my “Avatar” experience…
like so many others… I went to see “Avatar” this week.
I had heard from a few of my friends what an amazing movie it was. I had also heard from a few other people, that I should be wary of it/or not see it at all, because it teaches “Pantheism” (and we realize we can’t interact with stuff that teaches something different from our faith… we call that “discernment” 
) Please don’t get me wrong, I do believe in discernment (Ex: I stay away from the “American Pie” movies – they just aren’t the right movies for me to watch), but a movie here about a different belief system didn’t keep me away.
So here’s a couple of quick thoughts as I experienced this movie:
- The Experience: It was a cinematic experience unlike I have ever had (we saw it in 3-D at the IMAX). The colors, creations and flow of the movie was amazing. 2 hours and 40 minutes went by in what felt like 15 minutes. It was an experience… an amazing one! (if I wasn’t very clear… I thought it was quite the “experience”!!!)
- The Story: I had read an article ahead of time saying it was repackaged Pantheism. Not sure what they meant by repackaged, it was pretty blatent in it’s story of Pantheism (the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing immanent God and that the Universe (Nature) and God are equivalent), no hiding here. As a Christian I do have a little different take and belief of God and Nature; I do believe in a personal God… I do believe in Jesus as savior… I do believe God created everything, not just exists in nature…. But I also thought their was some beauty in the story. I know I will probably get criticized by my conservative buddies for saying that, “How can there be any beauty in a story that’s wrong/false…?”, but the love story woven in between two of the main characters was pretty cool. And the way Na’vi people banded together and lived as a community was awesome too. And I loved the conscience and actions of a few of the humans realizing obliterating the land and the Na’vi people for their own consumption was just wrong…all these could be a few lessons that could apply to us now in real life. Yes, I don’t subscribe to the Pantheistic belief, but the story kept me interested and engaged the whole time.
- The Graphics/Colors: Unreal is all I can say… So, so cool. A+++
- Overall: Glad we saw it, was worth every minute. We got to see it with a few friends/family. I look forward to the conversations with people about it. Whatever other peoples’ views are on Pantheism or Christianity or whatever, it should be pretty fun to interact with those who see it. I give it an “A” for the experience alone. My hope for the Christian community is that we will be there to discuss and listen to the stories and beliefs of those around us and be able to respectfully and lovingly discuss the themes of the story. I recommend seeing it if you feel comfortable doing so!!
Other thoughts about the movie??? Have you seen it? What did you think?
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about 2 months ago
Agreed, sir. I was really impressed with the movie also. The pantheistic thing is a bit hazy, though. They went through pains to tell the audience that the connected consciousness on the planet was physical and measurable. Sure it’s a higher being, but a “god?” or the highest one? Even the pantheistic god is probably beyond the reach of organic USB plugs (as a friend of mine so aptly called them
), in that sense the planet just seemed like a network of everything else, just bigger. In any case, wouldn’t we expect to find different beliefs/religions on different planets?
Beautful, beautiful movie. I hardly think it “teaches” pantheism any more than Star Wars teaches the force or Harry Potter teaches magic or Christian films teach poor filmmaking.It’s present in the movie and may be the view of the protagonists. But good for it for trying to renew a sense of the in a world and period of history where very little is.