Lost and The Closedness of Time

Hollywood and time travel. The two go together like peas and carrots. But most specifically, time travel and the ability to change time have been the dominant thematic pairing. Whether it be Marty McFly and repairing his parents' sad marriage or Superman flying back in time to stop Lex Luthor's earthquake from ever happening, Hollywood loves the idea of an open concept of time where past events may be altered and a different outcome may be achieved.

This may be why I've been so impressed with the television show Lost, as of late. Anyone who has been watching the show will know that there is a great deal of time travel happening; in fact it is more and more becoming a central focus of the show. What sets the time travel of Lost apart from all the other time travel we see on television and in movies is that the time travel in Lost presupposes a closed universe; one that more than fits with the Christian concept of time. In Lost, when characters travel back in time, they not only find that they cannot change the past events that they are witnessing; instead they often find that they are the causes of the very events that they were planning to foil.

At one point in the show, a man comes out of the jungle and nurses a wound for time-traveling character John Locke. Later in the same season after John Locke's wound has healed and he has jumped back in time, he sends the man out to nurse his own wounds. We discover that John Locke was the cause of his own healing. No matter what the characters do, they quickly realize that they cannot change what has happened; they can only act to make them certain. The reality of predestination is only a hairs-breadth away in every minute of the show. This is obvious upon further consideration because if the future cannot be changed by acting differently in the past, and the past cannot be changed by any actions performed in the future, and our actions in the present cannot change anything that will be, well baby, that's a universe where predestination is no longer objectionable.

For the thinking person who is watching Lost but has reservations about believing in Biblical predestination on the basis that predestination would make our actions meaningless, they should consider that though the actions of the characters in the show who have traveled back in time are already decided and certain, the acts themselves are still nevertheless meaningful and important. In fact all our actions, though predetermined long in advance, pave the way for what is to come. Even though God may have predestined Bobby Jo to become a Christian, he has predestined for Dave to talk to her about Christ. God does not only determine the ends, but also the means to those ends.

From a Christian perspective, the fictional idea that time is open and may be changed does indeed conflict with the truth we know about the universe. Specifically, just because God knows the outcome of an event (after all, he has decided it beforehand), we do not believe in any universe where things could ever have been other than they are. We do not believe in contingency, for there is nothing contingent in all the Universe. We are not open theists who regard man as central and God as peripheral in the picture of the unfolding universe.

God is the center; we are peripheral. This is the Christian worldview, and I commend Abrams and company on restraining their god-complex long enough to recognize that time is not open and cannot be changed.

Slumdog Millionaire: Predestination in the 21st Century

Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it?

A: He cheated
B: He's lucky
C: He's a genius
D: It is written

And thus begins one of the most beautifully done films in recent years. A stark contrast to the dark and emotionally complex world of Revolutionary Road, Slumdog Millionaire is as uplifting and generous as the blurbs hype it up to be. As a Christian, however, my primary interest in the film stems from the fact that predestination is central to the entire story.

The film follows two narratives; one running in the present surrounding the events of Jamal's success on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and the other narrative following events in his life which gave him the answers to every question he is asked on the game show. Though it could initially be seen as pure luck or massive improbability realized, Jamal seems to believe that his success on the show has been predestined. However, he does not believe that it has been predestined simply because he is destined for success and money; rather, he believes that he is meant to be with Latika, his love interest whom he has been separated from for years. Jamal claims that he went on the game show in hopes that Latika would be watching. Jamal seems to have an almost fairytale trust and belief that his correct answers have been "written." Though the source of this predestination is never named, I presume that given Jamal's Muslim faith and the phrase "it is written" (a decidedly Muslim phrase), Allah is the one Jamal sees as ordering the events of his life.

More metaphysical than spiritual, however, director Danny Boyle bring this predestination to the forefront; as Jamal gets each question correct you begin to sense that something larger than life is going on here and that there are other forces at work in the universe bringing Jamal closer and closer to the final question. In the end, Jamal trusts so greatly in the forces at work that he literally guesses the million dollar question. I won't spoil whether he gets the answer right or not, but the audience knows that if Jamal gets the question right, then he is destined to be with Latika. It's as simple as that.

The film is upfront about what it has to show from the very beginning. From the earliest parts of the movie, you know that Jamal Malik gets all the questions up to the last one right. You know that he survives all of the events in the flashbacks that bring him to this point in his life; you just want to see how it all happens. The interesting thing is, that's sort of what predestination is like. Detractors of predestination argue that our actions have no meaning if they are already decided beforehand; Jamal, however, seems to believe otherwise. Though God knows everything that will happen (He has determined it already, after all), we still must do what He has planned, and sometimes it's as interesting to see things unfold as it is to know the ending ahead of time.

Since the film is not direct about the nature of the destiny Jamal experiences or the source of it, it would be difficult to get into the doctrinal minutiae of predestination or the fact that this is not a Christian form of predestination being presented. To my mind, the predominantly interesting fact is that any movie could be shot in this day and age which presents predestination as a positive thing and not as a grim and fearful "doom."



A beautiful, emotionally rich fairytale, it is really hard to think of anything negative to say about the film. Many Americans won't be interested in the film because about a third of it is subtitled in Hindi, but my hope is that the positive word of mouth and the potential flood of awards will make this movie the sleeper hit of the year. First 28 Days Later, then Sunshine, and now with Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle is on a roll in my book; I can't wait to see what else he has up his sleeve.