Originally Posted by SilentKnight

Definitely take the time to read it. Obviously it's fiction...but throughout the story you can see Sagan injecting fact-based ideas that could be plausible - if proven. I love some of the online discussions that the ending generated as to it being possible.

Without spoiling it - Sagan walked a tightrope between suggesting the universe was created by an unseen, omnipotent 'god'...or an advanced race of alien 'architects and builders'. He was a wise man - not wanting to piss off both the creationists and the evolutionists with his novel.