Alice in Wonderland was loosely based on Lewis Carroll’s classic stories Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Be forewarned: this episode does contain spoilers.

First impressions:

• Weird—but what else do you expect from Tim Burton?
• Was this really the story Alice in Wonderland?
• Fun to watch, and enjoyable in 3D.

What is proper?

• Alice is fighting the conventions of her time and she asks the question, “What is proper?” Based on a secular worldview, there is no absolute answer to this question.
• Absalom, the blue caterpillar, is presented as “absolute” but he never gives absolute answers.

Dream vs. reality

• Was Alice dreaming?
• She’s wearing the same dress that she left in, but brings her wounds from Wonderland.
• Absalom says, “See you in another life.”
• Christians look forward to another life in another world.
• Absalom transformed into a new life and into a new world.

The Vorpal Sword

• The nonsense poetry of the Jabberwocky poem.
• The Vorpal Sword fights for itself—all you have to do is hold onto it. In the Bible, God’s Word is often referred to as a sword and Scripture does not return void—so powerful that Christians just have to hold on to it and present it and let it work for itself.

Choice

• Choice seems to be a major theme in Alice in Wonderland.
• In Scripture, we are asked to choose to serve God
• The choice presented in the movie is choosing what other people want to do or what you want to do.
• Doing God’s Will fulfills us.

Feminist agenda?

• Movie supports a historical feminist agenda. There is an opposite issue today.
• Scripture teaches equality but differences in authority, roles, and responsibilities.
• The issue today is that woman are ostracized for staying at home and being a full-time wife and mother.

Impossible things

• Six impossible things before breakfast.
• Christians should think of the impossible ways that God works in their lives—”God-sightings.”

Bible references

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12, NASB)

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11, NASB)

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14, NASB)

“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods. (Joshua 24:15–16, NASB)

“‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’” (Jeremiah 19:11, NASB)

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28, NASB)

Weblinks

• Our new sponsor, D.King Designer, for publication design
• Join the incredible “I Am Not Ashamed” campaign
• Plugged In Online’s review of Alice in Wonderland

What did you think?

Did you see Alice in Wonderland? What did you think of it? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. And please join our Facebook Page. And don’t forget to leave us some five-star reviews in iTunes!

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Brief announcements

We both now have press status to see movies prior to release. Hopefully, this will result in prompt initial reactions to future releases that we deem worth viewing and commenting on.

The next couple episodes in the feed will be repostings of a two-part interview with Jeff Roney from Roney Zone Radio. We hope you enjoy the interview!

First impressions

All three of us are wowed over visual impact of Avatar. But is it too beautiful? Some are reporting “post-avatar depression.” But before you consider watching Avatar, we recommend reading PluggedIn Online’s review.

We both had doubts about the movie prior to seeing it. Daniel is rarely impressed with humans becoming something other than humans (like Hulk) and Eve because the trailer gave no sense to the story that the movie was going to tell.

The movie is a retelling of a very worn out story. Chris compares it to Pocahontas, Daniel considers it to be FernGully 2.0 (which would actually be 3.0, since there is a FernGully 2), and Eve was reminded of Dances with Wolves.

Religion, spiritualism, and environmentalism

Avatar presents a spiritual aspect to the world of Pandora. Harmony of the world and its occupants.

Environmentalism was a major undercurrent of the story.

While being anticorporation, Avatar was not necessarily antimilitary.

Where does the idea that man is a great evil that destroys come from?

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26–28, NKJV)

Often, environmentalists elevate the environment’s importantance over people.

The goddess of Pandora can apparently be destroyed and thus must be defended. The people needed to protect their goddess. This is what happens when man raises something that is not God to the level of God.

… and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. … who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:23 & 25; NKJV)

Christians are commanded to be ready to give an answer, not in defense of God—who requires no defense—but in defense of the faith.

… but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. (1 Peter 3:15)

God needs no protection; He protects us.

Culture of the Na’vi

We saw plenty of pantheism and spiritualism within the Na’vi.

There is a comment that the Na’vimust be born twice, the second time of the people. There appears to be some kind of allusion to the “born-again” doctrine of Christian.

People steal a lot of logic and truth from Scripture because the Bible is Truth.

The reality of the beliefs is commented on in the movie. Humans have explained the “spiritual” network of Pandora in a scientific way. There is a physical reality to the spiritual world.

“I’m a scientist. I don’t believe in fairy tales.”

Scientific background supposedly makes a belief in something “supernatural” difficult.

The spiritual parallel is that we are not just physical beings; we are not of this world.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12, KJV)

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NKJV)

Mating is a bonding for life. In our culture, sex is presented as a casual thing between any couple seeking pleasure. But on Pandora, sex is presented as the consummation of a lifetime commitment.

Switching bodies

Is man a body or a spirit? In Avatar, Jake switches bodies, so there seems to be some commentary on man as a spiritual being.

The goddess of Pandora heard Jake, so somehow, humans were enough of spiritual beings to “plug-in” to the spiritual network of Pandora.

The charm of indigenous peoples

Avatar presents the primitive lifestyle as charming and desirable. Like many movies that present the charm of primitive lifestyle, which is not realistic. Hand to mouth living is not charming.

Chris and Eve were impressed by the attention that was played to the indigenous peoples of Canada during the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. With that in mind, there needs to be a balance in how indigenous peoples are dealt with. Not exalting them, but also not taking advantage of them.

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14, NASB)

If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. (Romans 12:18, NASB)

We should view all the peoples of the world as our relations.

… and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. (Acts 17:26, NASB)

Closing

Did you see Avatar? What did you think of it? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. And please join our Facebook Page. And don’t forget to leave us some five-star reviews in iTunes!

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

The spiritual realm

Is the spiritual realm real?

Do you know why you’re afraid when you’re alone?

Be real still. Sometimes you feel it inside, like you’re falling down real fast, but you’re really just standing still. You ever feel the prickly things on the back of your neck, and the tiny hairs on your arm, you know when they stand up? That’s them. When they get mad, it gets cold.

Dead people affecting us

According to The Sixth Sense, spirits of the dead affect the physical world. According to the Bible, there is a real spiritual realm.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of thisdarkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Ephesians 6:10–13

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1

The Bible details various ways in which the spiritual world touches interacts with our physical existence—such as demonic possession, spirits influencing people, and spiritual warfare.

In the story of the rich man and Lazarus recorded in Luke 16:19–31, there is a description given of the place where souls are kept and that those souls cannot freely walk the earth. But there is one passage in the Bible where the spirits of dead people walk about among the living:

The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many. (Matthew 27:52–53)

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 4:13–14, NKJV)

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16)

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. (1 Peter 5:8–9)

Dead people tell no tales

Cole gets information from the dead people, but in the Bible, we are told different. If you are getting information from a spiritual source, it’s not from dead people.

For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten. (Ecclesiastes 9:5)

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

My eye has wasted away because of affliction; I have called upon You every day, O LORD; I have spread out my hands to You. Will You perform wonders for the dead? Will the departed spirits rise and praise You? (Psalm 88:9–10)

God does not provide miracles for the dead. There is no second chance after death. The dead can’t rise up and change their minds and praise God. But in The Sixth Sense, they are walking about. If such dead people have free will and still have the ability to see, understand, and even learn things, could one of the dead people still receive salvation? Malcolm seems to move on to something at the end of the movie after “helping someone”—where does he go?

I think I can go now. Just needed to do a couple things. Needed to help someone. Think I did. And I needed to tell you something. You were never second, ever. I love you. You sleep now. Everything will be different in the morning.

What’s after death?

Secular entertainment cannot explain what a person has to do to be eligible of moving on "into the light." We know as Christians that there is nothing we can do to pay our debt, only Christ can take it upon Himself.

And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (1 Corinthians 15:17–19, NKJV)

But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:54–56)

Protection against spiritual forces

The Bible not only warns us about spiritual forces, but it also tells us how to protect ourselves, such as with the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6).

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. (Matthew 10:1)

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” (Matthew 12:43–45, NKJV)

Closing

What do you think of The Sixth Sense? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome!), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. And please join our Facebook Page.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Despite all the good intentions in the world, our scorecard and ratings system has fallen by the wayside. Do you miss it? If you are interested in knowing our brief reviews and ratings of the movies we critique, please let us know, and we’ll make every effort to bring back our scorecards. [Daniel's note: this is my fault.]

Marriage

What does this movie say about the priorities of marriage?

Anna: "You have put everything second, including me, for those families that they are talking about."

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25–27)

Christians shouldn’t put anything except their personal relationship with God before their spouses. Even ministry is not as important as marriage.

Malcom: "I haven’t paid enough attention to my family. Bad things happen when you do that."

This movie does have some very positive things to say about marriage and family—between Malcolm and Anna and between Cole and his mother.

Malcolm’s work

Malcolm had misdiagnosed a patient and that failure came back to haunt him at the beginning of the movie.

Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings;He will not stand before obscure men. (Proverbs 22:29)

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. (Colossians 3:23–24)

Cole: “Are you a good doctor”

Malcolm: “Well, I used to be. I won an award once, from the mayor. It had an expensive frame.”

We shouldn’t be working for the acclaim of men.

"Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. … Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward." (Matthew 6:1–2, NKJV)

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19–21 NKJV)

There is also a scriptural burden to working with children:

"But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." (Matthew 18:6, also Mark 9:42 and Luke 17:2)

This can also apply to our responsibility to believers who are new to their faith.

Cole’s dad

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart. (Colossians 3:21)

Cole’s mom

Cole: “The answer is ‘Every day.’ What did you ask?”

Cole’s mom: “Do I make her proud?”

Cole: "She doesn’t look at me like everyone else."

Cole’s mom is a beautiful picture of unconditional love.

Cole

Cole: “I see dead people”

So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see ” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:16-17)

Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed all the way to the ground. (Numbers 22:31)

And the king said to her, “Do not be afraid. What did you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I saw a spirit[a] ascending out of the earth.” So he said to her, “What is his form?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a mantle.” And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed down. (1 Samuel 28:13–14, NKJV)

"Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God." (Leviticus 19:31)

What is a pure heart and how do you get it?

From the play: “Only he that is of a pure heart can remove the soul.”

Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the LORD And righteousness from the God of his salvation. (Psalm 24:3–5)

Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure And washed my hands in innocence. (Psalm 73:13)

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5:8)

The church’s involvement

The Sixth Sense presents the church as ineffectual and “religion” as bankrupt. Cole seeks refuge in an empty church and all his “help” has come been sought from secular sources.

Cole’s mom: “I’ve been praying, but I must not be praying right. I guess we’ll have to answer each others’ prayers.”

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:21–23, NKJV)

Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD. (Psalm 130:1, NKJV)

Malcom: “In the olden days, in Europe, people used to hide out in churches.”

Closing

Stay tuned for the second part of this discussion!

What do you think of The Sixth Sense? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome!), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. And please join our Facebook Page.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

If you haven’t read them yet, please check out the Are You Just Reading? blog posts on the Twilight Saga where I have extensively covered all of the books from a Christian, critical-thinking angle. I hope to have one more post on the saga up before the end of the year.

• The Twilight Saga: Vampires, Demons, and Angels
• The Twilight Saga: Origins and Ultimate Destinations
• The Twilight Saga: Marriage, the Sanctity of Life, and Religion
• The Twilight Saga: Spiritual Truths, Part 1

Growing old

The beginning of New Moon introduces Bella on that most horrible of days for any woman—her birthday. She is officially one year older than Edward—who became a vampire at age 17.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

Genesis records that man was not originally created to die and that death is a result of the curse on sin. Aging comes with that curse. It was a mercy that God did not allow us to live forever.

