In last Friday’s email, I mentioned my family’s trip to the Grand Canyon by way of Las Vegas. (I said it that way because no one wants to hear that their pastor took his family to Vegas.) But I confess that we didn’t *just* visit the Grand Canyon; we also stayed in Vegas, where we walked around “The Strip” and caught a couple of family-friendly shows with our kids.It was a dizzying experience to tour one of God’s most striking wonders in the daytime before walking through one of man’s most notable (notorious?) achievements that night. Quiet and serene, the Grand Canyon leaves you feeling humble, inspired, and spiritual. But Vegas, with its artificial lights and nonstop noise, feels like an all-you-can buffet of debauchery that leaves you tired, tempted, and sinful. Nevertheless, even though I despise gambling, I don’t party hard, and I’m a happily married man, I (along with millions of others, apparently) am drawn to the spectacle of Sin City. If nothing else, it offers an unvarnished look at the true state of the world today, which is fascinating. Sad, but fascinating. One of the most poignant experiences my family shared in Las Vegas was our visit to The Sphere, a revolutionary new, $2.3 Billion entertainment venue connected to The Venetian resort. I’ve followed the construction of The Sphere for several years now (because I’m a geek), so I was beyond excited to see it in person.
Visually, The Sphere did not disappoint. Outside and in, the audio-visual technologies are a modern-day wonder. As part of our family’s visit, however, we also sat in the massive, 20,000-seat theater to watch a 45-minute film called Postcard from Earth, written and directed by Darren Aronofsky (who also made movies like The Fountain, Black Swan, and Noah, among others). The film’s first eighteen minutes offer a wondrous ode to the glory of God’s creation, but what began as a visually stunning, awe-inspiring experience quickly descended into shallow, secular propaganda designed to leave viewers full of fear and loathing in Las Vegas.
Postcard from Earth is set hundreds of years in the future, and its premise is that planet Earth is essentially a goddess or divine Mother who has been betrayed and destroyed by evil, ungrateful human beings. Because we so dishonored our goddess Mother Earth, human beings chose to vacate the premises and to take up residence in other places throughout the cosmos, such as Saturn (which seems like it might be rather chilly, but that’s just me). Throughout his screenplay, Aronovsky makes several sweeping claims about the origins of life, humanity’s purpose, and religion, and this is where he tips his ideological hand, allowing his astute viewers to see exactly what story he’s trying to sell. A few examples (paraphrased, because I had to write them down in real time):About the negative (evil?) impact of human beings in an otherwise peaceful and pleasant world: “The earth was a kaleidoscope of life…but everywhere that life went, there was us. The earth was the hand that fed us, the blanket that warmed us, the cradle that rocked us…but still, we grew, turning everything around us into a scaffold for our own rise…ignoring every warning…and everything of beauty that we had made, every song that we’d sung, every prayer we raised, all would be lost.”About religion: “We raised temples inspired by the world around us. We sought to build majestic temples worthy of the majesty around us…to instill an awe that echoed the awesome wonders of Earth. And because we loved Her, we wished to know Her. We praised Her in every way we could…”About the origins of life on earth: “At first, life was simple, drifting with the tides…but as it multiplied, life changed, taking on many forms, every form it could imagine itself to be. Flocking in swarms and schools, life invented itself.” Like many secular truth claims, Aronovsky is *almost* right in his views about humanity, theology, and the origin and meaning of life. Life truly is a sacred, mysterious wonder. Humanity really has fallen and is capable of tremendous evil. Religions actually are a sign that human beings intrinsically (and universally) believe in something (or Someone) supernatural and transcendent.The only thing missing in Aronovsky’s theology is God. By cutting God out of the picture, we are bound to replace Him with someone (or something) else, and predictably, Aronovski’s instinct is to replace the supernatural Creator (God) with a mere created thing (Earth). Yes, religions are signposts to meaning, but almost all world religions point to a reality beyond creation, rather than to a created thing like earth. The authors warned against the fallacy of aiming “too low” in our religious devotion. Take this passage from Romans as one example:
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator… – Romans 1:20-25
Yes, life on earth is a wonder, but no, it did not “invent itself.” Nor could it have (click here for a deeper dive on the subject).And yes, humanity really is rotten to the core, but apologizing to the earth is like wrecking someone else’s car and then telling the car you’re sorry. The earth is a gift – and an unspeakably beautiful one at that – but every gift must have a giver. The psalmist knew this very well:
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
– Psalm 139:13-16
The film’s big takeaway was that humans are so irredeemably awful that the only solution is for us all to go away and leave Mother Earth alone. It’s ironic to watch such a heavy-handed eco-horror film in an energy-starved, $2.3 Billion-dollar light-show, in an air conditioned mega-theater in the middle of the Mojave Desert, in what must be the least eco-friendly city on earth. But nothing should surprise us anymore, really. Without God, the world inevitably goes mad. The only question for followers of Jesus is, “How will we live in response to the madness?” It would be easy to retreat, withdrawing into our safe, Christian cocoons, but we know that’s not the way of Jesus. Instead, we should ready ourselves, our fellow believers, and the next generation of Christians to share the gospel in ways that offer the world a vision of life that is more compelling than Aronovsky’s. Our message is simple and beautiful: God made the world and everything in it. He beheld creation and called it good. And when we lost our way, He so LOVED the world that He came in the flesh to save it – because by the immeasurable grace of God, human beings and the world we inhabit are not beyond redemption. That is the story this world needs to hear.
