There is a famous scene in the 1999 movie The Matrix. In this movie humanity has been in an age old battle with artificially intelligent machines. Humanity has for the most part lost the battle. There are only very few of them still alive deep in the bowels of the earth. Most humans, according to the movie, are now used as batteries for the machines since the sky has been scorched and the sun no longer shines on the earth. According to the story, humanity scorched the sky because it was believed that the machines wouldn’t be able to survive without the sun’s energy.
The scene comes towards the end of the movie when Agent Smith, one of the machines tasked with getting access to the access codes to the human base prophetically called Zion. Here is a link to the scene if you want to watch it.
I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure.
The movie is admittedly a very dark, depressing take on the future of humanity. I don’t endorse or condone much of the philosophy and views that are in the movie. It isn’t particularly based on a Christian worldview. Instead, it is a mishmash of all kinds of human religious and philosophical views but it does connect with a very important truth taught in the bible.
Humanity is now fundamentally flawed…
The Bible records in Genesis 1:31 the following:
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
According to the Bible, God had created a perfect world. There was no sin, no death, no imperfection. Everything was good including human beings. As Genesis 1 and 2 record, only two human beings existed on the earth at the beginning, Adam and Eve. Both of them found it their highest joy to love God with all of their hearts and all of their minds and all of their strength. God had created a wonderful garden for them to live in and they had everything they needed for their happiness.
Now you would think that Adam and Eve would have happily trusted God and lived in this heaven on earth happily ever after. Unfortunately, the Bible records a very different outcome. Adam and Eve were free to eat of any tree in the garden except for one.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” – Genesis 2:16-17
In spite of knowing God’s command not to eat of the tree, one day Eve finds herself near the tree when she encounters a talking snake… Instead of running away, she stops to listen to what he had to say.
“1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” – Genesis 3:1-7
The serpent presented to Eve the option of finding her sense of right and wrong within herself instead of in God. She came to believe that God was holding back on her. It appealed to her to be able to determine for herself what was right and what was wrong and so she took the plunge and made the biggest gamble of her life. After she had eaten, she immediately went to deceive Adam and they both fell into sin.
A Scary New World…
As a result of their disobedience, the very natures of our first parents changed. Where before they found it their joy to do God’s will, now they found themselves afraid of God and running away from him. (Genesis 3:8-10) And where before they wouldn’t dream of disobeying God, now they had a nature that was in constant disobedience. This state of affairs you and I have inherited from them.
Why does humanity act like a virus? Because we are sinners. We are incapable of saving ourselves. According to the Bible, there is nothing good in any of us…
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good,not even one.” Romans 3:10-12.
Our only hope is to get help from the outside. We need a savior. We need external help to bring goodness inside of us. We need to give up the idea that we know what is right and wrong in and of ourselves apart from God. We must learn to seek our right and wrong in God. To live our lives according to the right and wrong found in the Bible. To recognize that if we follow our own internal compass we will ALWAYS fall into sin. We will always be in disobedience to God.