Contact Me

If you enjoy my blog and would like to contact me, you may reach me at this email: dena.netherton@gmail.com

Some of my stories are published in:
A Cup of Comfort Devotional for Mothers and Daughters (Adams Media, 2009)
Chicken Soup: What I Learned from the Dog (2009)
Love is a Flame (Bethany House, 2010)
Extraordinary answers to Prayer (Guideposts, 2010)
Love is a Verb (Bethany House, 2011)
Big Dreams from Small Spaces (Group Publishing, 2012)

Monday, September 17, 2012

Movies Prove We Believe In God

There are some people who try to convince me that there is no God, that there is no meaning to anything, and everything is just an accident of nature.
No order.
No plan.
No meaning.
No God.

But these same people who argue this will also tell me about the latest action adventure movie or touching movie that they saw.
Why was it such a good movie? I'll ask.
Because, says my atheist friend, it looked like all was lost. Things went from bad to worse, and I felt so sorry for --insert name of hero or heroine.
Then, at last, the hero realized...
Or, the hero made a drastic decision, one which could either destroy him or save him.
And the hero made it out alive, or saved the day, or rescued the perishing, etc.

So many books and movies have this same plan: hero faces difficulties, difficulties nearly defeat him, difficulties make the hero take a drastic path or make some life-altering decision, for a time it looks as though the decision didn't work, then ultimate victory.

Have you noticed the same thing in your reading or movie viewing?
Why does this order work so well?
Why are we so satisfied when the hero finally overcomes? Think Rocky, The Karate Kid, Lord of the Rings, Snow White and the Huntsman.

We humans instinctively recognize and respond with feelings of security to order and meaning of all kinds.
Day follows night.
Summer follows winter.
A baby giggles and we laugh.
A child hurts himself and we want someone to comfort the child.
When bad things happen, we feel empathy for the sufferer and we expect good things to happen afterward to kind of even it out.
We expect fairness and justice.
When we see a movie or read a book in which the main character (with whom we've begun to identify) experiences suffering or challenges, we want that person to rise above it and be victorious.
We want what is fair or good or righteous to happen to the person we've identified with. (This character is, in reality, us.)

Why do we care?
Because God has put the stamp of His nature in us. We feel the God-given yearning for things to be made right. Bad must justly be turned to right.
As humans who suffer our own challenges, we want to experience the vicarious thrill of feeling the hero's angst. But as creatures made in God's image, we want to see justice.

How would we enjoy a movie where the hero experiences both good and bad things, never has to come to grips with any life-altering decision, and then the movie ends? No message, no meaning.
We'd feel cheated of our need to see the character endure, change, then win over his circumstance.

We humans naturally choose order over chaos.
We feel the need to assign meaning to both Suffering and our Blessing.
Even those who deny the existence of God naturally try to assign good or bad karma for the things that come into their lives.
And diehard atheists who try very hard not to assign meaning to life's occurences, slip into this natural mind-set.
When Jesus's disciples saw a man who had been born blind, they asked, "Master, who sinned, his parents or the man that he was born blind?"
The disciple's need to assign blame for the man's condition illustrates our natural human tendency to try to find order and meaning in events.
So when those who deny the existence of God try to argue that the universe was formed out of a chaotic combination of explosions and a remixing of elements with coincidental concocting into operational life forms...
I'll point them to their need to enjoy the order and meaning of a well-planned, well-scripted movie.



2 comments:

  1. Hi Dena -

    Wonderful post!

    Just the other day, I heard an unbelieving doctor marvel at the complexity of the human body. Yet, this same doctor will declare this happened as a result of evolution. Sad.

    Blessings,
    Susan

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  2. Unbelievable, Susan. I run into that a lot especially with the scientific type. But it occurs to me it's not very scientific to ignore evidence and data! I think most people either don't think beyond what they've been taught, or choose to ignore the evidence of God. Thanks for your response.

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