More than a Monster Movie: Godzilla Reboot Asks Tough Questions about Nature and Science

Godzilla is back and better than ever in a new reboot due out in May.

For someone who spent his childhood engrossed by Toho's classic Godzilla films (to six-year-old eyes, the rubber suit is completely believable as a kaiju-butt-kicking boss), this will possibly be the biggest movie of 2014. Pun intended. (Watch the trailer here.)

Director Gareth Edwards' take on Godzilla portrays the 350-foot-tall, radioactive lizard as less of a monster-battling hero and more of an apocalyptic disaster, in a new twist designed to be more realistic and emotional. That realism is anchored by performances from a star-studded cast that includes Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe.

Yes, Godzilla can be realistic. In fact, I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that this movie touches on one of the most fundamental questions of mankind's existence.

I can see the doubt in your eyes, so hear me out. Most religions in the world can be divided into one of two categories: spiritualism or naturalism. The difference is in whether they consider the spiritual or physical worlds to be more important; in other words, what is man's relationship to nature? And that's precisely the question the newest Godzilla flick explores.

The Godzilla franchise has its roots in the nuclear atrocities of World War II and a long history of tangling with the morality of nature and progress. “Is a giant monster ever going to come out of the ocean, flatten a city, and leave lots of radiation behind? No,” Edwards said in a recent interview with Wales Online. “But have cities ever been destroyed and radiation traces left everywhere? Yes.”

Edwards went on to explain the connection the franchise has to the Hiroshima bombing: “At the time, Japan wasn’t able to make movies about how they suffered through events like that,” he said. “Yet they could make a giant monster movie which touched on all those things – it was like therapy for them, I guess.”

“The arrogance of man is thinking that nature is in our control and not the other way around,” Ken Watanabe's character warns in the newest trailer.  

So before you dismiss this as a next-gen, high-budget, rubber-suit monster flick, take a minute to consider how it can introduce fundamental questions of religion and the purpose of science into discussions in your home. Take every thought captive—even thoughts of Godzilla—and let art's ability to ask good questions lead you and your family deeper into life.

***Image courtesty of http://www.godzilla-movies.com/media/godzilla2014-poster4-high-resolution.jpeg

Lucas Zellers is a regular Axis contributor and former intern.

"Teenage Dream" at the Ballpark?

“I love good surprises, especially when they involve tickets to a MLB play-off game! Baseball is one of those sports that can be very boring to watch on TV, but nothing comes close to describing the energy exuding from a ballpark during the playoffs. Peanuts, Cracker Jacks, $11 hotdogs, and free foam fingers add to the nervous excitement of several thousand crazy fans awaiting the first pitch. As the old song goes...”root, root, root, for the home team, if they don’t win its a shame, ‘cause its one, two, three strikes your out at the old ball game!”

Unfortunately, it was one of those nights for the home team, where they fought a good fight but came up short. However, losing the game took nothing away from the amazing time we had enjoying the festivities. Every break between innings was filled with a song during which the crowd would get up and start dancing around. From “Cotton-Eyed Joe”, to “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”, and then the wonderful classic “Teenage Dream.” Yes, that’s right! “Teenage Dream” filled the space between the third and fourth inning.

All the fans got up to dance like they always do, and we sat back and watched them all sing the lyrics:

“We drove to Cali, and got drunk on the beach. Got a motel and built a fort out of sheets. I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece, I’m complete. Let’s go all the way tonight, no regrets, just love. We will dance, until we die. You and I will be young forever. You make me feel like I’m living a Teenage Dream. The way you turn me on, I can’t sleep. Let’s run away and don’t ever look back...”

Somehow, Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” is related to Major League Baseball, I am just not quite smart enough to figure it out! It’s amazing though, how the messages of our culture invade almost everything we do. “Teenage Dream” is still holding strong at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, and it’s success simply translates into greater and greater influence.

We all want to live a “dream”; whether its businessmen and women pursuing the “dream” job, families pursuing the American “dream”, or teenagers looking for what it means to make the most of middle school, high school, or college. Our culture has an answer for us when it comes to living the “dream”. For the business world you need to make as much money as possible. For families they need to have the biggest house on the block, at least one car for each family member, and a swimming pool. And the dream life for students, well Katy Perry just defined it: drinking, sex, and a relationship with someone who makes you feel ‘complete’.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every though to the obedience of Christ.”

Are you taking every thought and idea captive? Are you thinking about what you hear in a sermon at church, see in a movie, and listen to on your iPod, or are you simply consuming the message passively? Ideas are powerful, even when they are simply played over the loudspeaker at a baseball game...