"Membership in the family of God is neither inconsequential or something to be casually ignored. The church is God's agenda for the world. Jesus said, "I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it." The church is indestructable and will exist for eternity. It will outlive this universe, and so will your role in it."
- Rick Warren
Monday, April 13, 2009
I'm beginning to see where I think things are going with the show Lost. I have a theory. Many of you already see this coming too, I'm sure. I'm interested in your thoughts.
Spoilers below the fold.
OK, we're being introduced to Egyptian gods now. I remember early on in Lost there was this thought that it would have some sort of spiritual/supernatural resolution. Some even thought it would be a redemptive, perhaps even veiled-Christian, resolution.
Well, I didn't think they'd go the supernatural route. I figured everything (Smokey, visions, whispers) would either be explained via science or perhaps aliens.
I'm now back in the supernatural camp. This thing is all tied into the Egyptian gods. In fact, I think Richard Alpert (R.A.) is perhaps Ra. Smokey is one as well - I don't know the name for the Egyptian god of judgment or the underworld, but I am wondering if that's Smokey's role; he/she also has the ability to either a) raise the dead or b) impersonate the dead (my vote).
There is one troubling aspect to all this: they've brought Jesus into this show more than a few times, and in particular in a peculiar little impromptu Bible exposition given by Ben in a church before they came back to the island. I hope they don't go down the path of Jesus just being one of those special people (like Christian, Locke, perhaps Desmond) who the Smoke Monster chooses to resurrect, thus giving a heretical twist to their version of the Easter story. Could happen; they've proffered screwed up takes on the Biblical narrative before.
Thoughts?
Update - Regarding Richard as Ra. I don't remember who first suggested that to me, but here's some confirmation (from the Wikipedia page on Ra):
"Richard Alpert, a secondary character on the American television show Lost, which contains many motifs referencing Egyptian mythology, is said by creator J.J. Abrams to be based primarily on Ra."
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Comments on "Lost Theorizing - Where This Thing is Going":
2. Andrew
- 04/13/2009 8:42 am CDT
Good theory.
I'm pretty bad at LOST theorizing (I'm still holding out for the Purgatory theory).
I'm not sure they'll be super-explicit about the Egyptian god thing, in that I don't think Richard or Jacob or whoever will come out and say, "I AM RA!" But, I could be wrong.
I hope they don't go down the path of Jesus just being one of those special people (like Christian, Locke, perhaps Desmond) who the Smoke Monster chooses to resurrect, thus giving a heretical twist to their version of the Easter story.
If it is an Egyptian thing, I doubt they'll use any time pontificating about the nature of the God-man. There's no point in them pissing off a good portion of their audience over a theological point. However the show might turn out, I'm sure the writers don't actually believe in the Egyptian gods or an omnipotent smoke monster. I just don't see them slandering something so sacred to so many for the sake of fiction.
Again, I could be wrong.
3. Quaid
- 04/13/2009 8:52 am CDT
On a quick side-note:
The next episode's title is "Some Like it Hoth" which cracks me up. I'm not certain if we'll see any tauntaun or a frozen character being warmed with the entrails of a polar bear, but seeing how the "Next Week On Lost" flashes tended to focus on Miles, I think this may be one of the more illuminating shows in the series.
I saw that they're doing a LOST recap on April 23rd, so this show could have quite the climax, setting up the end of the season's four episodes.
4. Michele
- 04/13/2009 9:04 am CDT
Didn't the smoke this last ep. remind you of the depiction of God's judgement in the movies? (10 Commandments, Prince of Egypt)
I heard something interesting on Allistair Begg the week before Easter, a thought I'd never considered; He said that when it became dark on Good Friday the Jews had to know judgement was falling. They were sitting down to eat their Passover when it became dark and this had not happened since the first Passover. At that time, God sent total darkness and then His final wrath was poured out--on the firstborns of Egypt, judging them completely. Think, this is what happened at the Cross. Final, complete judgement on a firstborn, taking place in total darkness, during Passover.
Anyway, back to your thoughts: Wouldn't it be cool if somehow LOST tied this judgement into their plot. Like maybe if the Others were a revival of the humiliated gods of Egypt, trying to gain control of the world? They did have some kind of power, (Jannes and Jambres) although it didn't compare to our God. It would be nice to see them squashed again. This is the only way I'd like it to be Egyptian. Otherwise, I think I'd feel convicted about watching the world think Egyptian dieties were cool.
