Oppenheimer’s Journey of Man: JOURNEY OF MANKIND - The Peopling of the World
For some time I have admired the work of director Darren Aronofsky. People say that he makes movies that cause you to feel. That was true, for me, with my experiences of movies like The Wrestler and Black Swan. This post has to do with Noah (2014). I suspect the movie was compromised, more than other Aronofsky works, due to the large investment made by Paramount Pictures and accompanied strings attached. For me, the problem had to do with parts that initially left a hokey impression. That wore off shortly, and the movie took me on a rollercoaster of feelings ranging from anger to elation to a deep and sorrowful sense of mortification. Have you ever watched a movie and felt like it was made specifically for you? Noah wounded me personally as a human being, but I fully understand how and why others might not be touched by it. Atheists and Biblical purists both have their natural reasons to scoff at Aronofsky’s Noah.
The Biblical story of Noah is intimately tied to the story of Eden, the banishment from the Garden, and the children of Adam and Eve. God has breathed his spirit into man, not only the breath of life but a spiritual sense capable of recognizing, loving and seeking the divinity upon which his reality is founded. By the time of Noah’s quest, the higher light within man has all but been extinguished. He lives during a time of universal apostasy.
The Babylonian version and other non-biblical accounts of the flood reflect pagan mythology. Many gods decree the flood for no apparent reason. One of the gods warns the hero, again for no moral reason. In the biblical version, man is to face brutal justice. Noah is chosen because he is Noah, and the Genesis story is a religious interpretation of a natural disaster. The story ends with renewed hope for mankind.
According to British geneticists like Stephen Oppenheimer, man originated in Eastern Africa. He crossed the green Sahara 120,000 years ago and entered the Levant. Then around 90,000 years ago, a brief and devastating global freeze-up and desiccation blocked the passage back to Africa and killed off those first pioneers. After generations upon generations of drought, Neanderthals repopulated the eastern Mediterranean shores, being forced south by glaciations.
It was the second wave of homo sapiens beach combers who left Africa and survived, but they didn’t travel north. They hugged to coastlines to India and beyond. A super-eruption of Mt Toba 74,000 years ago killed everyone in India, caused a six year ‘nuclear winter’ and forced a 1,000 year ice age. Humans were nearly wiped out, reduced to a global total of 10,000 adults. Survivors east of India were cut off.
A dramatic warming trend began around 65,000 years ago. An isolated band of humans called Cro-Magnon man multiplied, and by 45,000 years ago began to successfully challenge his Neanderthal cousin for his northern birthright. He fought his way into Europe. He came not from Africa, but from India which had been repopulated from eastern populations. He came from east of Eden, if you will.
During the last ice age (22,000-19,000 years ago), once again, humans in Northern Europe were depopulated. They survived in isolated refuges. They survived as if in Arks, literally “chest vessels”. Some of us share their haploids. Others share the haploids of homo sapiens who survived elsewhere in Arks, so to speak, at various times. Man is a survivor, by skill or by luck or by mercy. A very short time ago, he built the world’s first cities. He insulated himself ever further from the natural world. He exercises the parts of his brain which dwell in abstraction. He remembers where he came from only in ideas held at arm’s length. Does he still retain a faint capacity to recognize and harmonize with divinity in nature?
The story of Noah in Genesis is an interweaving of two ancient authors, known to bible scholars as J and P. Chapter 9 is attributed to P. The anthropomorphisms in that chapter are unusual for P and reveal profound convictions. In verse 15, God “remembers”. In verse 16, God “sees and recalls”.
For some time I have admired the work of director Darren Aronofsky. People say that he makes movies that cause you to feel. That was true, for me, with my experiences of movies like The Wrestler and Black Swan. This post has to do with Noah (2014). I suspect the movie was compromised, more than other Aronofsky works, due to the large investment made by Paramount Pictures and accompanied strings attached. For me, the problem had to do with parts that initially left a hokey impression. That wore off shortly, and the movie took me on a rollercoaster of feelings ranging from anger to elation to a deep and sorrowful sense of mortification. Have you ever watched a movie and felt like it was made specifically for you? Noah wounded me personally as a human being, but I fully understand how and why others might not be touched by it. Atheists and Biblical purists both have their natural reasons to scoff at Aronofsky’s Noah.
The Biblical story of Noah is intimately tied to the story of Eden, the banishment from the Garden, and the children of Adam and Eve. God has breathed his spirit into man, not only the breath of life but a spiritual sense capable of recognizing, loving and seeking the divinity upon which his reality is founded. By the time of Noah’s quest, the higher light within man has all but been extinguished. He lives during a time of universal apostasy.
The Babylonian version and other non-biblical accounts of the flood reflect pagan mythology. Many gods decree the flood for no apparent reason. One of the gods warns the hero, again for no moral reason. In the biblical version, man is to face brutal justice. Noah is chosen because he is Noah, and the Genesis story is a religious interpretation of a natural disaster. The story ends with renewed hope for mankind.
According to British geneticists like Stephen Oppenheimer, man originated in Eastern Africa. He crossed the green Sahara 120,000 years ago and entered the Levant. Then around 90,000 years ago, a brief and devastating global freeze-up and desiccation blocked the passage back to Africa and killed off those first pioneers. After generations upon generations of drought, Neanderthals repopulated the eastern Mediterranean shores, being forced south by glaciations.
It was the second wave of homo sapiens beach combers who left Africa and survived, but they didn’t travel north. They hugged to coastlines to India and beyond. A super-eruption of Mt Toba 74,000 years ago killed everyone in India, caused a six year ‘nuclear winter’ and forced a 1,000 year ice age. Humans were nearly wiped out, reduced to a global total of 10,000 adults. Survivors east of India were cut off.
A dramatic warming trend began around 65,000 years ago. An isolated band of humans called Cro-Magnon man multiplied, and by 45,000 years ago began to successfully challenge his Neanderthal cousin for his northern birthright. He fought his way into Europe. He came not from Africa, but from India which had been repopulated from eastern populations. He came from east of Eden, if you will.
During the last ice age (22,000-19,000 years ago), once again, humans in Northern Europe were depopulated. They survived in isolated refuges. They survived as if in Arks, literally “chest vessels”. Some of us share their haploids. Others share the haploids of homo sapiens who survived elsewhere in Arks, so to speak, at various times. Man is a survivor, by skill or by luck or by mercy. A very short time ago, he built the world’s first cities. He insulated himself ever further from the natural world. He exercises the parts of his brain which dwell in abstraction. He remembers where he came from only in ideas held at arm’s length. Does he still retain a faint capacity to recognize and harmonize with divinity in nature?
The story of Noah in Genesis is an interweaving of two ancient authors, known to bible scholars as J and P. Chapter 9 is attributed to P. The anthropomorphisms in that chapter are unusual for P and reveal profound convictions. In verse 15, God “remembers”. In verse 16, God “sees and recalls”.
