Religious Ambiguities

I've already mentioned the strange combinations of religion, like Jake's "Christian-like" prayer to Eywa, who contrary to Neytyri's opinion, answers like the Christian God of battles. I also don't understand how the Pandorans know that a soul can travel from one body to another, when they've never encountered people with two bodies, a Pandoran and a human. This is an artificial "deus ex machina" used by Cameron. Is it to finalize the story? Is it to help us identify more closely with the Pandorans? Or in using such incarnation imagery, does Cameron have more Christianity in his world-view than he admits and we know? For amazingly, Jesus Christ now has a human body, indestructible and eternal, still carrying the scars of his crucifixion. It is, of course, not a human body like ours, for it can do things ours cannot do and is not subject to death ever again.

Eywa does not return Grace to her Pandoran body after her human body has been mortally wounded. She's too weak according to Mo'at, the shaman of the tribe. But what would that have to do with her soul? Is it really because she's a scientist, not a believer? Is this a swipe at modern scientists, who provide the technology to modern man, modern genocidists, but who have no belief in a higher power? Yet, he gives to this scientist a name that any Christian would immediately associate with - Grace, like the best-known song of Christendom, Amazing Grace. Perhaps as a scientist, Grace was not too far from grace to receive it, at least at the end.

Again, I am analyzing this movie by superimposing my worldview over that of the movie. I have obviously changed Eywa to Yahweh. And why not? Eywa is a myth, a combination of religious ideas and beliefs that Cameron cobbled together. The true God, the Father of Jesus Christ and the giver of all grace, is all that matters, and any story that speaks of a deity with power over the creation, the power to raise the dead (Jake died to his human body and was raised in his Avatar body at the end of the movie), who chose a savior (Jake) for the Pandorans, and who answers prayers with such power as occurred in the movie, could only represent the one true God, even if the representation was somewhat faulty and mixed.

The movie involves a reversal of the usual trend - Western man shows the primitive how far behind in technology and culture they are. In this movie, Western man makes a show at cultural interchange, but there is really no attempt to evangelize the natives. Again, what would we tell them that was relevant? Have they sinned? Did they formerly live in a Garden of Eden? What messages has God already revealed to them? In the context of the movie, all this is irrelevant. The Pandorans apparently result from the liberal, anthropological world of unbelief. That is, they evolved on Pandora, and they are in harmony with their beautiful environment. However, as is typically the case with the romantic view of the savage, the negatives are not shown - the infant deaths, the enslavement of demonic religion, the economic enslavement of primitive man to the socialist economy (no allowance for advancement, which would be a betrayal of the equality of the tribe), immorality, drug addiction, short life spans, etc.

It is also interesting that Cameron has made these people larger than humans, even though the planet has low gravity. Even on earth in normal gravity, the natives are small, not large and vigorous. They may be strong and rugged, but health is not the first thought that comes to mind when seeing National Geographic shows on primitive peoples. Thus, primitives, living on a planet with less gravity would be even smaller and less vigorous than those seen on earth.

In this movie, the Pandorans only can really teach us. We have nothing that they would want, according to Grace and Jake. In real life on earth, the ideal exchange occurs when the gospel is presented to such people, and they adopt turth to liberate themselves from demonic oppression. They can then improve themselves without too radical an adoption of modern technology. They can learn to exchange with the West, and in time, grow their own culture, having adopted the technology that works for them and that can help them grow into a modern society.

What religion do the Pandorans believe in? Is it voodoo? Is it demonic? The deleted scenes include one in which they use a hallunogenic drug to achieve religious nirvana, enlightenment, etc. They use pagan dancing to try to inspire their god to act on their behalf. They have sacred sites of great value that apparently no one will ever be able to access, no matter how financially or technologically important they become. How can anyone ever access it, if it's the domain of a god? It's akin to the sacred places over which Muslims will kill and die. One of the most important truths spoken in sarcasm is when the CEO says, "You throw a stick around here, and it'll land on some sacred fern, for Christ's sake." How ironic!