Exploring Science, God, and the Meaning of Life through Prompts from the Movie Contact

The movie contact follows dr. Ellie arroway as she receives the first contact from extraterrestrial intelligence and navigates the technological, political and personal challenges of responding back. Throughout this process, she wrestles with her understanding of the nature of science, the existence of god, and the meaning of life. We’re going wrestle with some of these questions too. The project this project is to choose one of the three prompts below and to respond to it in one of the following forms: a short essay (2-3 pages) a short story (3-5 pages) a piece of art (a painting, sculpture, drawing, poem, etc) any pieces of art should include a written explanation of the piece and its meaning (6-10 sentences) whatever you do, it should be a clear response to one of the three prompts, and i want to see that you put genuine thought into your answer. Be honest and be creative. The project will be graded according to the following criteria: · directly responds to the chosen prompt (10 pts) · thoughtfulness and clarity of response (25 pts)  style of writing/quality of work (15 pts) this is an individual project, not a group project. Every student will turn in their own, unique project. The project will be due in class on oct 30/31, written portions should be typed, printed and attached to any non-written portions.

Can science tell us what the meaning of life is or provide purpose for life? If so, how? If not, why not?

When considering whether god exists or not, do you relate more with ellie’s perspective (there would need to be clear evidence or proof and she hasn’t found any) or palmer’s perspective (a personal experience has convinced him despite the lack of intellectual proof) or some other perspective?

Do you find that science supports your perspective or challenges it?

Do you agree with palmer when he says that religion and science share the same goal:

The pursuit of truth? Why or why not?

A few notes this is not about giving an answer you think i’ll like or agree with, i want to know what you think below you will find a collection of important quotes from the movie that relate to the prompts. Let me know if you would like to re-watch sections of the movie individually or you can look for the relevant clips on youtube. You are more than welcome to do research and read about other people’s thoughts on these subjects if you would like. However, if you do you must cite any sources you use or have influenced your thoughts in an mla bibliography. I can point you in the direction of helpful resources if you would like. · use me as a resource! You’ll be working on this in class this week, so i’ll be available to bounce ideas off, give suggestions, or answer any questions about expectations.