Damnation

Carlisle’s desiring to help people because he “enjoys” it, regardless of whether he is damned. Bella thinks he is too good to be damned.

So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Luke 18:19)

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.( James 2:10–13, NKJV)

It doesn’t matter how good you are, if you have failed to be good in one thing, you are out of chances. Like with the Volturi—the vampire law-givers and enforcers, there are no second chances. Thankfully, God does not require us to be good enough for heaven—we are saved from that onerous burden through His grace and the blood of Jesus Christ.

Souls

Edward is worried about changing Bella because he is concerned about her soul. Bella says, “If you’re worried about my soul, I don’t want it without you.” I believe the soul and spirit define who we are.

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26, cross-reference Mark 8:36–37)

This is the message in the books that bothers me the most, that Bella is willing “to give up her soul” for a physical relationship with a man.  Our souls are so much more important than that.  We should always put our relationship with God before relationships with man because people will always let you down.

People fail you

Edward fails Bella’s expectations by leaving her. Jacob promises not to hurt her the way that Edward does but then does hurt her. He keeps saying “I broke my promise again, didn’t I?”

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. (Psalm 118:8)

Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble Is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint. (Proverbs 25:19)

We shouldn’t invest so much of ourselves in people because they will always fail.

Closing

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What do you think of New Moon? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome!), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. And please join our Facebook Page.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Can a Christian be an active?

What does God command us to do?

‘”And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12:30, cross-reference Luke 10:27)

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1–2)

We are called to be holy.

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” (1 Peter 1:13–16)

We are told to put on the likeness of God, not the likeness of another person.

So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:17–24)

Can an Active become a Christian?

Who can become a Christian?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, emphasis added)

God’s Word is powerful enough to change any heart.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

What is involved in salvation? In is primarily an act of the heart and then a confession of the mouth.

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

Salvation is not the result of any work or good deeds of our own.

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:5)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

We can’t rely on others, or on a personality imprint, to give us salvation or righteousness. We have to do that ourselves as God works through us to mature us.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)

and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:24)

Closing

Special thanks to Chris Jones for joining us in these episodes on Dollhouse. We hope to discuss more TV shows in the future (such as Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, FlashForward, V, and more).

What do you think of Dollhouse? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome!), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. And please join our Facebook Page.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Spoiler alert!

Our discussion may contain spoilers up to season two, episode 4, “Belonging.”

Plot summary

TV.com summarizes Dollhouse:

They can be anyone you want.

The Dollhouse is a very secret, and very illegal, place where wishes come true. Clients with the right connections and enough money can hire “Actives,” people who have been programmed to perfectly fulfill the needs, and desires of their clients. The Actives are people who have chosen, for their own reasons, to surrender their bodies and minds for a five-year stay in the Dollhouse. Now they can be imprinted with any personality, skill, or even muscle memory. They can be the perfect companion, lover, spy, assassin; and when the’. job is done they forget everything.

But something is wrong with the Active called “Echo.” No longer just a blank slate waiting for her next assignment, Echo is remembering flashes of the lives that she has lived and the games she has played, and she is starting to wonder just who she really is …

Dollhouse is a production of 20th Century Fox Television, Joss Whedon’s “Mutant Enemy,” and Eliza Dushku’s “Boston Diva Productions,”

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

Glorified human trafficking and sex service?

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? (Romans 6:12–16)

Imprinting personalities

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:8)

Nature of the soul

God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created them, male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

We are not only soul, but soul and spirit.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

Closing

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The podcast episode and these show notes contain spoilers. If you don’t want to be spoiled, then come back to this episode later. If you interested in the family-friendliness of Surrogates, then we recommend reading Plugged In Online’s review.

Safe from within our separate homes on a cold rainy night, we discuss our initial reactions after seeing Surrogates in the theater. Over all, we both liked the movie, though Eve thought the ending was anticlimatic, and Daniel expected a plot twist at the very end, but it never came (the plot twist, that is. Surrogates did actually end, unlike The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King). The previews made us expect something like a cross between The Matrix and I, Robot, but Surrogates really stood on its on, not really close to either movie. Despite our low expectations for Surrogates to contain much to discuss, we actual found a lot of things to approach with Christian critical thinking.

God-view and the answer to social problems?

The geeky FBI agent who was watching through all the surrogate feeds commented about it being like God—able to see through anyone’s eyes. But this is not really accurate because God doesn’t look through our eyes, He is omniscient without having to bring Himself down to the human level, although He has chosen to do so in the past (e.g., the Tower of Babel, Genesis 11). True wisdom comes from looking through God’s eyes and not the other way around.

Near the beginning, surrogates were called the next evolutionary step for mankind. If evolution is a biological process, how could a step out of biological existence be the next big step in evolution? Within the same news montage was that surrogates solved all social issues such as gender stereotyping, discrimination, violence, and crime. In reality, it seems that surrogacy as presented by the movie, would dehumanize people. It reduces one-on-one interaction. But separating us from each other does not remove us from our sinful natures. And real humans are still behind the interactions of the surrogates.

We currently live in a type of surrogate culture, where we communicate largely via the Internet and really have no real knowledge of the true identities of the people with whom we interact. Like in the movie, someone who is claiming to be a woman, could actually be a man, etc. We already see this a lot within the popular Second Life world.

The movie’s portrayed culture is extremely dependent on its surrogates. People have problems living in the real world because the world is too overwhelming when experienced that way—too loud, too bright, too hard.

There is a scene of soldiers fighting some kind of war through surrogate soldiers. The general called it a “peace-keeping” operation but there were a vast amount of soldiers fighting it. But as Eve pointed out, what were they fighting over if the surrogate program had solved all social problems?

Death and suffering

We can almost agree with one statement made in the movie, “death is not an ending, it’s only a beginning …” and that sacrificing yourself for the survival of others allows you to keep living and that is what being human is about. Sacrificing ourselves on behalf of another is not only human, but it is exhibiting a “divine” love (John 15:13). This definition of humanity could not arise by means of evolution, because evolution is a selfish struggle for life (“survival of the fittest”) but humanity, as God created it, is built upon selfless love..

Tom Greer’s wife is taking many pills to get through her days. Daniel was given the impression that her “drug” habit is a bad reflection on the supposed safety of the surrogate program. Eve had a different impression. She thought it had more to do with the woman’s inability to deal with the grief of losing her son (who had died some time in the movie’s back story).

Always (virtually) beautiful?

Surrogates did a good job of showing the difference between surrogates and humans. Surrogates were always perfect and beautiful. Proverbs 31:30 says, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain.” But the relationship Greer desired with his real, flesh-and-blood wife rather than her perfect surrogate, was refreshing amid a world of the “perfect” people. There is a “drug” scene in which Greer’s wife does avoid partaking.

Is there really a need for the technology of the surrogates? If everyone is going to live vicariously through some kind of virtual stimulation, why not just drive it through software in a virtual world rather than going to the expense of building actual machines. It seems a slight hole in the premise of the movie. But we speculate that a virtual world would have made it too close to The Matrix and that was possibly why they avoided that premise.

Destroying his own creation

Canter, the genius behind the surrogates, is the character that is revealed to be trying to destroy the surrogates, his own creation. Is this a parallel with God’s judgment of the world with the global Flood? Only partially. Canter is not very Godlike; he’s acting out of vengeance. So what is the difference between what God did and what Canter tries to do in the movie? Canter is a man acting out petty vengeance with a man’s fallible judgment of who is “evil” and who is “good” based on an amoral decision. God acted out of righteous judgment by destroying a world that was in total rebellion to Him. But this begs the question, is choosing a surrogate really amoral? Neither of us think this would be a sin. Yet this is the decision alone that puts people on Canter’s death list.

Near the end, we learn that The Prophet was really a surrogate being controlled by Canter. Religious leaders are usually portrayed as false leaders in Hollywood (large and small screen), very often a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who convince their followers to be against something that they themselves secretly partake or endorse. This is just one more way that the Hollywood culture attempts to discredit religion as a whole. Was this an underlying agenda behind the script? It’s hard to tell.

Canter gave a reflective monologue just before committing suicide. He told of what he wanted the world to once again become. The reason he had originally created the surrogates was to help the disadvantaged people to live like everyone else, but it had gotten out of hand. Canter felt that people shouldn’t live so removed from experiencing life. This reminds us of Jesus’s miracles while He walked the earth (Matthew 11:5 and 15:31, Luke 7:22). The last statement of the movie, “For now, we are on our own,” left us with thoughts to ponder. That experiencing life, with all its joys and pain, is an important part of being human, but that we should remember that our current condition of humanity is that of sinful and fallible human beings. We should always strive to better ourselves by not being more perfect in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense through Christ. To be holy (1 Peter 1:14–16).

Closing

What did you think of Surrogates? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome!), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. And please join our Facebook Page.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Please listen to our episode to hear our responses to and discussion on each of the following comments we received from you, our great listeners. Thank you!

Lots of feedback!

From Kathleen:

As a Catholic and a lover of books and movies, I am thrilled that you and your friend, are doing a podcast like this. Your reviews and analyses, are helping me to see layers with in secular shows that I never thought to look for.

As far as story of noah’s ark goes, I don’t take it literally. I think that the story. at least in part is meant as a metaphor. Saying that God can get two of every animal on to a ship, along with Noah and his family. Then repopulating the world with them, tells me, that there isn’t anything that God can’t do.

Please do a review of the movie Gran Torino, if I understood it correctly, there are a lot of Christen morels and themes in the movie.

Also from Kathleen:

I hope this makes sense to you

Spock’s father tells him to "put aside logic and do what feels right."

I have spent a lot of time turning this one over. What I got out of it was this, I think what his father might have been trying to say was this. The logic of the head, numbers and facts, vs. the logic of the heart, things like love. We find out later in the movie, that Spock’s father married his mother because he was in love with her. I think that his father was acknowledging that it was right for Spock to defend his mother’s honor. But that at the same time, his father didn’t approve of the way in which Spock chose to do so. Also I made the observation in the move, that most Vulcan’s don’t seem to understand, that emotions can exist along side of logic.

In Spock’s training, we may have heard a new immortal phrase, "It is morally praiseworthy but not morally obligatory."

I believe that this is meant to be taken in the context to the Vulcan culture. Think of it this way, to the Vulcan’s it is morally praiseworthy to be logical, but is it also morally obligatory to be logical? Like I said above, I believe that it was morally praiseworthy for Spock to defend his mothers honor. However according to the Vulcan culture, I don’t think doing so by Vulcan standers was morally obligatory. It wasn’t morally obligatory for Spock to defend his mother’s honor because the Vulcan’s would see that as an emotion response.

Also when old Spock speaks to young Spock and tells him to fallow his heart. I think that old Spock might have found out, off screen, about young Spock being in love with Uhura. Or its possibly that he was trying to explain to a young Spock that some times in order to be logical you have to do what seems illogical at the time. After all Spock was talking about helping to repopulate his race, instead of doing what was right for him. In other words fallowing the Vocation to work along side of the crew of the USS Enterprise and also to possibly marry Uhura.

Maybe I have just read to much into all three of those things. But after turning it all over for about two days and one night. I am vary satisfied with what I have found.