6. Bill
- 04/13/2009 6:31 pm CDT
I just updated this post - ironically, the Wikipedia page on Ra) confirms the Richard Alpert = Ra theory, using J.J. Abrams himself as a source.
7. Quaid
- 04/14/2009 11:32 am CDT
That's really interesting. I wonder to what extent his character reflects Ra. As I mentioned in above comments, it doesn't seem that Alpert holds that much power and seems subservient to nature and other forces - the very thing that Ra is said to have controlled.
If Alpert turns out to be Ra, it seems to me that Abrams, et al., will have made a statement on the power/effectiveness of Egypt's gods/mythology.
8. Bill
- 04/14/2009 12:21 pm CDT
Quaid,
I'm confused. In what way has Richard been powerless? Granted, he's not yet acting like RA the SUN GOD yet, but I haven't seen him thwarted. He already said he doesn't answer to Widmore/Ellie. He appears to be the one who is closest to "Jacob", picks the leaders, has the power of healing, isn't affected by the sonic fence, etc.
I don't recall him being subservient to nature. But I may be missing something. He's certainly not subservient to the second law of thermodynamics.
9. Evan
- 04/14/2009 1:13 pm CDT
Clearly, the writers have referenced directly or indirectly all sorts of myths, religions, writers, and philosophies into Lost. Yes, Richard Alpert = Ra, just as his counterpart in the Dharma initiative is Horace = Horus. But there also has been Locke and Christian and Hume and CS Lewis and Shephard and Hawking, and many more I can't think of right now.
So while it's possible that at its heart Lost is about Egyptian mythology, I don't think that is likely. I don't think Lost will end up as a direct proponent of any particular religion or philosophy, although they reference a lot of different ones.
I think the Egyptian stuff will largely be a motif set up by the Others to confuse or ward off outsiders, just as they all apparently learned to speak Latin (per Julia) to communicate among themselves. Which dovetails with my guess that 'What lies at the foot of the statue?' is some kind of Other's code phrase to help them identify themselves to Others.
In the end, I think Lost will largely be a science fiction/time travel story, albeit with a lot of religious and philosophical themes about fate, free will, and redemption.
11. Quaid
- 04/14/2009 5:06 pm CDT
I don't have anything to back up to say that he's subservient except that he holds Jacob in high regard as a power over himself. He acquiesces to Jacob. Ra is supposed to be the highest of gods, right?
When you see glyphs of Ra, you see him holding the sun and in control of nature - Richard hasn't let on that any of that power is at his fingertips.
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The Egyptian god of death, if memory serves, is Annubis - and that god is what we saw represented by the picture of the dog/human god that we saw above smokey's little portal.
The Ra take is an interesting one and it makes a lot of sense. I'm a bit upset I hadn't seen that before. It's not exactly hidden. Still, Ra was the supreme god over all other gods, right? It doesn't seem to me that Richard exacts that kind of control. While he was explicit in not answering to Charles and Ellie, he certainly has a sort of subservience about him.
The question is where does Jacob come in? Also, the brainwashing video that said, "God loves you as he loves Jacob" seems to indicate the belief or, at the very least, a desire to inculcate a belief, of monotheism. Obviously, monotheism was unique to Christianity. (and, later, of course, Islam)
Still, Jacob was prominent in Egypt. I wonder to what extent the writers might have believed him more important to the Egyptians than Joseph. (Perhaps he was in reality?) We find Jacob being invited to live in the most fertile part of the land upon his arrival. Jacob blessed Pharaoh when he arrived there. According to Genesis 50, Jacob was mourned 70 days by the Egyptians at his death - he was obviously extremely prominent. And, of course, he was the father of the nation that would rise up and ultimately defeat the Egyptians, taking their riches, livestock, etc. upon leaving.
It's obvious, though, that Lost is affording no little power to smokie. We've never seen R.A. do anything god-like, as far as I can remember. I think the most interesting scene with Richard was his consultation with Locke prior to the killing of Tom Sawyer/Locke's dad. In that conversation, he seems to be talking as if he was more wise than Ben and more in touch with the spiritual realm, perhaps, than Locke, Ben and anyone else.
At any rate, knowing that the island is Egyptian based, is it possible it began its trek prior to the Israelite "uprising" (if we can call it that) and held Jacob in high regard? Possibly, the island was built and embarked on its journey midway through the plagues as an effort of escape? Even though Pharoah's heart was hardened, it's possible that the Egyptian citizens knew that Yaweh was supreme.
I'm REALLY interested to see where this goes. It's cool to be getting this back story from the writers.