well, let me start this way, larry. what has science done for you lately?
besides that. or better, i'll give you that, but tell me this: are you happier? are we happier? is our would fundamentally a better place?
but a voice from the sky is just what you say you've found.
i agree with mr. rank that there are unavoidable religious implications here -- but i don't think it justifies taking an alarmist position. dr. arroway is right -- their chosen means of communication was a scientific one, and a scientific approach is probably appropriate, at least until the theological dimensions of the problem become more apparent.
i'd have to say i don't know enough to have one yet. for the moment i don't believe the two approaches have to be mutually exclusive.
make that two.
want to fight some more?
 what i'm curious about are the wilderness years. you're out there all alone, no money, mocked by the skeptics. it must have taken tremendous faith.
and what would you have done if the odds had gone against you?
spoken like a true believer.
how do you mean?
'my father's house has many mansions.'
who was it who said -- it was a scientist i think -- that one's sophistication is determined by the ability to tolerate paradox -- to hold contradictory ideas at the same time.
 which i suppose is as good a definition of faith as any. care to test yours?
it's okay. i'm a preacher.
your 'faith' tells you that the distance a pendulum swings from the vertical can never get bigger, only smaller.
and you believe this law with all your heart and soul.
so if i let the pendulum go, when it swings back you wouldn't flinch.
don't lean forward. not even a hair.
only a tiny bit. even the most devout believer is allowed a little doubt.
now you know.
 it's an old story. i grew up in south boston, more or less on the streets. by the time i was thirteen i'd tried my first hit of heroin, by fifteen i'd stopped using but i was dealing full-time. by the time i was nineteen i decided i didn't want to live any more, at least not in a world like that. one day i got on a bus; i got as far as ohio before my money ran out, and after that i just kept walking. didn't eat, didn't sleep.  just walked. i ended up collapsing in a wheat field. there was a storm.  i woke up.  and that's about as far as words'll go.
i had.  an experience. of belonging. of unconditional love. and for the first time in my life i wasn't terrified, and i wasn't alone.
look, i'm a reasonable person, and reasonably intelligent. but this experience went beyond both. for the first time i had to consider the possibility that intellect, as wonderful as it is, is not the only way of comprehending the universe. that it was too small and inadequate a tool to deal with what it was faced with.
do you love your parents?
did you love him?
prove it.
you like to drive fast.
some of my best friends are scientists.
some of my best friends are scientists. they're saying the machine is alive.
maybe you're creating a monster.
why?
in other words, god is one hell of an engineer.
relativity. explain this to me one more time.  even if you traveled near the speed of light, when you came back --
if you came back.  you'd only be four years older -- but over 50 years would have passed on earth.
and everybody you care about would be dead and buried.
you're willing to die for this.
really.
what'd you think?
i won't deny i was ambitious. when i had my.  experience.  i wanted to tell my story to as many people as possible. i'm the first to admit that process included making some compromises. you didn't answer my question.
i don't consider you the enemy, ellie. i'm not 'out to get' technology. i only ask the question: does it have to have all the answers? i look out there and i see so much emptiness.  people are so starved for meaning, and it's something they just don't seem to be getting from science.
i don't follow.
do you really believe your life is meaningless?
and yet you're willing to die for this cause, the one thing that's given your life a sense of purpose. don't you see the contradiction here -- ?
what are you so afraid of, ellie?
you're shaking. you're the paradox here, ellie. so incredibly brilliant, and yet.  what does it feel like to understand everything in the universe except yourself?
ellie --
an excellent question, doctor. but what if we don't like the answer?
what if their answer is, 'oh, that's easy. a thousand years ago our world was in terrible shape, our population out of control, violent crime, no food.  so we called a general council and decided to eliminate the anit-social. the weak. the sick. the unwanted. and ever since we've been doing great.'
i've been watching and getting to know eleanor arroway for some time now.  and i can say unequivocally, that i have never before met a human being with such extraordinary faith. in humanity.  and in our right to a place of importance in the cosmos.
i believe that the person we're selecting will play a crucial role in humanity's future. i believe that when this person comes back -- if they come back -- they will be seen as being anointed by a higher intelligence, and may well emerge as one of the most important people on earth. it may be true that eleanor arroway is not a perfect human being -- but i believe her honesty, her purity, and her integrity to be unimpeachable. ms. president -- aren't those qualities that this representative should embody? are we seriously considering choosing a man who openly claims that he stands for nothing more than political self-interest to be the one person to represent the human race?
you didn't think i was going to let you leave without saying good-bye.
ellie.  the last time we spoke.  i said some things.
so. the final countdown.
oh. i brought you something.
during the crusades -- pilgrims who made the journey to the holy land brought back a palm frond to show they'd actually been there. i thought it sort of made sense that earth is now your holy land, so.
you're trembling.
maybe that's okay.
what?
what is it?
ellie, what is it?
what?
what are you so afraid of?
what are my other options? in fifty years? never?
i'm in love with you, ellie.
and then what? then you'll be safe?
do you really think your life is meaningless, eleanor? is that why you're so quick to risk it -- because if your life means nothing then you have nothing to lose?
ellie, there is no reason you have to be alone.
look.
what does it feel like to understand everything in the universe except yourself?
ellie, there is no reason you have to be alone.
oh, ellie.
hi.
it was quite a page turner.
i'm not sure it's come to that.
i do.
it also makes god enormous. i think of the scope of your universe, ellie.  and it takes my breath away. as it will everyone else's.
ellie, you're the proof. you tell them your story. ultimately they'll have no choice but to believe you.
ellie, the only one holding you to that standard is you! the people want to hear your story, they need to hear it!
have you seen what's happening out there? the terror, the despair? the world is on fire, ellie. people need something they can believe in, something worthy, and you can give it to them!
ellie.  if you go out there like this -- if you admit to even the possibility that what you experienced didn't actually happen -- i'm afraid they really will crucify you. please. for your own sake, for the sake of the world.  tell them what you know to be the truth. tell them it really happened.
holding his breath.
moved beyond words.
as a person of faith.  i am bound by a different covenant than dr. arroway -- but i believe our goal is one and the same: the pursuit of the truth. i think today dr. arroway continued that pursuit under the most trying of conditions.
maybe what you experienced can't be reduced to images on a videotape. maybe they still plan to grant your request, only in their own way, in their own time.  or maybe it's just like you said: ultimately their motives may be as incomprehensible as their technology.
in other words.
does that mean you think it doesn't exist?
meaning.