Geoff Gentry (@xforce11) commented on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Initial Reactions:

Daniel,

They have broken the Air &; Space Museum into several locations.  The main one is now outside DC at Dulles Airport (Chantilly, VA).  It is called The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.  I went and visited it 2 years ago.  The did show the front and the insides correctly and the building does have hangar doors at each end of the main part of the building.  Not sure about the planes outside though.

Peggy commented on Star Trek (Initial Reactions):

May I make one suggestion? If you are going to review a movie, even initial reactions to it, you obviously have to talk about the movie in specific ways. And since you have it in the title that it is Star Trek (in this case), people should understand that you are going to have spoilers big time. Otherwise, you cannot really discuss it in depth from a Christian viewpoint, which as I understand it, is what this blog is about.

So how about just giving one single disclaimer at the beginning. “This episode is an in-depth look at ______; if you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to save this until after you have, because it is going to contain many spoilers.”

Otherwise all you can really say is “I liked/didn’t like it. Or some general things like “it included profanity or immorality.” You won’t be able to support that with examples. The podcast will be over in five minutes. I’m guessing that your listeners are like me, in that we actually want to hear the movie discussed in detail.

And again from Kathleen:

I love horror moves and I don’t mind violent and gore, however I like it when its well placed and not grittiest. I tend to be extremely turned off by American horror movies because of this, I tend to lean towards horror movies that draw on mythology, folklore, the supernatural, and related genres. That said I will not watch the Saw movies, I have seen part of one at a friends house, and was happy that I had bough my laptop with me. So my friend watched the movie and I played a computer game.

By the same token I don’t always mind nudity, just as long as there is a reason for it. I do like remissions art. However I don’t like it when the only point of such a thing or if it takes away from the program instead of adding to it. One of my most beloved shows is Elfen Lied, even though it is animated this isn’t for kids, the show is gory and contains nudity. However one of the central themes of the show is what it means to be human, so I am able to deal with everything with in that context.

In contrast I had to stop watching a show called Gantz, due to graphic sexual content. I was vary upset by this, because the show is an other wise interesting and graphically violent romp though desperation for the main characters, who are just trying to stay alive.

I don’t mind swearing, but I did stop watching both Good Will Hunting and a show called Hellsing, because of excessive swearing

As for ratings I will watch G, PG, PG-13, and R-rated movies, however I use more discretion with R and PG-13. I am harder on R and PG-13 rated movies, because I have see a handful of PG-13 movies that should have been rated R. The second Austin Powers movie is a prime example of this, honestly how much sexual innuendo can be squeezed in to a PG-13 movie?!

Scott (@SpiritualTramp) commented on Where We Draw the Line (Episode 6:

Hey guys!  Great podcast.  One question.  What I seem to be hearing from Daniel is that violence is okay, language is okay, but sex is not.  Why is that?  Why is “immodesty” bad?

Do you support Christian art that is bad (quality wise)?

Is being uncomfortable a bad thing?  There are things in the Bible that disturb me.  Plenty of great art is designed to make you uncomfortable/take you out of your comfort zone.

Okay that was more than one question.

Audio feedback from Wayne Henderson (@TIWWH).

From Professor Alan:

Guys,

I had a few comments about  episode 6, where you discuss "drawing the line."

One place I draw the line is "quality"—so I disagree with your contention of supporting movies by Christians just because they are movies by Christians.  I have found that most of these movies that come from self-described "Christian" movie studios fall way short in areas of quality.  Out of respect to my brothers and sisters, I will not name specific films.

I have a novel manuscript that I am shopping around, and if I ever get it published, I want people to recommend it because they think it’s good, not just because it was written by a Christian.  I want to write a good novel, not a "good novel for a Christian"

As a matter of fact, I do agree with you that I don’t like movies with an overt agenda, but I find that most "christian" movies fall into that category. I don’t like art being used for any agenda, even if it’s an agenda that I would be sympathetic to.

I enjoy the show. Thanks for listening to me.

"Professor Alan"

Amanda from Michigan commented on Where We Draw the Line (Episode 6):

Hello Eve and Daniel,

Thank you for bringing up this topic. While the line might be different for everyone, it’s really, really important to think about the line. So many people just march blindly into the movie theater because that’s the thing to do. It’s so important to be aware of your actions, interpret them in light of scripture, and live consciously.

Thank you, too, for bringing up the point about supporting these things with our money. That often speaks very loudly.

Cheers,
Amanda

From CodiNapkin:

I just wanted to point out that although the flood is a sufficient explanation of fossils, even more so than the explanation of long periods of time, because fossils are formed under high pressure situations, which the flood easily explains. But God still creates things that appear to have age, for example he created Adam a full grown man along with all of the animals and plants. Also when He created the stars, even though they were light years away, their light was instantly visible on Earth. Also Jesus created what was considered the best wine at the wedding, which the longer the aging the better the wine.

Promos

• Podcasting for Water from John Wilkerson of The Jesus Geek
• Fringe podcast, Lost podcast, Christmas podcast, Voice-Over Journey podcast, and a lot more from Wayne Henderson of Media Voice-Overs
• Web design, presentation design, web hosting, and new media services from D.Joseph Design

Closing

Thank you for listening! Big thanks to everyone who sent us all this great feedback and more!

Do you have more to say on these topics? Do you want to further the conversation? Or do you have other thoughts or suggestions to share? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome!), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. Please join our Facebook page and remember to help promote us and support clean podcasts by clicking our CleanCasts.com button.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Daniel and Chris discuss how the movie’s screenplay was written by the author of the book series, Douglas Adams, making it extremely close to the book.

The Guide

We start out discussing the actual presentation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in the movie. The Guide is supposedly a repository of all knowledge, but how can it contain all knowledge if they have people tramping around the universe seeking more knowledge to put in the Guide? Also, the Guide’s definition of Earth is “mostly harmless.” Chris brings up how much more than “;mostly harmless”; we are, taking into account that Adam and Eve’s sin cursed all of creation.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12, NASB)

Is the Bible the repository of all knowledge? Actually, the Bible is the repository of absolute truth. It tells us to seek after wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10, NASB)

Buy truth, and do not sell it, get wisdom and instruction and understanding. (Proverbs 23:23, NASB)

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. (Proverbs 4:7)

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7)

Daniel brings up the trilogy that the Guide is compared to (“more controversial than the blockbusters: Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes, and Who Is This God Person Anyway?“). Chris mentions this makes her think of Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion). These definitely represent outright attacks against God and a mockery of faith—a theme that, unfortunately, runs throughout the movie as well as the books.

Don’t panic

The Guide is “slightly cheaper than the Encyclopedia Galactica” and it has “Don’t panic” written on it’s cover. So it seems the most important information that people need to hear is not to panic. That makes a book trustworthy? Eve plays the panic on Earth scene while Daniel is discussing “not panicking” and skews into a discussion on the biblical metaphor of people as sheep.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. (Isaiah 53:6a)

What about the people who lie down and put the paper bags over their heads when Earth is going to be destroyed? Is this a plausible reaction that points to how people (particularly atheists) see their existence as pointless or a desire to be oblivious of the future—especially toward what comes after death? It seems that walking around avoiding the question of eternity makes about as much sense as lying down and putting paper bags over your heads.

Eat, drink, and be merry

Chris talks about Ford’s buying drinks for everyone in the bar, so that they can “drink up because they’re going to die in twelve minutes.” This presents another philosophy of man, that life is fleeting so enjoy it while you can. This philosophy has some scriptural basis, but not perhaps in the manner that this movie portrays.

What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. (Ecclesiastes 3:9-13, ESV)

This presents life and the means to take joy in living as gifts from God. We were created to enjoy the creation God created for us and to glorify God for it.

So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:16–17, ESV)

Also, there is a purpose to life and a source for contentment and joy, which can make joy survive even in the midst of the worst of circumstances.

So much of what is presented in this movie has to do with doing whatever makes you happy. We discuss the idea that you can’t know what’s going on and so you’d “rather be happy than right” but yet, not being happy. Chris mentions that the reason why living for what makes you happy is never successful, because the only source of happiness is God. When you take God out of the equation, then there is really nothing worth living for.

Arthur comments that all his questions haven’t brought him an iota of happiness. Eve mentions that it’s not questions that provide happiness, but answers, which Arthur doesn’t actively seek. Daniel mentions the irony that the people who are pursuing happiness the most are those that seem the most unhappy because they are looking in the wrong places for answers to their questions. Chris mentions that they aren’t even really looking. Eve continues this by saying that so often those who want happiness look for it as an environment rather than an attitude, expecting to find the right circumstances that make them happy. But according to Scripture, joy is an attitude that is not dependent on circumstances but on the condition of your heart. We see this many times in the Psalms.

O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90:14, NASB)

Emotions

We discuss Marvin (the depressed robot) and the Heart of Gold (the insanely cheerful ship), which then leds into a conversation of the “point-of-view gun.” The weapon used against the Vulgans—when Marvin shoots them and they all become as depressed as he is. An interesting point is that the point-of-view gun doesn’t work on women—because women are naturally empathetic enough to understand other points of view without being shot with the gun. Really? Daniel takes us back to Marvin and the ship and asks if machines can really have emotion. Machines cannot really feel emotions, they can only simulate the characteristics that people interpret as emotions.

Daniel mentions Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles and the terminator named “;Patrick Henry”; who could not understand emotions. So having the computer return a programmed response is not really an emotion. From the biblical worldview, this answers the question as to why God didn’t make us love Him—because a programmed response is not true emotion. Chris mentions that if we take an evolutionary perspective, emotions are just programmed responses resulting from a random compilation of chemicals.

Two heads are better than one?

Chris introduces the two-headed aspect of Zaphod as president of the universe. He has to split his brain into two parts in order to properly govern, because he was supposedly too smart to be the president of the universe. Government comes from God and has no purpose apart from God.

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. (Romans 13:1, NASB)

Paranoia

The Infinite Improbability Drive (or Eve’s finger on the track list) presents us with the comment about the strange feeling that there is something huge and sinister going on the world is perfectly normal paranoia—everyone gets that. So any belief about things happening outside your control is paranoia? Eve mentions conspiracy theorists and agrees that a lot of that is simple paranoia, but then she reminds us that we are living in a sin-cursed world, and that there is a certain direction to the flow of things. Chris says this leads back to a purpose because it isn’t paranoia if they really are out to get you.

Earth Mark II

Eve comments about how Earth Mark II is identical, right down to the individual people that were in Mark I. And yet, the planets are created by a factory—in a form with an appearance of “;age”; (though “;maturity”; is a far better word to use, since “;age”; is the process of decay). Yet, Daniel suspects that the reason Adams does this is to subtlety say that believing that Earth was created is just as absurd as believing there is a business that makes custom planets—complete with the organisms that inhabit them. Atheists often debunk absurdities as a means of slamming Christianity with the implication that their made-up belief systems are ridiculous and so is Christianity.

Closing

Don’t forget to check out our upcoming scorecard to find out how we rated the movie. Chris joins us on the card.

Thanks to Chris Jones for joining us in the studio, and we hope she joins us again in the future.

We’d love to hear from you! Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome!), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. Please remember to help promote us and support clean podcasts by clicking our CleanCasts.com button.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Luckily, all three of us have read the books, though some more recently than others. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the book and series) is by Douglas Adams, a man who was definitely not a Christian, and his works contain more than their fair share of anti-Christian statements. This movie is definitely no exception to that rule, and there is much to discuss with Christian critical thinking.

Since this movie is rather random, our coverage of it will be somewhat random, too, but we’ll start with what the movie begins by saying about reality.

