A Non Political Post. What!?!?!

Let's start with today's Quote of the Day since we haven't done that in a while.

"Not only is the universe stranger then we imagine, it is stranger then we can imagine."
-Sir Arthur Eddington

I'm glad that this is today's quote of the day, because it makes me think of the movie Contact. That, if you haven't seen it, is a film directed by Robert Zemekis(Back to the Future) and featuring Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs), based on a book written by atheist Carl Sagan.

I've used this film previously (including this last Wednesday) to talk to high school students in church groups about the idea that Religious Experience can prove the existence of God.

William James wrote about this in his book "The Varieties of Religious Experience". He argued that we can use mystical or religious experiences to prove the existence of God.

I think that it's fun to use Contact to talk about this idea, since Carl Sagan argues that we shouldn't believe in God because such an extraordinary idea such as God would require extraordinary proof, yet in the film based on his book, while there is no scientific proof for Ellie's experience of interaction with Alien life forms, the experience itself is proof enough for Ellie.

If you haven't seen the film, the climactic scene involves a huge machine built off of plans apparently recieved from aliens from the Vega system. Ellie (played by Jodie Foster) is ultimately chosen to go on the trip. Ellie is transported through a wormhole to a distant star and meets the Vegans (as in Alien race, not people who don't eat animal products), the experience takes approximantly 18 hours. However, when she returns, no time at all has passed. The sphere Ellie is in apparently just falls through the machine.

William James defines a mystical experience as having four distinct marks justifying our calling it mystical.

1.Ineffability. "The subject of [the experience] immediatly says that it defies expression, that no adequate report of its contents can be given in words." In the movie, Ellie witnesses what she calls a "celestial event" that is "poetry" and "so beautiful" that it "can't be put into words". This is very similar to James's first mark.

2.Noetic Quality. "[M]ystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge. They are states of insight into depths of truth." In the film, Ellie claims a sort of knowledge from her experience that gives her understanding and hope, which she wishes everyone could experince for themselves so that they could share in that knowledge and hope. Again, this matches James's definition.

3.Transient. "Mystical states cannot be sustained for long." In the film, Ellie wants to remain longer and learn more, but the alien informs her that she must go back. In Earth time, the experience lasts even less time, only taking a fraction of a second.

4.Passivity. "[W]hen the characteristic sort of conciousness once has set in, the mystic feels as if his own will were in abeyance, and indeed sometimes as if he were grasped and held by a superior power." In the film, Ellie is alternatively thrown and dragged through a series of wormholes in order to reach her destination and then returned without any choice of her own. Again, the experience as defined by William James is played out exactly in the movie.

At one point in the movie, Ellie is asked if she belives in God. She answers that she does not because there isn't sufficent proof of God's existence, and as a scientist she would require that truth. At the end of the film, the government asks her to recant her position on her experience as there is no proof it took place, and in fact all the "proof" points to her having imagined it. She refuses, says that while "as a scientist" she recognizes the difficulty in taking her word for what happened, having experienced it herself she can't do anything but believe.

William James would have us use the documented instances of Religious Experiences (provided they hold the marks for a true mystical experience that he outlines) to back up or prove our belief in God. While I appreciate and understand where he's coming from, I understand that this isn't an easy thing to do, but it certainly is interesting to think about and discuss. I also appreciate that such an outstanding film like Contact illustrates his points so well, helping to facilitate that discussion.

I wonder if the filmmakers intended the film to come across as an argument for James's stand on Religious Experience, and more I wonder if Sagan intended it. I find it hard to imagine that Sagan intended it, and yet I suppose there are stranger things in the universe, stranger then we could even imagine.