Local Cincinnati Paper |
Editorial Page
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Wednesday, July 30, 1997 |
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| The new movie "Contact", starring Jodie Foster,
is both untypical and typical of Hollywood. It is untypical that a summer
blockbuster asks big questions about faith and religion. Namely, how does
belief in extraterrestrials and in God compare?
What is typical of this well made movie is its negative treatment of biblical Christianity. The movie's "theologian" is the dashing Matthew McConaughey, who had and "experience with God" but "doesn't like the celibacy part," and sleeps with Jodie Foster's character within hours of meeting her. He can offer no proof of God's existence to the skeptical scientist, only subjective "experience" and blind faith. The movie's depiction of Christians is a Ralph Reed knock-off, portrayed by Rob Lowe (who wonders if the aliens "believe in Gawd"), a terrorist street preacher and a hypocritical scientist. |
Let me offer a brief Christian world view
on the issues raised in Contact. First, there are many historical and logical
proofs for God's existence. It is not a virtue to believe without reason.
We have tremendous evidence upon which to base our faith, including the
reliability of the Bible and the historicity of Christ's resurrection.
Secondly, the Scriptures are silent concerning life on other planets and the growing consensus of science is that life is extremely rare in the universe. While the evidence is insufficient, it seems that the person who is looking for redemption and meaning in E.T. may be placing his faith in empty space. Kevin Harris
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