“Things are not always what they seem.”

Is this a true statement?

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12, ESV)

The Bible tells us about the spiritual realm that we do not perceive, so in that since, “things are not always what they seem” could be true. There is also the element that our expectations play in our perceptions (i.e., our worldview), that can cause us to make false assumptions about reality and the world around us. However, this is definitely not the real meaning of the statement as used by the movie—the understand that nothing about reality can be trusted.

In the movie, they refer to an offended alien culture that comes to earth for revenge and is swallowed by a dog. This play on scale reminds Daniel of the ending scene of Men in Black, where our entire galaxy is shown as a marble that some large alien is playing. This is ridiculous, but yet some people have this kind of view of God. This kind of perception is the kind of mythological nonsense that is often confused with Christianity. But if people would just read their Bibles they would realize nonscientific things like belief in flat earth are not biblical.

There is a lot of evolutionary content in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The main character, Arthur, is introduced as an ape-descendant. Yet, none of the other humanoid characters are introduced that way. According to the movie, the first and second most intelligent species on earth are the mice and dolphins. Trisha Macmillan (Trillain) goes to the dress-up party as Darwin, which leads to an interesting discussion about devolution, evolution from single-celled organisms, and random chance.

Was Douglas Adams writing the book with an agenda, or was he just being consistent with his own worldview? Chris speculates that it’s probably elements of both. When you write something consistent with your worldview, you are leading someone to see it your way—pushing your agenda. Eve raises the fact that there is an element of self-mockery for evolutionists in the book, in that it shows Earth being built with all the elements that evolutionists claim are the indications of great age. In this movie, Earth Mark II is created to look the way we know it within a very brief amount of time and then life simply starts. Daniel references a statement in the book about seeding the planet with fossils, and we discuss the fallacy that biblical Christianity cannot explain fossils.

Speaking of the rates of things, Daniel diverts the conversation to the Vogons and how the movie makes fun of bureaucracy. Eve points out that the swiftness with which Trillian’s death sentence is carried out is very unlike real bureaucracy. Daniel has a new quotation, “In Christianity, we believe in life after death. In bureaucracy, it’s a death sentence after a life sentence.”

“Space … is big, really big …”

Eve mentions the planetarium movie The Created Cosmos, at the Creation Museum, and how it addresses the incredible scale of the universe. For us, that incredible scale of the universe is just an indication of how awesome God is. In fact, the creation of the rest of the universe beyond our solar system is referred to in one short phrase, “He made the stars also” (Genesis 1:16). God is not just a matter of scale—He is outside physical restraints and measurements altogether!

“Improbable, but not impossible.”

Evolution believes that anything is probable. At what point is something so improbable, that it is virtually impossible? This movie plays up the improbability of things to the level of the absurd.

“In the beginning, the universe was created …”

This entire section from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a statement that seems put there just to mock the historical narrative of biblical creation as a myth. It is funny, but it seems irreverent to laugh at it. They seem to want people to think that any creation account is just as ridiculous as a deity sneezing the universe into being. Yet, a sneeze is an accidental action, instead of the purposeful creation that is described in the Bible.

For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is God!), who formed the earth and made it (He established it; He did not create it empty, He formed it to be inhabited!). (Isaiah 45:18, ESV)

Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established. The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. (Proverbs 16:3-4, ESV)

However, if you take God out of our world, every religion that man can conceive on his own is purely ridiculous.

“Oh no, not again!”

So does this mean that bowls of petunias fall a lot? How does this answer the meaning of life? The contradiction of the movie is that everyone is looking for a point of life and yet, according to the movie, there isn’t one. Which is the pointless point that the movie is trying to make. [Editor's note: huh?] But it makes sense that people are searching for a purpose because we are designed by God to have a purpose. All men yearn after a purpose, and those who reject God, must replace that purpose with something, even if it’s just their own pleasure.

“Calculate the answer to life, the universe and everything”

Daniel takes issue that we can create something more consciously intelligent that us (this being different than more efficient than us). Chris mentions that it isn’t so much creating something more intelligent, but actually using technology as a crutch in attempt to reap benefits without the cost.

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13, ESV)

The only reason that they didn’t get an answer that made sense was that they tried to take the easy way out. Another irony is that they were looking for an ultimate answer that everyone could accept because they were tired of bickering about it themselves. So what made them think that they could create an authority that everyone would agree was speaking ultimate truth?

“Nobody think!”

This scene is extremely funny. The characters land on a bureaucratic planet where thinking is punished. Is this a mockery of religion? The Vogons don’t seem to be presented as religious, just lazy and lost in a bureaucracy that does not reward creative thought.

“I suppose I should start finding names for things …”

There is a lot in the sperm whale scene, but Chris talks about the invention of language. What is the source of language? Is language arbitrary? Language can only come from an intelligence. And we know from the Bible that language was created by God—He even used language to speak the universe into existence. His Word existed first (John 1:1). Evolutionists believe that language is arbitrary, a product of our randomly acquired existence. But if language is arbitrary, how can we communicate? Agreement on the names of things requires a language to discuss and arrive at an agreement in the first place.

Our randomness has filled up the time we allow for an episode, and so we’re going to continue the discussion in part 2.

We’d love to hear from you! Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com (audio feedback welcome!), or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. Please remember to help promote us and support clean podcasts by clicking our CleanCasts.com button.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error (1 John 4:4–6, ESV).

Before I delve into some of what I consider to be hidden spiritual gems in the Twilight Saga, I will briefly explain what I intend to do here so that no one misunderstands me.

First off, I do not consider any fictional work to be inspired (meaning in a biblical or spiritual sense). Whatever spiritual truths can be dug from it, no fictional work can take the place of the Truth as found in God’s Word. No one can be saved by reading fiction. No one can gain a true understanding of God by reading fiction. Tainted by the curse, every production of man’s hands will have fatal flaws. Because of this taint, we should never trust the words of man over the Truth found in Scripture (John 8:31; 2 Timothy 3:16).

Secondly, though tainted by sin, every man has a buried sense of God (Ecclesiastes 3:11; Romans 1:20). Some of the most common plots and stories have a root in some unconscious sense of God and the condition of man. God can reveal Himself through the works of even unsaved men and women, regardless of the human intent involved.

Thirdly, though I may point out interesting spiritual parallels in secular novels, I am in no way claiming that the authors intended such parallels, nor am I putting forward any novel as a spiritual allegory. I firmly believe that when you know and are sensitive to the Truth, you can find aspects of that Truth everywhere—even in spiritually bankrupt counterfeits of the Truth. Counterfeits are, after all, enough like the object they are copying to be deceptive, meaning that they can and do contain some elements of the Truth.

Every body needs a head

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (1 Corinthians 12:24–27, ESV).

There are some brief spiritual gems in the saga that caught my eye. One of them was a quick statement in Breaking Dawn that opened up a spiritual parallel that has a subtle strength throughout the series.

"There was a good reason for the Alpha’s authority. Even a pack as strong as ours wasn’t much of a force without a leader. We had to move together, to think together, in order to be effective. And that required the body to have a head." (Jacob, Breaking Dawn, page 208)

The pack mentality of the werewolves—all of one mind and following one leader—is a very good parallel to the way the Christian church is supposed to behave (1 Corinthians 12:12–27; Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:23). Granted, this doesn’t often happen in reality, but if we allow God to have total influence in our lives, then we will plug into the body in the correct way with Christ as the head and the rest of us working cooperatively as His body. Take special note that it is repeated in Scripture that Christ is the head. This is very important. We have to be careful to never give our frail human leaders the position of the head. They may be the mouths, but they are never to supplant Christ’s headship over the church.

But beyond the werewolf pack, there is another prominent leader in the series: Carlisle. He is the calm, the compassion, the strength of purpose that holds the Cullen family together. You really get the impression that the rest of the Cullen family would be just like other vampires without his influence keeping them civilized.

“Carlisle has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of us … I don’t think you could find his equal throughout all of history.” (Edward, Twilight, page 288)

In this way, Carlisle appears to be the “true” spiritual leader of his family. He guides them by example with love and wisdom (Ephesians 5:28–30). He is devoted to his wife, always in control of himself, never given to wrath, abhors violence, and dedicates himself to saving lives by working in a hospital. He encourages others to live as he lives. When quantified that way, it’s amazing how well Carlisle meets the biblical standards of a church elder (with the exception that he is not standing on Christian doctrine):

An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it (Titus 1:6–9, ESV).

This is not a huge spiritual parallel, but it is a subtle reminder of what a father figure and a leader is supposed to be. Our culture has so twisted these roles that it makes portrayals such as these valuable. However, since Stephenie Meyer is a Mormon, it really is not all that surprising that she portrays biblical style leaders, and from my Christian perspective, it’s definitely nice to see these types of archetypes portrayed.

Dead in sin

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1–3).

One of the things that I noticed right away in the Twilight Saga was the spiritual parallel that can be drawn between Meyer’s vampires and the condition of sinful man. She describes her vampires as walking, talking corpses. They have no heartbeat, no blood flow, they breathe only to use their sense of smell; they are venomous and their bodies do not change either to age or to produce life. They are ruled by an unquenchable thirst that can only be momentarily satiated with blood.

Taken into a spiritual domain, this perfectly describes the condition of man in sin (Romans 2:10–17). Sinful man is nothing more than a spiritual corpse (Ephesians 2:1), animated in a semblance of life but lacking some very basic indicators of a healthy, living soul. Sinful man is ruled by desires that are corrupt and his every instinct serves to fulfill these desires (Ephesians 2:3). The only way these heinous acts can be atoned for is through the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22).

Vampires also cannot reverse their situation. Edward loves Bella so much that he would become human for her, if he could, but this cannot be done.

“If there were any way for me to become human for you—no matter what the price was, I would pay it.” (Edward, Eclipse, page 273)

Another aspect of Meyer’s vampires, as presented most spectacularly by Edward, is that they cannot destroy themselves without external help. In fact, New Moon is bracketed by discussions about how Edward would attempt to kill himself in the case of Bella’s death because he could not bear to exist without her.

“It’s something I had to think about once, and I knew from Carlisle’s experience that it wouldn’t be simple. I’m not sure how many ways Carlisle tried to kill himself in the beginning … after he realized what he’d become. … And he’s clearly still in excellent health.” (Edward, New Moon, page 18)

Once again, the spiritual parallel holds true: nothing that sinful man can do can change his spiritual condition. He cannot reverse it on his own, nor can he find release from his eternal nightmare on his own (Romans 7:21–24).

This is an imperfect spiritual parallel, of course. It works for the first three books, but gets turned on its head in the fourth book where Bella finally becomes a vampire and describes the experience in such glowing terms that there is no way it can be seen as the bad thing that Edward portrayed it to be throughout the rest of the saga. But there is something so incredibly fitting about using the illustration of a walking, talking corpse when discussing spiritual matters. Can a vampire become human again? Can a spiritually dead soul come alive? Or as Edward puts it in the unpublished Midnight Sun, can “a dead, frozen heart beat again?”

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (Romans 8:10–11, ESV).

There’s more to this good news. In my next and final post on the Twilight Saga, I will write about the deepest theme in the books and the overall most sought after—eternal love.

If you like my writing, please follow me on Twitter.

Why should there be a line?

“Come out from among them and be ye separate,” says the Lord. “Touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17).

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).

