re: Name a better science fiction movie than contact

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I’m also an atheist and science teacher and identify pretty closely with Arroway’s stance on religion.

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I do like Contact but I like the others more and for different reasons.

The Thing is simply fun to watch and the simple sets are surprisingly effective, almost a character in and of themselves.
Aliens if for no other reason than Cpl. Hicks.
Blade Runner explores what it means to be human. Terminator does so too but less well I think.

Atheism and science are incompatible are they not? If your atheism is an unproven theory then you’re an agnostic. Otherwise agnosticism becomes Atheism, a dogmatic faith?

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Atheism and science are incompatible are they not?

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I think true science is naturally skeptical and atheistic. How can you adhere to a tenet like the Law of Conservation of Matter and yet believe Jesus ascended to the sky and disappeared to Heaven? There’s a deity that magically makes exceptions to scientific laws? What if someone else uses a deity as a catalyst for an otherwise impossible claim? How do you fairly criticize it?

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If your atheism is an unproven theory then you’re an agnostic. Otherwise agnosticism becomes Atheism, a dogmatic faith?

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Atheism is simply a lack of belief in deities. It is not really a faith. Some people argue it passionately but only because the world is filled with countless contradictory religions that have had more than enough say in culture and politics throughout history.

Blade Runner. Both of them.
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Fifth Element
Oblivion
Minority Report
Edge of Tomorrow

For the sub genre of “First Contact”, it’s pretty good.

Mars Attacks, and we get to see the aliens.

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If you guys were on the panel with James Woods’ character, would you believe Arroway under the circumstances?


I do like at the end when Angela Bassett points out there was exactly 18 hours of static

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People would believe what they wanted. The static showed something but the division between people who believed and those who didn't would have been enormous.

The idea that humanity had to grow or advance by their own means fit into the Sagan world view. Interesting in a way from him since he had so much interest in both the Cosmos and the life that may be out there.