Thoughts on "Avatar"

I saw "Avatar" yesterday, and was wowed by the visuals; saw it in IMAX 3D. It is the most creative cutting edge cinematography ever done. The story moved along, and for me the measure of a good movie is that I'm not aware of the passage of time, and I wasn't.

It does what it set out to do, and met, if not surpassed, all expectations. The icing is that it's a huge money maker.

I think too that the glasses we're given when going into the theater are a great metaphor for how people see the movie. Feminists found fault, health people found fault (Weaver's character smokes), traditional religious people found fault (Na'vi are animists), the Chinese dictatorship banned it, it was seen as a slam against the military and corporations, and a whole host of other perceptions. We all entered the theater with our own conceptions, and viewed it from those. A friend saw in it a 'beauty and beast story', and that never crossed my mind. I of course, being Christian and Conservative, viewed it through those lenses. I remember it being pointed out during the Beatles musical reign that which of the Beatles you identified most with was a great indicator of your personality type. (I was a Harrison fan, the spiritualist). Likewise, I think "Avatar" is an indicator of one's world view.

I've been reading Sci-fi since I learned how to read. At the end of third grade I had read all but the 'girl' books in the juvenile section, so the librarian took me upstairs to the grownups section and helped me get a card. First book out was "When Worlds Collide". With that many years of sci-fi behind me, I found the story in "Avatar" a repeat of an oft told story. Kudos to Cameron for finding a way to move it along and not bore us to death.

I highly recommend this movie. It's a joy for the things presented we like about movies and stories, and a Rorschach test for our world views. One of the reasons for its success is just that. There's something there to appeal to everyone.

A Thought for Those That Say ONLY Mind and Reason Exist

Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow: "At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

Stephen Hawking, writing about the possibility of discovering a unified theory, in "A Brief History of Time": "Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God."

More poetically, from Annie Dillard (if you haven't read her, you're in for a treat. Highly recommend "Pilgrimage at Tinker Creek", a very influential book in my life.)
This is from "Teaching a Stone to Talk":

"Now we are no longer primitive. Now the whole world seems not holy...We as a people have moved from pantheism to pan-atheism...It is difficult to undo our own damage and to recall to our presence that which we have asked to leave. It is hard to desecrate a grove and change your mind. We doused the burning bush and cannot rekindle it. We are lighting matches in vain under every green tree. Did the wind used to cry and the hills shout forth praise? Now speech has perished from among the lifeless things of the earth, and living things say very little to very few...And yet it could be that wherever there is motion there is noise, as when a whale breaches and smacks the water, and wherever there is stillness there is the small, still voice, God's speaking from the whirlwind, nature's old song and dance, the show we drove from town...What have we been doing all these centuries but trying to call God back to the mountain, or, failing that, raise a peep out of anything that isn't us? What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both saying: Hello?"

If there is no more to existence than existing, do my atheist and rationalist friends contend that there is no meaning in life? If that's true, why do any act of love or compassion? Why isn't murder and destruction just as acceptable as an act of mercy? I ask them, why are humans the only life that is self aware? The rational mind being omnipotent, they should be able to explain this, and our existence.

The Seed and the Universe

We have UFO's and Aliens. We have science fiction with all kinds of beings and monsters. I ponder this, and have for years. I have only hearsay evidence that we have been visited by aliens, and the math for other cosmic outlying beings and civilizations speak against it. The number of binary stars vs single stars that could support life etc. There's an equal number of math equations that argue for other life too. I just need to see and experience it myself; or hear a damn good argument. The physics that have to exist to create and support life have to be just so. I've advocated for years that we, humans on this planet, may be the seed for all civilizations to come. All the aliens and civilizations in science fiction, life following art, will come from us, eventually.

O' good heavens, here we go again, the earth is the center of the universe argument again. Well, not exactly. The Copernican revolution (earth revolves around the sun) is taught that it was revolutionary because Christians thought the universe revolved around the earth. Like most everything taught or believed about Christianity (even among Christians) is incorrect. There is nothing scriptural, nothing in the Bible, that states or infers that the earth is the center of anything.

What is true, is that we humans are a very unique and have a special place in creation. I think God created all the perfect balances to create us, in this unique section of the Milky Way, in this unique solar system, on this unique planet. I don't think it's a matter of serendipity. Think of this; the laws of physics have to be just so to us to exist. The force of gravity has to be at a just so pull. The Big Bang had to be at just a precise moment in time at a particular, exact force. Air has to be at a precise mixture, water has to be just so to be water. One thing different, and we don't exist. Stephen Hawking: "If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have re-collapsed before it even reached its present size."

All of the heavens, infinite to us; billions of stars, millions of galaxies, infinite nothingness. Yet here we are. "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament show His handiwork." (Psalms 19). The apostle Paul wrote: ""For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and the Godhead, so that they are without excuse". We have mostly nothingness in between particles, yet we see particles behaving in the most strange way. What causes them to act in such a way? To do what we identify as physical laws, when there are so few particles in relation to nothingness, all that space. Even the things we see and bump into is mostly space, nothingness. Yet things are orderly. That takes us behind the physical creation, because those same physical laws that form our existence, contain the moral laws that inform and maintain our human existence, our relationships, how we think, how we perceive. It just builds, doesn't it? This singular, unique creation comes from one Source. Not an accident. I'm convinced we are the seed of all to come. The we are God's special, unique, singular creation, here for a special, unique, singular purpose.