We’ve often heard the phrase “be in the world but not of the world,” which is a paraphrase of the above verses and Jesus’s teaching in John 15:19 and 17:16. There should be a vast chasm between the behavior of the unsaved world and Christians. Christians are supposed to be different, we’re supposed to be portraying Christ and not being hypocritical in our standards.

So where is the line?

Eve drew the line a long time ago on seeing rated-R movies in the theaters and rarely buys them because she does not like to support Hollywood in the production of inappropriate material. Most rated-R movies are over the top and sometimes even PG-13 movies as well. In our recent initial reaction to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, we discussed some of the inappropriate material that pushed the limits for a PG-13 movie.

Daniel asks why use the world’s rating system, and Eve explains that she doesn’t like to support the world in doing things that even they consider to be “over the top.” Daniel pushes Eve to give specifics regarding her personal line. Foul language that is excessive to the point of being noticeable, sexual innuendo, sexual situations, blood and gore. It’s a balance of content—good versus bad content—and a judgment call. Eve takes it on a case-by-case basis, and lumps books into the same system.

Daniel and Eve rabbit-trail a bit on what makes bad words bad—the use, the context, or the actual word.

Daniel draws his line differently. He grew up in a very conservative family—so conservative that he wasn’t allowed to touch a water gun. Coming from such a conservative—even legalistic—background, he has reevaluated how he approaches entertainment. He probably watches more rated-R movies than Eve, but he points out that the rated-R movies of the ’90s were often cleaner in terms of morality than the PG-13 of the same time. He doesn’t mind the excessive violence that often gets movies an R rating, such as some of his favorites: Air Force One, Executive Decision, The Patriot, and similar. He doesn’t draw a line based on the rating, but he does have two separate lines on what he watches on DVD versus what he watches at a theater. He refuses to watch a movie with a sex scene in the theater—it creates an awkward and unavoidable situation. He adverts his eyes from immodesty (Psalm 101:3, Job 31:1).

He likes Sahara and is able to avoid the one scene that has immodesty. He wouldn’t have seen Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at the theater if he had known the amount of sexual humor and excessive “flesh scenes” it had.

However, Daniel will allow more when he watches movies on DVD because he can control the situations and even skip inappropriate scenes.

Eve brings up the stumbling block issue (Romans 14:13), telling of how she feels she should behave when around people who have strong convictions against secular entertainment—abstaining when others abstain so as not to be a stumbling block. Christians should always be aware of who is around them and not do things that would lead weaker brothers and sisters into temptation or sin.

Daniel doesn’t have a problem with violence. He doesn’t find that watching violence has an impact on his behavior. He also doesn’t have much of a problem with language. He doesn’t struggle with the foul language, but he gets annoyed with the dialog when it’s over used. Neither Daniel or Eve understand why some movies throw in so much bad language.

Eve prefers to watch some movies edited for television. Daniel talks about the TV Guardian and how the bleeped-out language actually made him think about it more than if he had actually heard the foul worlds.

Daniel does not like ultra-gory movies or video games. He really wished he hadn’t seen 300 because, “everything they could make gory and grotesque, they did.” But he likes The Patriot because it portrays realistic war and does not glorify the gore.

Where is the line when it comes to secular agenda?

Eve says that she will avoid movies that have agendas if she knows about it in advance, but that’s where the critical thinking comes in. If you’re going to watch it, it’s a good idea to be ready to recognize agendas.

Daniel avoids paying to watch movies that have blatant agendas, such as The Golden Compass or Happy Feet, because he doesn’t like to fund worldly or antireligious agendas. Instead, he’ll borrow the DVD from a friend, the local library, or use a promo code to “rent” the DVD for free from Redbox in order to see the movie.

On the other end of the spectrum, Eve discusses supporting Christian or Christian-themed productions (such as Fireproof, The Prince of Egypt, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, The Second Chance, End of the Spear, or Left Behind), even if they contain theological issues that are controversial for some Christians. If we want Christian entertainment, we have to support Christian entertainment with our money so that companies can afford to create it. Christians should not be hypocritical by avoiding Christian or Christian-themed movies because of minor theological “problems” when they will gladly go see Star Wars or another movie that is totally non-Christian.

The side topic of music is briefly discussed. Daniel personally chooses to avoid heavy metal and hard rock because of the mental imagery it produces.

In conclusion, we should be wary of who is around us so as not to make others stumble, we should be wary of where our own personal weakness are so that we don’t fall into sin (1 Corinthians 10:12), and we have to pay attention to where our discomforts are because those who are living in the Spirit will be sensitive to God’s leading in compromising situations.

Thanks again to John Wilkerson of the Jesus Geek podcast for the topic suggestion.

More podcasts discussing “Where is the line?”

• “Where is the Line?“— Jesus Geek
• “Snark Infested Waters for 7/16/2009“—Snark Infested Waters
• “Walk and Talk 33“—The Jadedvisalian

Where do you draw the line?

Do you agree or disagree with our lines in entertainment? Where is the line for you? We’d love to hear from you! Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com, or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter. Please remember to help promote us and support clean podcasts by clicking our CleanCasts.com button.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Thanks for your help!

Spoiler Alert

This podcast episode and shownotes do contain spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want it ruined (although it’s our opinion that it’s already ruined), stop reading or listening here and see the movie before finishing this episode.

Who is the intended audience for this movie? Since the subject matter of the movie is based on toys, you would think that the movie might be intended for children, especially since the first Transformers movie reignited the market for the toys. But it could also be intended for the adults who grew up with the toys. However, the language and much of the content of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was totally inappropriate for children. This movie, in our opinion, should have been rated R. Daniel talks about how Megan Fox was included to be eye candy for men, which annoys him—he sees no purpose for all that skin in furthering the plot. Eve mentions the scene where the agent pulls his pants down as being completely inappropriate.

The movie starts out talking about the history of earth. The time scale of when transformers and humans first interacted is given as 17,000 BC. Chris mentions that the tiger the people are hunting is not even a prehistoric tiger. Eve mentions the presenting of non-Caucasians as primitive—one of the ways that evolutionary views fuel racism.

Daniel brings up Optimus Prime’s opening dialogue—”humans are capable of great compassion as well as great violence.” This is actually a valid statement. As created by God, we are capable of love, and yet in our sin, we are capable of great violence when we disregard the absolute authority of our Creator. Eve mentions the statement by one of the soldiers, “If God made us in His image, then who made [the Transformers]?”

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen first portray’s Sam’s parents as comic relief, but they seem to be redeemed near the end of the movie. This is one way this sequel was better than the first Transformers, where the parents were foolish and comic relief through the whole story.

Another interesting thing in the movie is that Sam remains loyal to his girlfriend Mikaela, but we noticed the whole setup that he wouldn’t say he loved her until she said it first. All three of us agreed that this was cowardly of Sam and that he should have been man enough to be honest.

The movie seemed to have stolen multiple plot points from Star Wars. The Decepticon villain—The Fallen—is called the Master, and he calls Megatron and Starscream his apprentices. Chris mentions that The Fallen reminds her of Jabba the Hutt. There were also some Decepticons that looked like the killer droids at the beginning of the Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace. But Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen stopped short of using Old English.

Eve gives a quick synopsis of the movie plot to show the analogy with Satan and fallen angels—a kind of war in heaven type of story.

Daniel comments how when they exit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (for which they didn’t show the real building), they are suddenly among a bunch of planes outside, supposedly an outdoor exhibit, but Daniel feels strongly that it was filmed in an airplane graveyard out west. This bugs Daniel’s military upbringing.

Eve mentions the “old” transformer with a beard (the SR-71 Blackbird) and using a cane, and we discuss the biological personification of the Transformers in this Revenge of the Fallen. We also talk about how the transformations are always shown slow the first time, and then they are conveniently super fast afterward.

“Fate rarely calls on us at a moment of our choosing.” Chris comments on how that statement reminds her of Frodo’s quest in The Lord of the Rings. Eve compares it with the story of Esther—”for such a time as this.” A further religious type of analogy comes out when Sam appears to have died and sees the lost Primes in a kind of afterlife dream. Does this mean that Transformers have an afterlife? Chris mentions that there is some kind of extra something to them—that they aren’t portrayed as just machines. After all, they express conscience, emotion, and will, with definitions of right and wrong.

Another interesting aspect is that the Allspark always creates evil Transformers. So where do the Autobots gain their conscience? How did they become good? The old Transformer, Blackbird, explained that Decepticons can switch sides.

There is a part of the movie where Sam tells Mikaela that he believes that the dust of the Key to Leadership will restore Optimus Prime, and he refuses to think about any other outcome. A friend of ours gave this the label “the Tinkerbell effect”—”I believe it, therefore, it will happen.”

Listener Michael had previously writen in regarding how movies generally portray man as his own savior. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen definitely holds true to this form.

What did we like? We all loved Bumblebee. He is really awesome in the fight scenes. The The score, by Steve Jablonsky, was wonderful, and we play a bit of it in the podcast. The special effects were very nice. Chis liked that Sam’s parents were brave enough to return at the end for their son.

With the disclaimer that there was way too many sexual innuendos and sexual jokes, and visual sex jokes using dogs and a little robot, and the language was very bad too, Daniel loved the score (Jablonsky is one of Daniel’s favorite composers), the special effects, the sound engineering. And he really liked the Egyptian and ancient civilization tie-ins.

Eve wonders if this will increase the defacing of these ancient artifacts as people look for hidden treasures. We also mention how so many of the ancient wonders are billed by Hollywood as “built by aliens.” And why didn’t they just blow up the pyramids? This disappointed Daniel.

We don’t recommend this movie at all. We all gave it very low rating. If we were to score card it, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen would probably be a “plucked eye” movie.

Whether you saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen or not, what do you think? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com, or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

The central character of Firefly is River Tam. We discuss the possibility of psychic powers—is it demonic? Daniel loves watching the fight scenes, and practicing River’s moves on his kicking bag. Simon and River Tam’s relationship can remind us of the definition of greater love.

[Jesus said,] “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

We discuss the idea of professional prostitution as embodied by the “Companions.” A worldview apart from God can present such things as prostitution as just another type of occupation. It’s brought out that Companions serve both genders, which also brings in homosexuality. As Christians, we should not judge others because of their sin, because the only difference between us and them is that we’re forgiven.

Is a world with sin—a utopia—possible? The Alliance attempts to regulate how people should think, and then, when that doesn’t work so well, they attempt chemical control. So a utopia equals controlled emotions, and mindless people. Eve discusses the dove emblem for peace as a symbol of a world without man, because of the symbols origin in the historical global flood of judgment. The only way to create a world without sin is to remove the sinner.

This brings up a discussion of the reavers. Totally savage, they represent the consequence of attempting to control man’s behavior without changing his heart:

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them (Romans 1:21–32).

This is a portrait of unregenerate man. If you approach this from a secular, naturalistic, evolutionary worldview, what is wrong with the Reaver’s behavior. People who aren’t Christians are not necessarily like Reavers, but this is the condition of man when you totally remove God.

Utopia cannot exist in a government form. The only way that people can live together in love is when Christ is the head.

Our next movie to review will be Hellboy II: The Golden Army (after Daniel watches the first Hellboy).

What did you think of our discussion? Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com, or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

We thoroughly enjoyed this movie! We try to keep the spoilers to a minimum.

