Modernism’s Answer: There Is No Hope

The older I get, the more clearly I see what movies are trying to say. As a sci-fi movie fan I grew up watching those Godzilla and alien movies with just the eyes of a boy who had no idea I was being taught something via stories. Star Wars was just a great action movie with light sabers and good guys trying to beat the bad guys. Movies however seem to have far more meaning than just entertainment.

Last Saturday I watched one of my all time favorite movies, BladeRunner. Harrison Ford plays Decker, a kind of cop who is hunting down replicants (genetically engineered people with super strength). The leader of the replicants (Roy) is played by Rutger Hauer.

The thrust of the story is that the replicants are going to die. They are desperately killing everyone in order to see their maker, Dr. Tyrell, in order to gain more life.

The movie however is more than meets the eye. The conversations are about “questions” that look for answers to the meaning of life. Roy (the replicant) finally meets his maker and tries to find the answers. Dr. Tyrell is symbolic for the modernist philosophy that seeks to give scientific explanations for everything.

It was simply assumed in modernism that science would be the “fountain of youth”. Science would discover new technologies that would save man. We all know it didn’t. Therefore Roy killed Dr. Tyrell and all of the modernist hopes crashed with him.

At the end, Roy struggles to say his last few words to Decker (Harrison Ford), and in sci-fi poetic fashion describes his life and the amazing things that he has seen. He finishes by saying,

"All of those moments will be lost, like tears in rain."

Roy finally dies realizing that life is short. So love it while you can. As one atheistic acquaintance of mine said, “The chances of life happening are so rare that life must be wonderful. So live while you can.” So chance, which is nothing of substance, gives meaning to life. Therefore “nothing” gives worth to “something”. Roy realizes that to accept death is freedom to love life.

This may sound wonderful to so many outside of Christ. But it is completely and utterly hopeless and leaves life meaningless. His questions were never answered, and based upon the worldview of the Director of the movie, they simply can't be.

Post-modernism has risen in Modernism’s wake. Modernism’s promises have only left society in disillusionment and despair. Now we are left with a philosophy that says men can know nothing. There is no truth.

For those who love the Gospel, these will be trying times. For men will become lovers of themselves and lovers of…" There is more to life than just “drinking and eating, for tomorrow we die”. As Albert Mohler said, “The creation doesn’t explain the Creator, the Creator explains the creation.” May He grant us repentance. Perhaps then we will look to Him to explain who we are and our purpose.