{"content":[{"text":"Avatar: New Technology, Old Message","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.056023,"width":0.7115130000000001,"height":0.030700000000000005}},{"text":"James Cameron’s hit movie Avatar presents dazzling new animation technology and special effects \n yet an old message and a familiar story: when mankind embraces the pantheist worldview, there will \n result a oneness with nature. This enlightened union will lead to a life of peace and paradise upon \n the planet. The title of the movie itself gives its message away—an avatar in Hinduism is an \n incarnation or the descent of a deity to earth.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.12208,"width":0.853708,"height":0.08456}},{"text":"One of the most popular gods to appear as an avatar is Vishnu, the preserver god and one of the \n three main gods in the Hindu Pantheon. There are ten famous manifestations of Vishnu in the sacred \n writings of Hinduism [Jonathan Smith, ed. The Harper Collins Dictionary of Religion (San Francisco: \n Harper Collins Publishers, 1995), 96.].","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.223402,"width":0.854283,"height":0.06722300000000003}},{"text":"In this movie the alien race, the blue–skinned Na’Vi, live in a forest paradise. Although they are \n technologically primitive, they are superior in their understanding of true reality and nature itself. \n They live an enlightened existence for they are in communion with Eywa, the “All Mother.” Eywa is \n not a personal being, as with the Christian view of God, but an impersonal force made up of all \n things. Her force is concentrated in a large sacred tree in the middle of the sacred forest. The Na’Vi \n become one with Eywa when they attach their pony tails to one of her vines. In one scene, the hero \n of the movie attempts to warn Eywa of the battle soon to come and asks for her help. However, he is \n told by his alien wife that Eywa is neutral and does not get involved in issues of justice. In the movie, \n death is encountered several times and the message is that at death, one’s immaterial essence \n becomes one with Eywa. This is a clear presentation of the pantheist worldview and follows the same \n theme of such movies as Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves, and Fern Gully.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.307388,"width":0.856805,"height":0.18858600000000003}},{"text":"The conflict occurs when humans arrive on the planet and they, in contrast to the Na’Vi, are \n ignorant of Eywa and destroy the forest for monetary reasons. The army is portrayed as evil as they \n attempt to seize the sacred forest by force and mine the valuable minerals under the sacred tree. \n With primitive weapons, the alien beings defeat the well–armed humans and rescue their planet \n from destruction.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.512738,"width":0.844112,"height":0.08455999999999997}},{"text":"This movie is an evangelistic call for mankind to embrace the pantheistic worldview and attain \n oneness with the universe. As a result, peace will come and a harmonic paradise will be created. \n However, we must seriously question this message of hope. Pantheism is embraced in several \n countries. We must ask ourselves, have these countries attained a harmonic paradise? One nation \n that embraces the pantheistic worldview is India. Few would confidently state that Hinduism has \n brought a beautiful paradise in that nation.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.614061,"width":0.828374,"height":0.10189700000000002}},{"text":"Another important facet of pantheism is that nature takes precedence over human life. In India and \n Nepal, I have witnessed cows, monkeys, and even rats receiving better care than humans—and many \n are even worshipped while human beings remain secondary. Pantheism also denies the reality of this \n physical world and promotes the belief that the spirit world represents true reality. Thus, it in fact \n denies true reality. Finally, pantheism denies our humanity because it fails to acknowledge our \n individuality and sin nature. As a result, true transformation of human nature cannot occur through \n pantheism.","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.732721,"width":0.856163,"height":0.11923600000000012}},{"text":"One of the valuable messages in Avatar is the value of caring for nature. This is one of the reasons \n many are attracted to this movie. The popularity of this pantheistic message points out a \n shortcoming of the Christian church in modern times. As Christians, we are taught in Genesis to \n care for creation and not exploit it. However, unlike pantheism, we do not worship nature; instead,","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.86872,"width":0.837392,"height":0.06722300000000003}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}