FAKING THE APOCALYPSE?

Last night after watching Deadliest Catch (seriously the only episode I missed this season was during Vacation Bible School and since they show the previous weeks episode before the new one I got caught up last night) I saw the first half of a new show showed called the Colony. It’s like some kind of post apocalyptic Survivor. They are put into a fake environment set up as if the whole world has been decimated by a viral epidemic and now these ten people have to try and find a way to survive for ten weeks. I found several problems with this show that I think will keep me from watching it, but also from even taking it seriously.

First it felt like environmentalist propaganda. They acted like the catastrophe is so close now that we have to be taught how to survive when it happens, you know, next week. I get all kinds of suspicions when people do this sort of thing. It reminds me of that movie that came out a couple of years back called The Day after Tomorrow, and another new show called Life after people. I always get the feeling that the people behind these sorts of things like the environment a lot more than they like people. Like we’re parasites destroying something beautiful rather than people made in the image of God obeying His command to multiply, fill, subdue, and have dominion over the earth (Gen. 1.28)

Second the blatant fakeness of the show just annoyed me. They were given this huge building to live in. In this building they found all kinds of stuff that they needed. As they searched the building they found working motors, brand new power tools, tons of car batteries, a shiny new alternator, oh and a truck. What are the odds of finding all this stuff in an old abandoned warehouse? Then there are the people themselves. Everyone one of them was handpicked for a specialty they have. For example they have three different kinds of engineers, a machinist, and a handy man who is the handiest handy man I’ve ever seen. These are just the ones I noticed in the thirty minutes I watched.

Lastly, I want to mention the only thing that I found interesting in the show. This was the way the handyman and the engineers relate to one another. The three engineers started working on what seemed like rather implausible projects while the handyman voiced some concerns. An argument ensued and the handyman was told to leave the work space. Then the handyman refused to help them when he saw a problem, he just let them fail out of spite. What I found intriguing was that even on a show about surviving after a catastrophe this kind of class bickering would set in. The handyman clearly has issues with people who have letters after their name, and the engineers were dismissive and condescending to anyone who didn’t have letters after their name. Pride and resentment make it into even desperate situations.

No matter what our conditions happen to be out hearts remain broken and sinful. Our only hope is not found in fixing the environment (although I think we should be wise stewards of the environment) but rather in finding redemption and transformation in Christ. No change in our world or the condition of that world will change the fact that we will remain sinful and selfish and destructive, only Jesus can change that. We are far more broken than our world. Learning how to make a wood gasifier won’t help much.