[Not] Just Material Things - Avengers: Infinity War

I was planning to take this post into another direction, but I have been seeing some particularly disturbing debates on the web, and I thought I would throw in my two cents.  About a month ago, Avengers: Infinity War began playing in theaters.  Personally, I LOVED this movie.  This is the promised film that had been hyped since Thanos’ first appearance in the first Avengers film.  The writers did a fantastic job juggling all the characters we as MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) fans have grown to love.  However, the Russo Brothers stated in an interview that this was Thanos’ movie, not the Avengers.  His plan is to collect all the Infinity Stones and use their combined power to erase half of life in the entire universe.  In the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline, Thanos’ long and confusing motivation for doing this would have been too confusing for a 2 hour film, so the writers thankfully condensed it for a film adaptation.  Thanos wants to erase half of all life so that the universe could prosper.  He believes growth and prosperity in various worlds in the universe have been stagnated and hindered because the populations are much too large to sufficiently support.  Personally I think how Thanos arrived to this philosophy could have been better explained in his backstory, but again, it is interesting.  However, what I have been seeing online is people that actually agree with him in real life.

It is truly appauling that someone could agree with genocide, but a man I greatly admire says that you can learn something from everyone.  So therefore what I have tried to do in this case is see the matter from their point of view.  Objectively speaking, it is true that right now our planet is having a bit of trouble keeping up the demand for resources.  This is mainly due to our lower mortality rate for children, mothers, and the elderly because of our advances in technology.  Some people have even suggested that our planet will run out of drinkable water and there will be wars to fight over the usage of the essential resource.  One way to “fix” this problem is to delete half of life on Earth.  This is also especially true in metropolitan cities such as Tokyo or New York City. Statistically and logically, I do think people who agree with Thanos have a point.  However, the reality is people are more than just material things.

I believe Thanos’ philosophy is in line with that of Dacartes in that he theorized that consciousness therefore the soul itself does not exist and everything we are is a result of a series of chemical reactions happening within the brain.  As an observing Christian, I wholeheartedly reject this notion.  Genesis states that we as human beings are made in the image of God, therefore every single human life is precious and should be treated as so.  If we are all bound to the impulses dictated by our minds, then we have no choice but to be selfish walking balls of flesh that cannot help but to consume, kill, and destroy for our own benefits.  Well no one actually lives their lives that way I dare say.