Art as Truth

Art is the lie that tells the truth – Picasso

I was surprised to see such an overt religious theme in Avatar. Moreover, I was surprised that the scientists were upholding the natives religious belief as important, while the Marines were ready to burn the world down. That, if trends are accurate, is upside down. Lately it seems that the scientists are the ones calling people of belief idiots while more Marines than scientists (if I had a guess) have some sense of faith. Could just be the headlines though.

In any case what I found interesting was the scientists inability to understand the significance of the belief. They needed to understand the mechanistic ways in order to fully appreciate and believe in it. The natives lack any mechanistic world view, and therefore mechanistic view of their deity Eywa. It doesn’t matter how for them, only the meaning of the deity. And it seems the scientists cannot find any meaning for Eywa *beyond* the mechanistic one. Whatever ends justify the mechanistic means, and the ends have no appreciation for religious belief. So when someone tells you that full-blown naturalism is not a value-judgment, think again.

But I must wonder just what it means that all of this art continues to look past the mechanistic understanding. The only way they can find mystery is to encounter something they don’t mechanistically understand. But once it is understood, its over and done with. At least art continues to mine this well – because there is more out there. And I wonder if we’ll ever move past this mechanistic approach to everything.

Update

Apparently I’m far too optimistic when I look at things, Cameron gets a new hole from Dunedin.