Avatar and the Sinful Nature of Man

In the movie Avatar one of the major contrasting situations is between the corporation representative Parker Selfridge and the leader of the Na’vi Eytukan, as embodied by his daughter Neytiri the future spiritual leader of the Omaticaya clan. In the movie Mr. Selfridge is entirely focused on mining Unobtanium – a super conducting mineral. He is impressed with the multi-millions of dollars that are involved with the sales of this mineral. As a result of this focus Mr. Selfridge is willing to rape the land through strip mining, and to destroy the home of the Omaticaya clan – the Home Tree, and to kill off any and all who would interfere with his task of maintaining the bottom line for the corporation.

On the contrasting side of the process we have Eytukan and Neytiri who are appalled at the insensitivity of the corporation people toward the land, trees, animals, and peoples of Pandora. The Na’vi are totally in harmony with the biology of Pandora and the idea of killing anything to get a mineral out of the ground is almost outside of their range of belief. The Na’vi have developed a religion that emphasizes the natural harmony of life and they were obedient to their religious beliefs.

In the movie Avatar the bad guys area the corporate raiders and their focus on the monetary aspects of their mining operation. The good guys are the indigenous population who are focused on their way of life and do not feel a need to participate in the Earth corporation and do not feel that the corporate peoples have anything realistic to offer them that will further their experience with the planet Pandora or any facet of their lifestyle. Both groups see reality through their belief systems and are not interested in changing to accommodate the other party. Thus the dramatic tension is increased in the movie, and all who watch the movie side with corporate barbarians as they rape and pillage the land to get a substance that Earth needs to continue to function, or they side with the Na’vi who are living in peace and harmony and want to be left alone with their planet and their way of life of being in harmony.

A third group is introduced as well the Scientists, as represented by Grace Augustine. The scientists are aware that there is another greater goal on Pandora, and that is to become aware of the Biological “Mind” that is on the planet symbolized by the Tree of Souls and its ability to connect with all life forms. The problem that the Scientists have is that they are unable to present their findings in a commercially acceptable way to the corporation, and in such a way as the Na’vi do not feel another assault on their planetary resources.

The interesting part of the movie is that there are sufficient causes that each person watching can get fully immersed and desire to defend their perspectives and root for the party the most represents their emotional conviction. Each proponent of a perspective will tend to load the opposer’s of their position with negative qualities so that they can feel justified in the officially acceptable position – the one favored by the individual viewer. These issues build with the dramatic tension of the various parties as the movie progresses to the inevitable final conflict in which each party is willing to shed blood and to have their blood shed to protect their position.

In the end the Na’vi, with supernatural help from Eywa, prevail and are able to stop the corporate raiders from destroying the Tree of Souls. The Na’vi send the remaining survivors of the corporation back to Earth and try to reestablish their lives in accordance with their history. Of course, we watchers are aware that there are greater forces that will come back to Pandora with a greater desire to mine Unobtanium, and if the scientists can communicate their findings in a commercially acceptable vernacular Earth may even want the biological insights from the Global mind on Pandora. The Na’vi will be stuck in between these forces and will try to live out their lives while the external forces will force upon them change in many ways. Jake Sulley will end up having to be the moderator for all of these forces aided by Eywa to come up with a position that can satisfy all of the parties involved.

Assuming that the above is a semi-realistic perception of the movies philosophy it brings us back to another party. It has been this writer’s attempt to compare the symbolism of the movie Avatar to that of the Bible. The Bible sees the above issues as a multi-faceted display of human nature that has been separated from the mind and will of God. In the beginning of God’s creation mankind, and all of the plants and animals did not harm each other and all life communicated through the mind of God. In this case it was similar to the biological network of Pandora but with no death or harm, and no balance of good and evil in nature – there was no evil on Earth in the beginning. Each insect, plant, animal, or person, had an awareness of the needs of those around them and strove, in their own sphere of influence, to be of help to all around them. This was God’s Edenic state of life that He wanted for all of His created creatures. As long as everything obeyed God this state of peace would be maintained, however, if anything chose to disobey then this Edenic peace would be shattered and man and animals would then strive to maintain themselves instead of others. Selfishness, and personal motives would supplant the whole and evil and death would affect all things on Earth.

