Avatar and the Search for God

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When I was 14, my parents acceded to my whining and bought me some “white bucks.” For those of you who have come of age in the 21^st century, see the picture below. I considered them about the coolest things you could possibly put on your feet - especially combined with a v-neck sweater whose color, according to the label, was “California shrimp.”

Not-cool, you might say about these “fashions.” But anybody over the age of 20 has already experienced the arbitrariness of fashion and knows that trends come and go regularly. And each generation feels smug about current styles. Until recently, the bills of baseball-type hats had to be curved. Now, mimicking inner-city trends, they must be straight. Not long ago cargo pants and wide-legged jeans were in. I still wear them, of course, but must abide the ridicule of my family. Meanwhile, I smirk at the generation of men before me who wear shorts with white socks up to their knees.

Fact is, we’re all so tuned in to our own and the wider culture we tend to give culture a kind of permanence and importance it doesn’t deserve. If you look at today’s attitudes about God and religion, it appears that they have less to do with conversion, conviction or theological, biblical or historical study than with adaptation to contemporary culture.

No one wants to be perceived as out-of-step or out-of-touch. We want to be like our contemporaries. We want to be “with it,” and for many, nothing is less “with it” than God and religion.

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Ok, there are exceptions. Some people today, including some between ages 20 and 40, wear their religion on their sleeves. But many other people, even those who are interested in God and religion, don’t want to be associated with the “Christian” style of talking, “Christian” music, “Christian” dating sites, or “family values.” And that can provide one more reason not to pursue a search for God.

Contemporary culture itself is neither bad nor good, but giving it such an important role in helping us decide about God and religion may be a bit much. “What everybody else” believes or doesn’t believe, or how they act or don’t act, is beside the point when you’re considering questions of faith.

Religion is viewed by many as irrelevant. But I believe that when it comes to the search for meaning, "contemporary culture" wins the irrelevant prize. In that category, we in the 21^st century have no advantage over people in the 20^th, 15^th or first centuries who were engaged in the same search. Questions such as “What’s real?” “Is there a purpose to life?” “Is there a God, can I know him/her, and does he/she have anything to do with me?” are what has real relevance.   

       

One of my aims in writing this blog is to be positive. It’s a real downer to read stuff that is always critical, negative or depressing. I want the blog to be the opposite, but it’s not easy. The intent to remain positive often clashes with another aim, that of helping people understand, in my limited capacity, faith and religion in today’s world.

We humans immerse ourselves in our surroundings to such an extent that it’s really hard to see beyond the present – where we live, who we know, how we dress, what we like and don’t like – our past and the imagined future. The search for God requires a certain distance from them and in that sense, is counter-intuitive.  

People in Jesus’ time had the same problem. They lived, on the one hand, in a world dominated by the Jewish establishment that seemed to have all the answers, and on the other, the indifferent, worldly and often hostile Roman establishment. It wasn’t easy for Jesus to break through all that, and the fact that he was brutally executed confirms that he wasn’t always successful. He tried to get people to see beyond their current lives, to see things as they really are and to break free to search for God.

Of course we must engage with the contemporary world and be useful contributors, adding all we can to its progress and human happiness - but with a certain detachment to be able to see beyond. That may be what is meant by the admonition to Christians to be “in the world but not of it.”    

Science fiction is among the art forms that help us get beyond our puny imaginations. The 2009 blockbuster Avatar is a good example. Set in mid 22^nd century, it manages with incredible technological manipulation to get us to suspend our disbelief and enter a world that is so unlike ours. For a couple of hours, we are able to leave behind our lifestyles, our politics, our contemporary views, our fashions – like I left behind my white bucks.