(08e) I finally watched the movie 'Noah'

I finally saw the movie 'Noah' with Russell Crowe. I think it is a good one that reflects more what is written in the 'Book of Enoch' than what is written in the Bible (as that is hardly anything), including references to the 'Watchers' or angels who are shown as moving stones that prevents them from returning to Heaven. But the film also includes own interpretation.

The Watchers

The Watchers came to earth to teach humans many things. But as they disobeyed God's command not to descend to Earth to help the humans after they were forced out of Paradise (I think because humans already started destroying the Earth and the apple tree represented the last food source that was destroyed so people had to move to other places for food), the Watchers were no longer allowed to return to Heaven. I like it that the heavenly beings had to remain on the Earth so they too were forced to make choices when things would go wrong due to their actions (similar in the Greek story where Prometheus gave fire to humans (who then used it to conquer the world) and as a consequence was punished but eventual released after human started using fire for the good).
Some Watchers became vengeful because they couldn't return to Heaven and chose to corrupt humans by explaining them how the knowledge could be used for their own advantage while the humans didn't yet understand all its consequences (even today often new discoveries are used for the development of new weapons before the invention is used for better purposes while many investment bankers use their advance knowledge for their own profit while it hurts ordinary people). The fallen Watchers also started to have children with women (the so-called half-gods in stories) as they wanted to found dynasties that would rule the Earth while many humans chose the side of the fallen Watchers as that made more profit than obeying nature's laws such as do not kill more than needed to eat. Probably the king was one of the children of these fallen angels.
Other Watchers however remained loyal to their original plan to help humans while they were sad to see how many of the humans used the knowledge against each other for their own profits. In the end, 'good' Watchers sacrificed themselves to save the animals in the ark and the people that God considered to be good (and thus they obeyed God) and as a result they protected live on Earth and thus were allowed to return to Heaven while the bad Watchers were destroyed together with the bad humans (although many were already killed by humans so they could rule the world alone).
All creatures with a free will are forced to choose in a crisis although this isn't always easy - indeed, it is difficult to make the decision to risk ones own life to save another life.

DVD 'Noah'

Humans - past and present

I think the film shows well how humans may have been responsible for their own downfall, and this until their last moments. (Also stories such as in Greek and Indian mythology refer to periods when Gods punished people, suggesting there were times people really behaved terrible - similar to areas where groups such as Isis rule today but also what Europe brought upon the world only about 70 years ago). Humans destroyed their environment and killed animals, driving them towards extinction - just as we do today. The ruling classes suppressed ordinary people and impoverished and imprisoned them. People were so hungry they tore animals apart to have some pieces of food to survive while so few animals may have been left that probably humans were imprisoned to be eaten. But even the people in the king's army were not save as they too could be killed - it was a terrible world. Because of poverty and suppression, people turned upon themselves instead of working together to defeat their oppressors and stop the further destruction of the planet that may even have resulted in climate change. In the past, there were sea level rises at the end of ice ages that resulted in flooded areas elsewhere such as around the Caspian and Death Sea but also land between Belgium/Holland and the UK disappeared. And the weight of the rising sea can sometimes force water to appear further land inwards. Remember, the whole world in the past meant what was known by the locals. And although melting ice may affect many parts of the world, it is still possible that an overspill from increased sea levels into a lower land area cancels large changes in coastal areas (e.g. increased sea level of the Mediterranean Sea may have flooded into the Black Sea so levels in the Mediterranean Sea didn't change that much) while drying lakes (such as the Lake of Galilee at this moment) may become filled again with fresh water.

Similar things are still happening today, including on the boats in the Mediterranean Sea where some refugees battle against other refugees for reasons as trivial as having a different religion as below quote from this article demonstrates while these people flee the same region for the same violence and thus should understand each others position:

We were many; I was really scared. The water has no end and no beginning. A lot of people were fighting with sharp objects. There were Muslims and Christians. They said they didn’t want Christians on the boat. I was one of them.

Indeed, similarly as in the movie, people battle against each other and thus worsen the situation. And no-one on a boat can escape this: the situation calms down or fight back or die by drowning. But equally, people kill each other in areas where extremists rule, often because they are forced to kill so the extremists will not kill them and as a consequence, revenge attacks may still kill them.

In addition, as immigration to Europe (but also to other rich countries such as Australia) increases (partly because people flee climate change that destroys food and countries), fear of and anger towards immigrants may grow as:

1. their habits and religions are different from ours but also
2. due to increased competition on the job market while also
3. the social security systems becomes too expensive.

