Avatar and the Balance of Life

In the movie Avatar, it appears that the philosophy of life is that there is to be life balanced with death. If there is too much life, then there must be enough death to compensate and keep things balanced. This appears to be the requirement on the planet Pandora the imaginary dwelling place of the Na’vi and all of the exotic wildlife of the planet and all of the exotic plant life of the planet. In one scene in the movie Neytiri attempts to explain to Jake that Eywa, the goddess of Pandora, only answers prayers in the sense of keeping a balance of life and she does not answer any prayers that would cause an imbalance to life. So Neytiri does not expect any answers to prayers that would “favor” one element over another. So Neytiri is shocked to see the wild life join in the battle in the end of the movie to save the Tree of Souls, and to save the Na’vi.

In the Bible God presents a plan of life for the Garden of Eden. On the Earth God wants all things to live in harmony with no loss of life. God writes about it in the following text:

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:6-9

Notice in the text that they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, or in any part of God’s kingdom. In the text it reveals that God’s intent in the original creation, and in the new Earth Isaiah 65:17-25, was for no animal to kill or harm another animal. There was to be no sin, and no death, and no harming. God had arranged for all created life to live in harmony with each other. Thus God would produce a balance of peace and harmony without the use of death. In the Bible, death – the function of harming one another – was a by-product of sin. Without sin there would be no death.

A major element in the philosophy of God was that He was able to maintain ecological, as well as spiritual, harmony. He would limit the numbers of people and animals to that there would not be so many creatures that the food supply would be insufficient to care for everyone and everything. God would not need, nor use, death to be the stabilizing force. God would be the stabilizing force and thus love, rather than death, would maintain the balances of life.

A question comes up of where then did death come from? God told Adam that in the day that he ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, then the issues of death would start to function. On the other hand, if Adam, and Eve, remained faithful to Him there would be no death, and thus no destabilizing forces, no curses on the land or on Earth, or on the people.

A scenario is presented in Matthew 13:24-28

“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?”

In the Bible, the reason that there is death or suffering is because of the work of an enemy – Satan. God’s purposes have always been life and love. Satan brings death and suffering to all things. So the Bible encourages us to come back to God, receive of His gifts of love and to allow Him to bring us back into harmony with Him. In order for this to happen our thinking, as well as our perspectives must change. We must see God as a God of love. When we can see this we can allow Him to adjust our thinking to the point that any vestige of sin, and thus any vestige of death, will be removed, and we will think like God thinks. We will find that God does not need, or want, anything to do with death, or sin.

It is an interesting thing that we are so accustomed to death that we see a strange sort of beauty in the stark qualities of life. We see rocks, dead trees, waxed colored leaves, as sort of having a distinct beauty. This indicates that God has left some awareness of beauty even in these things, but rocks with no covering of soil and grass, trees dead, fallen, and without leaves, and the colored leaves showing the changes brought about by the death process, all are manifestations of an alien process. God did not want any of these stark reminders of death. God did not want us to have to see these things for to see these things meant that sin had come into the world, something that God did not want.

Yet even here, God, knowing all of the future, recognized that when giving mankind freedom to choose, must take into account the possibility of sin occurring. When it did occur, God initiated the plan of redemption – to eventually restore His natural balance, a world without sin. To get there God Himself was willing to come to die to save not only the human beings, but to restore the Earth to its original beauty and purity. This is briefly described in Isaiah 65:17-25.

One of the strongest features of the movie Avatar was the emotional movings of being able to see a planet of such beauty as that described on the imaginary planet of Pandora. This primeval calling to return to home was the emotional hook for many of the movie goers. Yet God wants to far surpass the beauties of Pandora. He wants to redeem His planet, remove the disease of sin, and restore His people to their rightful position of ruling the planet in a manner that will be totally in harmony with His thoughts and His plans. This return to Eden restored, is offered to each and every human being on this planet. If you have a desire to experience the wonders of Eden, the purity of an unsinful, undying planet, God calls for you to choose Him today. All you need to do is to start seeking Him and you will find Him for He is not far from you. Ask Him to communicate with you and He will seek you out and start that relationship with Himself. He offers you more than what Avatar and Pandora offer. He offers you the opportunity to go to the restored Earth that will have no death or any suffering. Please accept this offer today.