounter. Ellie soon "arrives" at some strange "destination" and is surprised and overwhelmed to encounter her FATHER. He imparts some wisdom to her and tells her the journey is not over. (I will restrain myself from drawing any further analogy from that.)
The focus on destination instead of journey. In the end, it turns out the machine wasn't for the purpose the scientists thought (space travel), at least by any earthly definitions. Ellie believes she experienced something, but scientifically speaking, it seems she didn't actually "go" anywhere.
Evidence isn't everything. Ellie's 8 hour journey didn't look like but a few seconds to the spectators...to their naked/human/scientific eyes. The journey Ellie went on didn't look like anything to the scientific world, but it meant everything to her. Skeptics think that because they have no tangible evidence of anything happening, that nothing actually happened. A few people on the governmental "inside" know the secret truth, but they refuse to release that information to the world.
Faith. After all, what would happen if the world discovered that during Ellie's apparent 15 second journey, her equipment recorded over 8 hours of blank video and audio?
And what would happen if we realized that Christianity isn't about arriving at any particular destination, but about Who we come in contact with and how we are changed in the journey?
If you haven't seen the movie, the following analogy probably won't mean that much to you. Warning: Film spoilers ahead.
Mysterious instructions. When "listening" to deep space, some SETI scientists hear a strange noise. They record it, analyze it...and eventually they discover the noise translates into blueprints for some kind of "machine". The scientific world decides to build it.
Relying on human knowledge. They follow every specification, every detail of the blueprint. They aren't really sure what the "machine" is for, but the blueprints clearly indicate that use of the machine will involve a human passenger. During the building process, they realize the "machine" seems to lack any kind of restraint system for the passenger, so the scientists decide to add one.
Letting go of safety to retain what is valuable…and the problem with Relying on human knowledge. So Ellie…the scientist who discovered the "sound"…becomes the first "passenger". They strap her into the safety-seat they have added inside the "machine", and off she goes. Soon, Ellie experiences weightlessness, and is distracted by something floating in the air. It's a priceless keepsake, given to her by a loved one. It had been in her pocket, but floated out in the weightlessness. She reaches for it, but has to unfasten her "safety-belt" and get out of the safety-seat in order to reach it. Almost immediately the viewers discover that Ellie would have probably died if she had remained in the safety-seat, and that valuable item essentially saved her life.
A mysterious encounter. Ellie soon "arrives" at some strange "destination" and is surprised and overwhelmed to encounter her FATHER. He imparts some wisdom to her and tells her the journey is not over. (I will restrain myself from drawing any further analogy from that.)
The focus on destination instead of journey. In the end, it turns out the machine wasn't for the purpose the scientists thought (space travel), at least by any earthly definitions. Ellie believes she experienced something, but scientifically speaking, it seems she didn't actually "go" anywhere.
Evidence isn't everything. Ellie's 8 hour journey didn't look like but a few seconds to the spectators...to their naked/human/scientific eyes. The journey Ellie went on didn't look like anything to the scientific world, but it meant everything to her. Skeptics think that because they have no tangible evidence of anything happening, that nothing actually happened. A few people on the governmental "inside" know the secret truth, but they refuse to release that information to the world.
Faith. After all, what would happen if the world discovered that during Ellie's apparent 15 second journey, her equipment recorded over 8 hours of blank video and audio?
And what would happen if we realized that Christianity isn't about arriving at any particular destination, but about Who we come in contact with and how we are changed in the journey?
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