Eternals is the latest live-action movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It introduces ten new superheroes with a shared origin story. I’m going to get into their story quite a bit, so stop reading now if you want to avoid spoilers.
The theater where I saw the movie described it like this: “The epic story, spanning thousands of years, features a group of immortal heroes forced out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s oldest enemy, The Deviants.” It’s a simple enough premise with plenty of questions to answer. Where did these immortal heroes come from? Why have they been living in the shadows? Who are the Eternals, and what are the Deviants?
Within moments of the movie starting, another question arises. Are the Deviants the main villain of the movie or is the real conflict with someone else?
The opening backstory, provided in text on the screen, suggests something is amiss between the Eternals and the Prime Celestial, Arishem. Arishem created the Eternals “in the beginning” for the purpose of nurturing life on young planets, and they served him with “unyielding faith” until one mission. And then? Well, that’s what the movie is about, and the Deviants are only a part of that mission.
The opening backstory is meant to foreshadow the real conflict ahead for the Eternals. It also serves as a warning that this movie was not written from a Christian worldview. Not that anyone expects Marvel movies to promote the God of Christianity. But is this movie anti-God? Does it present Arishem as a caricature of God and then make him the bad guy?
In the movie, Arishem is the Prime Celestial, the oldest being in existence. With other Celestials, he created the first stars and solar systems and brought light and life into the universe. Arishem created the Eternals to protect intelligent life-forms on new planets from the evil Deviants. Sounds a little like Christianity’s God, doesn’t it?
Eventually, the Eternals learn that Arishem also created the Deviants. Fierce and powerful, the Deviants were genetically designed to kill large predators that threatened intelligent life-forms on planets like Earth. But, like other life-forms, they evolved and became apex predators themselves. So, Arishem created the Eternals as synthetic (non-living) beings to kill the Deviants.
Arishem’s façade as a loving god, protecting the people he created begins to crack as the movie progresses. It falls away completely when Sersi, one of the Eternals, learns that Arishem only intends to protect the humans of Earth long enough for their energy to give life to a new Celestial whose seed has been buried inside the Earth all along—and who will destroy the entire planet in the process of emerging from it.
Sersi and the other Eternals must make a difficult choice. Do they continue to obey Arishem and protect humans only as shepherds of animals meant for slaughter? Or do they take a stand against Arishem and his “cycle of violence” and prevent the annihilation of all life on Earth?
Many Christians watching the movie may feel uncomfortable at this point. Is the movie suggesting we defy God, see him as the enemy of humanity, and refuse to live out the purpose for which we were created? It would seem so, and the writers of the movie and the original comic book stories may have intended us to go there. But when Arishem’s loving façade falls away, what we really see is not the God of the Bible but a universe without God—the aimless universe of atheism.
When Arishem explains his true purpose to Sersi, he describes the universe as an infinite exchange of energy. The universe has no beginning—no creator. It consists of matter and energy endlessly recycling themselves. People are born and die. Planets are born and die. New suns are born out of the destruction of old suns. The circle of life continues, and none of it really matters.
When Sersi decides to stop the new Celestial from emerging and destroying the earth, Ikaris tells her, “You are trying to free humanity from the natural order.” And she is. She’s fighting the natural order of a godless universe that diminishes human life to nothing more than recyclable matter and energy. It’s not a Christian worldview portrayed as the enemy here. It’s an atheistic one.
While the Christian God isn’t the villain here, he isn’t the hero either. The idea of a God who loves and protects his creation as the Bible claims is dismissed as a myth, something we can’t depend on, someone who never really existed. The hero of the Eternals movie is not God but humanism.
Atheism proclaims we are nothing but matter being recycled endlessly, driven by evolutionary impulses, with no purpose other than to extend our personal and corporate existence as long as we can. Humanism hopes for something better. We can break out of the natural cycle of eat or be eaten. We can rise above our evolutionary limitations. We can be worthy of our continued existence. And if there is a prime being out there who will come and judge us some day, humanism says we can prove our worth and avoid annihilation.
This is suggested early in the movie when Dane, a human, shares a poem about the hope of humanity being humanity. The first leader of the Eternals, Ajak, furthers the idea when she tells the Eternals to go and find their own purpose instead of blindly following Arishem. And the climax of the movie makes it clear that working together as one—unified—we can overcome our natural fate and become our own saviors.
That’s humanism.
The problem with humanism is the same problem with this movie. While the Eternals on Earth may have stopped the sudden and complete destruction of the world from an emerging Celestial, they can’t stop the sudden and complete destruction of the world when the sun eventually explodes. They can’t stop individual humans from dying of old age or disease. They probably can’t even stop humans from wiping each other out in bloody wars or destroying their environment with pollution and industrialization.
Colonization, world wars, weapons of mass destruction, and global warming are all introduced briefly in the movie as threats to humanity that we brought on ourselves—making humanity as much of the problem as the celestial forces aligned against us. Humanism suggests that if we stand together we can solve these problems and be our own saviors, but our history proves that’s the kind of fantasy that only works in comic books and superhero movies.
What I really love about this movie is that, in the end, no one is sure who is to blame or how we can ultimately be saved. The Eternals reach different conclusions about where their loyalty should lie. Some follow their long-held convictions, some are led by their emotional attachments, and others are compelled by their own sense of right and wrong.
The movie allows us—the viewers—to reach our own conclusion as well. Should we simply accept what “science” tells us about a godless universe and make the most of our lives while we have them? Should we look for ways to break the natural cycle and ensure our continued existence in the universe? Should we work to do better and be better—taking better care of our fellow humans and our home planet—in the hope that some intelligent force in the universe will find us worthy of saving?
Or should we take another look at the God so many have dismissed?
If you have doubts about the claims of Christianity and the Bible, maybe It’s time to take another look at what God says about this universe and about his purpose for your life. The Christian worldview is the only one that offers true hope for humanity’s salvation. It won’t be through the natural order of things or because we earned it or deserve it. Salvation is offered through God’s plan for his people simply because he loves them. And “when you love something, you protect it.”
Before you leave, check out my 5-question Worldview Quiz!
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