I've been a fan of Indiana Jones since my Uncle Jay took my brother and I to see Raiders of the Lost Ark (which remains my favorite movie in the series) back in 1981. As a lover of the first installment of the movie, I enjoyed the way the latest installment, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, blended in elements from the original, like cracking open the crate that holds the Ark of the Covenant and the return of Marion. However, there was one piece of the new movie that replicated the old that left me, as a Christian, feeling a bit odd.
For years, one of my favorite illustrations of what it's like for a human to encounter the divine, has been the scene in the original movie where the Nazi's opened up the Ark of the Covenant. In some ways it reminds me of Isaiah chapter 6, where the prophet finds himself standing before God's throne and assumes that, because he's standing in the presence of the Holy God, that he's a dead man. You get a similar idea in Exodus when the people of Israel say something stupid and Moses hits the dirt and waits for the lightening to strike. The basic idea is that, for those who aren't humble before God, when the Almighty shows up, bad things happen. However, for Isaiah, Moses, and even Indiana and Marion in the original movie, they realize that they have no right to stand before God and, as a result, by God's grace, they are safe.
In the latest movie, as the Russian henchwoman is preparing to place the alien skull on the body, she comments that Indiana lacks faith and, much like he did when standing before the Ark of the Covenant, responds, "I have faith, that's why I'm down here."
All of this came on the heels of comments like, "Think of the truth behind those eyes", a line made in reference to the alien skull, and, when responding to the statement, "That's not God's head", Indiana replied, "It depends on what your god looks like."
As I sat there, I realized that, in the first movie, it was the God of the Old Testament who was identified as the one who existed in a realm beyond our own. In the latest movie, it was aliens from another dimension. As I continued to ponder this, I realized that, while the third movie in the series also looked to the God of the Bible, it treated the Holy Grail more as a magical relic that we could use for our own devices.
In the end, as I walked out of the theater, I had to wonder why people look where they look for things that are greater, and why, if Indiana Jones movies are a reliable cultural barometer, they no longer look towards the church.
Good point
That's a real good point you've got there.
I remember reading something recently about how Richard Dawkins, when confronted with a resonable amount of evidence supporting the fact that something intelligently designed all of creation, he said something about supposing there might be a race of smart aliens that caused it all.
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"I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand: for this I also believe, that unless I believe I will not understand." --Anselm of Canterbury
Dawkins comment
I have to wonder how seriously we should take that comment from Dawkins, after all, from what I can tell he was sort of conned into an interview under false pretenses and, being the smart guy that he is, I have an odd feeling that, by that time in the interview, he was just feeding lines of BS that he could use to help make a mockery of the movie post production.
What makes me sad
I take it that was from Expelled then? I haven't seen it yet and couldn't remember where I had read about it. I'm not real sure about Expelled myself because of the things I've heard about it. As a Christian, making a mockery of someone is no way to bring them (or people that support them, or really anyone at all for that matter) to Jesus.
It's things like this that really make me sad. It's like we as Christians have lost our way and God is standing there with a great big flashing neon sign saying "HERE I AM" and yet we ignore it and do things our own way. What's worse is, I know I'm guilty of doing these things myself from time to time, unintentionally perhaps, but done just the same.
shared sadness
Yep, it was from Expelled. And your sadness is shared.
God existing
It seems like the presupposition that God does not exist, is an easier one to deal with than God existing. By today's thinking, people want to avoid the concept of God. Yet many of them want some sort of "spirituality". This opinion piece claims that "neural buddhists" are the wave of the future. I see a neural buddhist as a materialist who wants a little "spirituality" and yet does not want to deal with God.
What They Don't Want
I get the idea that people want spirituality but they don't want anything with authority over them. I don't think people want to avoid the concept of God. They want to avoid authority and what that means to them.
The second part of it is the church. I know a number of fallen Christians. They turned away from the church because of the way the organized church treated them. They turned away from God because no one ever taught them the meat and potatoes needed to support their faith. What they learned was on the surface and easy to dismiss.
Just some things to think about...
Authority
I think you are right. Authority implies accountability and the possibility of not living up to the standard. I think most people realize that they fall short, but the church has not done the best job of sharing the good news of God's grace and forgiveness. We are considered to be judgmental. We done a good job on the Law side of things and not so good with the Gospel. At least that seems to be the perception.
Can you Handle the Truth?
WARNING: if you plan on going to see this movie, don't read my next paragraph because it will be a spoiler.
Good commentary on the God perception in the IJ movies. The big idea I took from this latest movie deals with truth and knowledge. If you recall, at the end of the movie when the Russian women faces off with the Alien, she requests "knowledge", she wants to know/see the truth. The Alien then somehow feeds some kind of energy into her (via her eyes), and she essentially explodes. The idea is that Knowledge and hence truth is too big enough for her to bare.
There is a positive and a negative aspect to that message, depending on your perception of truth.
knowledge
Great comment there. I'd seen the whole truth thing and my mind immediately jumped to the whole gnosis vs fide thing and, in the process, I missed the overwhelming nature of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Spielberg Evangelism?
The movie and initial announcements about Mr. Spielberg's Ghost/UFO social network make for some interesting timing... http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/21/steven-spielbergs-the-rising/
interesting stuff
I wonder if Spielberg is distancing himself further from his Jewish roots ... although, I'm not sure how much Judaism has been a faith as opposed to a culture for him.