• Kirk’s family situation made it harder to be raised.
• Is there anything in Iowa? Call 859-353-4332 or email us@AreYouJustWatching.com to let us know.
• Police officer calls someone “citizen.” Is this similar to the communist title of “comrade”?
• In Spock’s training, we may have heard a new immortal phrase, “It is morally praiseworthy but not morally obligatory.”
• Kirk is capable of choosing his destiny.
• There’s a small Cloverfield reference, and some other fun references to Star Trek: Enterprise.
• Kirk is “meant for something better.” Does he have a personal drive rather than being led by the wind?
• Rumulans and Vulcans share a “common ancestor”—hint of evolution or just a past culture split? Daniel thinks it’s evolutionary, Eve thinks it’s cultural.
• Spock’s father tells him to “put aside logic and do what feels right.”

In this short episode, Daniel forgot to mention that there is one scene of immodesty that the movie could have done without. Thankfully, the audio wasn’t explicit, but Daniel chose to avert his eyes anyway.

Have you seen Star Trek? We’d love to hear your thoughts! Comment on this post, email us@areyoujustwatching.com, or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Serenity is full of action and westernized science fiction. But that still includes some nasty looking characters, a little innuendo, but not much foul language. It’s a great entertainment piece, especially for science-fiction lovers, but it raises and then badly answers plenty of philosophical questions in its story.

Eve’s review

Though this is one of my favorite sci-fi movies, I must admit it definitely has a lot going against it. The language is not as bad as it could be, but it’s not good. The violence is excessive and there is a bit of onscreen sex and blatant sexual language. But far above all that, the movie has a very twisted message about belief and truth and faith. This is definitely a movie that falls in the closed eye range. Be mindful of the subtle and not so subtle messages that permeate the dialogue while you enjoy the cool effects, superb filming, and almost flawless editing.

The scorecard

Twilight Saga

We read an email from Michael discussing the reused plot line in most Hollywood movies of man as the source of his own redemption. Thanks for the feedback, Michael!

Our movie for discussion this episode is Serenity. You can read a full synopsis of the movie on IMDB.com, and PluggedIn Online’s full review.

We both loved this movie. It’s very realistic, “down-to-earth,” frontier fun! Jeff, from UniquelyUs Homeschool Podcast, sent an audio feedback for Serenity, which we played to introduce the characters of Firefly/Serenity. We both rated Serenity as a “closed eye.” Please check out the Serenity scorecard for our personal reviews and scores.

Serenity does have a few references to religion. The people in the frontier settlements attend Sunday worship. But what do they worship? Surprisingly, considering the atheistic influences of its creator, the Firefly future seems to have freedom of religion. Though the movie doesn’t come across as anti-Christian, in Firefly episode 7, “Jaynestown,” River is shown trying to fix the Bible because it’s broken and doesn’t make sense. This scene shows Whedon’s strong bias against Christianity. One quick allusion to a biblical betrayal is thrown in when Mr. Universe asks for his “thirty coin” after luring the Serenity crew into a trap.

We discuss the “realities” of Serenity as a future. Beyond the fact that space travel, like science fiction shows, is actually impossible, Serenity has no artificial intelligences, aliens, or unrealistic technologies. Is terraforming planets possible? And if they are, should we populate them?

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

The universal control of the Alliance grows out of the combination of the two Earth superpowers, America and China. Universal government seems to be a common theme in science fiction. Is this the universal government that is against God’s command In Genesis? The Alliance in Serenity is not a perfect universal government because they do not have the man power to enforce their control and is a government based on hiding truth from the people.

A main theme of the movie appears to be belief and direction in life. Mal, as a representative of atheism, appears to be very directionless and have very little foundation—he goes where the wind blows him. He’s easily spun about by other people’s advice.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,3until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11–15)

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; (James 1:5–7)

Shepherd Book doesn’t ever have good answers about faith and belief. He is quoted as saying he doesn’t care what Mal believes, “just believe it.” That’s a weird thing for a “preacher” to say—definitely pushing a relativistic worldview.

The operative believes in a better world and that the Alliance will provide that. He doesn’t believe he has a place in that utopia. This is full of contradictions because you can’t make a better world by doing evil things. His belief is shaken in the end, which shows that it is indeed possible to believe in the wrong things and that the world can be set straight. Government is not the thing to believe in.

Simon believes in taking care of River to the exclusion of everything else. Daniel believes that Simon’s unconditional love for his sister is a redeeming quality to the movie. Simon gives up so much for her.

When the crew is “flying blind,” they go to Mr. Universe, who seems to be setup as a god-like person who knows the “truth of the signal” and “goes everywhere.”

We’ve run too long again and cut the discussion up into two parts. We will post part two soon.

In the meantime, please remember to comment on this show, email your feedback to us@areyoujustwatching.com, or call (859) 353-4332. You can also follow Are You Just Watching?, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Twilight Saga

A Commitment to Marriage

In a culture where marriage has come to mean absolutely nothing, Meyer gives us an “old-fashioned” Edward, who is adamant that he wants Bella to marry him and make their love “official.” He even forces her to wait until after the wedding to make their attempt at the consummation of their love—a sentiment that is very rare in today’s popular media. As Edward says in his attempt to convince her, marriage is a far smaller commitment than becoming a vampire.

“Bella, if you compare the level of commitment between a marital union as opposed to bartering your soul in exchange for an eternity as a vampire … If you’re not brave enough to marry me, then—?” (New Moon, page 541)

A product of her culture and the society that we are all too familiar with, Bella simply claims to not believe in marriage:

“The thing is, Edward … in my mind, marriage and eternity are not mutually exclusive or mutually inclusive concepts. And since we’re living in my world for the moment, maybe we should go with the times, if you know what I mean.” (Eclipse, page 277)

This is a real depressing comment on our times. Bella is right in that the majority of marriages these days are not “until death do us part,” but rather until affection fades or someone else better comes along. It’s a sad reminder of how our culture has lost sight of what “commitment” means. Bella didn’t see marriage as necessary to sealing their love because, in her mind, marriage is not a seal, not a promise, and not permanent.

I also found it humorous when Edward explains their engagement to Bella’s father:

“We’re going to Dartmouth together in the fall, Charlie,” Edward reminded him. “I’d like to do that, well, the right way. It’s how I was raised.” …

Charlie’s mouth twisted to the side. Looking for an angle to argue from. But what could he say? I’d prefer you live in sin first? He was a dad; his hands were tied. (Breaking Dawn, pages 16-17)

These are all very shallow reasons for marriage, of course, and not exactly a good example of why a couple should get married, but I didn’t expect the Twilight books to be marriage counseling texts, so I’m not disappointed. To be honest, I’m just happy that the progression of Edward and Bella’s relationship in Breaking Dawn was done within the context of marriage. It’s a relief to see that concept upheld in such popular secular fiction.

Human Life Is Precious

In addition to upholding the sacrament of marriage, Meyer also presents a strong pro-life message. Not only does Edward’s family do their best to protect human life, despite their appetites, throughout all the books, but the final book has Bella getting pregnant with a child that is very likely to kill her. The half-vampire unborn child is tearing Bella up from the inside, and she and Rosalie are the only two who actually want the baby to survive until delivery. Edward and even Carlisle desperately want to abort the baby to save Bella, and yet all of them fall hopelessly in love with the child once she is safely delivered.

The idea that human life is precious is not actually stated in so many words within the published books of the Twilight Saga, but there is a direct quote from Carlisle in the unpublished partial manuscript of Midnight Sun (a retelling of the story in Twilight from Edward’s point of view). Out of respect for the author’s wishes, though, I will not post the quote, but I do think that the comments there are a good representation of the point the author was subtly making throughout the whole series. I do hope that one day Meyer finishes and publishes that book because I think it will give a very useful perspective on the story. (And to be perfectly frank, after reading the partial manuscript, I think Edward is a far more interesting character from inside his head than Bella is, and he makes the story far more intense right from the beginning.)

Religion?

Despite some of the spiritual types of discussions in the Twilight Saga, there are few places where faith and religion are addressed directly. One such reference is in context with Carlisle discussing his belief in some kind of god and an afterlife. Bella is surprised by the topic and briefly ponders for a moment her own experience with religion:

Religion was the last thing I expected, all things considered. My own life was fairly devoid of belief. Charlie considered himself a Lutheran, because that’s what his parents had been, but Sundays he worshipped by the river with a fishing pole in his hand. Renee tried out a church now and then, but, much like her brief affairs with tennis, pottery, yoga, and French classes, she moved on by the time I was aware of her newest fad. (New Moon, page 36)

This is, by the standards of fantasy, actually a fairly mild rebuttal of Christianity as a concept. The idea that a faith is really just a part of one’s identity that is a legacy from one’s parents, or that it’s just a fad that has no more impact on one’s life than a short-lived hobby is a sad criticism of the Christian church in the “Christianized” post-modern world. That so many people claim a denomination as a birthright or attend church as nothing more than a social function can be a really bad demonstration of what the Christian faith really is. How many of the supposed Christians in our culture fit into these categories? How many supposed Christians claim the identity and the society without the heart-deep faith? What does the world see in this shallow portrayal of Christ’s gospel?

The other major reference to religion comes when Edward tells Carlisle’s story to Bella:

“He was the only son of an Anglican pastor. His mother died giving birth to him. His father was an intolerant man. As the Protestants came into power, he was enthusiastic in his persecution of Roman Catholics and other religions. He also believed very strongly in the reality of evil. He led hunts for witches, werewolves … and vampires. … They burned a lot of innocent people.” (Twilight, page 331)

As I mentioned earlier about the brief research I did about vampires in the 1700s, I am saddened by this irresponsible behavior of earlier churchmen, such as the one described here. Our God is a God of compassion and grace. His love is a beacon that should draw all men to repentance. But when Christians act out of hate and fear, we give the enemy ammunition to use against us. As in this case, I do believe that many innocent people met judgment and a less than welcoming eternity because of the actions of the churchmen of past eras. Notice I call them men of the church and not necessarily Christians. Many true, believing Christians also met their end for supposed heresies committed against churches led by men who were either power-mad or fearful of things outside their understanding.

This is a good reminder to us to allow God to act in vengeance and judgment on our behalf as He sees fit and in His proper time (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10), while we continue earnestly in performing our duty in this life (Romans 10:13-15) with God’s love for everyone (1 John 4:17-21).

Believe it or not, I’m still not finished. In my next post on the Twilight Saga, I’m going to delve even deeper into the characters and stories to bring to light some hidden spiritual gems that subtly permeate the books.

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In my last post I talked briefly about how Meyer used the vampire myth in her popular series, but with the undead as main characters, it’s a given that death and eternity are going to be discussed, as well. I also found out after reading the saga that Meyer is a Morman, and so I’m sure her faith does influence her worldview, which is bound to have some influence on her stories. So it was no surprise to me that Meyers has her characters speculate a lot on spiritual matters—especially those having to do with death and eternity.

The first brief discussion that caught my eye was a quick exchange between Edward and Bella:

[Bella] “So where did it all start? I mean, Carlisle changed you, and then someone must have changed him, and so on ….”
[Edward] “Well, where did you come from? Evolution? Creation? Couldn’t we have evolved in the same way as any other species, predator and prey? Or, if you don’t believe that all this world could have just happened on its own, which is hard for me to accept myself, is it so hard to believe that the same force that created the delicate angelfish with the shark, the baby seal and the killer whale, could create both our kinds together?”(Twilight, page 308)

Of course, this caught my eye because of its very neutral approach to the evolution/creation debate. I was thrilled to see this in the book, that the characters didn’t immediately assume evolution. Of course, believing that God created a separate kind of people that live forever and do not age and prey on people is stretching the creation story a lot, but it was an interesting discussion for the author to include and perhaps takes us back to the fallen angel theory I mentioned briefly in the last post. (Incidentally, Genesis quite specifically records God’s command that man and all the animals are to eat plants and fruit (Genesis 1:29–30)—carnivorous habits in creation are a result of the Curse on sin (Romans 8:22).)

