Did the Bible Act as Science-Fiction in Its Day? Interstellar vs. Noah
Have we become too literal in our thinking?
I’d like to preface this by telling you I am a Christian and my dad is a vicar and everything I am theorising is backed up by extensive research. All sources available at the end of the piece.
Society has always looked for meaning in the stories we are told. Why wouldn’t we do the same with Holy texts such as the bible? The bible is a rich tapestry of stories and meaning that might be losing its profound message through literal interpretation. Let’s explore this.
Christopher Nolan’s 2014 film Interstellar has striking parallels to the story of Noah, found in Genesis 6–9 in the bible. Both are, arguably, stories told with a moral interpretation with both telling the same story of an earth destroying humanity. The two texts teach a powerful message; look after the earth or reap the consequences. How much do we hear about the damage we have done to our environment? Our planet needs our help. With this in mind we could reimagine the part where, ‘the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created”’ with Karen Armstrong’s perspective that God is everything, genderless, spiritless. Drawing from this, we might interpret God as the animating spirit of the earth that turns on…