And thus, when too many immigrants arrive, people may start turning against them, certainly when some politicians continue to claim migrants are coming for our benefits and when a few more mad people (of which some are born here) bomb others in the name of their religion. Already some countries suggest to let the immigrants drown to deter them from coming to Europe while some even mention to sink the boats of traffickers because by explaining it in this manner, we forget there may be refugees in the boats. During crises in other continents, the Western world is always quick to tell neighbouring countries (often themselves poor countries) to take in refugees and condemn any violence towards them while even a few tens of thousand refugees scare us because we know many more will be coming.

But, when too many refugees arrive, we may all find it logic boats are destroyed, even I because the repetition in my head of what may happen makes me immune towards these facts and let me even understand it - something that is worrying. And not all traffickers are criminals, many even risk their own life to help others escape the violence in their country while we try to stop the refugees enter a save world. And thus these people may not be able to escape any violence: either in their home continent or in Europe. However, before any decision may be made to sink boats, white people should return to their own continents as this action may anger people towards white people and this anger may become revenge. Still, when climate change may destroy harvests in Europe or violent demonstrations may hit the street because people protest against even more austerity, white people may not be able to go to other places as refugees themselves - although we probably have the gunpowder to escape our world. And the richer the country, the more it will try to keep the poor refugees out although the 'fourth Reich' is at the moment different as it accepts to house more refugees. Indeed, ones a place becomes too wealthy, it becomes an inhumane place.

If only we had decided to protect people from the evil forces of Isis, Boko Haram and others when they ask for our help while the problems were still relatively small and these groups only operated in a small part of the country as then it may have been possible to help the local authorities or use a relatively small army or even only drones while people may be grateful. Now the implosion of countries has become an explosion that is reaching us as good people are fleeing the region to escape the violence while we need a larger army to protect our huge borders against innocent people. And if we ever may sink boats and people die, people may understand they can no longer seek protection in our regions and thus have to remain in the area where many will be killed while others may join the evil organisations to stay alive and fight against us who didn't help and thus we may need a very large army to defend us. This refugee crisis may move European countries closer towards one nation under a 'strong' leader who will try to stop the refugees coming but, as happened with the Roman Empire, the huge immigration plus climate change may then result in its collapse and final destruction whereby small states may arise as existed before the Roman Empire (and let us hope they will not fight each other for more control although that may keep them small and harmless). Whatever, many of our past policies that resulted in huge inequalities will now come to hunt us; the refusal by most of us to sacrifice some of our wealth so others could also profit while showing via TV our own wealth together with our support for the wrong governments that suppress their people in return for cheap minerals and our refusal to help people in need is now turning against us.

People wonder why Noah didn't save more people but after watching the movie I may understand. Indeed, people refused to change their way of life as illustrated by the king who, after entering the boat, continued eating the animals and thus drove some to extinction as only two animals (male and female) of each species were saved. If more people were present, more animals would have been eaten and thus all life may have been exterminated. This is similarly with our own planet where we continue to destroy our environment, either directly or indirectly, and continue to kill animals and plants while scientists warn us about it, just as the revelations do. Still, some religious fanatics deny the screening of the movie as they call it rubbish. The same happened with the movie 'Avatar' that was condemned by the Vatican (and probably others) for the worship of nature while it only describes in a story what is happening in reality - the battle to save our planet. At the same time, violent films with ever more details of cruelty can now even be watched by children, as if to immunise them concerning violence while many describe totalitarian worlds. I think extreme violent films should only be seen by adults although here too some may flip into violence. But we should continue to know what happens in the real world when correctly presented so we can continue to sympathise with the victims and want to help them. Today in many places, people continue to kill animals for food or pleasure while many religious people continue to believe animals need to be sacrificed for their God and thus animals continue to suffer. However, also certain scientists find it acceptable to kill animals in captivity, even endangered ones to prevent overpopulation instead of releasing them in the wild for which the breeding schemes were intended while some rich people are allowed to kill endangered animals for money while conservationists hope the money can save other animals.

I think another reason why Noah didn't save people is because people had the chance to build boats themselves. But they didn't, instead they started to make weapons to be able to take the boat ones completed (while the people in captivity were not released as they were not considered of enough value to be saved); the king almost succeeded if he was not killed by one of Noah's sons (even when saving Noah's life could have resulted in two death family members, i.e. the babies). People were too lazy and hoped for an easy escape by overwhelming Noah's family. The film thus also seems to suggest that others helped Noah to build the boat but the helpers were killed when they tried to protect Noah's family; is it then surprising he didn't want to help the people who not only didn't help him building the ark but even slaughtered those who helped? Similarly today with religious extremists who talk about the revelations still deny climate change as they claim it is God who will interfere. Therefore, they have an excuse to continue getting richer while they try to force people to live according to what they think is God's way. This is already happening in a number of countries but even in the West there are major players who misinform people about many things such as science, medicines and climate change although often use it for their own benefits. Indeed, they blame people who try to find solutions for our problems while hope for their own salvation by being able to survive when disasters may struck.

