JS> > I'm Buddhist and I don't believe in God or Jesus or etc....  Does
JS> > that mean I
JS> > can't go to space if I was a qualified astronaut or some sort?
JS>That is but one of the sufferings you must go through in your search
JS>for that illumination called Nirvana. If the author (a scientist dying
JS>of bone marrow cancer at the time of the writing) made that implication,
JS>you have to understand that he had mellowed-out a lot during his illness,
JS>and may have been looking for his own spiritual salvation.
        I don't know if Sagan "mellowed out" or not, but by his writings
        just prior to his death, he certainly wasn't looking for
        spiritual salvation.  Even in an essay I read by him where he
        was holding out only the faintest glimmer of home that he might
        survive, he was fairly certain that there was no afterlife
        waiting for him...
        While I did like CONTACT, the movie, it really only touches
        lightly on the issues in the book (which could be described more
        leisurely and without using the faith/reason conflict as a cover
        for emotional games).  I was annoyed and intrigued by how the
        movie's ending made the protagonist (just blanked on her name)
        rely on a leap of faith, while in the book it was *really* clear
        that the trip had happened...but some people chose not to
        believe it, in spite of reason.
                                                                Eric
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 X SLMR 2.1a X Famous last words:  "Your puny weapons cannot harm us!"
--- Maximus 3.01
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