The Nature of Man

"They claim their labors are to build a heaven, yet their heaven is populated by horrors." — Dr. Manhattan, "Watchmen"

One of the classic differences between the humanist perspective and the evangelical Christian perspective is the nature of man, and the path to salvation. You either believe that mankind, at the core, is good and capable of redeeming itself, or that mankind, at the core, remains depraved and is saved through grace.

Those that don't want to give their lives over to Jesus Christ or live under the authority of a higher power are prone to choose the former. But when you look at the whole of human history — including the dark history of every religious tradition — it is hard to buy into that.

I couldn't help but think of that while watching the new French film "Sarah's Key" on Sunday. The film — set in the contemporary world and during World War II — tells the story of a journalist (Kristen Scott Thomas) that uncovers her husband's family's connection to the persecution of Jews in France in the early days of WWII.

Of course we all know about what the German, Nazi government did to Jews and other ethnic and social groups during the war. What was fascinating and tragic in this film was that this wasn't Germans that perpetrated the abuse, torture, and execution of 73,000 Jews, it was the French government. No doubt it was done in part to appease the Nazi regime, but it wasn't the Nazis that were responsible directly.

Doubtless it's a period that the French don't like to dwell on. And, as I said, you'd be hard pressed to find a nation or religious movement that doesn't have historical actions for which it should be deeply ashamed. In our own country we oppressed classes of people for years and, during that same period of WWII, we also locked up a group of people in camps on the basis of ethnicity. But history is written by those that win, so the Holocaust is usually limited to the actions of the Germans in the re-telling.

I started this post with a quote from "Watchmen" because I think it's an accurate reflection of what we should truly admit about the nature of man. Alan Moore, who wrote "Watchmen," wasn't a Christian. He was probably an anarchistic atheist, but he recognized the broken nature of man, which is why Dr. Manhattan points out that we claim our "labors are to build a heaven, yet their heaven is populated by horrors."

If the basic nature of mankind was noble and good, and we were capable of saving ourselves, wouldn't the world look like a much different place? Wouldn't our history look much different? I can't help but think that it would.