This book by Carl Sagan may be a search for extra terrestrial life forms and contact with them, however, it also addresses the issue of how well we know ourselves. The search for life outside ourselves makes us question the value of our own lives.

One other interesting aspect of the novel is how it examines the tension between science and religion. The proof of extra terrestrial life could come to challenge and destroy many of the beliefs of religious observers. Sagan asks, what is the role of science in the history of human kind? Is it to disprove religion? In end, i believe, that Sagan proposes that science will advance human kind and bring us closer to God.