References:
·
Jurassic
Park movie info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107290/
·
Jurassic
Park franchise Web Page: http://www.jurassicworld.com/
·
A
book list of the original books: https://www.goodreads.com/series/71966-jurassic-park
·
Quotes
for Jurassic Park: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jurassic_park/quotes/
Thoughts
and Reflections:
Because
it’s been hot lately and since my back has not been up to doing much, my family
and I had a movie-thon the last few days.
Instead of the movie-thon being on Star Wars, Harry Potter, or similar
movies, the kids wanted to watch the Jurassic Park movies. In case you are not familiar with the series,
there are several books and five movies made, based on the books. Its an interesting series, really neat
special effects, and wrestles with quite a few different topics.
Although
things like greed and pride are major parts of the movie, the one that I will
focus most on will be the idea of ‘playing god.’ I believe that it is one of the most important
themes throughout the entire series.
Other themes, like greed and pride, simply play into it.
Most
of you know that we have been working with cloning for many, many years. We have successfully cloned many different
animals, including cows and sheep.
However, we have not resurrected any extinct animals, yet, via
cloning. There are many scientists today
who are seeking to bring some animals back from extinction, like the dodo bird,
Tasmanian wolf, and several others. To
my knowledge, though, such experiments with bringing extinct animals back to
life have not been successful, yet.
In
the first movie, Jurassic Park, one
of the main characters named John Hammond, has created a huge park and safari
with living dinosaurs. Genetic engineers
that Mr. Hammond has employed have harvested dinosaur DNA from the preserved blood
from within prehistoric mosquitos, and through various techniques, have successfully
cloned them. Without giving up too much
of the plot, let’s just say that because of pride and greed, things go from
bad, to worse, to ‘the worst day ever!’
One
of the main characters, Dr. Ian Malcolm, (who is a mathematician who
specializes in the ‘chaos theory,’ makes two very interesting and intriguing comments.
The first one is: “God makes dinosaurs, God destroys
dinosaurs. God makes man, man makes
dinosaurs, dinosaurs eat man…” and “Your scientists were so preoccupied with
whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”
Even
though it would be incredibly awesome to having living dinosaurs, is it really
a wise idea to have it? Would we be able
to coexist with them without one causing great harm to the other? Would it be ethical to bring them back after
they became extinct millions of years ago?
Would bringing the dinosaurs back now create irreparable harm to our
environment? Would the competition
between the dinosaurs and other, established animals and fauna, becomes disastrous? Would you be able to actually keep the
dinosaurs on a ‘preserve,’ and keep them healthy? Would our environment, including temperature,
current fauna, oxygen levels, etc., be able to sustain them?
As
one watches all of the movie series or reads the books, this major theme
continues to be discussed. And it
becomes the most important thing in the movie, Jurassic World. In this movie,
those in charge of the cooperation InGen, which created the dinosaurs throughout
the movie series, builds a ‘custom dinosaur.’
The ‘Indominus Rex’ has so many unexpected abilities, not just the
ability to test and learn, that it spells certain doom for so many people. This custom-made dinosaur was created solely
because the scientist were told to make something ‘bigger and grander’ than
before. Why? So that more people will come
to the theme park of Jurassic World, that the theme park will ‘become relevant
again.’ The custom-made dinosaur is named
‘Indominus Rex,’ and because they used DNA from so many different kids of
reptiles, it has abilities that no one expected. This spells disaster for Jurassic World, and
causes the deaths of many, many people.
As
someone who loves reading, doing art, watching movies, I love creating and
seeing what others create. It is
something that I believe that God has blessed us with. However, when not used wisely and responsibly,
our creative powers can be used for great evil.
For example, a person has an awesome idea for creating new product that
can impact the lives of many people for the good. But to do so, this person has to use a lot of
resources, find a place to build the product, employ people to figure out how
to make it in the best way, refine the process of making it, employ people to
make it, etc.
Some
possible things that he or she will have to ask themselves is: Do I want to buy an unused factory or buy unused
fields or pasture land to make it? How
much will I pay people for researching and creating the product? Will I spend money on safeguards to protect
the environment or will I keep the money and hope that I don’t get caught? Will I consider the cost of living in the
area and base my salaries on that, or will I go with what ever is
cheapest? I will use the best materials
available to make good, quality products; or will I use cheap products so that
I can receive a bigger return? How much will
I charge for the product, and what will I base the price on?
Each
of these decisions will have consequences.
Some will be more positive than others.
Some may be very negative. There
will also be short-term and long-term consequences. Though not every variable can be evaluated,
nor every outcome be seen, one still has to seriously think about them.
The
decisions that we make with our time, abilities, resources, relationships,
etc., say a lot about us as individuals.
We all make decisions based on our individual morals and values, even
our religious beliefs. These decisions will
all have consequences, be it positive or negative. Though people in centuries past have wanted
to make decisions without accepting responsibility for negative consequences, I
feel that is becoming more and more accepted today. To want to accept only the positive and none
of the negative. To only get out that
which makes me bigger, richer, more influential, etc. But, if something has negative consequences,
we want to blame someone else. I see
this with some of my co-workers, I see this in the lives of many of the Inmates,
and I see then with my own children. It
is something I prayerfully try to correct within myself and in my family. And, where possible, in the lives of those
around me. But, if we all take a little
bit of time to evaluate our decisions and how it will impact others, I think we
can all make a difference.
RC