But what about humans living forever and not aging? Isn’t that what mankind would have been like if they had not sinned in the persons of Adam and Eve and had access to the Tree of Life (Genesis 2:9)? What would immortality have looked like then? Man was created perfect and was not intended to die—it was sin that brought death into the equation (Romans 6:23). In this way, I suspect that God drove Adam and Eve away from the Tree of Life as a mercy—to prevent them from living with the curse of their sin forever.

The discussions of aging, death, and eternity in this series bring up interesting questions. Bella is particularly concerned about growing old. In her mind, there is nothing worse than being older than Edward:

I glared at him. “I may not die now … but I’m going to die sometime. Every minute of the day, I get closer. And I’m going to get old.”
He frowned as what I was saying sunk in … “That’s how it’s supposed to happen. How it should happen.”; (Twilight, page 476)

Edward’s comment about the appropriateness of aging and death is a reminder of how sin has changed our existence. Is this the way it is truly supposed to be? From a Christian perspective, the process of aging and death is very much a symptom of sin, and we are promised an eternity where these impostors will not intrude (Revelation 21:4). When Adam and Eve sinned and were driven from the Garden of Eden, they were also driven away from the Tree of Life, the fruit of which would have granted them immortality (Genesis 3:22–24). Their sin separated them from God, and brought a spiritual death upon them. I often wonder if physical death would have been held at bay if they had eaten the fruit of the Tree of Life, and then I imagine an immortal physical existence in a cursed and dying world when one is at the same time spiritually dead. That sounds a bit like being a vampire, doesn’t it?

And this indeed does seem to be the dilemma that Edward and his family of “good” vampires struggle with. The vampires in Meyer’s story are effectively stuck in time. They are virtually indestructible, do not change in any way, and can, in this manner, exist in the mortal world forever, unless destroyed by fire (take note that fire is the ultimate end for Satan and his fallen angels. Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10). But do they have a soul? Do they have a chance at heaven should they cease to physically exist?

The conversation between Bella and Carlisle that I quoted in my first post shows that Carlisle wants to believe that he still has a soul and hopes for an eternity that takes his “good works” into account. The discussion goes on from there:

“Edward’s with me up to a point. God and heaven exist … and so does hell. But he doesn’t believe there is an afterlife for our kind …. I look at my … son. His strength, his goodness, the brightness that shines out of him—and it only fuels that hope, that faith, more than ever. How could there not be more for one such as Edward?” (New Moon, page 37)

Of course, Christians should note the hole in this argument right away. The debate isn’t whether or not there is an afterlife for vampires, but how good one must be to get into heaven. If you’re trying to do it on your own, you will always fall short of the mark (Romans 7:13–25; 8:8). However, this view is fairly consistent with a non-Christian view of eternity. The “good works” or “karma” view of an afterlife assumes that one can be “good enough” to deserve some kind of reward on the other side of death. The difference between Carlisle and Edward is that Carlisle thinks he can somehow be good enough to deserve that reward (Ezekiel 33:10–20; Psalm 14:3), and Edward believes that he has already been taken beyond the point where his damnation can be overlooked by some greater power. But he’s basing this assumption not so much on the belief of the usefulness of good works, but his belief in the consequences of breaking the Law:

“We’ve had this discussion before, but humor me. How many people in this room have a soul? A shot at heaven, or whatever there is after this life?”
“Two,” I answered immediately, my voice fierce.
“All right. Maybe that’s true. Now, there’s a world full of dissension about this, but the vast majority seem to think that there are some rules that have to be followed.”(Eclipse, page 453)

He goes on to say:

“Now, of course, it might be too late for me, even if you are right about my soul. … ‘Though shalt not kill’ is commonly accepted by most major belief systems. And I’ve killed a lot of people, Bella.” (Eclipse, pages 453–454)

Unlike Carlisle, Edward seems to have grasped the consequences for even one infraction in following the Law (see James 3:10–11), and he does not believe in God’s grace or mercy (at least for vampires). In the context of the Bible, this statement is wholly true in that the Law accuses us before God:

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin (Romans 3:19–20).

On the surface, this conversation almost feels Christian, but take note of the key phrases “vast majority seem to think” and “commonly accepted by most major belief systems.” The author has Edward skew his statement so that it is all-inclusive of many relative “moral” codes that are reached through consensus. In truth, there is only one moral code—the one that is put forward in the Bible and based on the characteristics of God. All other faiths borrow this moral code from Christianity—for absolute morality cannot exist without the Christian God who is absolutely good—the standard by which man is judged by a lawgiver who is the only one fit to judge. All other moral codes are relative and self-contradicting. Using Edward’s approach, Bella could have easily refuted his statement by asking “What if the vast majority are wrong about those rules?” Rules, or moral laws, have no meaning without a lawgiver. A moral code based on consensus is too changeable, too flexible, and very unreliable to be worth anything. And would such a code based on consensus be acceptable to enter heaven? Are you going to say “Let me into heaven, I followed the rules that the vast majority said were the proper moral code to deserve reward in the afterlife”?

There’s much more that could be said on the subject of eternity, and I’m going to come back to it in my later posts on the less obvious spiritual elements in the Twilight Saga .

My next post will deal with the sacrament of marriage and the sanctity of life as presented in the Twilight Saga .

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The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer tells the story of 17-year-old Bella Swan, who moves to gloomy Washington State to live with her father, where she meets and falls in love with a dashingly beautiful, and surprising good, vampire by the name of Edward Cullen. The Cullen family (or coven) is made up of seven vampires who are peculiar in that they feed only on animals and hold human life to be precious. Bella is lucky in that she has met a vampire who wants very much to drink her blood but has too much conscience to do so, and instead falls in love with her too. The story is comprised of four books and one partial manuscript of a book the author is no longer sure she will finish (though I certainly hope she will). It all ends with Bella becoming a vampire and facing a happy eternity with her vampire love. For a complete synopsis of the series and information about the author, see wikipedia .

I came to this series late. I saw the movie Twilight before I got my hands on any of the books, but I have to admit I became as quickly obsessed with it as everyone else (reading most of the books straight through in all-day/night binges). The books, though not what I would have called well-written when I first started reading, are extremely easy to read and very hard to put down. I would definitely qualify them as a guilty pleasure. The story seems to have universal appeal with women of all ages, due mostly, I suspect, to its general theme of eternal love. The character Bella, also, represents the universal woman very well. She is insecure in herself, bewildered by the attention of her ideal man, and clumsy. These appealing characteristics combined with an entertaining and mostly morally clean story written for a young adult audience make the books irresistible.

The books do not contain descriptions of sex at all, and beyond some spicy kisses and (in the fourth book) a bit of marital behavior, which is handled very gently with mostly innuendo rather than description, the books stayed very much within the realms I would consider appropriate for the intended audience. The language gets no worse than an occasional “damn” or “hell,” and these words are often times used for their actual meanings rather than as swear words. Taking into account that the books are secular fiction and do not observe a Christian moral code, one of the only objectionable elements that could be argued over is the subject matter of vampires, so this is the first topic I’d like to discuss at length in my first of several critical-thinking posts on this intriguing series.

Vampires, demons, and angels

As mythological demons that occur in almost all folklore, vampires seem to have little to redeem them as sympathetic characters (and yet in modern fiction, they are almost always presented that way). My brief research into vampire myth reveals that the stories seem to have mostly arisen from medieval superstitious fear of the dead. While it was churchmen and governments who helped perpetuate the wide spread panic over vampires in the 1700s, vampires don’t have any real connection to anything biblical. The only Scripture I’ve ever come across having anything remotely to do with vampires (in a modern sense) is the prohibition against eating blood in Leviticus 7:

Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling places. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people (Leviticus 7:26–27).

Blood is biblically important. It represents the Old-Testament sacrifices that cleansed people of their sins and the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross for the sins of the world. The drinking of Christ’s symbolic blood is a central practice in Christian Communion—as a symbol of Christ’s sacrificial covering of our sins with his blood. It makes sense that the perverted use of blood would become an object of superstition and a form of reverence in various pagan practices. It’s also easy to see how medieval peoples with their imperfect understanding of disease and death could have fallen prey to myths of undead people drinking blood. It annoys me that churchmen of past centuries perpetuated the myth by encouraging people to dig up graves and stake corpses. There is nothing biblical about such practices. While resurrection from the dead is a central tenant of Christian belief (Romans 10:9), I really can’t see how sane, Bible-believers can justify the idea that demons can inhabit corpses and prey on God-fearing people. And while Christians are given to understand that there is spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:12), this is a matter for fervent prayer asking God to intercede and not violent physical action against anyone—living or dead.

However, legend aside, Meyer pretty much takes her own spin on the vampire legend. The vampires in her story have none of the legendary weakness of the demons of lore. They have no problem with crosses, holy water, or the sun, and in fact, the leader of the Cullens, Carlisle, is the son of a Protestant vicar and has religious leanings even as a vampire. In New Moon , the second book in the saga, Carlisle betrays that he still has some belief in God and hope for an eternity apart from what he is currently living:

"So I didn’t agree with my father’s particular brand of faith. But never, in the nearly four hundred years now since I was born, have I ever seen anything to make me doubt whether God exists in some form or the other. Not even the reflection in the mirror … . I’m sure all this sounds a little bizarre, coming from a vampire … But I’m hoping that there is still a point to this life, even for us. It’s a long shot, I’ll admit, … By all accounts, we’re damned regardless. But I hope, maybe foolishly, that we’ll get some measure of credit for trying." (New Moon, pages 36–37)

Whether or not vampires have any real or spiritual significance as demons in folklore or myth, there really isn’t anything offensive about the main characters of Meyer’s books. Like with any fantasy or science fiction tale, the vampires in Meyer’s story represent something outside of reality that helps create the story. Monsters, evil, and the fear of death make great archetypes for any story—and are especially impacting when combined with romance. There is nothing in these books that would make any reader crave evil, even though Bella spends the entire saga craving to be immortal alongside the object of her love.

There is one other approach to the vampire myth that I want to hit on very lightly. There is a reference in Genesis to a group of people referred to as the “sons of God”:

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years." The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown (Genesis 6:1–4).

This passage is universally debated and the identity of the "sons of God" and the "Nephilim" are not generally agreed upon. I’ve heard one interpretation of this passage once that claimed that the sons of God were fallen angels and that their interaction with women (bearing children with them) was an attempt to pervert the line to Christ, and the Flood was God’s action to stop the perversion and purify the human race. This interpretation popped into my mind when I read the last book in the Twilight Saga , in which Edward (the vampire) impregnates Bella (still human at this point) and she bears him a half breed child, who has most of the characteristics of mortality but yet does not age after she reaches maturity. Since Bella constantly refers to Edward as an "angel," this interpretation of the characters may even have been subtly intended by the author.

More to come soon! In my next post, I will discuss how Meyer deals with species origins and ultimate destinations.

