As our children grow ever closer to being young adults, they move into greater levels of responsibility and, concurrently, enjoy privileges consistent with more mature minds and hearts. Freedom to be with friends away from family, technology usage, more intricate tools and toys with which to create are all examples of how our family is growing into new spaces. One of the things that we have begun to enjoy together as a family are different movies that we had previously avoided, specifically the Marvel movies. For a long time, watching these movies was relegated to just my wife and I or myself and our older son. (We acknowledge such decisions as peculiar to our own family and we do not expect other parents to have a one for one agreement with how we deal with media, movies, technology, etc. It’s a matter of individual conscience). But as our daughter has now rounded the corner to double digits, we have invited her into this world of epic action movies, and she loves it. One request on her 10th birthday, being the coldest day of this year in central Illinois, was to watch The Avengers: Age of Ultron. We have been working our way through them and it was next on the list. This past week we got up to speed on the third Avengers spectacle, in preparation for the one coming out this year. I have always been a sucker for comic book/space hero adventure tales, and have thoroughly enjoyed the Marvel universe thus far. (If you are wondering, I was split between Wolverine and Batman growing up). In a time when our family is very busy, it has been fun to share these adventures together.
We have never been indiscriminate in what media we allow our children to encounter in our own home. Our gate and filter is pretty keen, likely too keen for some though perhaps not enough for others. One of the things that we attempt to do with all of the media that we and our children ingest is to find the story behind the story. Every movie, song and story comes from a particular point of view, the author’s own worldview. The characters, settings and story arc are all loaded with certain presuppositions that, as a follower of Jesus, I feel should be identified. So easily and quickly can my own mind soak up patently unbiblical ideas that are packaged in a slick computer generated world. For one who desires a mind transformed by the word of God, I try to approach my interaction with media in this way. We have begun to teach our children to do likewise, to look for the root beneath the fruit that other people produce and hold out to us. None of it is neutral and neither should we be.
That being said, the Avengers do not escape this scrutiny. As I previewed the movie, looking for themes with which to challenge our thinking, one jumped out at me. I suppose a spoiler alert is in order at this point. If you don’t care or have seen the movie, read on. If not, maybe come back after your viewing. Anyway, the thread running throughout the Marvel movies is a plot by Thanos, the intergalactic Titan, to collect powerful gems in a quest for ultimate power. We are told that these “infinity stones” were created during the big bang, millions of years ago at the dawn of time, each endowed with different aspects of the universe itself. In short, his plan is to eradicate half of the life in the universe. On its face, this sounds patently evil and horrendous. But when you consider his motives, things get a little twisty. Thanos says he is only after “balance” in the universe. Too many mouths, not enough resources. After his rampage to get the stones is over, he wants to rest. He believes killing is the right thing to do, the merciful thing, an act that only he has the wisdom and will to accomplish. Obviously, the “good guys” including the Avengers and every audience member disagree.
This is where worldview matters and the origin of the stones is the key. The Marvel universe is essentially a Godless place. Sure, little “g” gods such as Thor (who has the best lines in the movie this time around), Loki and their ilk are included. But they get the same treatment as the super strong soldier, the flying spider and green rage monster. Of course they are fiction, right? Everyone knows that. Thor holds no claim to being the progenitor of the universe, nor the rightful ruler and owner of it all. Just god of his neighborhood. What is conspicuously absent in this story is the God of the Bible, who explicitly claims to be creator, owner and ruler of everything. We are missing, not provincial lords, but as R.C Sproul taught, the “Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D,” who revealed himself to Moses in the desert. So what, you say. What does this have to do with Thanos facing off against Tony Stark and the crew?
Since the universe they occupy is absent of a personal creator who sits above all and by his providence rules all, it is also necessarily void of an objective standard by which the characters can call something right and wrong. Thanos wishes to employ a logical solution, “a simple calculus” as he says. So what if it costs the universe half of it’s living creatures? If their origin was impersonal, then their existence is essentially impersonal. Molecules in motion, matter that doesn’t really matter. Here is the question and the point of all this rambling. By what standard can Captain America and the gang say that Thanos is wrong, that what he is up to is evil? They don’t like the thought of being snapped out of existence. They think his conclusions to be barbaric and his plans to be sadistic. We agree. They wish to protect and preserve life. We agree. But why? Greg Bahnsen said, “In an atheist universe, there’s no obligation for us to care for others whatsoever.” In such a scenario, there is no inherent value and dignity of the creature made in the image of its Creator, calling out for preservation as a moral imperative. What they consider protecting lives from extinction, Thanos calls overpopulating the cosmos. It’s just a numbers game. What they call dark, he calls light. Right? Wrong? Who’s to say?
I know, I know. It’s just a movie, a fictitious story set to moving images. Lighten up. But Marvel has self consciously pushed such philosophical questions onto the viewer before. Like when the band broke up in “Civil War” because no one could say who was right. It’s a small jump to move from evaluating a Thanos terrorized universe to thinking about our own in the same terms. The fact that we label him a villain and not a hero tells us something about ourselves. We may ascend the moral high ground to make such judgements. But without the God of the Bible that ground vanishes into ash, blown away by what turns out to be only popular opinion. In the end there is solid ground and there is sinking sand. Indeed, no sand at all.
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