Hitchhiker's Guide to God

I just watched the movie Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I enjoyed it very much, as I enjoyed the books. Since the screenplay is written by Douglas Adams, it contains the same wit and satire as the books. However, Douglas Adams has tipped his hand in the movie even more than he did in the books.

You see, Douglas Adams is an agnostic (or an atheist, I don’t remember which) who really does believe that the universe is as absurd as his fictional world. The movie and the books are all filled with the same refrain, repeated in multiple phrases. Marvin the Paranoid Android (not done so well in the movie, but the way – a great disappointment since he was my favorite character in the books) seems the only sane character in the movie. The world is made, not by God who designed it with a loving and eternal purpose, but by mice who are seeking fame and fortune by discovering the Great Question to Life, the Universe and Everything (for which the answer is “42”). Adams’ universe is purposeless and even ridiculous.

Of course, without God to give “Life, the Universe and Everything” true meaning, things would be pretty ridiculous. If we really are nothing more than accidentally evolved primates wandering around the universe with no purpose but pretense, then the comedy in Douglas Adams’ brilliant writing suddenly seems more like tragedy. It is sad to me that a man of such great wit and humor actually sees himself as nothing more than an above-average monkey.

Or does he? As I said, I think Douglas Adams tipped his hand a little bit in his movie. Or maybe he just sold out to the ridiculous Hollywood formula. In the movie, as the mice (the true masters of Earth) are threatening to cut out Arthur Dent’s brain, Arthur babbles frantically about the questions he has about life. In an uncharacteristic (for Douglas Adams) moment of profundity, Arthur declares that the most pressing question on his mind has been whether Tricia (the second most sane character, next to Marvin) was really “the one” for him. Earlier in the movie, Tricia had had an epiphany of her own, realizing that she had spend the last number of years with a man who, like most men, never “got” her and almost threw away the one man who did (Arthur). Hmmmm. “The one” comes perilously close to an idea of fate. Human love and intimacy comes perilously close to giving life some sort of meaning. I don’t think Adams realizes how closely tied human love and the love of God really are. But for Arthur Dent and Tricia/Trillian, life took on the rosy color of existential victory at the end of the movie. Even though they decide nothing more profound than to go to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe for a bite to eat, Arthur realizes that the meaning of his life is not tied to his demolished home, but rather to relationship. Of course, I may be reading too much into what could just be a Hollywood sell-out (the whole relationship is rather undeveloped and typically sappy, after all – with “meaningful” close-ups of Tricia’s cute freckled face as Arthur realizes his love for her). After all, the Hitchhiker’s Guide’s advice about love is “Avoid it if at all possible.” Or maybe the movie was actually written by a group of dolphins who are trying to tell us what life is really all about.

In the love of Christ,

Brother Thomas