Evolution of Noah throughout film and his relation with his son Ham

I think Noah went too far in his condemnation of the other people although I can understand why. One of the more intriguing persons in the movie is his middle son Ham (played by Logan Lerman). In the Bible only little is written about what happened before the disaster but it seems Noah's three sons each had a wife who joined their husbands into the boat. After the water resided, these sons had many children (who founded new nations around the Mediterranean Sea). Noah cursed Ham's son Canaan and his descendants because Ham had seen him naked while later Canaan was cursed again by his family because he didn't want to leave the area where he was living to move to the area of his father (and thus we can conclude this was a dysfunctional family because, although hardly any people in the region survived, even family members were not allowed to live in the region they preferred as that belonged to another family member and thus as always, dynasties fought each other).

The movie tries to explain the bad relation between Noah and his son Ham while it also shows Noah's evolution. When life became more difficult, Noah killed men who killed an animal (and today also many people will say it is madness to defend animals against hunters). So from a peaceful vegetarian he became a murderer. After this, he and his family had to flee his region and while on the run he found a wounded girl and saved her live.
Years later, his son Ham (who is single in the movie) tried to find a wife before boarding the boat and he found a nice girl who was hiding from other people. Ham and the girl ran off to the boat as the rain started to fall while everyone else also understood the deluge had started and thus started running towards the boat. But the girl got trapped and while Ham tried to rescue the girl, Noah only saved his son while the girl was trampled under the feet of the people. This shows how values can change in an evil world: while before he saved a girl who later became the wife of his oldest son, later he no longer saved an innocent girl because he could no longer believe someone could still exist who was good. And I understand this reaction as Noah had seen so much violence he couldn't believe a single nice person still existed. Similarly when too many people beg for money on the street so people start to mistrust people who simply want to ask something.
As a result, Ham was angry and helped the old king who managed to get on the boat although when the king almost killed his father, the son defended his father and killed the king. This was something remarkable because most people may not have saved their father as he was planning to kill his newborn granddaughters (even the oldest son wanted to kill his father to protect his daughters). As Noah survived, he could still kill the girls although his love for them made him return to reality so they survived. At the end, Ham decided to leave the family, probably to control himself because he had no wife and probably didn't want to take the wife of his brother. Indeed, he preferred loneliness above being unsure he could restrain himself. While the Bible indicates Ham had children of whom his son Canaan was cursed, the film shows how Noah is blessing all his children because he loves them all. This storyline is not accepted by fanatics because it shows compassion.

Conclusion

According to the Bible, God made a promise he would not again kill all except a handful of humans and animals (indeed, satellites would probably show us how only islands and sea lines disappear beneath the sea when sea levels rise. Instead He predicted a fight between the good versus evil forces and promised help for the good forces so they would win the battle - we will see. Indeed, many of the old powers continue to claim that God gave humans everything on this planet to rule and treat as we like. But, because people are becoming better informed, resistance against the unlimited destruction is growing, just as Noah resisted his destructive leaders, although it seems he and his family and a handful others were the only persons left to defend the good cause and thus the story tells us that, in order to rescue life, God had to interfere. As the story is thousands of years old, little information on what really happened is left. However, today many more will try to save our planet while the possible chaos in the near future but also publications on the Internet about the reasons for the collapse will be sufficient to stop us in future from defending those who destroy for own gain. Still, after sufficient time memory will have faded and again an increased number of people will be running around who are greedy enough to try to destroy the recovering planet. Then a highly intelligent computer (Artificial Intelligence) that was educated to do good may destroy all data of bad people and only keep the information that benefits humanity so people can no longer learn from old tricks while only good remains. And this computer can then access and interpret all information we have - is for generations to come.

And thus the movie shows chaos erupts by not respecting both nature and humans and thus creation - we should simply live a good life with respect for others in order to save our planet. Whether God exist or not is of no importance as bad behaviour and destruction of the planet will eventually result in our own destruction. We had thousands of years to gain knowledge and now we know but many continue as before, certainly many of the elite as long as it enrich them; after the punishment for not trying enough to reduce the destruction of the planet, we will change for the better. It is unbelievable that certain people criticise this movie for its contents as they claim it doesn't tell an accurate story. This shows why some people are dangerous as no other interpretation than theirs is possible while they also refuse to accept any of our own responsibilities and thus refuse to accept a change in our own behaviour is necessary.