I’m not sure what the aim of the film producer was — was it to make us aware of the ethics of cloning? Whatever his purpose was, I certainly got something more out of this movie. The first question that filmgoers will think of is, “What if I were a clone and part of a system that would terminate me coldly without regard to my humanity? Wouldn’t that completely rot?”

But I wonder if anyone has the same thought as me — is this not what life is already, anyway? We are awakened, we work, we die. Death doesn’t care about our humanity. Stripped of the small joys of life, stripped of everything that makes life beautiful, life boils down to just that. It’s a practical joke — close your eyes, take a deep breath, and think about what a good job you did. Is that really all there is to life?

That brought me to another thought — I believe in God and in something greater than a physical description of life. For me death is not an end, and I consider it good news. But every person who claims to be agnostic or atheist actually believes that life is an end, and when they confront me about my beliefs they solidly land in the corner of “life is trivial, make the best of it” — as if that’s a good thing.

And then they wonder why I desperately seek God. “Isn’t science’s cold truth good enough? We come from the dirt and we’re going back to the dirt, why don’t you just accept this?” I guess that’s why I consider it a blessing that I discovered God before the cold truth of the world. I imagine it is extremely difficult for someone to go the other way, though. I mean, I’d like to think I’d have the curiosity to discover Christ if I came from an atheist or agnostic background, but I can’t know that. Actually to be honest, I think I’d be strongly in the opposite corner, entirely against the Christian faith. Even now from a Christian standpoint, I understand why the religion looks so absurd to people who don’t take the time to understand it. They often feel as if Christians are sheeple blindly following something they can’t know, further complicated by misunderstandings (people ’speaking in tongues’ is a common one) and misrepresentations made by otherwise well-intentioned Christians (“converting gays” ?? wtf)

And the only thing I can do about it is to be the best person I can be, so that people wonder why I live so enthusiastically, and come around to my side of the table. Like Jess said to me, open-mindedness is what draws others to you and in turn makes people more curious about what you believe. And it works because open-mindedness on one end usually makes the other end more open and receptive also. It’s like two people standing on opposite sides of a sheet of paper. On your side it may be white, on my side it may be black, but until I walk to your side and see that it’s white on your side, then tell you “Hey come over here, you’re partially right that the paper is white, but I’m also right because the paper is also black!” The paper is black on my side, and neither of us can be completely right until we recognize that there is a larger truth. I can’t just stand on my side and insist that the paper is black, because I would never convince you beyond what you plainly see in front of you (unless of course, you happen to be open-minded enough to come around to my side and take a look at what I say is true).

Unfortunately, I have to say that this scenario works both ways: the failure of many of my fellow Christians is that they refuse to see the other side and in doing so fail to really prove to both themselves and everyone else that their belief is in truth. And so Jesus said,

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”

Christians ought to bear good fruit so that people can recognize truth. I work hard every day to make myself someone productive in the fruits of the spirit (love joy peace patience goodness kindness faithfulness gentleness and self-control). In the meantime, maybe I can inspire people to realize the truth: that death isn’t an end and that there is something truly worth living for, something that lasts and does not return to dirt.