"Avatar" Reveals Our Need for God

by Angela Walker

Christian Cinema.Com

Perhaps the great success of James Cameron's film Avatar is that he unwittingly emphasizes our need for God and relationship with Him.

A recent article on CNN's Entertainment website highlights an unexpected phenomenon associated with the movie Avatar: Fans who long for the alien world Pandora feel depressed and suicidal because it's unattainable. According to fans of the film, compared with life on Earth, Pandora is a beautiful, glowing utopia.

But It's Not Real

The problem with that is Pandora is an entirely fictional place. It's not just out of reach, it's non-existent. So why are so people so obsessed with it? Fans commenting on an online forum say Pandora seems to be a perfect place, a pristine world where there is synergy between all of the characters. In their words, it's a world with "something we don't have here on Earth."

But we did have a pristine world once. There was a place where man and God walked together in perfect harmony. Then man sinned, and as a result, we don't live harmoniously, and won't, until Christ comes again and re-establishes His kingdom on earth.

Created in God's Image

According to the creation account in Genesis 1, God created man "…in our image, in our likeness." God Himself is an eternal being with no beginning or end. He has perfect knowledge and perfect understanding, and is love. Like Him, we have "eternity in our hearts" (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and eventually we will dwell with Him.

In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John described the new heaven and new earth as the dwelling place of God, where He will live with man. "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4)


Longing for Something Better

Doesn't that sound like what the fans of Avatar are longing for? Aren't we all longing for something better, something perfect, something that seems unobtainable? We are not destined for perfection on Earth. God's design was for us to only find fulfillment in Him, not in our world.

Two thousand years ago, the writer of Romans acknowledged that Earth is dying. In chapter 8, he states that when Christ returns, "…creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."

Cameron's movie rightly depicts Earth as a dying planet, but his promise of a utopia is an empty one. The writer of Proverbs would call that "a hope deferred," which "makes the heart sick." (Proverbs 13:12) The unrelenting insistence by those who insist there is no God only magnifies the futility of hoping for anything better. If this world is all there is to life, then seeing something as promising as Pandora would lead to depression, and perhaps even suicidal thoughts.

There's More to This Life

But the good news is that there's more to this life than the world around us. There IS a God and He intervenes regularly in human affairs. God didn't create us to find satisfaction in His creation, but in Him. Some people describe the longing we feel as a "God-shaped hole," which only He can fill.

But what does man do? He ignores this hole, or attempts to fill it with things other than God: imaginary worlds, business, family, sports, accomplishments. That's why life is never satisfactory. We look to other things and other people – anywhere but to God.

Where Is Hope?

Is there hope for those who are so sadly affected by Avatar? There is, but it won't be to be found on message boards, in playing video games, or watching the movie countless times. Nothing created by any human being will bring the satisfaction we crave. It will only be found in relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He alone satisfies and fills the emptiness of our lives.

Perhaps that is the great success of James Cameron's film: that he unwittingly emphasizes our need for God and relationship with Him.


©2010 ChristianCinema.com

Executive Editor and Director of Producer Relations for ChristianCinema.com, Angela writes and edits articles and movie reviews, interviews filmmakers, and searches for new films to add to the ChristianCinema.com catalog. A primary focus is interviewing today's filmmakers to get to know the person behind the camera and gain an inside look at the process of making movies. Angela also writes the ChristianMovieNews blog, an ongoing dialogue about faith and film.