Avatar – Respect for Nature

In the movie Avatar, there are many themes that are explored and expressed vigorously. One of these themes is that of respect for nature. In the movie the Na’vi are presented as highly in tune with and highly respectful of the animals, plants, people, and the planet itself. They even go to the point of identifying the planet as a living organism. Eywa is the goddess of Pandora and is highly focused on taking care of the environment.

The people are presented as just the opposite. The mining methods used in the movie are strictly strip-mining techniques with no known respect for anything about the planet. All references to nature are done in a sarcastic and disrespectful manner. All displays of the majority of the people from Earth shows a disregard for nature and a total disregard for any realistic attempts to care for the environment. This mind set is fully displayed in the bulldozing of the Tree of Souls, the blowing up of the Hometree, and the treatment displayed in the killing of the Na’vi.

Thus the two sides of the story are expressed and the viewer gets to apply the story to their own experience. Some people have felt that James Cameron is trying to express his own environmental beliefs through the vehicle of the movie Avatar. That would certainly be understandable if Mr. Cameron has those views. I do not know enough about Mr. Cameron to decide if that was his intent or not. But, as we have discussed before, Mr. Cameron has certainly presented many symbols and many theological ideas for us to evaluate and to decide upon.

In the issue about environmental issues God has much to say in His Word. So let us look at some of these ideas and see if we can decide if we want to listen to what God has to say about the subject. According to the Bible God created the whole world, and in fact created all of the worlds in the universe, including the sun, moon, and stars. Colossians 1:13-17; Genesis 1.

When God created the world He thought He had done a good job and He pronounced His work as very good. Genesis 1:31. As we have stated before it was God’s intent that nothing was to die in His Creation. All animals were to eat straw and were to lie down next to each other with no fear of harm. Isaiah 11:1-9; Isaiah 65:17-25. God wanted no death in His Creation. Death, in any shape or form is not a part of God’s makeup and He did not want it for His children. As long as man stayed surrendered to Him there would be no death. But God did say that if man did disobey Him, by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that death would happen. Genesis 2:15-17

We all know how the story turned out. Satan, a being we will discuss in the near future, tempted Adam and Eve and they did the very thing that God told them not to do – they ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result of this rebellion, of man against God, sin entered the world, and with sin came death to mankind, animals, nature, and even the world.

The interesting thing about sin and death is that we, as human beings, have accepted that death is the normal process of life. We do not accept that death is an alien force and that it does not belong on Earth. We do not accept the Bible story of the original purity of how God made the Earth. We do not accept that God did not want death. We are so used to death that we have incorporated it into our thoughts. Many think that death is the natural balance to life, that both death and life are essential to life. This is not the case at all. Death was never to be a part of God’s gift of life to His children. Death is something that came in because of Satan and Satan only.

To give an example of how things have changed from the beginning I would like to quote a paragraph from a book called Patriarchs and Prophets page 63. It says:
“As they (Adam and Eve) witnessed in drooping flower and falling leave the first signs of decay, Adam and his companion mourned more deeply than men now mourn over their dead. The death of the frail, delicate flowers was indeed a cause of sorrow; but when the goodly trees cast off their leaves, the scene brought vividly to mind the stern fact that death is the portion of every living thing.” http://www.whiteestate.org/books/pp/pp.asp
Adam and Eve recognized that even nature was now affected by sin and that death would come to all things. They also had the added burden that they had been the ones to allow death to come into the perfect world that God had made. They were the originals, and true, Pandoras and they had opened the box of sin and only God Himself could come up with a solution.

God recognized the problem that Adam and Eve had initiated. He knew the amount of death that would come and how it would effect the environment. God reports the following about the effect of sin on the Earth. He said:
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Romans 8:22
“The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languisheth. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” Isaiah 24:4-5 God saw the needs of man, of nature, and of the earth and He decided to die for all of them and to restore them to their original purity. God also says that He will make new heavens and a new earth and remove all tears from our eyes. Revelation 21:1,3. God plans to get every thing corrected that sin interfered with. He wants His planet to return to His plan. He “formed the earth and made it, He hath established it. He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited.” Isaiah 45:18 “The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever.” Psalms 37:29. God will take care of every thing and when He is done we will see His glory and we will love Him and the gifts of nature that He wants us to have. All of this awaits for those who are willing to cooperate with His plans. This is the promise of Eden restored. That which comes to the heart of man when watching Avatar will be fulfilled for those who watch the movements of God.