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But just like movies and television can influence the way you see the world, books can have the same subtle effect on your thinking. For years, I’ve personally struggled with my joy in reading, knowing that a good bit of the material that I choose to indulge in is not God-honoring or praise-worthy. Much of the science fiction novels on the market are actively pro-evolution, pro-naturalism, and very atheistic. The fantasy genre in general is full of paganism and actively anti-Christian. Even straight fiction genres in the mass market seem to thrive on social and political correctness and promote secular amoral behavior that is blatantly non-Christian. And yet, I enjoy reading any well-written novel. I’m an escapist at heart, liking nothing better than losing myself for hours in the made up worlds of someone else’s imagination.

Is this wrong?

I’ve known many friends who have suffered a conflict between their faith and their reading habits and have literally thrown away all of their secular fiction books in an attempt to free themselves of their addiction to non-Christian ideas. I’m not going to judge that action. For some, this reaction may be the only way they can free themselves of what can become a very unhealthy obsession. I’ve even contemplated such an action myself, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Perhaps I am weak, but I like to think that in some ways I am strong—strong enough to read the world’s ideas and think critically enough to find enjoyment but not be sucked away from the correct way of thinking.

Ah, there it is again. I need to think critically, even while I escape into a good read. I need to apply true thinking, biblical thinking, to everything I put before my eyes. I need to spend time with the only true book (the Bible) so that I can know counterfeit ideas when I read them. I need to be willing to follow a story’s logic beyond where the authors are willing to take it. I need to look for God where the authors never intended to portray Him. I need to be aware of the underlying worldviews, the subtle messages, and the blatant agendas that work their way into every book on the market. In other words, I need to not just read, but think constantly and critically about what I am reading.

So, since I like to read and do a great deal of it in the fantasy, science fiction, and romance genres, I have decided to add a category to the "Are You JUST Watching?" blog. From time to time, I will post a critical thinking review of a novel I have just read. This blogging will keep me honest in my own critical thinking approach to my reading, as well as, I hope, provide useful food for thought and ground for discussion for my fellow bookworms in the Faith. Feel free to share your own comments on the novels that I will discuss in the future, as I’m sure I will miss concepts worth discussing.

Coming very soon: one or more posts on the acclaimed and highly popular Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. I have finished the books, and the posts are already in draft.

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Special thanks to Michael for donating to the show! This gets us on our first step toward upgrading Eve’s microphone.

Check out our scorecard for The Dark Knight.

Lastly, Eve is wrapping up her review of the Twilight saga and will post that soon.

So make sure you’re subscribed or watching the website. And remember, don’t just watch!

Although I really enjoy this new Batman genre, The Dark Knight is very dark and filled with psychotic violence. Ledger’s own death around the movie indicates how twisted it was. Definitely not a movie for kids. Even with all of the violence, the movie was greatly lacking in foul language. The sexual content was limited to some minor innuendo and a brief hint of something having happened without showing it. Personally, I think Katie Holmes was a better Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins than Maggie Gyllenhaal was in this sequel. It’s sad to see the recent trend of movies where evil triumphs through the majority of the film, and disappointing to see heroes fall to revenge. However, The Dark Knight was still a fun movie that brought up several points of discussion without trying to push a message down our throats.

Eve’s review

I don’t recall any bad language in this movie, even in scenes that had rough characters, and there didn’t seem to be any jabs at religion. While the movie was extremely violent, the sexual content was very low and the bodies (even the many dead ones) pretty much stayed clothed. The realistic feel to the movie didn’t in anyway make it feel like it was presented as factual, so there was no misleading faux historical or scientific content. I wasn’t fond of the female lead, and the movie was long and felt long, but it had very good special effects. Overall, the movie had a message about the heart of man that was definitely thought provoking. I wasn’t fond of the justification of lying at the end, but didn’t see it as having an obvious agenda. Good movie!

The scorecard

Harvey Dent/Two-Face: Gotham’s “white knight”

Harvey has no moral basis for his commitment to good. Lost love destroys his reason, and he has no anchor to truth. He worked hard, and then he wasn’t rewarded, but instead lost his love, so he became vengeful.

Harvey is a good example that good men can fall.

1 Corinthians 10:12

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

Sometimes, men take pride in doing the right thing and then one wrong decision and it all crumbles. We have to do right for the right reasons.

Also, be careful in whom you put your trust because men can fail you. We can’t make people into idols or the foundation because men are not capable of fulfilling all our expectations.

The Dark Knight is a good reminder that even good men can fall. In this way, it almost over emphasizes the condition of man.

Two-Face also shows the two sides of man: even if we have a beautiful appearance, we also have a horrifying spiritual deformity.

The Joker personifies Satan

The Joker personifies chaos, disorder and lies. He’s her to, in his own words, “upset the established order—an agent of chaos,” which reminds of how Jesus described Satan, the father of lies.

John 10:10a

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”

“A man who wants to see the world burn.” The Joker is not motivated by anything tangible. He appears to be just evil personified.

John 8:44

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Is Batman a Christ figure?

Batman wants to inspire good in people. Part of the hopelessness of the movie is Batman becomes depressed in how what he stands for is twisted and he is powerless to fix it. But in attempting to do so, Batman uses wrong methods to reach a good end. But Christ was sinless and took the sins of the world upon Himself.

Is Batman the hero Gotham deserves? Do we, as sinners, deserve a hero?

Romans 5:7-8

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

“Truth is not enough” But can people have their faith rewarded with lies? Is it really better to have your faith rewarded than to know truth?

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

In the Hebrews hall of faith, all the men listed were fallible and human, making mistakes and yet having faith in the right thing.

Batman is not corruptible? Why did Harvey fall and Batman didn’t, even though they lost the same love? Is Batman really immune from making from a wrong decision? Harvey has the accountability since he stakes his real identity and reputation on his actions—Batman doesn’t.

Morality

“People are only as good as the world allows them to be.” This is definitely relative truth morality: right based on what people think is right. Follow the logic of relative truth … a subjective truth means a subject standard. What if our subjective truth is volently contrary to yours?

“The only morality in a cruel world is chance.” There’s no real standard with the chance method. Just because the world is cruel, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have an absolute basis for right and wrong. The world is a cruel place because of sin, but that’s why Jesus Christ died, to provide an eternal escape from the cruelty of a world cursed by sin.

Wrapping up

There’s a lot more to say about Batman: The Dark Knight, and we could spend a lot more time on it, but we want your thoughts! So please comment on this episode either here, send a message through the website or email us@areyoujustwatching.com, or call our voicemail line (859) 353-4332. Please remember that you can rate, review, and subscribe to Are You Just Watching in iTunes, with your Zune, or grab the RSS feed to read and listen to with your favorite program. If that’s all too geeky or inconvenient, then you can subscribe by email through the Email button on our site. You can also follow Are You Just Watching, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

Review of critical thinking

Just a quick review of what critical thinking means. These are the methods to apply to everything, even your entertainment.

1. Know Scripture
2. Question everything
3. Evaluate the core
4. Discern truth

Our movie pick: Batman: The Dark Knight

While attempting to introduce the movie, we take a brief moment to plead for donations. Daniel has an expensive microphone and Eve is using a cheap one. Your help in upgrading our equipment would be greatly appreciated. Please consider clicking the donate button to support our podcast.

Eve summarizes Batman Begins as an introduction to Batman in these movies and then Daniel summarizes The Dark Knight.

Please check out PluggedIn Online’s Christian review, and read the IMDB.com’s full synopsis of The Dark Knight .

What did we think of the movie?

We both really liked it, and we each explain briefly why we like it.

We explain our score card system and give you our scores. Our online explanation of this scorecard will appear in the feed soon.

Eve’s score: 8 (Open Eye)
Daniel’s score: 9 (Open Eye)

Critical thinking discussion

Vigilante justice

Is what Batman doing in stopping criminals the right thing? He’s usurping the rightful authority of the government. But he feels he’s supporting the rightful authority. If vigilante action was necessary because the government was not doing its job, does that justify it?

Romans 12:19
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,"; says the Lord.

There is a lack of accountability when an individual takes all that responsibility and power on himself. Batman is not accountable to anyone, which is the major problem with what he does.

The condition of man

We discuss how the movie highlights the contrasts in the condition of man’s heart.

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

It appears that the movie wants to show that people are good at their core and that they have to be pushed to make bad decisions. In the social experiment of the ferries, we question what was a good decision and could there have been selfish motivations for "good" decisions.

How we define the condition or nature of man is a major worldview question. So what else does the Bible say about man’s nature?

Mark 7:20–23
And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."

Genesis 6:5
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 8:21b
… for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth;

Isaiah 64:6
For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Romans 3:22–23
even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Isaiah 53:6
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;

People are ready to believe in good, but can they discern what is truly good? God is the only true definition of good

Mark 10:18
And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

Wrap up

We wrap up this episode with a great deal left to say, so we will continue the discussion on The Dark Knight in the next episode.

We want to connect with you, so please comment on this episode either here, send us a message, or call our voicemail line (859) 353-4332. Please remember that you can rate, review, and subscribe to Are You Just Watching in iTunes, with your Zune, or grab the RSS feed to read and listen to with your favorite program. If that’s all too geeky or inconvenient, then you can subscribe by email through the option on our site. You can also follow Are You Just Watching, Daniel, and Eve on Twitter,

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.

We’d love to get some early thoughts that we can share in the podcast. You can post your thoughts on The Dark Knight here in the comments, email us through our contact page or directly via us at areyoujustwatching.com, or even call our listener line (859) 353-4332 to leave an audio message.

Thanks for stopping by, and we hope that you’ll enjoy and benefit from our show! Please tell lots of people about it.

Meet Daniel Lewis and Eve Franklin and learn a little about them and their reasons for this new podcast.

We open with a discussion about why Christians should "think" when they watch movies. We discuss a clip from some Star Trek DVD bonus content where an actor comments regarding slipping social commentary past censors by disguising it as science fiction.

Are we against movies? No, we believe that this is a personal conviction between each believer and God.

What is critical thinking?

Judging all parts of life based on what we know of God and the Bible.  Don’t turn off Christianity when approaching things of the world.  Let one inform the other

Are Christians guilty of not thinking–as we are often accused of by our worldly fellows? The Bible says that Christians need to think and search the Scriptures. "Search Scriptures daily to see if these things be so"

Christians are sometimes unwilling to be confronted with ideas that make them uncomfortable. Yet the Bible says we must be ready to give a defense.  1 Peter 3:15

We need to be in the Scriptures and think critically about everything. "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."

Thinking critically while watching movies is a good practice ground for personal confrontations.

Discerning counterfeits by intimately knowing the feel of the real thing.

Practical ways to think critically:

• Know Scripture and compare everything to what it says.
• Ask questions.  Look for possible agendas.  Look for worldviews.
• Get to the core. What are the intentions of the creator of the stories? What is the theme?
• Discern truth.  How do you know that is true?  Is it a belief or a fact?
• Question the assumptions.
• Does everyone agree? Does agreement make truth?
• Follow the logic.

Scripture is very clear that we should be thinking biblically and critically. We shared these scriptures in the episode:

2 Timothy 3:16

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

1 Peter 3:15

but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

James 1:22

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

Jude 3

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

Psalm 119:9, 11

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.

Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.

Colossians 4:5-6

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

Titus 1:9

holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.

1 Corinthians 1:19-27; 3:18-20

For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.”

Coming up next

Our next episode will begin the critical thinking with the recent blockbuster The Dark Knight.

Are You Just Watching? is produced and sponsored by D.Joseph Design. The opening vocal talent is thanks to Mariah. Our theme song is used courtesy of Answers in Genesis, from their exciting vacation Bible school curriculum, Operation Space.