Thoughts on Prometheus

I saw Prometheus on Tuesday.  The motivation for the protagonist in the film is to discover where humanity came from.  This search leads them to an earthlike planet, where things then go horribly, horribly wrong.  The acting was fine, the special effects were amazing, the premise was interesting. 

Prometheus is one more story that tries to make sense of the fact that there is very little in the world that can explain human life.  How did we get here, why are we different than the other creatures on the planet, how did all of this happen, and on and on.  I don’t think that Prometheus gives a good explanation to answering these questions and I have no question in my mind that actually answering these questions was not the writer’s, producer’s or director’s motivation for the film.  They needed a reason for the protagonists to go searching for answers. 

The really interesting thing for me in this film is that even thought the protagonists search leads to some really bad things happening to her and her lover, and her crew, she still holds on to her father’s cross.  She still chooses to believe in something.  The film does a pretty good job of allowing for uncertainty and faith in the life of the protagonist.  

I think this tenssion of uncertainty and faith is exactly where most Christians live day to day.  We have to constantly wrestle with the things that we read in scripture and what the things that we can see in the world and try to come to grips with all of it.  

I think this tension is also where every single person who has ever lived exists.  That’s the reason that we study science, philosophy, theology, literature, etc. We are searching for answers for why we are here and how we got here.  

As a Christian I am completely satisfied with there being a Creator God who made everything and made humanity in his image.  That makes sense to me.  I will never have all the answers to all the questions that that entails, but I can keep searching for the Creator, and I can see his work in everything around me, and the mysteries of creation and the Universe are even more spectacular because there is someone for whom these mysteries are not mysteries, and my search is ultimately to find him. Answers and clarity for these questions are by products of my search for the Creator.