Noah made real

I saw the controversial movie Noah yesterday, read some reviews, and offer four observations.

First, Sophia Lee’s review, posted yesterday, is the best I’ve seen.

Second, some on the Christian right dislike the film’s environmentalist emphasis, but I suspect some on the anti-Christian left will dislike even more its creationism. Noah gives a Bible-based day-by-day summary of what “the Creator” did, and I could imagine Charles Darwin and his devotees harrumphing their way out of the theater.

Third, Noah shows man’s depravity—those who thought the Flood meant God is mean may now see it as His utterly reasonable response to mankind gone wild—and is also pro-life. It supports both the execution of the guilty and the preservation of babies, and in that way also cuts against today’s liberalism.

Fourth, while the movie adds some dubious non-biblical elements in the service of plot suspense, it also essentially affirms biblical historicity. Real ark (and a clever way of showing how all the animals could fit). Real flood. Real Noah. Not bad, coming from Hollywood.

Richard Dawkins two years ago complained that “more than 40 percent of the American people believe literally in the story of Noah’s Ark.” Maybe that will be more than 50 percent now.

Listen to Nick Eicher and Kent Covington discuss Noah on The World and Everything in It: