Religion

surrounding it.

If nothing is interrupted by something, is it still nothing?

I met Asimov many years ago, and he did have a penchant for asking unanswerable questions. He also had a way of making you think he thought he had the answer hidden away. He was a regular fixture at the Mensa annual gatherings he could get to. He would not fly, and if he couldn't take a train he wouldn't go.

Contact, btw was originally written as a movie, and when the project died he came out with the book that revived the movie project.

The best science fiction gives possible answers to things science fails at. Asimov was a master at that, and Sagan, being a scientist himself, builds a beautiful bridge.