Recently James Lovelock, “famous for his Gaia hypothesis that Earth is [metaphorically speaking] a self-regulating, single organism,” said, “environmentalism has ‘become a religion’.” He was right. Environmentalism is a religion—or, more precisely, a cluster of religions with a common worldview—and its religious worldview permeates the movie Noah. Some Christian reviewers praise Noah, others condemn it. (See samples linked below.) Regardless, one cannot ignore its pervasive environmentalism. Noah most explicitly propounds this worldview by slyly putting into the mouth of its arch-villain, Tubal-Cain, the dominion mandate of Genesis 1:28 for mankind to subdue and have dominion over the earth. Tubal-Cain perverts this into justification for his evil, turning “subdue and have dominion” into “crush and abuse”—environmentalism’s caricature of the Judeo-Christian attitude toward the earth. In the movie, the Creator sends the flood to punish man’s evil, which includes crimes directly against fellow humans but is most importantly man’s abuse of the earth (e.g., by hunting and mining). Many scenes, perpetrating the environmentalists’ theme, show an earth burned and scarred by industrialism. According to the film, eating an animal is a capital crime. Vegetarianism is morally obligatory. Even more, plants can be picked only for food, not for pleasure, so Noah chastises his son for picking a flower. Indeed, he elevates plants and animals over people. He even believes the Creator instructed him to kill his grandchild if it is a girl in order to end the human race. The movie departs from the Biblical story of Noah in many ways, major and minor. Most importantly, it caricatures the Creator as wrathful against disobedience but utterly lacking in mercy and blurs the definition of sin, implying that the Creator’s commands may be evil. Hence it misses the redemptive theme in the Biblical flood and the preservation of Noah and his family and, through them, the human race, by the ark. In contrast to the gloomy pessimism of director Darren Aronofsky’s film, the Biblical story tells not only of righteous judgment but also of mercy and redemption. That story prefigures the coming of Christ, who will defeat evil and save from divine judgment all who trust in Him. We need to understand, and teach our children, to recognize and refute lies: But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect. [1 Peter 3:15] To learn more about environmentalism as religion and how to respond to it, read Cornwall Alliance Senior Fellow Dr. James Wanliss’s outstanding book, Resisting the Green Dragon; Dominion, not Death. Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 14:55:02 +0000
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