The Philosofer

I wrote previously about Noah here but I wanted to revisit the subject since I had the pleasure of seeing the movie with my wife this afternoon. My Facebook feed was blowing up with comments from my Christian friends sharing their thoughts and they ranged from disgust to enjoyment. Some were upset at how “it wasn’t Biblically accurate!” to which I can only say, “How do you know? You weren’t there.” But that’s snide and weak minded but common sense would say that there is all of what? Three chapters dedicated to Noah? Who’s to say there wasn’t rock monsters helping him? It almost makes as much sense as a 502 year old guy building it with his 3 sons. Really? We’re gonna debate rock monsters vs an old guy?

I’ve seen comments on the movie from 2 different groups of people, my more fundamentalist friends and my more grace-type friends (I use the term loosely). Grace-type people are usually all good with whatever and are much less dogmatic than their fundamentalist counterparts and I have questions for both.

Fundamentalist
Setting aside a 502 year old guy building an ark with his three sons I want delve deeper into the fabric of this story if I may. I may? Well thank you very much. I move forward assuming the flood story is true.

1. Is there ever a time where it is ok to kill an innocent child?

2. What are your thoughts on a leader (say Obama?) who sets out a set of laws and then exempts himself of them. Is that person moral? What of their personal character?

3. Assuming you have read through my weakly veiled attempt at misdirection, by what line of reasoning is God himself exempt from following the rules he laid out, specifically the one’s on not murdering people?

4. I will again assume you defended “God” in his first, of many, effort(s) to exterminate a people group (innocents included) through genocide. That being said, what is to stop him from doing that now? What makes morality different from Old Testament to New? 5,000 years ago to now? And if there is a difference does that not make morality subjective?

Extra Credit:
You, dear person, probably believe this Flood story is true, as such what are your thoughts on incest? After answering this please see question #4 and answer in turn.

Grace People
Now for the slippery ones! The one’s that use grace and Jesus to get out of tight moral dilemmas! These are the folks who will say the devil caused the flood and the God warned Noah so that he could save as many people as he could before the rain came.

1. Do you believe the flood even happened? If so, who caused it? Was God actually ok with the state of affairs on earth? Extra points for archeological data.

2. Assuming the devil caused the flood, is it right to believe that there was only ONE (1) person that God saw fit to warn about the impending deluge? No strength in numbers? Confirmation of two witnesses?

3. If the devil has the power to flood the earth and kill everyone on it what holds him back now?

4. If God had the ability to know and warn Noah about the flood why not stop the flood entirely?

Extra Credit:
What could have possibly been going on on the planet that could have been worse than what we are experiencing right now? Why aren’t we evil enough to be destroyed and if we get there what will hold it back? Blood of Jesus? Why didn’t the blood of Jesus hold back the first flood seeing as how God doesn’t reside in time?

These are the questions we need to ask ourselves unless we want to swallow the bitter pill of religion. If we seek to grow, learn, and understand the world around us we must always be asking questions. When we fear the question we fear the answer and if we fear the answer we inadvertently admit that our position may not be so infallible after all. Besides, there is nothing to lose in being wrong, only our pride and our previous ignorance, two things we should have shrugged off long ago.

Overall I loved the Noah movie and the art and film direction was top of the line. I’ve been a fan of Darren Aronofsky ever since I saw The Fountain. I felt like the movie had a lot to say and it was incredibly intense. In reading an interview with him a few days ago he said that he wanted to write a family drama in the midst of an epic story. And that’s what Noah is, it’s a family drama that shows the pain, tension, and loyalty that runs through blood. The character of Noah was complex and came into focus with the short monologue given to him by his wife. I understood that Noah was a man who greatly valued all living things from animals (he didn’t eat meat) to flowers (he gently chastised his son for picking a flower needlessly). And when God gave him a mission to build a structure that would protect his family while simultaneously shutting out the rest of the world he had to come to a realization that many, many innocent, living things would die. This was the beginning of his unhinging and when it came to his grandchildren he was driven by madness to see to their end. Madness that comes from being forced to violate your very core beliefs. Thus the drunken Noah at the end of the movie, it was his only way to cope.

One can only guess at the motives of the writers of Noah but I felt a strong connection between the mercy shown to the grand daughters and the mercy shown to everyone else. The fact is people are people and we all have goodness inside of us that is worth fighting for. When it comes down to it none of us wants to lay the heavy hand of punishment on those we love most. The taking of innocent life is never ok, no matter who is doing it and I believe the film clearly showed that many, many innocents died at the hands of Noah, and ultimately, God.

No matter which way you dice it, there is no easy way out of explaining a global genocide as an ok thing. At least no logical explanation that has real world applications. We can talk in Bible land where common sense and logic is suspended but when those same concepts are applied to real life we can only shudder in horror at the thought of innocent men, women, and children being murdered for no understandable purpose.

For me, I think the film showed a family walking through and dealing with terrible tragedy whilst asking probing questions concerning divinity, genocide, and morality. All that wrapped up in a artfully written and thoughtfully made production gets two thumbs up from me.