Barnabas File

Suffering is a part of life.   I don't say that lightly.  We are now walking with a family member, someone in the prime of life, who is undergoing treatment for cancer.   The prognosis is encouraging, but this is one of those situations where one is often moved to ask, “Why, God?   Why now and to this person?” Believers have struggled with the reality and mystery of suffering for ages.  Job and his friends in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Apostle Paul in his letters, theologians through the ages, and pastors in hospital waiting rooms have all attempted to deal with the problem of pain and suffering.  We know the classic statement of the problem:  “If God is good and all powerful, why does God allow suffering in the world?”  The failure to do so brands God as either evil or impotent in the eyes of many.  Some reject God because they cannot figure it all out.  Their argument goes something like this:  “If I can’t understan...

When Alien came to the screen in 1979, moviegoers were confronted with the anti- Star Wars .  The mood was dark, the spaceship Nostromo was an unappealing wreck of a workhorse, the shocks were sudden and messy, and the crew was expendable.  Ridley Scott not only launched a franchise of creepy films but he also put his stamp on science fiction cinema.  As with Blade Runner, h is vision was unique and disturbing. In Prometheus , Scott returns to the word of Alien but at an earlier time, one closer to our own.  The film is beautifully done with remarkable sets, special effects, and cinematography.  The actors are capable but one never really engages with them, certainly not like viewers did with Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Alien.   There are many similarities between Alien and Prometheus —a mysterious planet, an android with questionable motives, an evil corporation, a heroine who endures more pain than anyone should have to bear, working class cre...