FUNDAMENTAL COMPLAINTS OF A HOMUNCULUS

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  Let's think about the fundamentalist homunculus that dwells within all of us who have ever worshipped Jesus in the Southern United States.

Some people are impossible to please.  I believe a lot of people who do not like Noah do not appreciate make believe.  In some cases, they do not acknowledge their own participation in make believe.  Their make believe is factual, not fanciful.

That describes perfectly the little fundamentalist guy who lives inside my head.  For almost two decades of my life, I was very conservative.  

Science changed me.  Reading changed me.  Indeed, reading the Bible changed me more than anything.  When I actually read the Bible, instead of just reading Bible verses, the hardened membrane of my narrow mind softened and expanded.

Despite the freethinking that has been my lot for most of my life, the critical voice of my inner Falwell fusses from time to time.  I call him my fundamentalist homunculus.

He was not happy about the presence of oral tradition in Noah. He refuses to acknowledge that the stories in the Bible were shared orally for centuries before they were written down.  He believes the Bible came full blown in King James English via God's inspiration with no evolutionary process such as we find occurring normally in other cultures.  

In the scene where Noah says to his family, "Let me tell you a story that my father told me," we hear a voice-over of Genesis, Chapter One.  It is the Priestly Source of the creation story.  The voice-over reads a text that has been modernized.  Written tradition is nicely performed as oral tradition.

Something new and excited is added.  The 21^st Century’s digital narrative is commingled with oral and written tradition.  While Noah narrates his story, we see the formation of the universe much like we would see it during an episode of Cosmos.  

My fundamentalist homunculus saw no hint of Jesus in Noah.  This is very distressing for one who finds Jesus under every rock, in every cloud, splinter, and blade of grass in the Jewish Bible.  Indeed, in just about every noun present in the Jewish Bible my fundamentalist homunculus can make believe Jesus is there. It's like seeing faces on Mars or cheese pizzas.  I know that Jesus is simply not there or at least the Jewish writers were not thinking about Jesus when they wrote, but my fundamentalist homunculus will have none of it.

My fundamentalist homunculus saw hints of paganism in the movie.  The ritual of the snake skin smacks of magic.  Once upon a time, I was blind to the reality in religious studies that just about anything can be a vehicle for the divine.  I was blind, that is, until I started to read.

Sadly, and I wish I did not think this, but my fundamentalist homunculus was not happy at all with how important women turned out to be in the salvation of humanity. God's will could neither be done nor revealed without the miracle of a lost girl.  

Finally, my fundamentalist homunculus was very unhappy that God was rarely mentioned.  I thought it was downright clever and inspired to refer to God as The Creator, but my fundamentalist homunculus is all about saying everything just right.

Not saying the word "God" is tantamount to confessing atheistic faith.  Of course, I know that the word "god" is found nowhere in the Jewish or Christian Bibles.  It is an English word.

I'm glad I do not have to explain how that is possible to my fundamentalist homunculus.  I do all the thinking in this head.  He is too self righteous to think.  He merely measures and complains.

Blessings...