With a budget rumored to exceed 500 million dollars, James Cameron’s “Avatar” steamrolled through theaters around the world this past weekend. The director of “Titanic” stated that he wrote the story in the mid-1990’s, and was “just waiting for the technology to catch up” to make the film. Based on the alien world of Pandora, Avatar has many lessons for us as a race to take notes on, with most of them being taught by pagan teachers.

The movie has tons of pretty bells and whistles in the realm of 3D special effects, and if your money is being spent for that reason only, you won’t be disappointed. You have to deliberately ignore the preachiness of the movie, however, which after almost three hours is hard to do. Another issue that parents must consider is scantily clad aliens running through the lush jungles of Pandora. The most alarming part of Avatar, however, is the subtlety with which Cameron preaches his gospel.

“It’s a way of connecting a thread through history. I take that thread further back to the 16th and 17th centuries and to how the Europeans pretty much took over South and Central America and displaced and marginalized the indigenous peoples there,” he said. “There’s just this long, wonderful history of the human race written in blood going back as far as we can remember, where we have this tendency to just take what we want without asking.”

Somehow Cameron weaves this sentiment with the ideals of radical environmentalism almost flawlessly. The earth was much better off before humans came along, and will be better off when we’re all gone. This, of course, draws from the same thought processes of Darwinian evolution: the brilliance that brought you such hits as the holocaust and the wonders of eugenics.

Above everything else, the movie denies the existence of God by showing the human race as unredeemable. Avatar is a lesson in depravity, but on Pandora the only way to salvation is oneness with the “All Mother” achieved only by a lifetime of tree hugging.

Sadly, there is no portrayal of a thrice holy God Who, in eternity past, purposed to walk as one of us to save His people from their sins. At this wonderful time of the year, time and attention and energy are better spent marveling at the wonder of the Incarnation.

In a buffet of pagan banality, Avatar has all you can eat. The only problem is, I just get so much indigestion after I leave those places..

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