fatalism and films
I've noticed something recently. There is an interesting trend in recent movies which seems to go as far back as Minority Report; fatalism and a fear of being controlled by predetermined and inevitable events. This appears to be a strong and perhaps growing theme in mainstream films at the moment. The Lake House, Deja Vu and Premonition all appear to present the same view of the future - a future which is fixed and unchangable. This leads the characters in the plot to try to trick their inevitable future with varying success. Whatever you think about this view of time (and I dont agree with it) it reveals a deep anxiety in the population. The anxiety is that our future is fixed and we cant change it. This of course, leads to a sense of powerlessness, depression and, in its most developed sense, and kind of fatalism found in Islam and Hinduism which excuses such things as the Caste system, brutalism, tyranny and all kinds of other things which are seen to be "Gods Will"-a determined future defined by an uncaring god.
As Christians we might have something to say about all this! We could address real fears that hold people captive from which God wants to release them. Our witness, at minimum, is to a God who can change our futures - who wants us to be free to follow Jesus and not determined by anything other than his love for us......Mike
posted by Sally Breen @ 3:41 PM
3 Comments:
I feel quite freed by believing that 'what will be will be' in the context of a loving God. I believe that I have internal and external resources to draw on whatever happens and that the important thing is to live each present day to the full. It is true that there are a lot of anxious people in the world, but I believe that our anxiety is rooted more in what has already happened to us, rather than what will happen. I think people's fear about the future is that the bad things they have already experienced will be repeated. Perhaps the fear is that THEY are 'fixed' rather than the future and the need is to be freed from the fear that they cannot change or experience the world differently. The present is what we have now, with the great excitement that change can happen on a daily basis. What happens in the future is a matter of trust and many people have had experiences which make that trust very difficult. Just a thought!
Chris x
Hey guys....I think you make a good point about the feeling that life is without hope and 'what will be will be'. There are two immediate problems with the notion of fatalim.
Firstly, it offers an excuse. This has alreay been stated but wat's a bit of repitition. It excuses te behaviour of nations, rulers and religions because it says that 'that happened becase God willed and so it is.' However, on a more personal level it allows me to say I didn't have control over that moment of my life, something/one decided it for me and so I cannot be held to account. Which is the issue, if it was predestined I cannot be held to account and therefore sin isn't possible.
Secondly, life lacks meaning. Which is perhaps the biggest fear of our generation. If some power has destined me to be this or do that then I am niether meaningful nor called.
In Genesis 1 God calls us to be relational beings, in this context we find the opposite of fatalism. God says I made you in my image, like me. Throughout the Old Testament God continually gives people options, that they choose. Paul says he is taking hold of that which Christ took hold of him for. In other words, Christ took hold og Paul for a purpose but he had to choose to take hold of Christ. Likewise we have a choice to take hold of tahtw hcih God called us to. Thus, our lives are not fatalistic.
Good post - I very much resonate with your observations here!
I've been reading a few articles recently where people try to claim that free-will is purely an illusion, that every decision we make happens at a subconcious level and that our concious thought then attempts to create a rational reason why we've decided as we have (I'm sure that occasionally that is true - especailly for instinctive decisions).
I spent some time mulling it over and realised that freedom/free-will is God-centric for want of a better term. So to someone that is nearly completely separate from God they may experience little freedom at all, and so life's outcome would indeed look fixed - they would indeed wonder if free-will exists at all - just a series of foregone conclusions spitting out a determinable result at the end. Whereas to those that are genuinely close to God I would expect the converse to be true.
CS Lewis (playfully) suggested in The Last Battle that the inhabitants of Narnia that were not faithful to Aslan would lose their ability to speak, and become like dumb animals (that had no free-will/sentience). I wonder if Lewis is also suggesting that free-will is God-centric (though he could have been suggesting that perhaps that free-will becomes a torment of regrets if you make the wrong decision with permenant consequences - such as rebelling against Aslan/Jesus).
But going back to the main point about some peoples denial of free-will - It seems similar to Richard Dawkins' drive to deny the existance of God (I'm presently reading the God Delusion) - ie, Richard Dawkins is spiritually blind & deaf and so assumes that everyone else is too.
Crazy! Hope the retreat in South Carolina goes well and is really worthwhile!
Love you lots Mike, Matt
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