In Eden God created two primary trees – the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God instructed Adam and Eve to eat of the Tree of Life, but not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God told Adam and Eve that in the day that they disobeyed Him they would set in motion forces that would bring about a radical change in life, as they then knew it, and that all things would begin to die and much suffering would take place on all living things.

As the story proceeds, Satan, disguised as a speaking flying serpent, tempted Eve, who had separated herself from the side of her husband. Satan spoke to Eve in a manner that created a desire to satisfy her curiosity of wondering what made the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil so unique that it could cause death. In the process of the story Eve decides to brave the experiment and eats of the fruit of the Tree. Feeling no harm from it she takes some of the fruit to her husband Adam. Hearing what she did he feels that he will lose her and without consulting with God, he chooses to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil under the heading that he loves Eve so much that he will share death with her if necessary. Soon after Adam eats of the fruit God comes to spend personal time with Adam and Eve, His children on Earth. When God comes to talk a unique event occurs. Adam and Eve run from God and hide in the Garden. The very act of disobedience has established a principle – that guilt that comes from disobedience, causes a distancing between man and God. As distancing occurs between man and God then distancing also occurs between man and man, and eventually between man and animal and nature. When God tries to speak to Adam, the first thing he does is cast blame on someone else. When asked if he had eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Adam blames Eve and blames God for giving Eve to him. Eve manifests the same thoughts and behaviors as Adam had displayed when God asks her about her disobedience. Thus the Knowledge of Good and Evil has started to spread and those who professed to love each other unto death were ready to blame one another to avoid accepting responsibility for their actions.

In the Bible, God allows us to see the ever spreading impact of sin by recording the history of man as he has become more numerous and spread over the Earth. God allowed us to follow the life of Cain, the first murderer, and to follow the lineage of the Sethites and Shemites, which would bring us down to the time of Jesus of Nazareth. God revealed to us that without His presence in our lives, we will naturally be selfish, the spinoff of Parker Selfridge’s name. That selfishness will go to any lengths to accomplish the goals of caring for self.

All of us have seen extreme cases of selfishness and evil. We are even used to seeing the end product of selfishness – death. But God says that our hearts, apart from Him, are naturally and readily evil and desperately wicked. That our human nature, unaided by God, will always go in the direction of taking care of self at the expense of others. This mind set was never God’s plan for us. He does not enjoy any of the qualities of the selfish heart. Romans 3:9-20 describes in gory detail many of the wicked things that the selfish human heart is capable of.

“What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Romans 3:21-24 tells us how to deal with this massive problem and that is to come to God and seek help with this problem.

“ But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”

God declares, in His Word – the Bible, that without Him in our lives we will naturally be selfish. Just like in the Na’vi religious experience, anyone without Eywa will not be able to function properly. They will not be able to survive and the animals of Pandora will end up killing the person. In God’s kingdom He did not want anything to die. Only when selfishness came into the world, and bore its natural fruit, death, did any harm come to anything. God wants us to see our selfishness, especially in contrast to the complete unselfishness of Jesus of Nazareth. When we can see this quality in our lives we can trust that God has been working in us and through us to allow us to see this problem. Once we see this then we can ask God for the help that we cannot grant ourselves. But once we ask God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Avatar allows us to see ourselves and to see our selfishness acted out in the lives of imaginary people. We all say that if we were on Pandora we would act in a non-selfish manner to all peoples and all things. Yet we all know that if we were on Pandora we would choose sides and see the side we had chosen as the good side. Jake learned the lesson that he needed help to rescue those whom he loved. He was willing to pray to Eywa the imaginary goddess of Pandora. God wants us to see our selfishness and to pray to the true and living God of the Bible – Jesus of Nazareth. If we have a need and if we seek Him to help us we will have victory over our selfishness and God will banish it from our lives. The choice is ours; the power to accomplish this is His. Let us choose today to get that help.