The Truman Show

One of the points of the Truman Show (not, I believe the main point although pretty close) is a criticism of most types of theism – Christianity and otherwise. That criticism is this: God must be unjust if he keeps us tucked away in this little pocket world ignorant of the wider world out there.

Christian theology has two takes on the afterlife. The first, notably championed by C.S. Lewis, is that there is a wider more vivid world out there. The viewpoint responds to this criticism by saying that we are like children and like children we need to be kept away from dangers we don’t understand (nor as yet developed a basis for understanding them) and there in relative safety allowed to grow to meet that wider world. As to the charge that we should be told about that wider world, we Christians would respond – but we are, it’s just that you aren’t much interested in hearing about it; being, no doubt, too interested in the gaudy toys in our playpen.

The second idea of the afterlife is that it is a spiritual experience of joy and bliss or sorrow but is not in fact a wider system than our current world. In fact the complexity and diversity of our current world is an illusion and a red herring luring us away from the things that are important, namely the inner spiritual life. This view renders the criticism absurd on its face.

I find the wider world explanation much more compelling, as the second seems to make this life the focus and the afterlife merely complementary to this life, like getting the trophy after the game. (A trophy without a game is meaningless, whereas a game without a trophy is perfectly enjoyable) If that is so, thinking about an afterlife is a distraction from what is really important – here and now. This doesn’t mean God is unimportant but that his importance would be his relevance to this life.

On the contrary, the more vivid unseen world view renders this life here and now extremely important. A child plays childish games as part of developing adult skills after all. It makes this life important, but not the focus. Good, I think because this life isn’t always good.

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