As I write this, I'm watching Slumdog Millionaire with Kara. Unless you've totally sworn off all things "culturally relevant" you've probably heard that Slumdog is all the rave. I know I've written about Slumdog before. However, watching this movie for second time gives me new windows to look through.
It's a film about love, hope in the midst of poverty, globalization, friendship, and family. If that's all the film covered, it would be enough.
Watching the film this time, I'm struck by the tension that exists between determinism (known in Christian circles as "pre-destination") and openness (free will). These two poles, as with most poles in modern thinking, find their way into politics, religion, sociology, philosophy, and education (among many).
Determinism is fatalistic. This pole says your future is already determined. Your next step is already written into the fabric of the universe. Christians in this camp talk about "ordering every step" . . . of "knowing every hair on one's head" . . . etc.
Openness says the future is limitless. Your fate is not determined. Your plight in life can be altered as you have the ability to imagine the world differently.
This is what Slumdog, in my opinion, is really about.
The movie doesn't buy into complete fatalism. Our choices matter a great deal. We can take on the strength of that which we overcome. We can become more. We can be better people. We can build better futures.
The movie also doesn't buy into total openness either. There is a mystery to things that cannot be explained. People reappear. Lives are spared for inexplicable reasons. Systemic patterns do what patterns do--they repeat themselves. Our particularity and specificity cannot be separated from who we are as humans.
Calvinists and Open Theists. Determinism (Hinduism) and Free Will (Islam). Fatalism and Choice. It's woven into the fabric of our life.
But maybe it's not so simple as picking between the two poles.
The further things appear to be a part, in a two-dimensional world, the closer they might actually be in a three-dimensional world (think here of the difference between a line on chalkboard and a circle in real life . . . depending upon your perspective, they can appear to be the exact same thing).
Or, in the language of Slumdog: It is written.
Maybe the answer about God's activity in the world is not "a" or "b" . . . maybe it's yes. Because humans are not science formula's. We're more like the characters in Slumdog than we are an experiment in a chemical lab.
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2 comments:
I need to understand Islam better. I've never thought of it as a free-will religion. But in the tension between Islam and Hinduism, I can see how it would be the freer option.
Josh, you're sounding like Neo a little bit there... did you circle your hand in the air above the line you drew on the ground? I like it. Thanks for your thoughts.
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